NEWS: More toys than you can shake a Stickfa at

CULTURE: More toys than you can shake a Stickfa at

The 2004 American International Toy Fair may be over, but all that means is that we'll be sitting around for the next several months on the edges of our seats, invading our local comics stores and Toys-R-Uses on a weekly basis demanding to know why the new Living Dead dolls haven't come in yet.

Among the wicked awesome toys previewed this year (and given full coverage at Raving Toy Maniac) are Art Asylum & Play Along's Armies of Middle Earth dioramas and their DC Comic themed C3 sets (essentially Lego but with Batman and Darkseid), Bandai's Teen Titans and Gundam lines, Toynami's I-Men (in Voltron, Robotech and Futurama flavors), Mezco's Family Guy and Hellboy lines, and dozens upon dozens of Marvel action figures from ToyBiz (four pages worth: 1, 2, 3, and a page of Spider-Man).

And because they're bastards, they also previewed toys that will probably never see the light of day on the open market, like the Lord of the Rings Minas Tirith Super-Mega War Environment (nb. okay okay, the editor gave it that name). This is because toy companies delight in our pain. And because they know we'll happily fill our shelves and houses with their offerings.

I'll be keeping my eye eye out for the Sloth, Hollywood, and sybil dolls.... I've developed crushes on them....

another good site for toyfair pictures and coverage is figures.com.

-bobby