Muchas gracias to my amazing fellow writers/editors here at C506! Thanks to them, I had a fortuitous weekend of press passes to New York Toy Fair 2019. Covering events like NY Comic Con will forever be my bread and butter for geek writing/podcasting; but, press-only, all business events like Toy Fair just make me feel a little more like Clark Kent every time I go (I always make sure to rock the mid-century glasses to such high brow gatherings as well. Contacts cause market confusion).
(Check out the video above from NY Toy Fair for this same interview on YouTube, and Subscribe to our Comic Book Intl channel!)
The Funko booth is an annual must-stop for me at the fair, this year repping C506 as well as my DC Collecticast podcast. I spoke with the Funko marketing famed, Hilary Gray, about three main areas of the booth for DC. One section was dedicated to a personal Funko favorite of mine, a certain vintage line of action figure nostalgia for Benjamin. Indeed, it is the DC Primal Age of which I speak.
Funko’s Masters of the Universe inspired line of 1980s action figures first dropped at NY Comic Con back in October. The initial Amazon exclusive wave included Batman, Joker, Mr. Freeze, the Batcave playset and some other MOTU actiony toys. But, the line wasn’t close to as big as it is now, just four months later!
From my interview with Funko’s Hilary Gray at NY Toy Fair 2019:
HG: We created DC Primal Age, which is kind of reminiscent of those old He-Man stylized action figures, but with all of your favorite DC characters. We launched on Amazon, they’re now in Target as well, and there’s apparel that goes along with them as well. You can see this Batman shirt behind me, which is so cool, being able to see him in action.
HG (continued): So, we have Lex Luthor, next to him, The Flash. We have Superman, Bizarro, Black Manta, and Superman (laughs, including mine). I think my favorite detail of Superman is his mace arm; which is just ridiculous.
BD: Some of these figures that we see here today, for example, Superman and others, were not at NY Comic Con. When did you guys release these other ones, and when are they officially coming out?
HG: We announced these other ones just a couple months ago. It’s pretty recent. They should be in stores soon. We’re launching them at Target with the second wave, and I believe that they’re available on Target and Amazon. And, you have to get the playset.
BD: Ah, yes! Yea, talk about the playset.
HG: So, the playset is super cool. Really reminds me of Castle Grayskull, but has that DC twist to it…There’s a jail in there, there’s this really cool set up for Batman to practice his fighting skills. Just super fun. And, you can see Joker on there, on Joker Beast, about to battle Batman.
BD: Yea, it’s the Battle Cat, but of the DC characters. So, they do Ace the Bat Hound, Batman’s got Ace the Bat Hound. Joker Beast is like a purple lizard. And then we got, it would be Krypto, right? The dire wolf for Superman (laughs)! Oh, fantastic. What brings me back with these, it’s interesting, because, it’s specifically the toys that I have a connection to– with Masters of the Universe. Like, I was a little too young for the show, but my brother had the leftover toys. So, when I see these, it’s just, especially, we had that Castle Grayskull, which for us was a big deal. We didn’t have a ton of money. So, a playset was like a big deal. I played the crap out of that, and I love seeing it come alive with Batman.
HG: For sure, exactly, and as an adult, you can totally still play with this. I know I do. Or, you can have it for display, whichever way you choose.
Again, muchas gracias to C506, Hilary, and Funko!
Keep in mind that the DC Primal Age interview above is only part of our full DCC podcast episode to come. Stay tuned here at C506 for more web coverage of NY Toy Fair 2019. We have more DC talk to come from the legendary Funko booth as well as DC Collectibles, Cryptozoic, and NECA! If you haven’t already, check out the YouTube video of this same interview posted above.
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