SIDESHOW TOY

Report by Daniel Lipkowitz
Click here for the Toy Fair Gallery.

For me, the high point of the Javits Center building was definitely Sideshow Toy's display. With a twelve-foot-tall mounted Ringwraith as its centerpiece, the exhibition of busts, statues and 1/6-scale figures was impossible to miss.

Regular ASM readers will know that I'm a big fan of Sideshow's Monty Python and the Holy Grail line, and I was really looking forward to checking out the latest upcoming figures and announcements. The news was a bit bittersweet, though; although the company is branching out into other Python-related lines, the Holy Grail series may be winding down in the near future. The good news is that the next three figures -- the Bridgekeeper (Terry Gilliam), Prince Herbert (Terry Jones) and the King of Swamp Castle (Michael Palin) -- looked great. But... no Roger the Shrubber? No Dingo and Zoot? It can't end so soon!

The other good news is that the first two offerings in the Life of Brian line look fantastic. Graham Chapman's ill-fortuned, would-rather-not-be messiah Brian is spot-on, and Terry Jones' Mandy looked, well, appropriately like an irate, overstuffed British transvestite. Well done! Although there was no word as of yet on further Life of Brian figures, Sideshow did announce that they're also working on 1/6-scale figures from John Cleese's brilliant Fawlty Towers.

Other 12" figures on display included a classy James Bond collection, characters from signature episodes of The Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits, monsters both classic and modern, and a really stunning display of historical military figures that made me wish I had the space and finances to collect such things. Of particular note were the newest additions to the Brotherhood of Arms line of Civil War figures, "Stonewall" Jackson and Robert E. Lee. Movie and television licenses included Army of Darkness (with a limited-edition S-Mart Ash coming later this year), Hogan's Heroes, Get Smart and a really nice-looking set of Platoon figures. Finally there was the Art. S. Buck line, a pair of plain gray male and female figures designed for use as artist's models.

Sideshow debuted several new lines at Toy Fair. Of particular note was an 18" tall (1/4 scale) figure of Count Orlok, the vampire villain of the classic 1922 film Nosferatu. Although not super-poseable, Orlok can be repositioned by use of a bendy wire armature inside his body. The World of Froud line features a mix of soft-bendy and polystone figures of whimsical faeries, pixies and imps based on the artwork of The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth designer Brian Froud and crafted by his wife Wendy Froud. We also saw the first four in an extensive line of Simpsons busts, Star Trek busts from both the original and Next Generation television series, a wonderful series of Muppet Show busts (there's that space/finances conundrum again), polystone Space Marines figurines from Warhammer 40,000 and a cutely monstrous lagomorph from Michael Gagne's Insanely Twisted Rabbits.

Finally, there is Sideshow's jaw-dropping line of busts, statues and miniature armor and weapons from the Lord of the Rings films, created in conjunction with the famed Weta Workshop. The detailing and metallic textures of these pieces are just incredible, something that you really have to see in person to properly appreciate. Amazing stuff.

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