Weekly Market Report - May 24, 2006

A Fresh Look at Sports Collectibles News

McFarlane has a clean sweep of all of the stories this week. It's rare that a company does three notable things in a week's time, but Todd and the boys managed to pull it off this week.

First up, they announced that a Magic Johnson figure will be added to the NBA Legends 2 Series that's due out this fall. The other figures are Clyde Drexler, Oscar Robertson, Isiah Thomas, and Walt Frazier.

Adding Magic is huge. He's one of those transcendent athletes that almost everybody loves. Does anyone smell a Magic-Bird two-pack in the future? Even better - with Bird being in Series 1 and Magic in Series 2, McFarlane really needs to find a way to add Jordan to Series 3. How sweet would a three-pack with those three be? Also, by adding Johnson McFarlane ensures that Isiah Thomas won't be able to screw up the Series like he's done with the Raptors, the Pacers, the CBA, and is in the middle of doing to the Knicks. [read release]

McFarlane Toys will offer three-packs featuring some of the most popular teams in the National Football League this fall. The sets will be headlined by the Super Bowl Champion Pittsburgh Steelers (Roethlisberger, Ward, and Porter) and also include the New England Patriots (Brady, Dillon, and Bruschi), the New York Giants (Burress, Strahan, and Barber), and the Dallas Cowboys (Bledsoe, Jones, and Williams). The Joey Porter and Plaxico Burress figures mark the first figure for each player. Many of the other players are available in jersey's that have never been offered before.

The three-packs are always a great idea, but it loses something when most of the figures are just existing figures dropped into new packaging. In general, the hardcore collectors are the ones who buy the three-packs and they usually already have one or two of the exact same figures from previous sets. I think most collectors would like to see McFarlane make one or two completely original three-packs rather than four mostly recycled three-packs.[read release]

For the collector that needs everything, or for those who have man-crushes on Todd McFarlane (like I do), you now have the opportunity to get your favorite NBA 10 or NHL 12 figure personalized by Todd McFarlane. I'll admit, it's not the most enticing give-away ever, but you might as well enter - it only takes a few minutes. [read release]