§ Are they really gearing up for a second GHOST RIDER film? Looks like it. Star Nicolas Cage and writer David S. Goyer are expected to jump on the flaming motorcycle again. The move is part of a flurry of activity regarding Marvel characters at rival studios, now that Disney has bought the Marvel library:

Fox is: rebooting “Fantastic Four” with “Green Lantern” scribe Michael Green and producer Akiva Goldsman; mobilizing a “Wolverine” sequel and several “X-Men” spinoffs; is quietly developing a new version of “Daredevil” and working on a Silver Surfer film. Sony recently set James Vanderbilt to write the fifth and sixth installments of “Spider-Man,” and Universal continues work on “Sub-Mariner.” Paramount continues as distributor for “Iron Man 2” and several others expected to include “Thor” and “Captain America.”

§ Meanwhile, a few toys that were kicking around on the living room floor are being cleaned up for the screen. Barbie, at long last, is being developed for the big screen, following a successful series of low budget direct to DVD movies:

According to Mattel, the 50-year-old Barbie has 99% worldwide brand awareness, and it’s the No. 1 girls property in the toy industry, the top doll property in the U.S., and the No. 1 worldwide property in the traditional toy industry.

“Barbie is the most famous doll in history, a unique cultural icon in the world of brands,” said Universal Pictures chairman Marc Shmuger. “So many representations of Barbie frequent pop culture. We’re grateful to Mattel for entrusting us with this extraordinary opportunity.”

Mark said the next step will be to canvass writers and decide on a creative take for a family-friendly movie.

Gee whiz, the possibilities are endless! Maybe Barbie can be a dentist. Or a veterinarian! Or a astrophysicist! Maybe they will bring Skipper, Cock-Ring Ken, and potty-training Kelly along for the ride.

On the boys side, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe are also getting a revamp, landing at Sony after some false starts at Warner Bros.

The fantasy actioner will revolve around a prince who becomes the warrior He-Man and battles the evil Skeletor for control of his magical homeland, Eternia.

John Stevenson (”Kung Fu Panda”) had previously been attached to direct, with Justin Marks and Evan Daugherty having penned versions of the script. Rights to those scripts now belong to WB, meaning a new writer will likely be hired.

Both deals were negotiated by CAA, which reps Mattel.

§ Remember Platinum Studios and their library of 5,600 characters — bigger than Marvel, even? Looks like things are heating up! Variety reports that producer Tony Krantz is developing MAL CHANCE.

“Mal Chance” tells the story of Lola, part of an ancient clan of assassins targeted for death by a powerful gangster. Her only recourse is to bring down the gangster’s entire operation with the help of an honest FBI agent who is unaware of her true identity.

Pic will be exec produced by the Greenberg Group’s Randy Greenberg and Ross Dinerstein of Flame Ventures. Greenberg recently brought in the financing for Platinum Studios’ recent film, “Dead of Night,” done with Hyde Park Entertainment and Omnilab Media.

No one seems to know exactly what the graphic novel MAL CHANCE actually is, but it’s created by Spanish creators Martin Pardo and David Morancho. Maybe it’s the same thing as RED MANTIS? Pre-awareness is not high on this.

MEANWHILE, another Platinum property, THE WEAPON, is going into production. While the book is about a Chinese-American teenage superhero, is set in Chinatown, and is filled with Chinese imagery, and will now be made into a movie, the movie version will star white Disney Channel star as “Tommy Zhou”. Which has annoyed some people. (Thanks to Kate Fitzsimons for the link.)
 
Looks like Platinum’s film slate is getting off the ground. Collider looks at some of the other Platinum projects bubbling on the stove.

UPDATE: Rich Johnston solves the MAL CHANCE mystery: it’s a Spanish comic from the ’90s originally called LOLA.

Via Brigid Ashwood.

The phrase “Lego Spinal Tap” is perhaps the most promising uttered in the English language since “reclining chair,” right? Well, not if you are stinky LEGO.

Okay, let’s back up a bit. It seems that a few years ago a teenager named Coleman Hickey made a stop motion video of Tap’s “Tonight We’re Gonna Rock You Tonight” using Legos. Luckily, the surviving members of the band realized that this was all that was holy under the sun and wanted to include the video on a new concert DVD, the NY Times reports. But the LEGO Company would not allow this.

(more…)

Why does no one dance like this anymore???

{Via Topless Robot}

Beat Pal Frank Patz at The Eternal Collector is looking for some people to help him upgrade his site:

Are you interested in the Toy Industry? I have one of the most visited Toy Collecting websites on the Internet. I am looking for someone to help me with the Web design of the site. I am also looking for someone to help with the video content for the site. There is a lot going on and I want to build a team of individuals that are interested in building a brand.

You will have access to all conventions in the country as well as access to industry specific conventions like the NY Toy Fair.

Please email me with your experience as well as any urls for sites you have created.

Interested parties can hit Frank up at the link above.

Technorati Tags: HELP WANTED

Are you counting down to the theatrical release of X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE? Or at least to a few hours of shirtless Hugh Jackman? Well, so is everyone else. We’ll try to survey some of the best stuff around the web. Living Between Wednesdays has an excellent overview of the flood of Wolvie products out there, including alarming things like cologne, pictures belts, a product with the slogan “Let’s slice some CAKE!” and so on. And the claws just haven’t successfully been visualized yet, have they?

A rubber band with nails on it?! What the hell is that thing? But it’s hard to fault this product because that kid on the package RULES.

Carlton Hargro at Creative Loafing has absolutely the best guide to Wolvie’s best comics we read:

The big problem with Wolverine comics is that they usually don’t focus on the things that make the guy cool. Just like he was portrayed in the X-Men movies, Wolverine is the super-powered self-styled “best there is at what he does” — and what he does is slice people up with a set of razor sharp claws that pop out of his hands. He’s a tough, ruthless, mysterious loner with metal bones (seriously) and mixes the best aspects of Han Solo, James Dean and Hannibal Lecter (minus the propensity to eat flesh). But, unfortunately, most of the comics that star Wolvie focus on the fact that, as seen in those previously mentioned X-Men films, the character has no memory of his past; consequently most books show him trying to uncover his lost history. And, for a hero who’s been in print since 1974, that search for identity can get kind of boring and hampered with decades of confusing people, places and things. Bottom line: As a lover and collector of comics, I didn’t want anyone getting their hands on crappy products. And to help alleviate that potential problem, I felt it was my duty to direct folks to Wolverine’s “greatest hits” — the comics that even the most casual fans of the rough-and-tumble super guy would understand and enjoy.

For people who want the personal touch, this WEDNESDAY, there will be a Wolverine event at MoCCA with Chris Claremont and Matthew K. Manning, moderated by Peter Sanderson.

Wednesday, April 29th, 7pm
Admission: $ 5 | Free for MoCCA Members

In anticipation of the May 1 theatrical release of X-Men Origins: Wolverine, join us as Chris Claremont, best known for his work on Marvel Comic’s X-Men series, leads a discussion with Matthew K. Manning, author of DK Publishing’s newly-released Wolverine: Inside the World of the Living Weapon, a comprehensive guide to the savage world of the X-Men’s most popular Super Hero.

According to ICv2, you will be able to suck a Slurpee from Wolverine after all, as 7-Eleven plans a big Wolverine movie tie-in.

The Collectible Slurpee Straws come with a removable figure and a base on which to display it, while the refillable Wolverine Coffee Mug features Wolverine’s trademark triple claw slash mark. The 7-Eleven stores are also promoting the X-Men Origins: Wolverine video game, which debuts on May 1st, the same day the movie opens. 7-Eleven customers can pre-book either Xbox 360 or PS3 versions of the game with just a $5 deposit.

[Via Kanye West]

We’re on a hiatus today while we deal with pressing matters, but we thought you would like this subtext-laden Wolverine blow up toy, and the ChristWire article that blows it up:

It looks like our homo supporting friends over at Marvel have created a new toy to encourage young boys to perform mouth to mouth in a non holy way to a blow up toys twiddle rompus!

We don’t know what twiddle rompus is, nor if we have ever participated in it, but we’d like to change that–FAST.

We might as well line our children up and burn them ourselves! If we make these types of devil pleasing acts ok they will all be burning in the fire lakes anyways!

We’ll be on the lookout for devil-pleasing acts all day!

Medicomm’s TRON Mickey.
Is there any actual…reason for this? Or is it just someone’s idea of fun? Let’s see REPO MAN Donald and Tod Browning’s FREAKS Goofy while we’re at it.

What will the Japanese think of next? I mean, really. WHAT?

Via Simon Jones

You know, we didn’t have time to read the fine print when we posted it, but we really MUST. Billy Herrington is apparently a real-life bi porn movie star, and this figma includes all sorts of extras:

* Using the smooth yet poseable joints of figma, you can act out various wrestling scenes.
* A flexible plastic is used for his breast muscles and biceps, allowing the proportions of his beautiful body to be kept, without compromising the posability.
* The first figma to bare his naked body, allowing for even more thriving poses!
* Barbells and dumbbells are included so Billy can keep his body in perfect shape.
* His underwear is identical to that which appeared in his videos, and there are two variations to switch between, or worn together at the same time. A skin-colored pair is also included for an even more naked appearance.
* A shower head and shower room paper craft are also included, allowing you to produce even more situations.
* Comes with a poseable figma stand that makes it possible to recreate various scenes.

“A shower head and shower room paper craft are also included, allowing you to produce even more situations.”

We really can’t repeat that often enough. If only MORE toys came with shower heads! Like Catwoman and Power Girl, say. Or Karl Urban and Eric Bana!

The Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood has released a list of the worst toys, and Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders Barbie topped it. (Looking at the list, we agree, a stationary tricycle for tots is pretty low, but Lego Batman? Come on now!) Anyway, Cheerleaders Barbie was singled out for reinforcing every negative role model for girls in one handy package.

Rated by Mattel as appropriate for children age six and up, the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleader Doll comes with the shortest of short shorts, stiletto boots, and a revealing halter top. The preposterously skimpy outfit allows children to get a better view of Barbie’s impossibly long legs and dangerously thin body.

“When you combine two classic symbols of gendered stereotypes – the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleader and Barbie – you get one terrible toy,” said CCFC Steering Committee member Joe Kelly, of www.dadsanddaughters.com. “Do we really want to teach our young daughters that they belong on the sidelines, not in the game, and the way to get noticed is show a lot of skin?”

This toy also has the new proportions that girl toys seem to like — anorexic AND 7 feet tall, taking “willowy” to a new level. It must be all the growth hormone in the milk.

We’re not really doing Toy Fair, but we did see Hasbro’s presentation on Saturday which included tons of upcoming toys in the GI JOE, TRANSFORMERS, MARVEL and STAR WARS lines. We took some pictures, although we’re not good on the details.

This is from GI JOE, and anyone with a pet parrot is cool by us.

From the TRANSFORMERS line, the Devastator, assembled from no less than SIX other models. God knows how long it takes to put this thing together. The MSRP is something approaching $99, which had people wondering if the current market would support such prices. To be fair, it IS impressive!

Red Hulk is cool!

Not part of the “Fan Media Presentation,” this “Virtual pet” purrs and licks its paw. Very sophisticated.

Count Dooku (tee hee hee!).

We’re not sure exactly what Nein Numb and Admiral Ackbar are doing here — Riding a horse? Yoga? Or just copping a squat?

There is a lot of pulpish activity going on surrounding Captain Action and Ed Catto.. We posted all relevant PR here, but the short version is there’s a pulp panel and a Captain Action panel. Plus Lady Action, as you can clearly see. More info here.

Evan Dorkin rounds up the potential dangers of too-literal readings of recent laws aimed at testing lead levels in children’s toys:

Anyway — said impact will be nothing short of devastating for many small businesses, home-crafters, DIY-ers, toy manufacturers, clothing manufacturers, re-sellers, used clothing shops, thrift shops, and so on and so forth. And also, libraries, book stores and yeah, comic shops. Because a ton of stuff is being lumped together under this act, which will require expensive product testing for anything deemed “for children”. Children’s clothes, books, comics, school supplies, toys, costumes, need I go on? And second-hand items, clothes, toys, books, back issues, etc. It doesn’t end once you start thinking about it. And, in fact, it gets worse, because it affects inventory. So, dump your inventory, Target, Toys R Us, etc, and smaller businesses, you lose those toys and shirts that will possibly bankrupt you. No more crafting on Etsy, et al. You can’t even, under this law, knit blankets for Project Linus , which provides blankets for children in need. So why the F didn’t the people who slapped this together think about it?

A follow-up post takes on debunkers of the alarm bells:

As Sarah says — unfortunately, people are going to believe whom they want to believe, but I actually read through the relevant sections myself and Snopes is wrong. It’s not murky. Enforcement will probably be murky, but the law is not. I think they’re wrong, too. We’ve seen a lot of people slamming the Snopes article, but apparently the people at the site have made up their minds and are sticking to their guns. So, who debunks the debunkers? I dunno. Life is sticky.

Flickr: The Lego Steampunk Pool:

Here’s a story that got lost in the server outage yesterday: Topps has announced they are shutting down their WizKids division, effective immediately. Topps acquired the gaming company WizKids in 2003, after WizKids had already made a splash with HeroClix, the collectible figure superhero game, as well as subsequent releases HorrorClix, Halo, Star Wars and AVP games.

Scott Silverstein, CEO of Topps, said “This was an extremely difficult decision. While the company will still actively pursue gaming initiatives, we feel it is necessary to align our efforts more closely with Topps current sports and entertainment offerings which are being developed within our New York office.”

Upon notifying our partners, Topps will immediately pursue strategic alternatives so that viable brands and properties, including HeroClix, can continue without noticeable disruption. To that end, WizKids will continue supporting Buy it By the Brick redemptions for Arkham Asylum, and the December Organized Play events for HeroClix.

For consumer announcements, please refer to www.wizkidsgames.com over the coming days for further information.

HeroClix still has a loyal, money-spending following (Remember THE Galactus?), so it’s hoped that a new home will be found for the games. ICv2 speculates on possible suitors.

Among the topics arousing speculation is the possible landing place for the WizKids brands. There are only three other companies in the collectible miniatures game business at this time. Wizards of the Coast, which has several collectable miniature lines, including Dungeons and Dragons, Star Wars, and Axis and Allies, would seem to be a logical candidate because of its experience in handling licenses, its existing relationship with Lucasfilm (which licenses WizKids to produce its Star Wars Pocket Model Game), and its Seattle-area location, which would make it convenient to absorb any WizKids staff. But WotC recently revamped its D&D Miniatures, turning them into supporting pieces for the D&D RPG (see “WotC to Stop Supporting D&D Minis Skirmish Game”) and moving away from totally random packaging, making its appetite for collectible game acquisitions questionable.

While it’s easy to see WizKids’ sudden end as a product of the shrinking economy, a bad fit with Topps’ central business — cards and candy — was probably part of the issue as well. Topps was acquired by a company led by former Disney CEO Michael Eisner after a savage board struggle last year.

You know, some to think of it, when that deal was announced, Eisner threw around the idea of doing comic books. Did anything ever come of that?

Do you want one of these? We know you do. The DC Direct scale model Owl Ship is the dragon’s fewmet. We still regret missing out on the Bulldog Cafe cookie jar from THE ROCKETEER!

[Via Slash Films]

Related: The The WATCHMEN movie site has been updated with Comedian facts and screensaver.

We know everyone will be sad to see the election end, so here’s one last tribute to the folks who made the last two years a “feel good” time of lighthearted fun. Via John K’s Political Toys: three vinyl figurines limited to a run of 3,000 each that will help you commemorate the great personalities who helped us laugh and love through this long, strange journey. The Meltblog caught up with the man:

What toy do you remember breaking and how did you break it?
Well I don’t remember a particular one, but every year on Firecracker Day we would purposely try to blow up all our favorite toys. Nutty Mads were indestructible though. They would just get black burn marks on them but refused to explode or even melt.

We had one great explosive kit called “The Burning Schoolhouse”. It was a cardboard box in the shape of a house with flames and horrified teachers hanging out the windows printed on the box. The box came filed with all kinds of fireworks and made quite a display at night. We would fill these with army men and cowboys and whatever other toys we had and we named each toy after a teacher. Then we would light the box up and watch our teachers melt and give off toxic spumes as we enacted all their screaming cries for mercy. The Nutty Mads always survived the carnage.

Perhaps this scene will be recreated tonight.

Don’t forget to vote! If you’re stil undecided, we suggest this alternate candidate.

Mets fans are gladdened by this news from the Onion: Struggling Mets Combine To Form Carlos Voltron:

Facing the Cubs in the midst of a three-game losing streak, the desperate Mets sprinted out to the field Tuesday, launched themselves high into the air above Shea Stadium, and combined their bodies to form a 400-foot tall fielding robot called Carlos Voltron.
Enlarge Image Mets Robot

According to eyewitnesses, before the Mets players completed the complicated procedure, in which they fused their physical selves and combined their talents to form the 20,000-ton robot, manager Jerry Manuel called the team to the dugout, where he commanded them to prepare their interlock systems for activation, connect the appropriate dyna-therms, charge up the infra-cells to full capacity, engage the mega-thrusters, and give it their best out there.

{Thanks to FMB for the link]

From here:

Charactics x Gargamel Zagoran Tank collaboration toy.Limited Edition. The and only one Zagoran included. Additional parts are helmet and lower body.

Bully rounds up the greatest ads of all time.

The Beat is showing her age, but it is fair to say that nothing entranced this young comics reader as much as those ads (drawn by the great Russ Heath) for toy soldiers of various eras on the backs of the comics.

12 Shooting Infantrymen!

12 MARCHING Infantrymen!

Dear God!

Our own wonderful mother, perhaps wearying of treading every night over our standing armies of dinosaurs, cowboys, Indians and Africans (one of the best and if you had it, you know what I mean) quietly discouraged our interest with brutal reality checks, such as “They wouldn’t actually look like THAT, you know.”

In fact, here’s a website that has ACTUAL PICTURES OF THESE SETS! AND THEY DIDN’T LOOK LIKE THE PICTURES!

The possession of one of these sets was — like our dream of a tabletop football game — never to be realized. That’s why they call life poignant. Thanks for the reminder, Bully.

Kreegah!

An LA Times wire story wonders why a DARK KNIGHT video game has failed to appear:

It’s not as if an interactive “Dark Knight” wasn’t gearing up before the film’s release. Game publisher Electronic Arts had the rights to make a “Dark Knight” title, which EA-owned developer Pandemic Studios was working on, according to an EA manager who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the information is proprietary.

Gary Oldman, the actor who plays Gotham City police officer James Gordon, said in a recent interview with cable network G4 that he had seen a “tiny little piece” of “The Dark Knight” game and described a sequence with Batman realistically gliding across rooftops.

Beyond that, details about the game have been as concealed as Bruce Wayne in the Batsuit. Representatives for Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, EA and Pandemic would not comment for this story.

Frankly, we don’t quite know what they’re talking about.

Beau Smith tells us:

I’m writing on behalf of Yosuke Oba and JUN Planning, to let you know that this year at the San Diego ComicCon we will have the Exclusive NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS OTHELLO JACK figure. The outfit design for the figure is from the video game THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS : OOGIE’S REVENGE.

OTHELLO JACK will be an exclusive only for the San Diego ComicCon. There will only be 700 pieces. It measure 15 3/4 inches. It will sell for $30.00

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me. If you are attending the convention, make sure you stop by the booth and see all the exciting product. JUN Planning is at BOOTH #402