Gordon Freeman to return in 2012 (in small plastic toy form). Also, replica portal guns for all!

Want to know exactly what you'll be sticking on your shelf and trying to justify as a legitimate piece of ornamental decoration next year? Well scroll down and I'll tell you.

From Half-Life 2, NECA will spawn a Gordon Freeman action figure. Portal 2 is going to get a fair bit more, including action figures of co-op protagonists Atlas and P-Body, Weighted Companion Cubes in both resin and plush form (probably similar to the now sold-out ones that used to be available from Valve), and best of all, a replica goddamn portal goddamn gun.

Outside of the Half-Life universe, Pyro, Heavy and Demo Man figures are coming from TF2, and Left 4 Dead 2 is getting Boomer and Smoker figures. No word on sizes or pricing yet, and given the obvious gaps in the line-up I'd assume these are only series one of what will probably be a long string of releases. The future possibilities though, are great. It would be insane not to predict a big expensive GLaDOS diaorama for example, and surely both sets of Left 4 Dead protagonists are going to be coming eventually too.

No pics of the first batch yet, unfortunately, so until they turn up, enjoy my mock-up of NECA's talking Gordon Freeman action figure. Just pull the string to hear all of your favourite Half-Life 2 catchphrases in Gordon's original voice!

July 22, 2011