News

It was one of the first really big shock moments in film history. The masked Lon Chaney plays the organ. Mary Philbin approaches from behind. She can't resist her curiosity and takes the mask off his face. Then that fright! We can well imagine the outcry that went through the audience back in 1925 because the appearance of the Phantom of the Opera was kept secret until the film was shown. Lon Chaney designed his own makeup and created one of the first major Universal movie monsters.

Almost 100 years later, fans of the Universal classics will outcry again - but this time full of joy 😉. Because NECA immortalized the man with a thousand faces as »The Phantom of the Opera« in the large Ultimate Universal Monsters series, packed with five different scary heads and fitting accessories!

We are also paying tribute to the great mime and an unforgettable classic by making the figure our product of the month in November!

We are happy about every new figure in this great series with the icons of the „Golden Age of Horror“, which continues to resonate today - including in collectibles, e.g. in the NECA Crossover Ultimate series of the Turtles with the Universal Monsters, in which Casey Jones gives us the Phantom.

Just in time for Halloween we bring to you a new episode of 🚀 ABGESPACED 🚀 - and of course it's horror-themed in October 👻🕷️! Sven and Mick chat about collectibles of Nosferatu, Leatherface and Elvira, spooky film and streaming picks and our big Dracula special 🧛.

We also selected a very fitting goodie and on top we have - as always - a new postcard, our product of the month, cool trailer highlights and exciting news 😁. You can find the new episode now on YouTube. So: Treat yourselves or we'll trick you 😉!
https://youtu.be/bYGKFkjb1m0

A few days ago Netflix released a trailer for David Fincher's latest work »The Killer«. A film about a contract killer from the master thriller director? That sounds promising!
https://youtu.be/5S7FR_HCg9g

Michael Fassbender plays a nameless hitman who always acts according to his mantra "Stick to your plan" - methodically and distantly. But then one of his jobs backfires and he and his home suddenly find themselves in the sights of his employers.

The film adaptation of the comic series of the same name seems to be a passion project for Fincher that he has wanted to realize for years. Now Netflix has made it possible. The film opened in cinemas last week before being shown on the streaming platform from November 10th. We are excited!

Mike Schmidt takes a position as a security guard at 'Freddy Fazbear's Pizza'. But as the first night progresses, he realizes that the night shift in the abandoned restaurant will be anything but quiet...

As of today, the video game adaptation »Five Nights at Freddy's« can finally be seen in cinemas. With FNAF inventor Scott Cawthon as co-author and producer, the film remains very true to the video game series, which fans of the games will certainly be delighted about. It's also great that the film doesn't rely on CGI but actually uses animatronics (like in the story). These were created by Jim Henson's Creature Shop, whose credit includes »Sesame Street« and »The Muppet Show«, »The Dark Crystal«, »Labyrinth« and »Little Shop of Horrors«.

Despite these plus points, the trailer hasn't really caught our attention yet, but let's just let ourselves be surprised by what Jason Blum and director Emma Tammi will serve us here:
https://youtu.be/Z_T0o5uNrlY

You probably remember the brilliant HBO series »Westworld« well. In a futuristic amusement park, the rich visitors can play 'Wild West' and live out their darkest urges, raping and murdering without having to fear consequences because the victims are not humans but lifelike androids. But one day the machines rebel...

Did you know that the series is based on a film? 50 years ago yesterday, Michael Crichton's film of the same name celebrated its US premiere! Yul Brynner plays a leading role as a mechanical gunslinger which is based on his portrayal in the western »The Magnificent Seven«. The indestructible android was an inspiration for John Carpenter's killer Michael Myers in »Halloween« a few years later. And Arnold Schwarzenegger also used Brynner's performance as a model for his appearance in »Terminator«.

The sequel »Futureworld« followed in 1976 with Peter Fonda in a leading role.

Have we made you curious? Take a look at the 1973 trailer for Westworld - it might even make your watchlist for its 50th birthday: 
https://youtu.be/JoUWNBcBKkA

There is good news for fans of the »Fallout« video game franchise: the series adaptation finally has an official start date!

After the adaptation was announced in 2020, Amazon and Bethesda Game Studios have been a long time coming with further details. But now we have certainty - the series about survival in post-apocalyptic Los Angeles will start streaming on Prime Video on April 12, 2024. There is no information yet about the exact plot or the episodes, but at least we can look forward to some familiar faces in the cast. Among them are Kyle MacLachlan (»Twin Peaks«), Michael Emerson (»Saw«) and Walton Goggins (»The Hateful 8«). The director is Jonathan Nolan, who has been involved in the scripts of several of his brother Christopher Nolan's films in the past, including »Interstellar« and »The Dark Knight«.

We are excited about the series after the success of »The Last of Us« was on everyone's lips at the beginning of the year after so many failed game adaptations.

By the way, card collectors have reason to be excited too, because a crossover set from »Magic: The Gathering« with cards from »Fallout« will be released on March 8, 2024, so you can already get in the mood for the series.

After a short break due to vacation, we are back for you with a new episode of 💫 NEUES AUS DEM FIGUREN UNIVERSUM 💫! In episode 8 we will once again present to you the best of our current new arrivals and pre-orders 🔥. Whether you're a fan of current series like »Loki«, modern classics like »Harry Potter« or »The Lord of the Rings« or absolute cult films like »Elvira« or »Terminator« - there is something for everyone 🤩.

It's worth watching - now on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/ONrb4OlhLL0

Today »Marvel's Spider-Man 2« is released exclusively for the PlayStation 5! The game continues the stories of the two predecessors "Marvel's Spider-Man" and "Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales". Critics have already been able to form a verdict on "Marvel's Spider-Man 2" - the exciting story, interesting characters and the great gameplay are particularly convincing. Some consider it to be one of the absolute gaming highlights of the year. Here's the trailer:
https://youtu.be/9fVYKsEmuRo

Of course, Hot Toys couldn't resist expanding their "Videogame Masterpiece" series to include a Peter Parker in the "Black Suit" version from the game. You can currently pre-order it! We were also able to put the extremely massive Venom (over half a meter tall in 1/6 scale) up in our shop just in time for the release.

To start of the weekend, we have a musical streaming tip for you. The acclaimed documentary »Moonage Daydream« about David Bowie and his creative, spiritual and musical story is streaming on Amazon Prime Video today. Absolutely worth seeing, as the exuberant quotes in the trailer suggest:
https://youtu.be/2y9ttNYwzg0

David, we miss you!

When we presented the second trailer for »Killers of the Flower Moon«, Martin Scorsese's new film, here in our news at the beginning of July, we were already gushing about it. As of today it is finally showing in cinemas and we are really excited for the 3 ½ hour epic.

Sven and Mick, who is expected to visit the headquarters today, want to watch the film tomorrow. They'll tell you how they liked it in our next ABGESPACED episode. Are you just as excited as we are for »Killers of the Flower Moon«?

If you're currently looking for a thrill, we can hopefully help you with our two streaming tips.

»Burning Girls«, a horror-thriller series based on the novel of the same name, is launching on Paramount+. It tells the story of Vicar Jack Brooks, who moves to the village of Chapel Croft with her daughter. However, a lot of things seem to be eery there, because not only have two teenage girls disappeared without a trace, but the local chapel is also said to be haunted by ghosts. The trailer looks damn good and promises an extremely exciting series. Convince yourself:
https://youtu.be/gEmInTD1W3k

Netflix, on the other hand, offers a new, extraordinary crime series with »Bodies«. A man's body is found in the same place in London in four different eras. And so four detectives have to investigate the same murder decades apart. Here you can find the trailer as a small appetizer:
https://youtu.be/RyZjIPB8paw

Both series will be available to stream starting tomorrow.

The werewolves are on the loose 🐺, because of course we have a beautifully spooky postcard for you to match the pre-Halloween season 🎃☠️!

The motif is by Robert from England (@97_parsecs_photography) and is a colorful mix of a Doctor Who werewolf figure, a Playmobil tower and aquarium decorations. Be sure to check out Robert on Instagram - fans of Star Wars, Godzilla and Indiana Jones in particular will find what they are looking for.

As always, you'll get a copy in every package we send out to you in October - so treat yourselves 📦!

After »Yellowstone«, »1883« and »1923«, the series universe created by Taylor Sheridan is getting another installment. While the first three series tell the story of the Dutton family, »Lawmen« is an anthology series about legendary lawmen of the Wild West. Season 1 is dedicated to the story of Bass Reeves (portrayed by David Oyelowo, who you might know from »Silo«), the first African-American U.S. Marshal. He made over 3,000 arrests and always remained uninjured. Other prominent cast members include Dennis Quaid and Donald Sutherland.

Western fans can look forward to the series which starts streaming on November 5th on Paramount+. You can find the trailer for the series here: 
https://youtu.be/x3XFsQEoJZI

For fans of drama series a new Apple TV+ production starts streaming today: »Lessons in Chemistry«!

In the 50s, Elizabeth Zott (played by Brie Larson) wants to become a chemist in the 50s, but when she's fired from the lab she works at, her dream seems to be over. Then she accepts a job as the host of a TV cooking show and uses her chance to teach the women watching more than just recipes.

The show is based on the critically acclaimed novel of the same name by Bonnie Garmus. The trailer looks really good and makes us feel quite optimistic:
https://youtu.be/-1PuK8mxASE

In case you're still looking for some entertainment this weekend it's worth checking it out. The first two episodes are available on the streaming platform today.

As his deal with Netflix comes to an end, Mike Flanagan is giving his farewell performance today with his fifth miniseries for the streaming service. And for the third time he dedicates himself to a real horror classic and modernizes and interprets it in his inimitable way. After Shirley Jackson's »The Haunting of Hill House« and Henry James' »The Turn of the Screw« (series title: »The Haunting of Bly Manor«), Flanagan's new series is based on »The Fall of the House of Usher« by grandmaster Edgar Allan Poe and sprinkles in references to his other works.

Mike Flanagan's horror is subtle; he always gives his characters room to develop; the horror is waiting in the wings. A lot happens in the background and doesn't immediately jump out at you like in many "Boo!”-shouting films of recent years. Although he doesn't completely forego jump scares, they always serve the story and are never an end in themselves.

Mike Flanagan first appeared on our radar in 2013 with his film »Oculus« and has been a fixture in our horror universe at least since his masterpiece »The Haunting of Hill House« was released. We look forward to letting him teach us what fear is tonight. We are also looking forward to the appearance of Mark Hamill, who plays Arthur Pym, the dodgy lawyer of the Usher family.

It’s the dark season and October, also known as Shocktober by horror fans, is ideal for scary films like no other month, which of course culminates in Halloween on the 31st. Celebrating the anniversary of a horror classic fits in perfectly: 50 years ago today, »Don't Look Now« premiered in London. In our country the film is better known by its German title »Wenn die Gondeln Trauer tragen« meaning »When the Gondolas Wear Mourning« - one of the rare cases where we actually like the German title (the 60s and 70s were full of idiotic attempts at poetic title translations) almost better than the original title.

Cinematographer Nicolas Roeg's third directorial effort has lost none of its suggestive power and Venice has never been more sinister.

We have put »Don't Look Now« on our Shocktober watchlist. If you have never seen the film, you should definitely do so. It is worth it! We look forward to seeing this masterpiece again.

No running. No diving. No lifeguard on duty. No swimming after dark.

Last week, Universal Pictures released a first trailer for »Night Swim«, produced by James Wan and Jason Blum. The planned theatrical release is January 4, 2024. After a bit of exposition about a swimming pool renovation, the first trailer for the horror thriller focuses entirely on a nocturnal and quite exciting scene in said pool and has certainly piqued our interest.

With this film, director Bryce McGuire delivers the feature-length version of his short film of the same name from 2014. Whether it has the staying power necessary for a full-length film remains to be seen. Here's the appetizer to get us excited about the flick: 
https://youtu.be/pcSNqteCEtE

The wait is over - the god of mischief is back! Today season 2 of the Marvel hit series »Loki« finally starts on Disney+.

Just like in the great first season, we can look forward to 6 new episodes in which the eponymous main character navigates through the multiverse and the timeline chaos - plagued by time-slipping which uncontrollably catapults our protagonist (as always brilliantly embodied by Tom Hiddleston) back and forth between the present and the past. He is accompanied not only by well-known faces like Mobius (Owen Wilson), but this time also by the technician of the Time Variance Authority Ouroboros, played by Ke Huy Quan, who is able to win over the audience with his usual likeable manner.

The trailers already made us optimistic, but now the first reviews confirm: This is going to be really good! We're looking forward to it - what about you?

With »The Exorcist« from 1973, William Friedkin created a horror cinema masterpiece 50 years ago. What a blast of a movie! It is considered one of the greatest horror films of all time and knew how to shock. The Oscar-winning movie created the subgenre of the exorcism film and all successors from copycats to ambitious productions have to be measured against it to this day.

»The Exorcist: Believer« is hitting cinemas today as a sequel to the original. Those are big shoes that director David Gordon Green is stepping into. Many critics think it's a few sizes too big. He is credited with good camera work and the make-up is praised. But where the original really managed to shock and get down to business, the sequel probably delivers more mainstream horror off the assembly line, offers nothing new and doesn’t leave out any exorcism clichés - predictable and therefore boring but a great commercial for the Catholic Church.

Of course, everyone should form their own opinion, but after David Gordon Green has already killed a beloved horror franchise with his »Halloween« trilogy, we're not really drawn to the cinema here.

The WONDER FESTIVAL in Shanghai ended yesterday. While at other conventions figures in 1/6 scale are often only represented by a few prominent manufacturers such as SIDESHOW, HOT TOYS, THREEZERO and few others, the Wonder Festival offers 1/6 collectors the full blast. Unfortunately, reporting by Western blogs and YouTubers is rather sparse due to the great distance from the Middle Empire. But of course there are still a lot of pictures on social media. The only catch is that the people who post these rarely write a text to accompany the images. There are usually no manufacturer names to be found, let alone information about the scale, whether a release is actually planned, or whether we are perhaps looking at an artist's custom figure. So a lot of detective work is necessary in order to be able to make halfway reliable statements.

It feels like historical Asian figures take up the largest part of the 1/6 selection at WF, so many samurai, Chinese emperors, soldiers from past centuries and mythological figures from Chinese poetry. Manufacturers such as 303 TOYS, KONGLINGGE TOYS STUDIO and some other small providers concentrate entirely on this topic. TBLEAGUE and I8 TOYS also focused on this in Shanghai. In addition to the Asian series, COO MODEL TOYS and HAOYU TOYS also presented figures from European history. COO showed a great exclusive Hernando Cortes. And HAOYU brought three exclusive figures from »The New Legends of Monkey«. The manufacturer POP COSTUME is noteworthy as well. What should be highlighted here is the collaboration with the JPT DESIGN STUDIO, which always creates texture-rich eye-catchers, like the new Ninja. They also showed a magnificent blacksmith which will certainly delight collectors of medieval figures.

THREEZERO presented many characters from their anime program but we couldn't discover anything new. Apparently ASMUS TOYS was also there but so far we haven't been able to find a single picture of them.

Meanwhile, supplies for all Star Trek fans were available again at EXO-6. It's unbelievable what this manufacturer continually comes up with. You can get a small overview of the exhibition showcase in this video. Our highlights are Ro Laren from »The Next Generation«, Odo from »Deep Space Nine« and Worf from season 3 of »Picard«.

There were also exciting new products to marvel at at the INART stand, including Albus Dumbledore from »Harry Potter«, Daenerys Targaryen from »Game of Thrones« and three versions of Joaquin Phoenix as the »Joker«. Be sure to check out the Inart Booth Tour from Justin's Collection:
https://youtu.be/kSljUqt-KSs?si=Y-4AhEOmxWvTWLbN

The progress with the heads of the Body series from the new provider MAHA is quite promising. We also stumbled across some collectibles by artist Matt Wong aka SENSATION STUDIO, including Michelle Yeoh as Evelyn Wang from »Everything Everywhere All at Once«.

Did you discover something great at the Wonder Festival? Let us know.