A LIMITED EDITION METALOCALYPSE FGURES SET! Only $80– we want want wannnnnnnt

Metalocalypse
Limited to 500 sets, selling for $80 and available only at San Diego Comic Con Booth #3849. This all-new line features fully painted vinyl action figures of Dethklok, the undisputed greatest animated metal band in the galaxy featured on Adult Swim’s hit series, Metalocalypse. The 5.5” collectible action figure line will consist of band members Nathan Explosion, Skwisgaar Skwigelf, Toki Wartooth, Pickles and William Murderface and a secret pack-in!

MTV’s The Maxx
Limited to 500pcs, selling for $30 and available at San Diego Comic Con Booth #3849 this summer July 23-27th. Sculpted by Ricky K.Y. Lam with 4poa, the tiny but larger than life mini Maxx vinyl action figure will come to life when taken out of its full colored box! It will also be available to non-attendees through the Shocker Toys Online Store. Be sure you grab one before it’s harder to find than a Great Northern Crabbit in the Outback!

Also available at The Shocker Toys Booth: an MC Chris 500pc Limited Edition mini statue in “zombie form”! MC Chris will be selling his statue for $50.

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Yes.

[Via Valerie D”Orazio]

§ Over at i09, Charle Jane Anders (aided and abetted by Douglas Wolk) has a very lengthy and girthy round up of Superheroes Who Can’t Have Sex including two from this summer’s movies:

Okay, now that you’ve consented to be spoiled, our two abstinent heroes are the Hulk and Hancock. Actually, in the case of Hancock, it’s not strictly true that he can’t have sex — according to early screening reports, he simply has to be very, very careful where, and how, he ejaculates.

§ This headline says it all: April Bookstore Sales Show Unexpected Strength. Translation: Books not dead yet!

§ EW reviews The Eternals, Judenhass and Dead in Desemboque.

§ Keith Dallas interviews Vertigo’s Karen Berger, Jonathan Vankin and Joan Hilty for more on their graphic novel acquiring spree:

Berger: Vertigo is known for publishing genre fiction, and I think many people assume that Vertigo acquires only certain types of books. Creators might not realize that Vertigo would be in the market for something that’s maybe more of an intimate story or a memoir or even a story that has no genre aspect. I wasn’t really thinking of any particular Oni or Top Shelf book, but in our amped-up efforts to acquire more graphic novels, we’re casting a wide net, and want creators with independent sensibilities to know that we’re open to hearing from them.

I think a lot of new creators might not think that they can necessarily get a foot in the door at Vertigo. Maybe they think they have to be more seasoned in terms of how much they’ve published. But my feeling is if you have a great story to tell and you’re great at story-telling, then I don’t care if you have or haven’t been published. Of course, it’s always easiest to look at creators’ prior work in terms of judging what they can do.

§ The NYT looks at new spins on old characters in the 21st Century including some we may not necessarily find palatable:

“You want a dark, Goth version of Tweety Bird? Have at it,” said Lisa Gregorian, executive vice president for worldwide marketing at Warner Brothers Television.

New media applications have created opportunities that companies did not have before, Ms. Gregorian said. And one reason the characters bring in so much money is that their owners have pumped them out all over the place: on direct-to-DVD movies, television programs, toys, clothing, video games, furniture and even live stage productions.

The article suggest even Mickey Mouse may be getting a revamp, but points to the WB’s soul-destroying LOONATICS as an idea whose time should never, ever have come, and fondly recalls one of the biggest gaffes in toy history:

Earring Magic Ken is the industry’s nightmare. The character, who had blond highlights in his hair and a leather vest, drew howls from consumers, who did not see him as a realistic boyfriend for Barbie. Ken was already coping with arched eyebrows over his sexual orientation, and he seemed to have come out of the closet — something that Mattel most definitely did not intend.

Talke about euphemisms! “Did not see him as a realistic boyfriend for Barbie”! You’ll recall that Earring Magic Ken® was affectionately known as “Cock-Ring Ken” around Barbie circles because, well, because he wore a Cock-Ring as a necklace. Although the Times assumes that Mattel was unaware of Earring Magic Ken’s alternative lifestyle, given the number of Friends of Dorothy who follow Barbie, we’ve always been a leetle suspicious of that theory. Will we ever know what really happened? The truth is out there.

Apparently, toys from the upcoming Watchmen movie will make their public debut at NYCC this weekend.

But, Entertainment Weekly has some shots of the toys up now.

Take a gander here

I’ve heard this song before. I’ll believe them when I see them on the shelves at TRU.

Posted by Mark Coale

It looks like room will need to be made at Stately Beat Manor …

ADULT SWIM toys!

From the Kidrobot Discussion Board:

Adult Swim - Mini Figures
We’ve teamed up with Adult Swim to bring your late night to life. From Robot Chicken and Mad Scientist to Assy McGee, Carl and the Mooninites, ridiculous-ness in a box can be yours for just $7.95 a piece. 18 characters in all, including two secret chases. Badass!

Posted by Mark Coale

Brickshelf Gallery has a lot of time. And a lot of Legos.

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The San Jose Mercury News asks if the shaky economy could lead to slashes in sales for all those movie spinoff toys that are coming out based on Indy, Iron Man, Prince Caspian etc etc? Not necessarily.

Longtime Bay Area comic book store owner Joe Field said comics and graphic novels - a core piece of the spring merchandising push - are classic “counter-economy” products.

Comics and some related items, Field said, become “inexpensive nesting entertainment” when budgets are stressed. Field, who owns Flying Colors Comics in Concord, said people decide they can’t afford the theater, concerts or eating out, so they stay home reading, playing games and returning their attention to neglected hobbies.

Amazon toy manager Sarah Wood states that their toy sales have been growing thus far this year.

In what has to be one of the most devastating cardboard slapdowns of all times, someone at Topps thought it would be funny to put Rudy Giuliani on a Red Sox baseball card.

And not just any baseball card, but one where The Beantowners are celebrating last season’s World Series victory, a moment which cast dread and misery into the hearts of all true Yankees fans.

The card will be a 1-in-70 variant of the regular 2008 set. Someone at Topps must really have it in for “America’s Mayor” — who spent upwards of $50 million to win just one delegate in his spectacularly unsuccessful presidential bid — but who could say Rudy didn’t deserve this? In a classic betrayal born of expediency last year, the one-time die-hard Yankee fan claimed that he was rooting for Boston in the World Series with the lame-ass explanation “I’m an American league fan.” As if. Not even Mitt Romney has ever made a flip flop so calculated.

Giuliani, who appeared on his own Topps baseball card in 2004, was not actually present for the Red Sox’s triumphant win last year; that why God invented Photoshop, and not a moment too soon.

Speaking of toys, Captain Action, a beloved (to some) action figure of the sixties that could change into other toys, like Batman and Spider-Man. The Captain has come and gone in collector-oriented efforts over the years, but you just can’t keep a good action figure down. Self-professed fanboys Ed Catto and Joe Ahearn have brought the rights to Action Man and will be releasing a facsimile of the original Aurora kit, and a comic from Moonstone written by Fabian Nicieza, art by Mark Sparacio and a Paul Gulacy cover. More Caption Action plans will roll out at this year’s New York Comic-Con.

Fighting for Justice – In Their Own Backyard

They’ve even enlisted local teenagers to help Captain Action fight for justice. Daughter Cassie Catto, a Ridgewood High School senior, notes “It’s kind of crazy, but we expect that from my dad by now”. John McCooe, another Ridgewood High School student, proudly proclaims “Whenever I wear my Captain Action shirt, people ask me about it and think it’s cool.”

What’s next for Captain Action? “We’ve got so many ideas- everything from collectible lunch boxes to a film treatment. We just try to manage the time with our ‘day jobs’.” Not bad for two modern day Peter Pans who just refuse to grow up.

For all the latest on Captain Action, visit www.CaptainActionNow.com.

How did we miss these cunning JLA figures based on the GOTHAM BY GASLIGHT mini series by Brian Augustyn and Mike Mignola? The figures are seen much larger and in detail at Sillof’s Workshop.

An octopus in a Cornish aquarium has become very attached to his toy Mr. Potato Head. Louis, a 6-foot long Giant Pacific Octopus, loves playing with the plastic spud, and can even find treats such as crab meat that his keepers hide within Mr. Potato Head’s secret compartments.

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Or only the second greatest?

Want.

HOW TO CONNECT A RAZR V3xx TO ISYNC: It was high time for a cell phone, and because we refuse to buy a 1st Gen iPhone, we got something to hold us for a while, namely a Razr V3xx, which is 3g and unlike the original Razr you can hear people on it, so that’s an improvement right off the bat. Unfortunately, it is not supported by Mac. Luckily, intelligent people who do not work for Motorola or Apple have come to the rescue. The guy who created Python had to get a hack off an Italian board. We cannot speak to how to connect it in Leopard, but in Tiger, you go here, download the driver, and then put THE WHOLE FOLDER in your Library folder. Reboot. Connect via bluetooth as you would normally and tell it to Sync up. You will transfer contacts (although not all of them on our computer but that was probably our fault) BUT NOT CALENDAR INFO. Why? Because. Because there’s an iPhone out there somewhere.

RINGTONES: We like to make our own with Audion (Try anything from The Rites of Spring for an edgy feel), but you can get lots of free ringtones at Zedge, including the old school phone rings, which we prefer, and lots of dumb shit which will horrify people. Of course you could also just download this Bubble Bobble Ringtone and everyone will live happily ever after.

Speaking of Disneyland, the famed Small World ride will be closed for a while while it’s upgraded. One of the reasons? The boats that take riders on a wonderful voyage through colorful stereotypes of the world are running aground due to payloads of bigger, fatter Americans.

Heavier-than-anticipated loads have been causing the boats to come to a standstill in two different spots, allowing for an extra-long gander at the Canadian Mounties and the Scandinavian geese, said Al Lutz, whose website MiceAge first reported the refurbishment plans.

“If these boats get stuck . . . they have to send someone back in there to lighten the load on the boat,” said Lutz, who has been on the ride when a guest or two was asked to disembark.

“They’ve even built a platform next to that [Mounties] curve because they’ve had so many problems.”

Disneyland plans to add an inch of depth to the water channel and design more-buoyant boats, Lutz said.

According to the article, Disney is also enlarging the costumes of the Cast Members who run the rides due to rising American girth, We’ll give a hell yeah to that. Back in the 90s when we worked at Disney, we were at Disneyland all the time, and the Cast Members tended to be typical youngsters — the biggest appearance problem was acne. When we went back this past summer, we noted many, many larger pirates, mission control specialists and whatever it is that the people who run “Mr. Toad’s Wild RIde” are supposed to be.

But why should that be any surprise, when the US government heartily discourages farmers who grow healthy fruits and vegetables?

The Farm Bill, a massive piece of federal legislation making its way through Congress, governs what children are fed in schools and what food assistance programs can distribute to recipients. The bill provides billions of dollars in subsidies, much of which goes to huge agribusinesses producing feed crops, such as corn and soy, which are then fed to animals. By funding these crops, the government supports the production of meat and dairy products—the same products that contribute to our growing rates of obesity and chronic disease. Fruit and vegetable farmers, on the other hand, receive less than 1 percent of government subsidies.

We sort of missed out on the drama over who would own Topps, the venerable gum and trading card company, but in case you missed it, Michael Eisner’s company came out on top, and according to this article in USA today, he’s got big plans for the company mascot Eisner has his new Mickey: It’s Bazooka Joe.
Eisner, you’ll recall, ran first Paramount and then Disney to mostly successful years. But you can take the guy out of the brand-oriented studio, but can’t take the brands out of the boy:

He wants Topps to create a movie, TV, Internet and publishing franchise around Bazooka Joe, the eye-patch-wearing kid introduced in 1953 on the waxy comics that wrap Topps’ Bazooka bubble gum.

“Bazooka Joe could be the next big hero,” Eisner, 65, says. “I’m not saying it’s going to be Raiders of the Lost Ark,” which he oversaw as CEO of Paramount Pictures. “But that would be the goal. Bazooka Joe is my new Mickey Mouse.”

While considering this much-loved character who appears solely in pun-filled comic strips packaged with squares of barely chewable gum, Eisner reveals even grander plans for the Topps name.

“There’s no reason why there can’t be Topps movies, Topps Internet, Topps television, Topps miniseries and Topps publications,” he says. “It’s all about sports and sports stories.”

Hm…wethinks Eisner may be the next guy to start a comic book company, even though Topps already did that.
A quote further in the article just about clinches it:

Still, aside from Harry Potter, “Most of the characters of the big-event movies made in the last couple of years (including Spider-Man, X-Men, and Superman) were created in comic books 30, 40, or 50 years ago,” Eisner notes.

“I’m hoping that Bazooka Joe has that same little piece of your brain, or somebody’s brain. And if it doesn’t, it’ll just be a good movie and we’ll create a new emotion around it.”

Michael, if you’re reading this, consider it our job application: there is only one story to be told about Bazooka Joe, and it’s the tragic story of how a young boy came to wear an eyepatch! We don’t want to give away the plot here, but we have one word: “Plastics.” Call us.

While we’ve been going on and on about the space problems here at Stately Beat Manor, there are still a few things which we would let pass beneath our lintel…one of them is this amazing Jimbo Vinyl Figure from Dark Horse, designed by Yoe! Studios, with extensive input from the award-winning creator Gary Panter himself.

Well it seems David Scroggy read our mind, because one arrived in the post just the other day, and it has been enshrined in some of the very very rare shelf space here. The figure has an eerie nuclear glow to it, and comes in a specially decorated box designed by Panter, along with a 32-page comic filled with production sketches. Or so we hear. We just want to admire it in the box before we take it out of it. Panter’s post-apocalyptic punk roamed first through Slash magazine, then early issues of Raw, and he even won an American Book Award. It’s a limited edition, so get it before it’s gone.

Industry watches and fans endured an emotional rollercoaster this week as they followed Mark Millar’s valiant quest to get the chance to write the next Superman movie. While Millar’s assault on Mount Krypton was doomed to failure, according to IESB.net, another cartoon type is trying to plant his flag on a film franchise; in this case artist/director Kaare Andrews is longing to get his hands on He-Man with a bid to work on the MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE film. Writes Andrews (Spider-man: Reign):

Where I grew up we didn’t get He-Man on television. We had to rent them on VHS. It made the show special… gave each episode an importance. I watched them mostly when I was staying with my Dad. I’m not sure why. Maybe my Mom didn’t have a VCR yet. I had a lot of the toys. My favorites were Battle Armor He-Man and Battle-Ram. I had He-Man bed sheets. I had the Paninni He-Man sticker book. I bought the comicbooks. My Mom sewed me a He-Man Halloween costume. And when I was supposed to ‘grow out’ of my toys my little brother carried on the tradition. I don’t believe in trying to intellectualize childhood experiences. Obviously it had something to do with power fantasies, imagination and storytelling. But I prefer to think of that time in simple words. Because simple is powerful. And He-Man was the most powerful in the Universe.

In addition doing comics, Andrews has been making short films for a while, directing music videos and even winning a few awards, so this he isn’t coming at this from complete Outer Mongolia. To prove it he put together a video presentation which you can see in the above link.

Via Cinemtaical.

Macworld: News: Apple Event - Live Coverage

UPDATE: Early adapters suffer flames of purgatory:

This *** big time I had to quit partying for a month to scrape up money for the iPhone. I feel terrible! $200 is quite a lot of money, especially for a student. They even deleted my thread Very unprofessional)

What is going on in China? If it isn’t plastic in the dog food, it lead paint on the toys. The toxic toy scandal reached crisis proportions as as Mattel announced a gigantic 18.2 million toy recall.

In a double-barreled announcement, the company said it was recalling 436,000 Chinese-made die-cast toy cars depicting the character Sarge from the animated film “Cars” because they are covered with lead paint.

At the same time, the toy maker said it was recalling 18.2 million other toys because their small, powerful magnets could harm children if swallowed. The magnetized toys were also made in China, but they followed a Mattel design specification.

The recall includes a Beat favorite: Barbie and her beloved poopin’ pup Tanner.

While we hardly need to enumerate the danger of lead paint, the magnets are no picnic, either.

In the previous recall, there were three reports of serious injuries to three children who swallowed more than one magnet. The magnets can stick to one another through human tissue, leading to perforations. The children suffered intestinal perforations that required surgery, according to the CPSC’s Web site.

Yuck. The tainted toys have already claimed at least one victim: a Chinese toy exec hanged himself in a warehouse over the weekend.

Cheung Shu-hung, who co-owned Lee Der Industrial Co., committed suicide at a warehouse over the weekend, apparently by hanging himself, the Southern Metropolis Daily reported. “When I rushed there around 5 p.m., police had already sealed off the area,” the newspaper quoted a manager surnamed Liu as saying. “I saw that our boss had two deep marks in his neck.”

[Thanks to Mark Coale for some of these links.]

What the hell–? Is all life one big viral marketing stunt now? It seems that Dutch children recently pulled a giant man made from Lego from the seas. Although you might have expected them to set up a pagan sacrifice around it, or parade it through the streets borne by asses, instead they placed it in front of a concession stand.

Workers at a drinks stall rescued the 8-foot model, which has a yellow head and blue torso.

“We saw something bobbing about in the sea and we decided to take it out of the water,” said a stall worker. “It was a life-sized Lego toy.”

A woman nearby added: “I saw the Lego toy floating toward the beach from the direction of England.”

We fully expect Greeks to creep out of this thing at night, so be watchful, Dutch children!

A few lifetimes ago when we were finishing reading HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS, as we walked home from Madison Square Park, we spotted an odd sight for a Saturday afternoon: a rather muscular, shirtless man with a mullet, wearing a dog collar and camouflage pants walking slowly, yet deliberately out of a coffee shop. He had both the mein and the attire of a Chippendales dancer who had gone home the previous night with someone sporting a wad of greenbacks and a personal limo and then had quite an adventure involving midgets and crocodiles, and was now setting off for home at 4:30 in the afternoon.

We confess to finding the whole thing so odd that we trailed him all the way to 3rd Avenue, when our paths diverged and seemliness required that we mind our own business.

Well, now it turns out that this same fellow has been dubbed “He-Man” and was spotted in the Union Square area for several days — there is even a website devoted to tracking his whereabouts: Find He-Man. The blog has some photos of him in his native garb. It seems every night involved midgets and crocodiles for this chap.

This is all so bizarre that the only person who could possibly have stated this blog is He-Man himself. Indeed there is something odd and fishy about all of this. Is He-Man the new Lonelygirl15? Is it a promotion for MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE? Or is life just THAT connected that every random street sihting must now become a web site? Does He-Man have a Twitter account?

[Spotted via Urbaniak, who quite rightly points out that He-Man looks even more like Brock Sampson than He-Man.]

Marvel released it’s Q2 financials today and publishing seems to be holding its own:

Marvel’s Publishing Segment net sales increased $7.8 million or 31% to $32.9 million in Q2 2007 principally due to continued strength in Civil War and the Dark Tower publications in the Direct and Mass Market channels. Operating income in the publishing segment rose to $14.7 million with an operating margin of 45% in Q2 2007, compared to operating income of $10.4 million with an operating margin of 41% in the prior-year period. The improvement in operating margin principally reflects the benefit of operating leverage resulting from sales of high margin trade books.

The toy division did not and profits slipped sending stock down a bit

Marvel Entertainment Inc. which licenses comic book characters, reported lower-than-expected quarterly profit and cut its toy sales forecast for the second half of the year due to possible lower reorders from toy maker Hasbro Inc. (HAS.N: Quote, Profile, Research). Shares of New York-based Marvel, which has a stable of more 5000 characters including Spider-Man, The Incredible Hulk and X-Men, dropped almost 8 percent in morning trade. They had slipped about 11 percent since the beginning of the year before Tuesday’s losses.

Hasbro’s line of Marvel toys has widely been considered a disaster by toy insiders — instead of sticking with the industry standard size, they went smaller size, pleasing neither collectors nor the children who allegedly play with the figures.