Archive for the ‘Hasbro’ Category:
SDCC 2010 Coverage
SDCC 2010 coverage has begun as you all know, so be sure to hit our message board for the most up-to-date coverage and discussion of SDCC 2010 so far!
SDCC 2010 Panels of Note
Saturday is shaping up to be an interesting day for SDCC 2010 attendees, so we’re giving a rundown of what we feel might be some of the more noteworthy panels.
11:45-1:15 Green Lantern— Get a first look at the upcoming sci-fi action adventure Green Lantern, directed by Martin Campbell. Green Lantern is an epic adventure that crosses galaxies to bring to life the legendary Silver Age superhero Hal Jordan, who is chosen by the ring itself to become the first human member of the Green Lantern Corps and take on the vast and powerful Parallax as it threatens to destroy the world. The film stars Ryan Reynolds as Hal Jordan, Blake Lively as Carol Ferris, Peter Sarsgaard as Dr. Hector Hammond, and Mark Strong as Sinestro.
12:00-1:00 The Venture Bros.— Creators Jackson Publick and Doc Hammer host a laissez-faire chat about—what else?—The Venture Bros. They’ll be joined by Patrick Warburton (voice of Brock Samson) and James Urbaniak (voice of Dr. Venture) as they screen sneak preview clips from the upcoming season, shamelessly plug their new DVD and line of action figures, and take questions from the audience. Indigo Ballroom, San Diego Hilton Bayfront
1:00-2:00 Hasbro: Marvel Toys— Jerry Jivoin and Julien Lee (Hasbro Marketing) and Joshua Lamb, Dave Vonner, and Dwight Stall (Hasbro Design) present the latest toys from the Iron Man, Spider-Man, Marvel Universe, and Super Hero Squad toy lines for 2010. Also, get a sneak peek at the 2011 lines! Includes Q&A time. Room 25ABC
1:45-3:15 Cartoon Voices I— It’s the first big panel of the weekend devoted to the actors behind the voices of your favorite cartoon characters! Mark Evanier and Earl Kress talk with April Winchell (Phineas & Ferb), Candy Milo (Jimmy Neutron), Gregg Berger (The Garfield Show), Tom Kane (Star Wars: Clone Wars), Jason Marsden and (Teen Titans). Room 6BCF
1:45-2:45 Cartoon Network: Action Adventure Animation— Meet the creators and talent behind some of Cartoon Network’s biggest boy heroes, Ben 10 and Generator Rex. From Man of Action meet Joe Casey, Joe Kelly, Duncan Rouleau, and Steven T. Seagle along with the Ben 10: Ultimate Alien team members Glenn Murakami (supervising producer), Dwayne McDuffie (story editor), Yuri Lowenthal (voice of Ben), and Greg Cipes (voice of Kevin). Generator Rex panelists include John Fang (supervising producer), Rob Hoegee (story editor), Daryl Sabara (voice of Rex), and Wally Kurth (voice of Agent Six). Also make sure not to miss a first look at Sym-Bionic Titan with Genndy Tartakovsky, Bryan Andrews, Paul Rudish, and Darrick Bachman. Room 6DE
2:30-3:30 Diamond Select Toys Presents: Minimates!— See the exciting new direction that Diamond Select is taking Minimates, with an in-depth look at new lines such as MAX (Mobile Action X-treme), Calico Jack Pirate Raiders, and Halo! These new lines offer a playability feature that will take the Minimates brand to a whole new level and put them in a league of their own! Plus, get the latest new on continuing lines like Marvel, Ghostbusters, and more. Learn all about the #1 block figure in the world! Room 4
4:15-5:15 Marvel Animation: Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes— Enter the Avengers Mansion and become a part of the team! Celebrity voice talent introduce you to top-secret Avengers files, including never-before-seen footage and two full-length episodes from the all-new Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes animated series premiering on Disney XD this fall. The road to the Avengers starts here! Room 6DE
6:00-7:00 Marvel Studios: Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger— Producer Kevin Feige and special guests give you an inside look at the ever-expanding Marvel Cinematic Universe. Hall H
Hasbro for Sale? Apparently Not.
The Wall Street Journal (the link itself comes from Toyark) has an article about the proposed buyout of Hasbro, makers of all things G.I. Joe, Transformers, Star Wars and, for the next several years, Marvel. According to the WSJ, Hasbro “has a market capitalization of about $6 billion, and a buyout, if successful, would rank as the largest deal of its kind this year, the report said”.
The downside? Other reports say the company is not selling itself. There was a bit of movement in Hasbro’s stock due to the news, and it is apparently outperforming Mattel stock (“So far this year, Hasbro’s shares are up 32% and it has managed to outperform its larger rival Mattel Inc. (MAT 22.57, +0.23, +1.03%) , whose shares are up about 15%.”)
Overall though, Hasbro’s “board wasn’t interested and that there are no further discussions taking place.”
Marvel Q&A 3/30/10
We just got back our first round of answers in the Marvel Q&A! Here they are:
1) Are there any plans for offering Marvel Universe troop builder packs on Hasbro Toy Shop like are offered for Star Wars (with Stormtroopers & such) and G.I. Joe (with Cobra henchmen) where it’s a pack of multiple copies of the same figure?
Currently, we have no plans for offering Marvel Universe troop builder
packs, but we are always looking for new ways to innovate and captivate!
2) Does the old idea that female figures don’t sell well still apply. leading to limitations being set on the number of females per year? We’ve gotten a fair share of females in both the Super Hero Squad and Marvel Universe lines, but there are so many more to be done. Also, do differing demographics (i.e. SHS being for the younger crowd) change the ratio on how many females are done?
It’s always tough to target female characters at our younger consumer.
However, we recognize their value to our collectors. Therefore, we try to choose the popular, more appealing females. While there are MANY cool females yet to be created, we have to remain wise regarding our
selections.
3) Will the SHS line continue to cover all of the Marvel Universe in general or will it be more oriented around the show and its cast?
The show has a pretty deep selection of characters. The toyline itself
allows us to go deeper into the Marvel catalogue. Expect NEW cool figures to come!
There you have it, folks! As always, you can head on over to the board to discuss these answers, and to post your own questions you’d like to seen asked of Hasbro!
Marvel Q&A!
Alright! We’re good to go with the Marvel Q&A from Hasbro! We got the information only a couple days ahead of the deadline for the first questions, so we made the first round of questions “Mods’ Choice” and hopefully we picked some questions you all will be interested in, so look for those back in a couple weeks.
In the meantime, why don’t you head over to the board to discuss what questions should be asked in the next round on April 9th.
Transformers: Good News/Bad News
First, the bad news… it looks like Robot Heroes may have joined Adventure Heroes, M-Pire and Toy Box Heroes in the Hasbro Heroes graveyard. Normanb258 shared this over on the message board but apparently Parry Game Preserve asked a very delicate question regarding Robot Heroes, and got a sad answer:
Preserve: Do you plan to continue the Robot Heroes line beyond the current movie figures?
Hasbro: We do not have any plans to continue with this expression of Transformers past the ROTF line.
So now you want good news? Hasbro has released pictures of some upcoming Transformers figures and we’ve got them over in the Transformers Gallery. One warning for those that don’t collect the line, Rampage may make you want to start. Here’s the rundown:
Super Hero Squad Kraven in 2010
ActionFigs.com has finally cracked the nut that is Hasbro and convinced them to reveal that Kraven is on the Super Hero Squad slate for Fall 2010. Additionally, they had some good news about the unreleased four packs, or at least the figures in those packs:
ActionFigs: Any updates on the Super Hero Squad 4-Packs that weren’t released in the United States? Winter Soldier Saga, Spider-Man Saves The Day, The New Fantastic Four, The Defenders, Secret Invasion Begins, and Secret Wars. There’s a lot of figures in those boxed sets that we’ve been wanting for a long time to fill out teams.
Hasbro: Look for these figures in our 2010 2-pack lineup…
Beast mentioned this over on the board, so head on over there to discuss this great news.
