Posted in: Comics, Recent Updates | Tagged: Comics, dc, marvel, MVL, toys

Eaglemoss Begin Blackest Night/Brightest Day Spinoff Lead Figurine Collection

Published Sat, 22 Jan 2011 06:00:03 -0600

Last updated Sun, 23 Jan 2011 07:12:09 -0600

It's January. Which means, in the UK, the holiday ads start, the gym membership ads start, the slimming aids start and the partwork publications start.

Partworks have, traditionally, been large encyclopaedic volumes sold in weekly exerpts in newsagenst and newstands covering all sorts of topics. In recent years, this has moved away from instructional and educational topics to collectability, with DVDs of a certain TV show attached to a magazine, or a part of something to collect that will combine with other parts, like a do-it-yourself dinosaur model, that sort of thing. The usual publication model is that the first few issues sell on the stand backed by a heavy marketing campaign (the phrase "free binder with part one is part of the national consciousness) and then fade away as people drop off. The more committed then more to a subscription model for the remainder of the run, until readership and/or content falls away and the partwork is cancelled.

That was the model when Eaglemoss started the Marvel Classic Figurine line and the subsequent DC Super Hero Collection lines. But then something happened – subscription copies began to grow. And the line was financially successful to continue, even be imported to the USA, where restrictions over lead toys had led to this being the only way to get such figurines – small and highly detailed, accompanied by a magazine exploring the history of the character. Hell, even I wrote a few of them.

Now Eaglemoss is to spin off the DC line further, with a new Brightest Day/Blackest Night line, showing the variations on characters previously published. Well, it is January after all.

The first eight figurines are Black Hand, Atrocitus, Agent Orange , Saint Walker, Carol Ferris, Parallax, Indigi-T and White Lantern Sinestro. And yes, Americans, you'll be getting yours shipped across the pond in a month or two…