The newsstand collections!

With most of the Gormiti series’ original Italian releases, a limited assortment was offered at the newsstands. Typically, 12 selected characters with two or more being sold exclusively at the newsstands. The contents of the blind bag differed slightly from the ones sold at toy stores, meaning that not only did you get a Gormiti character and a card but also a small brochure, the so called ‘fanbuk’, describing the character.

With many of the series the exclusive-to-newsstands characters were simply two of the cooler figures, but other series offered exiting color variants of characters from the regular assortment, entirely new sculpts or characters with special accessories only to be found at the newsstands.

Newstand blindbag (l), normal one (r). Notice how they only advertise with 12 new characters on the newsstand blind bag opposed to 37 (full series) on the normal blind bag.

Morphogenesis newsstand brochure (l) with only 12 characters, normal brochure (r). Note how the characters Trappon and Porfidius are marked 'Esclusivi edicola' - newsstand exclusives!

The newsstand blind bags also included this instruction on how to send a mail order for additional newsstand figures. These were delivered not in a blind bag but a see-through baggie as pictured below.

A couple of mail away gormitis from my personal collection. Includes character card and fanbuk.

Here we have the newsstand brochure for the Titanium series.

  

And the back side. Solardrill and Ipnoticon are the exclusive-to-newsstand figures. 

Luxion series newsstand brochure ... For some reason the exclusive-to-newsstand figures are not marked here. 

And the backside. Beautiful multicolored madness!

To find any mention of the exclusive-to-newsstand figures, you have to look at the regular Luxion brochure. It's Cingolo and Electrowatt! Really cool figures.

Neorganic newsstand brochure.

Rubbery accesories or "super powers" only available at the newsstands!

Newsstand brochure from the Final Evolution series. In this series two entire people were sold exclusively at the newsstands. People of the Ice and the Lava People. In Denmark, where I reside, the Lava People were never released and the People of the Ice could be found in regular blindbags. This is just one of many many regional differences in the Gormiti series.

From the Nature Unleashed series. Contents of the newsstand blind bag (left) and the normal blind bag (r). A notable difference here is that the character card in the newsstand assortment is a regular card, not the 3D holographic card that was included in the full assortment.

Newsstand figures from the Elemental Fusion series. Variations, one from each tribe, with see-through parts. Love these! The sandguy, Sandis, to the right, is one of my favourite Gormitis.

Also part of the elemental fusion series: The four kids, Nick, Jessica, Lucas and Toby, were available at the newsstands.

Newsstand figures from the Supreme Eclipse series. Here we have all new sculpts of the four heroes. And at least Toby and Jessica are WAY cooler than the regular figures. So much posing, so much action!

Without a doubt the rarest and most expensive newsstand exclusives. From the Luxion series (to my knowledge not released outside of Italy) Electrowatt (l) and Cingolo (r). Cingolo is extremly difficult to find with an unbroken gun turret. The combination of the blind bag concept and that thin bit sticking out like that was a match made in hell! 

Regarding this fanbuk I mentioned all the way at the top of this post – whats up with that, really? It only has a few pictures of the character and very little text. Hardly any content worth mentioning so why even bother producing something like that?

Inside the fanbuk ... Not all that exciting.

A while ago I talked to a friend of mine who owns a record store specializing in metal music. He’s a big Iron Maiden fan, has bought shitloads of special Maiden releases from all over the world and knows a lot about how the newsstand sale works (or at least he says he does).

Apparently, the Italian newsstands have to pay some kind of tax if they sell products outside of what would be considered a normal newsstand assortment. But a way to get around this is to sell the product alongside a magazine. Then it’s not a cd with a magazine, it’s a magazine with a cd, right? And the same thing obviously goes for toys. So that tiny little brochure – the fanbuk – hidden inside the Gormiti blind bag is actually a magazine with a toy. Smart, right? Even though the fanbuk is basically pro forma crap with close to zero content. I always wondered about the fanbuk, but I think my friend's explanation is pretty plausible.

There is a lot of fanbuks floating around on ebay, but I don’t really collect them. On the other hand, I don’t really don’t collect them 😉 At least, I have over 50. And they are kind of neat to have, I guess, just to document the whats, the whys and the hows of the ole Gormiti craze.