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Read Posts by Jeff Cope |
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May 3rd, 2011
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
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April 21st, 2011
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.
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April 20th, 2011
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.
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April 19th, 2011
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.
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April 18th, 2011
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.
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February 10th, 2011
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!
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January 31st, 2011
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.
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January 18th, 2011
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.
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January 16th, 2011
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.
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December 7th, 2010
I’m so excited, I just had to share this! The regular edition of the new Outer Space Men action figures from the Four Horsemen have arrived at their studio today! That means those suckers are gonna be shipping out very soon to folks who’ve pre-ordered them (like me!). I’ve been …
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December 7th, 2010
Last month I wrote about Jazwares announcing a new 3-3/4" line of Street Fighter action figures for 2011, and my general unbridled and unabashed excitement about it.
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November 25th, 2010
Happy Thanksgiving, AFi Readers!
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November 22nd, 2010
As you may have read on AFi’s front page, Jazware’s is returning to the Street Fighter license. Street Fighter fans may recall a few years back Jazwares produced a line of 6" Street Fighter figures that were sold at Toys R Us. …
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November 13th, 2010
As most of the dear readers of this blog already know, May 2011 sees the release of the fourth film in Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean saga. While this news may have been met with a collective "ho-hum" from those who felt let down by the over-wrought third film, At World’s End, my reaction was one of excitement!
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November 10th, 2010
I started reading and collecting comic books when I was nine years old. Last month…I stopped.
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