Friday, December 6, 2013

McFarlane Sports Picks - Today's Leader in Sports Figures

McFarlane also works with many of the top entertainment properties in the industry and has the official rights to all four major North American sports (hockey, baseball, football and basketball). The company's Sports Picks figures (action figures depicting current and former professional athletes) are the most popular and actively collected sports figures on the market today; the database of Sports Picks on this site includes more than 1,400 different figures.Jerome Bettis Sports Pick figure from McFarlane Toys - amazing detail for a 6-inch figure

The hallmark of all McFarlane products, and Sports Picks in particular, is detail. Sports Picks are created with remarkable accuracy, including details like logo patches on the uniforms, specific shoes or gloves, tattoos, artwork on masks, etc. Even when scrutinized for small details such as the width of a stripe on a player's sock, Sports Picks are found to be accurate more than 95% of the time - a remarkable level of performance for 6" tall plastic figures that retail for $10.

Most Sports Picks action figures are six inches tall and released in series. McFarlane typically releases two to three regular series of figures of current players per sport per year. Additionally, McFarlane releases one to two series per year per sport of famous former players (these are called Legends or Cooperstown series). Within each of these series are chase and variant figures as well as the regular figures. (For more information about chase and variant figures, read the article What is the Difference Between a Chase and a Variant Action Figure?)

McFarlane also produces series of 3" figures for each sport and has issued some 12" figures. Outside of the normal retail releases, McFarlane creates exclusive figures that are sold only during events like Super Bowls, Hall of Fame Inductions and the NHL Hockey All-Star Game, or that are sold only through their website or their retail store in Arizona. On occasion, McFarlane has produced figures that were given away as promotional items at specific sporting events.

Returning to Realism With Pro-Shots

Returning to Realism With Pro-Shots

Recognizing the success of the McFarlane action figures, Upper Deck is now selling a new product line called Pro-Shots. Unlike the All-Star Vinyls, Pro-Shots feature highly accurate 6" figures that depict great moments in famous players' careers. The first series of Pro-Shots are now in the stores and Series 2 comes out in March, 2009. These series feature Tiger Woods and Michael Jordan. Muhammad Ali is also planned.

For each figure, two versions are issued - a "retail version" which is sold at Toys R Us, shows the athlete in the attire he was wearing for the famous moment being depicted. (For example, in the 1985 slam dunk competition shown to your right, Jordan was wearing the red uniform.) The retail version is packaged in a plastic clamshell with a cardboard wrap-around, and includes an Upper Deck card. The second version issued is a "hobby version," which is sold through various hobby resellers like sports collectibles websites. The hobby version features the same pose but uses an alternate uniform - in the above example, the hobby version is a white uniform. Hobby versions are packaged in plastic clamshells and I don't believe they come with a card - I need to confirm that.Prototype of Pro-Shots Michael Jordan figure from Upper Deck.

I will be updating the Pro Shots portion of this website very shortly - for now, take a look at my