A day before Toy Fair 09 was scheduled to kick-off at the Javis Center in Manhattan, ComingSoon.net/Superhero Hype! and 50 to 60 other journalists descended on the Times Center for what is always one of the coolest events of the year, as Hasbro unveils their upcoming line at their Second Annual Collector-Fan Media Day. The special invite-only event gives the action figure, comic and movie press a chance to see all of Hasbro’s new toy lines up close, as well as talk with the designers and experts on each team about what to expect.
The key licensed lines the company is focusing on this year include toys, action figures, vehicles and playsets in conjunction with what is likely to be three of this summer’s biggest movies: Paramount’s G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, DreamWorks’ anticipated sequel Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, and 20th Century Fox’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine. (Hasbro is also continuing their line based on the “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” animated series.)
The Hasbro Showroom was opened up to give early looks at the toys based on characters in those movies, and Activision and EA were on hand to preview their video games for Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, respectively. There’s certainly a lot to write about the event, and we even have some demo videos of some of the more impressive offerings including the Wolverine Electronic Claw, the Star Wars Clone Turbo Tank, as well as some of the larger-scale G.I. Joe toys like the Night Raven Vehicle and the enormous G.I. Joe Pit Playset, which holds up to 84 individual 3 3/4″ figures.
In the meantime, you can check out the pictures we took of all but the “Star Wars” line in ComingSoon.net’s Toy Fair 09 gallery, which we’ve divided up into G.I. Joe, Hasbro Marvel, Transformers and Wolverine sections.
UPDATE: The G.I. Joe and Transformers galleries have been updated with official photos of the toys provided to us by Hasbro! You can view them here and here!
