Mezco’s Toy Fair Teasers Include One:12 Collective Batman, Doctor Strange and Popeye
Ahead of Toy Fair 2017, Mezco held a special event for the media showcasing some of its upcoming products. Due to the weather on the east coast, we were unable to attend, but Mezco didn't want everyone to miss out on the sneak peeks offered at the exclusive event. Shortly after it ended, the toy manufacturer posted a number of teaser photos of some One:12 Collective figures coming in 2017 and beyond. While expected Batman and Wolverine toys were nice to see, it's the likes of Popeye and Doctor Strange that have us itching to get our hands on Mezco's planned products.
All of the One:12 Collective figures shown in the new promotional images look promising, but honestly, I don't think anyone was expecting the fantastic curveball of Popeye showing up in this line. Seeing him with the realistic spin Mezco's brought to all the One:12 figures could have been a total miss, but the sculpt and clothing are spot on. I love the portrait, which is about as wonderful a Popeye head sculpt as you are likely to see. The massive forearms and barrel chest bring it all home, and there's no reason Popeye fans or action figure fans should be turning this toy away.
The classic Doctor Strange also looks amazing, and that's almost entirely due to the tailoring. Doc Strange has such a great costume, but we've rarely seen it represented in a soft goods figure. The sparkling cape with the huge collar and the black pants with embossed design make this one stand out from a crowd. I'm glad Mezco went with the comic look with this one rather than the film version. Though the costume design on Doctor Strange was impressive, it was a little too grounded and lost a bit of the majesty the character's wardrobe had in print.
Elsewhere, Mezco's got a Netflix Daredevil that looks solid; an Iron Man that lacks any soft goods, but appears to have strong sculpting to make it worthy of a One:12 figure; an original design Batman dubbed the Ascending Knight, which combines elements of the original Dark Knight with more modern armor design.
Not every reveal struck the right chord however, as the photos for Wonder Woman and Wolverine leave a bit to be desired. I'm not completely on board with Mezco's take on the classic brown Wolverine suit, which has armor elements that would clearly be more at home in the blue and yellow costume. Wonder Woman looks good from the neck down, but the head sculpt looks too restrictive to provide much posing opportunity. These are just prototypes however, so there's still time to see how Mezco works out the final details. In person they might look a bit different as well.
We'll have a better look at these figures and more when we meet with Mezco at Toy Fair 2017 next weekend.