Transformers, Masters of the Universe, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, G.I. Joe and ThunderCats — properties that began as toys and are now being reissued as collector statues. Iron Studios carries most of this ground in 1/10 Art Scale, which is the practical size if you intend to collect a whole roster.
By licence: Masters of the Universe, Transformers, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Scales are explained in the scale guide.
Everything on this page began life as a toy. That sounds like trivia until you try to buy one, because a property that started on a shelf rather than a screen has no single authorised look. A film character has one: the costume that was built, photographed and lit. Optimus Prime does not. He has the boxy original toy, the simplified cartoon model that the animators drew because the toy was too complicated to move, and the modern reboot design with the pipework and the panel lines. All three are defensible. All three have people who will tell you the other two are wrong.
The same fork runs through every line here. He-Man exists as the Filmation cartoon version and as the original Mattel figure, and the two have different faces. The Turtles split three ways between the Mirage comics, the cartoon and the reboots. G.I. Joe, ThunderCats, Gargoyles, DuckTales and Power Rangers all carry the same problem in milder form.
A studio has to pick one, and it does not always say so in the title. So before you reserve, look at the photographs rather than the name:
None of these is the correct answer. But if you already own one piece from a line, the era you own is the answer for you, and it is worth two minutes of looking before you commit a deposit.
Retro properties are usually licensed and sculpted as rosters rather than as single releases, which means the piece you want may be announced a long way ahead of the piece you want to stand next to it. Twelve to twenty-four months from announcement to delivery is ordinary here.
You place a deposit to reserve the edition. The balance is requested when the piece is with us and has passed inspection, not on a date guessed at a year earlier. The deposit is non-refundable: If you cancel before dispatch we retain 10% of the price — for a deposit reservation, that is the deposit. Where a statutory right to cancel applies it is unaffected. Everything is imported through official distribution with VAT and duty already paid, so nothing arrives with a customs bill attached, which matters more than usual on these lines because the alternative is often a direct import from overseas at roughly 26% on top plus a courier handling fee.
We have no way of knowing, and neither does anyone who tells you otherwise. Buy the version you want to look at.
For separate characters, yes, and most collections do. Within a set that is meant to read as a group it rarely works. The Turtles are the clearest case of this.
When it has been checked recently. Ours sit on the release tracker with the date each was last confirmed.
Deeper into the individual lines: Masters of the Universe and Transformers.
