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Corgi have been showcasing their goods at the New York Toy Fair this year. The company, which includes Master Replicas and Cards Inc, were granted the license to produce toys based on The Golden Compass movie and prototypes of various items were on display. Here we run through them to show what's on offer, with some thoughts on the quality and nature of each toy. All the images were taken by Figures.com, so if you want to see them in full, that's where to head.

Vehicles

Vehicles feature prominently and show the modern motif the designers have gone for with the film. In all, four vehicles Lyra rides in the story have toys of their own. First, a zeppelin, the 'sky ferry' Lyra takes to London. Next, Mrs Coulter's carriage, a movie addition. This bizarre contraption is run on the 'alchemical power' the production designer disucsses above; presumably the glowing blue ball of energy spins and turns the wheel. The carriage and the zeppelin share a design aesthetic - both are dark gold and red, the prominent colours of the film shown so far. The zeppelin bears the Magisterium logo - which can also be seen in the spyfly's box.

Next up is Lee Scoresby's balloon. This is an even more divergent design; it consists of a canopy attached to two sets of balloons. The vast canopy was on display at the set and is impressive in its size and design. The arrangement of the balloons cause scratching of the head however; two balloons would surely be drawn in opposite directions, pulling the canopy apart. It seems unlikely they could be heated and the balloon most likely runs on 'alchemical power' as well; although in one of the scenes shown so far, Lee mutters that he needs to find more gas, a line from the books.

Finally, this is the boat Lyra and the Gyptians take to Trollesund. In the movie it has been christened the "Nooderlicht", Dutch for Northern Lights; a nice touch. It was shown rather extensively in the scenes preview and would seem to have a reasonably large part in the film.

Plushies

The most obvious toy imaginable makes its appearance - transforming daemons, in the form of stuffed animals. Pantalaimon and (Roger's daemon) Salcilia are shown - although the toys themselves aren't present, merely a box showing the transformation. The prototypes may not be complete yet. From the box, it seems that the animals are folded inside-out to change; Pan from a cat to an ermine, Salcilia from a puppy to a sparrow. The animals look a little awkquard thnaks to the transition, but if they work in practice they'll be quite impressive. There are also some standard bag plush daemons - of Pan as an ermine, Stelmaria and the golden monkey. The monkey looks fairly menacing on the box art, yet his plush sports an uncharacteristic (to say the least) smile.

Everyone's favourite bear, Iorek Brynison, has his own plushy too; it seems a rather standard affair. There's several other Iorek items in addition: an 18" 'electronic talking bear', plus what looks to be a more straight-up model. Iofur (Ragnar in the movie) has a similar model. In the absence of images from the film, looking at the two toys shows the different armour of the bears - Iorek's is a close-fitting goldy brown, whilst Ragnar's is grey and more structured, with protruding points. Action-Figure.com mentioned that the bear models they saw had "roaring and running functions" - this may be refering to these two models.

Iorek also has some more unusual toys. There's what seems to be a mask, or perhaps simply a stand-alone head; what it does is anyone's guess. There are also what are dubbed "Iorek Byrnison Slashing Paws", giant bear gloves for wearing by those who wish that they too could rip out hearts.

Figures

A couple of weeks ago these action figures were reported to be well into production and six were on offer here: John Faa, Lyra, Mrs Coulter, Lord Asriel, Ma Costa and Tony Costa. Each had a little daemon figure with them too. It's tricky for the non-conneissuer to discern their quality, so we'll turn to Action-Figure.com again, who said of the Lord Asriel figure at least: "It was simply superb, and probably the best head sculpt I'd EVER seen. For collectors, visualise a fantastic Sideshow quality sculpt at 3.75" scale." From the figures on display however, Lord Asriel appears to have acquired a ginger hair colour for some reason - rest assured this is just for the toys, and hopefully just the prototypes at that.

Two posters were at the fair to advertise which models would eventually be available. They were:

Series 1
Lyra Belacqua
Lord Asriel
Roger Parstow
John Faa
Marisa Coulter * the poster noted that this was 'pending actor agreement'

Series 2
Gyptian Warrior
Serafina Pekkala
Tartar Guard
Torry Costa
Lee Scoresby

Artifacts

The second most obvious merchandise ever was there too - an alethiometer. A fairly basic plastic replica of the instrument, it comes in two sizes, the larger of which has its own carry-bag. When we spoke to Darren Epstein of Cards Inc way back when the licensing deal was first announced, he assured us that it was a 'working' alethiometer; though in what way it functions is yet to be revealed. The finer detail (than the movie stills shown so far) of the inside lid of the alethiometer allows for a look at the etching here.

A model of the spyfly Mrs Coulter sends after Lyra was also on display. Gold and green with red eyes, it too has the Magisterium's logo on its back. At the exhibit it sat in a huge box which looked to be made of wood, with a proper hinge. It rather dwarfs the other toys in both scale and quality - it seems curious that it would encase the spyfly, which seems too small and plastic to be a part of it. Perhaps the box has another role, or is simply a lavish prototype or showcase.

Playsets

An ice playset, of sorts, completes our look at the toys. An item like this emphasises that the toy companies seem to be firmly aiming at the younger market - it's hard to imagine an older His Dark Materials fan buying a playset of all things. What's on show is rather spartan and bizarre - Ragnar's ice-throne is there, but also a pair of binoculars and what looks to be a pile of jelly next to a crocodile skeleton. Quite what playing will be going on in this set isn't clear. Above it can also be seen a small room - is this a bedroom for Lyra at the palace? Asriel's prison? The set could possibly prove to be more interesting, as Cards Inc have said they plan to make it 'generate' the Northern Lights.

Toy Conclusions

There's a simply huge amount of merchandise on offer here. Mockingbird sums it up, observing that "the level of commercial weight people expect this movie to carry is incredible. Iorek slashing paws! Rawr! It's as if New Line knows that this movie will be a phenomenon and little boys everywhere will want slashing paws for Christmas. I hope they are right, for everyone's sakes."

Reaction to the toys from fans is mixed, with most agreeing that they'll probably pick up a stuffed daemon or bear at most. Last seen in the concept art, scorn for the vehicles - now clearly in the film and keeping the same design - is universal. Moonflash thinks Lee's balloon looks like "a souped-up snowcar that flies," whilst Green Ink wonders about the film's design as a whole:

"They mentioned that they had some 15 months to design the film, which seems like far too long; I think the designers kind of lost touch with the practicalities of the story. A lot of the design seems just to done to make everything look more interesting, i.e. purely done for the designer's sake. Like inventing 'alchemical power' and then coming up with all sorts of clunky looking vehicles. A designer should strive to support the story, not distract from it. What's the point of adding something like that carriage, when a car would suffice, or those balloons that seem hugely impractical?"

Ben remarks that "I know a few folks in the toy design business and was a big toy collector once upon a time, so I think I have a bit of a perspective on this. Even for prototypes a lot of this stuff looks cheaply made and/or designed. I can guarantee that even if the film is a smash hit, a lot of these toys will be on clearance shelves within a matter of months. Kids over the age of 8 really don't play with "toys" anymore. Why can't the companies get that? Or are they actually trying to market the majority of this stuff to an under 8 crowd?" Heather thinks the toys "don't seem to have drawn much from the discriptions in the book, but rather gone for the consumer friendly appeal."

And finally, Jess laments that "you can't really cuddle an armoured bear."