free sports picks

McFarlane's Sports Picks is the name given to the line of sports-related action figures released by McFarlane Toys, a company founded by Spawn creator Todd McFarlane. The figures feature lifelike renderings of select stars in the five most popular sports in North America - baseball, football, hockey, basketball and stock car racing. The company has official licensing rights to the four major professional sports leagues, but no longer produces racing action figures.
An avid sports fan, collector of sports memorabilia and part-owner of a professional hockey team (the Edmonton Oilers), Todd McFarlane created McFarlane's Sports Picks in 2001 with the release of a series of NHL hockey players. The figures were licensed by the NHLPA but not by the league itself; as such, the players' jerseys featured the colours of the teams for which they played, but the NHLPA logo in place of the team logos (which the NHL holds rights to).
The figures proved to be popular enough with fans and collectors that the NHL - and later the NFL - signed a licensing agreement with McFarlane, allowing future releases to be branded with league and team logos.
Later in 2001, McFarlane's Sports Picks released Series 1 of their NHL line, and Series 1 & 2 of their NFL lineMcFarlane Sports Picks is the name given to the line of sports-related action figures released by McFarlane Toys, a company founded by Spawn creator Todd McFarlane. The figures feature lifelike renderings of select stars in the four most popular sports in North America - hockey, football, baseball and basketball. The company has official licensing rights to the major professional leagues of each of these sportsAn avid sports fan, collector of sports memorabilia and a former part-owner of a professional hockey team (Edmonton Oilers), Todd McFarlane created McFarlane Sports Picks in 2000 with the release of a series of NHL hockey players. The figures were licensed by the NHLPA but not by the league itself; as such, the players' jerseys featured the colours of the teams for which they played, but the NHLPA logo in place of the team logos (which the NHL holds rights to).
The figures proved to be popular enough with fans and collectors that the NHL signed a licensing agreement with McFarlane, allowing future releases to be branded with league and team logos.
Later in 2001, McFarlane Sports Picks released Series 1 of their NHL line, and Series 1 & 2 of their NFL line.
A chase figure is a different version (the differences usually involve paint application, but could also be sculpt or accessory changes) of a regular figure, intentionally produced and generally released in limited numbers. For example, Nomar Garciaparra in MLB 9 was painted in his road gray uniform, but there are a small number of the same figure painted in the home white uniform. Those white-uniform Nomar figures are chase figures. All four figures in Spawn Series 16: Nitro Riders were released in both pewter- and gold-washed chase versions in addition to the regular fully painted figures. Almost every sports figure -- and a lesser number of non-sports figures -- has a chase version.
A variant figure is a paint or accessory difference from the “normal” figure that is often unintentional. Sometimes, these are production errors or glitches that occur at the factory and might be released into distribution before the mistake is caught and corrected. An example would be the Redeemer figure from Spawn Series 25 with different gradations of green paint on his wings or the Anthony Thomas figure from NFL 5, some of which had different coloured mouthguards"
NHL 13 Alexander Ovechkin regular in white and chase in black.On April 11, 2008, McFarlane Toys made an announcement on their new chase figures. There will now be a new form of chase figures surfacing on the market. There have been the traditional chases like alternate, third jersey, retro's and throwbacks. Now the release of new chases will be minor tweaks or variations to the current jersey of the regular figure. These are most likely to be removal or addition of captaincies or the addition of patches.
When the NHLPA figures were first released, they were cardback packaged but once the first NHL licensed series came out, McFarlane decided to use "clamshell" blister packaging. Since the Series 1 to Series 14, the figures have had the same packaging design. From the start of Series 15, the company decided to change the packaging design which took on a more "streamline" look. The Series 15 design would eventually evolve into a more compact version at the start of NHL 16 and Legends 6. The amount of space that was reduced would also have an impact on how large the new bases would be and also eliminated the addition of a net for goalies.
On April 11, 2008, McFarlane Toys announced their plans to redesign their current packaging. Instead of having a full blister packaging, they have returned back to their traditional cardback packaging. After their release, there have been mixed reactions from collectors mainly those who like to keep their figures mint on card. The lines to first debut this new packaging is the NFL Legends 4 and their Halo series 2 lines.
An action figure is a posable character figurine, made of plastic or other materials, and often based upon a movie, comic book, video game, or television program. These action figures are usually marketed towards boys. Redressable action figures are sometimes referred to as action dolls [1] as a distinction from those which have all or most of their clothes molded on. Action figures are particularly popular with boys because they represent traditional masculine traits and are closely associated with the public sphere which is represented by items such as tools, transportation, garages, machines, and military equipmentThe term "action figure" was first used by Hasbro in 1964, to market their G.I. Joe figure to boys who wouldn't play with dolls. G.I. Joe was initially a military-themed 11.5-inch figure proposed by marketing and toy idea-man Stan Weston. It featured changeable clothes with various uniforms to suit different purposes. In a move that would create global popularity for this type of toy, Hasbro also licensed the product to companies in other markets.
These different licensees had a combination of uniforms and accessories that were usually identical to the ones manufactured for the US market by Hasbro, along with some sets that were unique to the local market.
The Japanese had at least two examples where a Hasbro licensee also issued sublicenses for related products. For example, Palitoy issued a sublicense to Tsukuda, a company in Japan, to manufacture and sell Action Man accessories in the Japanese market. Takara also issued a sublicense to Medicom for the manufacture of action figures.
Takara, still under license by Hasbro to make and sell G.I. Joe toys in Japan, also manufactured an action figure incorporating the licensed GI Joe torso for Henshin Cyborg-1, using transparent plastic revealing cyborg innards, and a chrome head and cyborg feet. During the oil supply crisis of the 1970s, like many other manufacturers of action figures, Takara was struggling with the costs associated with making the large 11 ½ inch figures, So, a smaller version of the cyborg toy was developed, standing at 3-3/4 inches high, and was first sold in 1974 as Microman. The Microman line was also novel in its use of interchangeable parts. This laid the foundation for both the smaller action figure size and the transforming robot toy. Takara began producing characters in the Microman line with increasingly robotic features, including Robotman, a 12" robot with room for a Microman pilot, and Mini-Robotman, a 3-3/4" version of Robotman. These toys also featured interchangeable parts, with emphasis placed on the transformation and combination of the charactersIn 1971, Mego began licensing and making American Marvel and DC comic book superhero figures which had highly successful sales and are considered highly collectible by many adults today. They eventually brought the Microman toy line to the United States as the Micronauts, but Mego eventually lost control of the market after rejecting the license to produce Star Wars toys in 1976. The widespread success of Kenner's Star Wars 3-3/4" toy line made the newer, smaller size the industry standard. Instead of a single character with outfits that changed for different applications, toy lines included teams of characters with special functions. Led by Star Wars-themed sales, collectible action figures quickly became a multi-million dollar secondary business for movie studios.In the early 1980s, the burgeoning popularity of Japanese robot cartoons such as Gundam encouraged Takara to reinvent the Microman line as the Micro Robots, moving from the cyborg action figure concept to the concept of the living robot. This led to the Micro Change line of toys: objects that could "transform" into robots. In 1984, Hasbro licensed Micro Change and another Takara line, the Diaclone transforming cars, and combined them in the US as the Transformers, spawning a still-continuing family of animated cartoons.

The 1980s spawned all sorts of popular action figure lines, many based on cartoon series' which were one of the largest marketing tools for toy companies. Some of the most successful to come about were Masters of the Universe, G.I. Joe, Thundercats, and Super Powers Collection, to name just a few. As the '80s were ending, more and more collectors started to surface, buying up the toys to keep in their original packaging for display purposes and for future collectability. This led to flooding of the action figure toy market. One of the most popular action figure lines of the late '80s and early '90s, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles action figures were produced in such high quantities that the value for most figures would never be higher than a few dollars. In the mid 1990s, a new Star Wars figure line had surfaced and Spawn figures flooded the toy store shelves, proving action figures were not just for kids anymore.
It was during this time that popular characters were increasingly getting specialized costume and variant figures. Batman quickly became most notorious for this (i.e. Arctic Batman, Piranha Blade Batman, Neon Armor Batman). Rather than individual characters, these variants would make up the bulk of many action figure lines and often make use of the old figure and accessory molds. Glow-in-the-dark figures and accessories also became popular in the early '90s with lines like Toxic Crusaders and Swamp Thing.
A 1999 study found that "the figures have grown much more muscular over time, with many contemporary figures far exceeding the muscularity of even the largest human bodybuilders" and that the changing cultural expectations reflected by those changes may contribute to body image disorders in both sexes