The Walking Dead Action Figures - Insider Chat

[Antman]

This thread is dedicated to talking about the McFarlane "The Walking Dead" figures (and statues). There's someone very well connected in this thread.

Purchase here

Spoiler

This Fall The Walking Dead comes to the toy store with McFarlane Toys action figures of Rick Grimes, Daryl Dixon, Zombie Biter and Zombie Walker. Available for purchase November 2011.

http://blogs.amctv.com/photo-galleries/the-walking-dead-mcfarlane-action-figures/intro.php

 

[spawnshop]

New Pics of Series 3:

MERLE:

Spoiler

MICHONNE:

Spoiler

MICHONNE'S ZOMBIE PETS:

Spoiler

AUTOPSY ZOMBIE:

Spoiler

Series 3 Package images:

Spoiler

 

[Lone Crusader]

Wow the detail they have put into these is remarkable. Those two pet Zombies look really cool too.

 

[Jinny]

Unbeliveable amount of detail these figures have. The facial likeness for such small figures is out of this world !!

 

[zombieshane]

Will the Daryl figure in the new two pack be the same sculpt and in B&W?

 

[spawnshop]

Will the Daryl figure in the new two pack be the same sculpt and in B&W?

No info on that yet

 

[zombieshane]

Got Merle today and he is freaking awesome!

---------- Post added at 04:05 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:05 PM ----------

Did you guys scan David Morrissey's face for The Governor and Laurie Holden for the Andrea figures?

 

[spawnshop]

Did you guys scan David Morrissey's face for The Governor and Laurie Holden for the Andrea figures?

Of Course

 

[zombieshane]

The series 3 figures are superb!, will all the figures from now on be fully articulated and not pre-posed?

 

[spawnshop]

The series 3 figures are superb!, will all the figures from now on be fully articulated and not pre-posed?

That is the plan , but sometimes it depends on final cost. The more articulated a figure is, the more expensive it is to produce. This can sometimes be a factor as to how many points of articulation a figure will get in the end production.

 

[zombieshane]

Just added Michonne to my collection!

 

[spawnshop]

 

[zombieshane]

Those look sweet!

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So how is the rest of series 4 looking?!

 

[spawnshop]

So how is the rest of series 4 looking?!

All of them are looking great in series 4. Although, it's going to be hard to top the Merle from 3, but we're trying. We are redoing the paint on Carl, so he will look better than what we showed at Toy Fair - we rushed him for the show.
I'm especially excited for the 2 zombies!

 

[zombieshane]

All of them are looking great in series 4. Although, it's going to be hard to top the Merle from 3, but we're trying. We are redoing the paint on Carl, so he will look better than what we showed at Toy Fair - we rushed him for the show.
I'm especially excited for the 2 zombies!

I'm telling you man 2013 (and hopefully 2014) is going to be an amazing year for Walking Dead figures!

 

[chriswalsh]

Can't wait to get the new ones, might even pick up a second Merle and try (TRY) repainting him to match those promo shots, he looks amazing, him and Michonne are by far the best to date, I also love the RV zombie! I hope we get Maggie someday too....
Thank you for all the info on these! Any idea what the UK packaging will be like on series 3? I like the larger pack with the Walking Dead logo inside which we had on series 1 and 2, do you know if that will continue or is this new slimmer package the standard now?

 

[spawnshop]

Can't wait to get the new ones, might even pick up a second Merle and try (TRY) repainting him to match those promo shots, he looks amazing, him and Michonne are by far the best to date, I also love the RV zombie! I hope we get Maggie someday too....
Thank you for all the info on these! Any idea what the UK packaging will be like on series 3? I like the larger pack with the Walking Dead logo inside which we had on series 1 and 2, do you know if that will continue or is this new slimmer package the standard now?

You know, i haven't seen a larger version for series 3.... i think the slim packaging is standard now. The package size, unfortunately, is all dictated by the stores that sell them. Companies are given a specific amount of space for their product, and then given a choice from different specific layouts for packaging..... basically, the stores want to make sure they can fit as much product on the shelf as possible. This makes sense from a sellers perspective, but not from design. I like the larger packaging too.

For a similar reason, this is why the figures are the size they are in the mass market..... the stores basically dictate what sort of product sells.... if they tell us " 5Inch articulated figures sell better than 7Inch posed", then that's usually what we make. Long gone are the days in which we make what ever the hell we want and sell it, since the collector market has really decreased over the last 6-7 years. Unfortunately, it all boils down to whoever is in the position of buying toys to supply Target, Toys R Us, Walmart, etc..... whatever they think will sell is what we supply. It all comes down to numbers and $$$

Although, i've gotten the feeling that this is changing too.....

 

[chriswalsh]

Well that's an eye opener! Thank you for that. I lost interest in figures a good few years ago when all the good stuff started to dissapear, there was hardly anything coming out that interested me despite some great pieces artistically. If the artists and designers started losing their say in what they produced- well that explains things. That's really sad actually, I grew up on the Movie Maniacs and Spawn stuff, that's what started me sculpting, I hope things change for the better for you guys!

Shame about the packaging, I thought the larger packs looked great from a design perspective, so much so that I've left nearly all of my WD figures boxed and on the wall in the studio, I guess it's the quality of the figures that matters though and these newest ones look great, got them pre-ordered. Can't wait to see the series 4 zombies!! I think you're doing a great job given the scale, I actually prefer these small as I intend to get them all- takes up less room. Are they shrunk down somehow? The prototypes seem to be a bit larger than the final pieces. Any chance of some limited edition unpainted prototypes in the future? I guess not but sure would be cool! Thanks for all the info, really enjoyed reading this thread.

 

[MrClarke]

Id love to get one or two Walking Dead figures

 

[spawnshop]

Well that's an eye opener! .... Are they shrunk down somehow? The prototypes seem to be a bit larger than the final pieces. Any chance of some limited edition unpainted prototypes in the future? I guess not but sure would be cool! Thanks for all the info, really enjoyed reading this thread.

We used to do all of our prototypes at "2-UP". Two times the size of our production, to get a ton of detail in there. And then it would be reduced down in China at our tooling factory. You'll see this with the first series of WD too, and some in series 2. But I wasn't happy with outcome on these for production. So with the beauty of technology, half of series 2 and 3 were digitally printed to scale before we sent the patterns to China. This way we could be sure to get exactly what we sculpted in the final product, without any interpretation. This is why the Merle and Michonne figures look so great.

Thanks for the compliments!

 

[chriswalsh]

We used to do all of our prototypes at "2-UP". Two times the size of our production, to get a ton of detail in there. And then it would be reduced down in China at our tooling factory. You'll see this with the first series of WD too, and some in series 2. But I wasn't happy with outcome on these for production. So with the beauty of technology, half of series 2 and 3 were digitally printed to scale before we sent the patterns to China. This way we could be sure to get exactly what we sculpted in the final product, without any interpretation. This is why the Merle and Michonne figures look so great.

Thanks for the compliments!

That's interesting thank you I had no idea you could shrink a sculpt down. Glad to see 3d printing is being used in conjunction with artists rather than instead of. Keep up the great work, and I'll keep buying 'em.