When I spotted a surprise shelf of Kingdom Hearts figures unexpectedly on display at the Diamond Select Toys Booth at New York Toy Fair 2017 in February, my head just about exploded. 8 months later, it’s almost time for the first pre-ordered Kingdom Hearts Select figures to arrive—and I got to see them again at NYCC 2017! Read on for my impressions and hi-res photos…
When the first Kingdom Hearts video game came out, my expectations for the game were unbelievably low. I was having visions of a kiddified Final Fantasy with Donald and Goofy around for slapstick comedy. What I got instead was a franchise with a deep world, a complicated backstory and some of my favorite original video game characters ever.
I’ve been buying all of the limited selection of Square-Enix Kingdom Hearts Play Arts Kai Figures over the years, but I’ve always wanted a more diverse range of characters—and it looks like that’s what Diamond Select Toys will be delivering with their Kingdom Hearts Select series!
The first series of DST Kingdom Hearts Figures is scheduled to hit stores this fall, and will contain the following two-packs at $24.99 per pack:
- Kingdom Hearts II Sora, a Heartless Soldier and a Dusk
- King Mickey Mouse, Axel and a Shadow
That’s not all that DST has planned for the Select Kingdom Hearts line of 4”-7” figures, though! There’s also not one, not two, not three, but four exclusive sets on the way!
The first wave of Diamond Select Kingdom Hearts exclusives are as follows:
- Walgreens Exclusive: King Mickey with Exclusive Pluto Figure – $9.99
- Toys R Us Exclusive: Master Form Sora (Yellow) – $19.99
- Target Exclusive: Wisdom Form Sora (Blue) – $19.99
- GameStop Exclusive: Valor Form Sora (Red) & Heartless Soldier – $19.99
Of these four exclusives, the only one that I’ve seen reported as popping up in stores thus far is King Mickey with Pluto (which I actually snapped up myself today at a local Walgreens). Presumably, the rest will be appearing in stores over the course of the next month.
At the Diamond Select Toys panel at New York Comic Con 2017, DST also conformed that more figures are in the works for Select series 2, including Roxas, Pete, “Timeless” versions of the characters (from the Steamboat Willie levels), Space Paranoids versions and more. Aqua from “Birth by Sleep” is also in development.
Jafar and Maleficent prototypes have also been created, although whether or not Disney licensing will allow those characters to be released in the line is still unconfirmed.
I’d rate my excitement for this line to be around a 9 out of 10. I love seeing so many characters produced so quickly at low prices, and the promise of a multitude more characters definitely brings a big ol’ goofy smile to my face (Ha-yuck!).
At the same time, I’m a little discouraged to see all of the various Sora figures so far sharing the same facial expression. The characters in Kingdom Hearts have so much personality that it’s a bit of a bummer seeing all of the Sora action figures so far sharing the same smile.
I’ll be reviewing each and every figure in this line and covering the series as it rolls out, so stay tuned to the Gamer Toy News Facebook and Twitter Pages for future photos and coverage.I picked up the Walgreens Mickey Mouse & Pluto set today, and will be reviewing it later on this week.
And if you want to chat about Kingdom Hearts toys–and all other video game toys–be sure to join and check out the new Gamer Toy Alliance Facebook Group!
Now that they’re on the verge of hitting stores in form, what do you think of the Diamond Select Toys Kingdom Hearts figures line, Kingdom Hearts fans? Is this the affordably-priced line of figures for the franchise that you’ve been waiting for, or are you unimpressed with DST’s efforts?