Check out the endoskeleton on that Terminator

At the Hasbro booth you’ll find its new generation of Transformers toys. All the characters are there but at different levels of complexity, from tiny gadgets to “deluxe” toys. (The centerpiece there would be the foot-tall Ultimate Bumblebee). Also worth mentioning are Softimus Prime and Slumblebee: plushie toys that are, of course, still transformable.

Hasbro’s "Star Wars" toys don't appear to have changed much, but it looks as if the company is putting out a new line of G.I. Joe toys, which perhaps supports the rumor that a G.I. Joe movie is in the works.

Mattel’s booth is full of DC superhero toys. The company just signed a deal with Warner Bros. that lets it make toys for all of DC’s properties, rather than just Superman and Batman, the only properties it had before. Mattel also has displays full of Disney/Pixar’s "Cars" collectibles and vintage He-Man toys, the kind that are probably collecting dust in your (or your kid’s) closet.

Lego seems to have gotten more and more complex over the years: Its big display this year was the "Star Wars" line, which ran from tiny kits for a couple of bucks to a $300 Star Destroyer and “Return of the Jedi” Death Star. The company also showed its Bionicle toys, a line that defies classification, with an inscrutable back story and some positively eldritch pieces.

But for the collector with finer tastes and a fatter wallet, Sideshow Collectibles was displaying some of its newer pieces. There was a lot to see at Sideshow: 1/8-scale models of characters from "Spider-Man," "Tomb Raider," "The Lord of the Rings," "Alien" (my favorite was Ripley in her exosuit), "Predator" and "The Terminator" (including a full-scale model of the endoskeleton), among others.

-- Andrew Hiltzik