All the rumors and all the excitement coming from the
2008 New York Toy Fair images being posted online have really created quite a buzz within the Funkeys community, and with good reason. We have two big releases on the horizon in 2008, one series brining a new twist by adding a licensed brand to the game, and the other being a huge release promising to bring lots of new functionality to the game. So here’s the info that Mattel has shared…
Click here for a much larger view...The Speed Racer Series: This series is meant as a stand-alone series that will have its own zone, its own games and even its own type of crib, which will look like (what else?) a car garage. Now don’t get the wrong impression, the worlds and characters will be interchangeable, so once you travel to Funkiki Island, you will be able to have Racer X walk around and see the sites. But the series is more of a tie-in and not part of the “official” Funkeys storyline.
The confirmed character set is as follows. Wave 1 is scheduled for release in March, will likely hit shelves in April and will consist of Speed Racer, Chim-Chim, Cannonball Taylor, Trixie, Snake Oiler, and Racer X. Wave 2 will be release a bit later and will have most of the same characters with the addition of Taejo and a different version of Speed Racer. There will be a Common > Rare > Very Rare version of each just like with the normal Funkeys, but due to licensing they cannot have complete color changes. Instead they will have small changes such as metallic paint highlights or different facial expressions.
Click here for a much larger view...Series Three – Dream State: This series does not have a release date yet, but it will definitely be at least summertime before we see any in stores, likely late summer. There will be 10 new classic shaped Funkeys, some of which will be Multi-Player Funkeys. There will also be 4 Chat Funkeys from the new design that includes the antennas (seen at Toy Fair) for a total of 14 characters. The wave configurations have not been finalized and neither have all of their names, but Sprocket and Drift from the original packaging as well as Waggs (the Puppy), Lucky (the Rainbow head), Dyer (the Peace symbol), Berger (the Cow), Snipe (Special Ops character with night vision goggles) are confirmed from the 10 classic Funkeys, and Gabby (Pink Lips) has been confirmed from the Chat Funkey line. The 10 classic Funkeys will come in the standard Common > Rare > Very Rare color assortment and the Chat Funkeys will only come in one color each.
Click here for a much larger view...One thing to note is that Bandit and Dot are NOT part of Series 3 and will be part of a future series. The other question in many people’s minds is in regards to all the “other” characters seen at Toy Fair such as Mayor Sayso, The Henchmen, the Natives, the Pineapple King, and Master Lox. There has been speculation that these would be released possibly as playable figures, possibly as just toys to play with or display with your Funkeys. None of this has been confirmed or denied by Mattel. Our personal gut feelings here at theSpeakEasy are that they were only prototype creations meant to enhance the display at Toy Fair. But who knows, if Mattel finds out how many people would shell out good money just to add them to their displays, we could end up seeing them some day. Maybe as a mail-in offer? Huh Mattel? What do you think?
Discuss this news here...Labels: Chat Funkeys, Dream State, Drift, Funkeys News, Multi-Player Funkeys, Racer X, Snake Oiler, Speed Racer, Sprocket, Taejo, Trixie
