The Rumor Buster

News Clips 7/31/08

And in general news clips, Hollywood Reporter was the first to write about the possible Venom movie and the inherent problems (ie, casting, how to make a movie about a villain, how to tide fans over until a potential 2011 Spider-Man film.)

And Marvelousnews has posted pictures of more upcoming Marvel Minimates, also focusing on Marvel’s Iron Man movie.

ToyNewsi.com has hi-res pic’s of the new G.I.Joe Combat Heroes

And although everyone else is already covering it, Lionsgate now has the North American DVD rights for the upcoming Wolverine and the X-Men animated series. Apparently the real news is the behind the scenes drama over Punisher War Zone.

And then finally, October’s Lee Toy Review is apparently going to include coverage of DC’s Infinite Heroes. The solicitation text (copied from 86 Floor Comics Previews listing):

LEE’S TOY REVIEW #192 OCTOBER 2008
Mattel’s line of DC Universe action figures — from Justice League to DC Universe Infinite Heroes — are covered in this issue of Lee’s Toy Review. Also find Vintage Toy reviews, McFarlane’s Sports Picks, G.I. Joe, Transformers, Teen Titans, DC Comics Super Heroes, Hot Wheels, Market Reports, Trading Figures, and more. Plus, the nation’s #1 Hot Wheels price guide!(Action Figure News &Toy Review) (C: 0-1-2)
Magazine, 100pgs, FC SRP: $5.95

Also coming soon, Mr. Fantastic, Galactus and more?

Hasbro has thrown upthe listing for the upcoming Mr. Fantastic and Galactus megapack (with the more metallic painted Galactus). And also Ultimate Hulk and Wolverine. Hopefully we’ll be seeing pictures and pre-orders soon!

Spider-Man Super Hero Squad Playset

Hasbro has a new page up with the cryptical name of “Spider-Man Super hero squad playset”. Now, the Bank Heist is already up on Hasbro’s site and the Gamma Lab, featuring Spider-Man and Hulk is a TRU exclusive, so we’re not quite sure what this posting is, or if it’s just an error or test (noting the non-capitalized “hero”, “squad” and “playset”, but it could turn out to be something interesting. As we’ve been reporting, in recent Q&A’s, when asked about playsets, Hasbro has only mentioned the Gamma Lab.

Translucent Zzzax?

Eagle eyed Monkey on Fwoosh’s forums noticed how one of Cool Toy Review’s SDCC Super Hero Squad pictures featured a boxed version of (what looks like) Zzzax that’s different than the unboxed Zzzax. It does look like the same Zzzax sculpt, only translucent, which was our chief complaint when we first saw him. Whether it’s a variant or just an early production version like the matte paint/metallic paint Thors shown at conventions earlier in the year, or the paint differences between early shots of Ghost Rider’s motorcycle and later shots, we don’t know yet.

Squad, the Cartoon

Alright folks, this is a long post, but hopefully the edutainment value makes it worth your reading.

We’re still experiencing a bit of a post-SDCC boost in unique visitors but I’ve heard a couple people are disappointed at what we were NOT shown at San Diego. Namely? The Super Hero Squad cartoon.

Shows like Iron Man Man Armored Adventures, Black Panther and Wolverine and the X-Men were all given some good publicity at SDCC, while fellow Spring 2009 launches for Hulk Gamma Squad and Super Hero Squad didn’t get equal treatment.

Marvel’s other recent animation endeavor, Fantastic Four: World’s Greatest Heroes, which was just recently released in a “season 1” set, is likely dead giving Chris Yost’s interview at Toonzone and the fact that the last new episode was aired in October 2007, with many episodes never being aired on Cartoon Network.

So far everything makes sense, because Wolverine and the X-Men was scheduled to air in the BBC soon (although our own quick scan of BBC’s channel listings indicate that it won’t be making it’s earlier announced August 2, 2008 timeline, Black Panther is already into the casting stage and the Iron Man trailer has already been shown, featuring Teen Tony.

But with 2 other series launching in the US around the same time, you’d expect comparable coverage… trailers, something. Steve Hulett, business rep of The Animation Guild reported on a recent visit to Film Roman getting the following information

“One of the Marvel shows (a direct-to-video feature, I think) as canceled. There’s another Marvel project that, if my info is correct, is still on the calendar.

I was tipped off by a couple of artists about this when I went through the place Monday.”

Film Roman is producing the upcoming Super Hero Squad series (or so the press release copy/pasted EVERYWHERE said way back in May – 133 hits with Google) and is known for work on everything from the Simpsons and King of the Hill to X-Men Evolution and the animated Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm series.

Browsing through the comments to Hulett’s post speculation included both Hulk and Super Hero Squad (neither of which are direct-to-video releases, but Hulett did say “I think”, and there was nothing solid, just some anonymous rumors.

Then livingfruitvirus from Toonzone’s forums reported that his producer from Starz Media (owners of Film Roman) said the project was scrapped. For more information on “livingfruitvirus” check out his work at The C Word and 101 Megahertz and apparently he’ll be doing storyboards for the upcoming Goode Family series.

Now, that doesn’t mean that the project is totally dead. Nor does it mean you won’t see an animated Hulk, as he’s going to be visiting Wolverine and the X-Men.

What it DOES mean, is that Sure Hero Squad is NOT the canceled Film Roman project from the rumor going around the animation circles, and that Hulk: Gamma Squad has apparently been shelved. (bolded so that this post’s bottom line doesn’t get lost amongst all these pesky facts and reports.)

While Hulk may visit the X-Men, there’s still some question as to whether the Spidey will visit the Squad. We’ve been following the press releases and noting his absence since May. While some speculation is that the CW’s deal for airing season 1 of Spectacular Spider-Man (season 2 is currently homeless…) may prevent him from being in the cartoon, but a far likelier problem may be SONY (producer of the Spectacular Spider-Man and one of the producers of the upcoming possible musical) and their long history of being insanely protective and greedy with Spider-Man rights ever since Marvel and SONY formed Spider-Man L.P. to share the rights, rights that include shared publishing rights and resulted in oh, about 30 million dollars of profit for Marvel in Q1 2008. Would SONY want to allow a character in a series they produce and have shared publishing rights with starring in a series promoting a toy line that benefits Marvel’s other major licensing agreement (the one with Hasbro) and produced by a different company? Maybe, maybe not. We’ll keep our eyes out for further proof one way or the other regarding Spider-Man in the Super Hero Squad cartoon.

Animated Iron Man villains

This slipped by earlier this week (because Comics Continuum, while a great site, still hasn’t embraced RSS feeds and so if we don’t remember to check it out, we forget) but Comics Continuum has pictures of the new Mandarin, Whiplash and Blizzard designs for the upcoming Iron Man animated series. Also check it out for possible developments for Spectacular Spider-Man’s second season (suggesting it won’t be on the New Kids CW after the full shift to 4kids), and Marvel’s Nicktoons deal. For those who haven’t been paying attention, Nicktoons is the network scheduled to air Wolverine and the X-Men in the US (and premieres in the UK and likely on torrent sites everywhere this upcoming Saturday, August 2nd) and Iron Man: Armored Adventures. Marvel’s upcoming Hulk: Gamma Corps, and Super Hero Squad were at last word still waiting on networks.

Newsclips 7/29/08

Just realized that we were a day off yesterday… apparently we lost track of time.

First, that Hasbro Sketchbook we told you about a little while ago is hitting eBay with prices varying. For a look at some of the artwork include, check this auction. Shots of Snake Eyes, Darth Vader, Ultimate Thor, and some Transformers will probably make you place a bid at one of the many auctions going on. Apparently some of the designers even did sketches and signatures, as seen by the Logan Lubera Daredevil in this auction. Be warned though, apparently the mark-up is crazy. Allspark is reporting that at the convention itself it was only $10.00.

HASBRO
Hasbro Sketchbook Volume 1 (2008) (Approximate Retail Price: $9.99)
The Hasbro Design Team has assembled an 80-page bound inaugural sketchbook, featuring art from the designer’s personal sketchbooks and straight from the drawing boards. This sketchbook will only be available at Comic-Con 2008. Supplies are limited.

Marvelousnews has shots of the upcoming Minimates figures. Nope, still not dead.