I love toys. And because I play The World of Warcraft, I specially love the action figures that DC Direct has been churning out. The Series 2 action figures have just been recently released and I'm looking forward to picking up a couple when they finally hit our shores. The great thing about the action figures is that they actually tie in to lore, making appearances in the Chris Metzen-approved and supposedly canon WoW comic books.

Out of all the comic book characters and available action figures, I've taken quite a liking to the spunky Valeera Sanguinar. Sure, it's weird that she fights in the Arenas alongside a Night Elf Druid and the thinly-disguised Human Varian Wrynn, but she's pretty cool despite being stuck in outdated Bloodfang Armor. I picked up the action figure some time back, and even though I have a few quibbles about the toy, I'm looking forward to getting more, particularly Vindicator Marrad and his Hammer of the Naaru. My thoughts on the action figure and close-ups of Valeera Sanguinar in the gallery.

Toy News International reports that the World of Warcraft action figures from DC Direct are coming in the last quarter of this year. I love my toys and I love WoW so this comes as great news, particularly with the new selection of figures -- a Blood Elf Paladin named Quin'thalan Sunfire (hell yeah!); Tamuura, a Draenei Mage; an Undead Rogue called Skeeve Sorrowblade; and a Human Priest, Sister Benedron, who can probably cure your allergies. As with previous World of Warcraft action figures from DC direct, the sculpts are mostly based on existing armor sets that players might recognize.

Tamuura sports the Tier 6 raid set Tempest Regalia, while Sister Benedron is depicted in Tier 5 Avatar gear with exaggerated shoulder wings; Skeeve Sorrowblade appears to be wearing a highly-detailed version of Deathmantle, the Rogue Tier 5 set; and Quin'thalan Sunfire looks... well, he looks like he's a generic Silvermoon City guard whom you ask for directions. It's a bit disappointing, personally, although I guess it's cool to have a Silvermoon City guard. It would be kind of like having a named Stormtrooper or something. Historically, DC Direct's action figures have appeared in the World of Warcraft comic, so expect one or more of these new figures to make an appearance in the Chris Metzen-approved canon comic series.

More pictures after the jump. So clickety-click, toy lovers (and uh, WoW fans)...

Amanda M. had a tiny mention of this in her big Engineering post earlier, but I felt it deserved another mention. Our friend Boubouille at MMO Champion has discovered that there are new toy models coming for Engineers in 2.3: a rocket chicken (yes, really), a paper gyrocopter and a paper zepplin, and this crazy model above, a dragon kite.

Now, I don't mean to rain on Engineers' parades-- they definitely deserve all the love they're getting, and I can't wait to see all the cool stuff they're making out there on the realms. But here's the thing: wasn't the whole problem with Engineering that they were stuck making toys instead of useful items? The Epic Mount is awesome, but is anyone else surprised to see that an "Engineering revamp" includes papercraft toys? This is just more Mechanical Squirrels, which is what Engineers were disappointed with in the first place.

An unweighted Companion Cube would be hilarious (Portal has my game of the year vote right now, until I get to check out Mass Effect). But I thought the whole point of beefing up Engineering was to get past these pets. Will letting them do some papercraft really bring the profession up to speed?

Update: Or maybe they're not all for Engineers. The Rocket Chicken certain seems like Engineering, but there's speculation floating around, according to our illustrious commenter Kyle, that these are rewards from the new Upper Deck loot cards.

We play this game called World of Warcraft, and naturally it's about war, various sorts of fighting and skirmishing and so on. Most activities are involved in this fighting in one way or another, even if indirectly.

But we also know that some things in the game have absolutely no effect on your fighting skills whatsoever, and yet these are some of the items in highest demand. Non-combat pets, unique mounts, cute outfits, and so on.

So now imagine that you get hired for Blizzard just to design more of these non-combat items. What kinds of items would you create? What would you make players do in order to get them? What do you think they would add to the game that isn't already there?

As if somehow sensing that there might be some meager amount of money in my pocket left over from the holidays, DC has released the proofs for the next series of World of Warcraft figures for us all to covet and add to our Wish Lists! Pictured from left to right are:

• Human Warrior - Archilon Shadowheart
• Night Elf Druid - Broll Bearmantle
• Troll Priest - Zabra Hexx

Additionally, the site lists a Gnome Warrior named Sprocket Gyrospring as being part of this next set of figures. Sadly, I couldn't find an image of him out there as yet. I suppose he's either lost somewhere behind all that Druid gear, or the Troll made some Gnome stew.

In any event, these fantastic new figures are set to go on sale on February 20th, 2008. Luckily, this gives me more than enough time to clear off some shelf room in my office for them -- and Illidan!

[via Action-Figures]