Pre-TF2012: Mattel’s The Dark Knight Rises

It’s the 1st of February, and that means that Toy Fair 2012 happens this month!

Every year, it seems, the Big Dance of the toy industry is a mix of elation and disappointment. But, for even the most jaded collector there is always something to look forward to.

So, every weekday between now and the start of the show on February 12th, I will be looking at some expected items that I am optimistically looking forward to.

Since some of this got spoiled this week, we’re going to start off with products based on this year’s sure to be blockbuster motion picture: The Dark Knight Rises!

It’s Coming…

Today’s January 1st. New Year’s Day.

And, like any good little toy collector…one of my first thoughts, come the new year is…

…Toy Fair is next month!!

What are you looking forward to?

Oh, and by the way…HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Mega Bloks Planning a WoW of 2012!

There’s a bit of news that broke earlier this year that really has me jazzed. Mega Bloks announced that they would be producing sets in 2012 based upon the super-popular MMO (that’s Massively Multiplayer Online) World of Warcraft created by Blizzard Entertainment.

The Best Selling Summer Movie Toys?

This summer saw a glut of movie based toys clog the aisles of toy departments pretty much everywhere. Despite achieving (for the most part) box office success…the big summer movies failed to drive sales of tie-in merchandise at retail. Much of the product just sat…and is still sitting.

I don’t have any empirical sales data to back this up, but based upon extensive local observation it seems that the best selling movie toys of this past summer was The Smurfs from Jakks Pacific.

A Chat with Colby Dauch of Plaid Hat Games

I was recently turned on to a relatively new card game called Summoner Wars produced by an equally new company, Plaid Hat Games. I’m not usually one for card games, preferring miniatures games by far, but Summoner Wars is a fast and fantastic game with loads of options yet not tons of rules to bog things down. I had the opportunity recently to chat with the Head Hat of Plaid Hat Games, Colby Dauch about his experiences starting up his own game company and bringing products to market.

Book Review: POTC: The Price of Freedom

There’s a new adventure of Captain Jack Sparrow setting sail this week, and I don’t mean the new film, On Stranger Tides, which opens in theaters this Friday, May 20th. Nope, I’m talking about the new, full-length hardcover novel Pirates of the Caribbean: The Price of Freedom which hits bookstores on May 17th. Popular genre author A.C. Crispin has crafted a tale of a much younger Jack Sparrow. In this tale of the sea, Jack is about 25 years old. He’s already had a past of pirating, but because he broke the Pirates Code, he’s an outcast from Shipwreck Cove, the Brethren Court and the ever mysterious Teague, the Keeper of the Code (not to mention, as we saw in At Worlds End, Jack’s papa). When we first encounter Jack in the novel he’s the First Mate on the Fair Wind, a merchant vessel of the East India Trading Company. Jack is doing his level best to be a respectable seaman. But, you know what they say about best intentions. The Fair Wind is attacked by pirates, and it’s captain dies, setting off a chain of events that leads to Jack being given his own ship, the Wicked Wench, by a young Cutler Beckett who is trying to make a name for himself in the East India Trading Company. Thus is born Captain Jack Sparrow.

Will You Be the Master of the Seas?

  As I’ve mentioned previously, I am a huge fan of Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. For the new movie, On Stranger Tides, JAKKS Pacific was awarded the Master Toy License. Included in this license was the rights to produce games based upon the movies. Of interest to gamers would be the Pirates of the Caribbean: Master of the Seas Strategy Game. I recently had the privilege to interview Ken Malouf, Senior Director of Marketing for Games & Puzzles at JAKKS about this new game which is due in stores any day now

Less is More

I’ve had a blog idea kicking around the back of my head for over a year now, and Mattel just killed it. Sort of. Being responsible with our environment is an important topic to me. It’s more than a topic, it’s a way of thinking and a way of living. My family and I live on a small 5 acre farm. We raise our own chickens (we have 17 egg layers, and generally raise about 60 for meat per year), pigs, and dairy goats. We actively recycle as much as we possibly can. Where we live you have to pay extra for that, so we do what we can on our own. The animals help with that. There’s a lot of food stuff that can go to the chickens or, especially, the pigs rather than into the trash.  Fortunately, we have a recycling facility in town to which we take our paper products, glass, cans and plastics. Two years ago our trash can was full to overflowing each week when we put it out. Now, there’s barely anything in it. It’s fantastic. So, where does Mattel come in? Over the past few years Mattel (and, to be fair, other companies as well) have been getting very elaborate with their packaging, especially with convention exclusives. But, even their standard retail products as well. And, frankly, it’s been frustrating me because it’s just a huge waste. It’s a waste of resources on their part, and it’s a waste on the consumer end as most of that packaging then ends up in landfills. I remember getting action figures as a kid, whether it was Kenner’s Star Wars or Super Powers or whatever. The packaging was a small backing board, and a plastic blister containing a loose figure. No plastic backer vacuu-formed to the shape of the figure. No twist ties holding the figure in plastic (or, in Mattel’s case, a figure-warping action pose). It was all pretty minimalistic. And, I miss it. This has been bugging me for a while. Backer cards started getting ridiculously huge in proportion to the figure it held. The amount of plastic being used seemed to be more than the amount of plastic used in the figure itself! The Comic Con exclusive packaging has been raising my ire for several years now, and then I saw the trend at retail start to move towards excessive packaging, too. The 4" figures from James Cameron’s Avatar had packaging that was so disproportionate to the product being offered that it was ludicrous. And I thought, enough was enough.

Round One: Fight!

  2011 is shaping up to be a fantastic year for me action figure-wise. Two of my favorite properties are not only making a much anticipated return to toy store shelves, but they’re both doing it in the 4" scale. Better yet, they’re coming from the same company: Jazwares (which is rapidly becoming a favorite of mine) I’m referring to, of course, Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat.

Movie Theater of the Century

  My last blog, in which I wrote about our local theater here in the little town of Delaware, Ohio, got me reminiscing about my favorite theater back home in San Jose, California: The Century Theaters (with their unique dome shape) on Winchester Avenue. Specifically, it’s Century 22 that holds a special place in my heart.

Big Movies, Little Theatre

Summer movie season is nearly upon us. My inner geek is already squealing with anticipation over what is to come in the next few months to our local cinema. It used to be, for the big blockbuster-type movies, I would want to see them at the big chain multiplex with the biggest screen and the best sound system. But, that’s changed. About 3 years ago my family and I moved to a rural area just outside Delaware, Ohio (about 20 minutes north of the northern edge of Columbus). Delaware is a small town, and an old town. There’s a little movie theater in town called The Strand. The Strand just celebrated it’s 95th birthday, having first opened on April 10, 1916. And, even cooler, it has been in continuous operation for those 95 years. It has only 3 screens. A main auditorium and a smaller side theater downstairs, and a balcony theater upstairs. While the side theater screen is fairly small, the main and balcony screens are of decent size. They’ve recently upgraded their sound system, so the sound is actually pretty darn good. But, with only 3 screens The Strand often has to juggle what they’re showing. Sometimes they won’t be able to show a film the day it opens simply because there is no screen on which to show it. That presents a challenge to them, but they handle it well. Since moving here The Strand has become our theater of choice. There was even a time recently we were headed off to see a movie (I don’t recall which at the moment) that we didn’t think The Strand was going to be getting at all. That’s pretty much the only time we’ll go to the big multiplex. While my wife and daughter were getting ready, I was on the computer checking Facebook and just saw a post from The Strand with their schedule for the next week. They were getting the movie we were just about to go see. We changed our plans on the spot. Didn’t go to Rave and waited until the following week and caught the flick at The Strand.

Pre-Toy Fair: Sonic’s 20th Anniversary

  Sonic the Hedgehog is something of a big deal in our household. I’ve written about this before (right here), but 2011 is something special: the 20th Anniversary of Sonic! First off, wow. Does that make me feel old! It’s hard to believe that Sonic has been a part of my life, not to mention the pop culture landscape for two decades now. That’s crazy. I haven’t heard much about Sega’s plans for the 20th anniversary, but I know that Florida-based toymaker Jazwares has a slate of 20th Anniversary-themed toys planned for 2011 and I’m super-stoked!

The Passing of Wizard

  Well, by now we’ve heard and read eulogies to the passing of Wizard and Toyfare magazines ad naseum. Regardless, I felt remiss in not sharing my thoughts on the matter. Basically, I find that the cancellation of these two magazines saddens me. Quite a bit, actually. The ironic thing is that I hadn’t read either one in years.

Pirates of the Caribbean: a Novel Concept

Avast, me hearties! This is fair warning to you that over the next several months you’ll likely be seeing a lot of blogs from me concern Pirates of the Caribbean (or other thusly related topics). I’m a huge fan of the movies (or, as my 6 year old daughter likes to exclaim, "Daddy’s Pirate Crazy!") and am giddy with anticipation for the upcoming fourth installment, On Stranger Tides. There’s been a ships hold full of merchandise based upon the hit franchise thus far, but one thing that has been sorely lacking is novels. Oh sure, there’s the Jack Sparrow series of kid novels, along with the Legends of the Brethren Court series. But, those are for young readers (which hasn’t stopped me from reading them!). But, I’ve been wanting a good, full-length novel featuring these great and colorful characters. Well, this May that wait comes to an end with the release of Pirates of the Caribbean: The Price of Freedom by A.C.Crispin and I couldn’t be more excited.

Mattel Who? Toy Fair 2011 Thoughts.

It’s that time of the year again. Toy Fair is just around the corner. The biggest event in the toy industry is being held this year from February 13 – 16 in New York City. For the past couple years Mattel has been the company from which I was most excited to see their new products for the year. But, not this year. In fact, the world’s biggest toy company has, this year, become practically a non-entity to me. I think the only things I am looking forward to seeing from them this go round are the Young Justice figures and what they’ve got planned for the 3-3/4" segment of the Green Lantern line.