Continuing its roll-out of a series of licensed products, Dc Unlimited, DC’s new brand, has annoucned a line of AFRO SAMURAI action figures:

DC Unlimited, the new brand launched by DC Comics to license and promote the world’s greatest pop culture characters and stories, is proud to announce the acquisition of a license to release a line of action figures and collectibles based on the Studio Gonzo produced “Afro Samurai” animated series. The series debuted on Spike TV January 4th and will be released on DVD in May by FUNimation Entertainment. The collectibles will be offered in the U.S. and Canada by DC Unlimited, with the first series of products debuting at the American International Toy Fair, held in New York in February 2007.

Adapted from Takashi Okazaki’s manga, the series chronicles Afro Samurai’s relentless quest to avenge his father’s brutal murder. Featuring music by renowned hip-hop artist The RZA and starring Academy Award-nominated actor and executive producer Samuel L. Jackson as the Afro Samurai, the series is a groundbreaking fusion of American hip-hop and classic samurai story. Other voice talents working on the series include Ron Perlman (”Hellboy”) and Kelly Hu (”X2″).

“The opportunity to bring Afro Samurai to action figure and collectible fans was something we couldn’t pass up,” said Cheryl Rubin, Senior Vice President Brand Management at DC Comics. “The combination of Afro Samurai’s hip, cutting-edge animation with the quality and attention to detail that DC Unlimited is known for is a perfect match.”

DC Direct, best known for their authentic collectibles generated directly from the source material, will launch a line of Afro Samurai collectibles that will include fully articulated 6.75″ and 14″ action figures, resin busts and statues - all spotlighting the characters from the popular anime. The first wave of figures will include Afro Samurai, his sidekick Ninja Ninja and his deadly adversaries Kuma and Justice. The first wave of figures is slated to hit comic book and pop culture specialty retailers Fall 2007.

“With its innovative fusion of hip-hop and anime, Afro Samurai is such a unique title we knew we needed an exceptional partner to create figures befitting the animation,” said Bob Brennan, Director of Licensing at FUNimation Entertainment. “DC Unlimited’s reputation, superior design and attention to detail combined with their passion for this property made them the natural choice for this line.”

As many suspected yesterday, DC Unlimited will be the new brand for DC’s launch of a line of WoW collectibles:

DC Unlimited, the new brand launched by DC Comics to license and promote the world ‘ s greatest pop culture characters and stories, is proud to announce the release of a line of action figures based on World of Warcraft, the popular Blizzard Entertainment Massively-Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG). The collectibles will be unveiled this month at New York ‘ s American International Toy Fair and will be distributed worldwide in both mass market and specialty channels.

The Warcraft franchise has been a pillar of gaming culture for over a decade and remains the world ‘ s largest-selling strategy video game with over 19 million copies sold. With over 7.5 million subscribers worldwide, the game creates a unique and interactive environment, allowing for thousands of simultaneous player adventures. World of Warcraft has also been America ‘ s top-selling PC game since its release in November of 2004.

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DC Comics announced plans today to license and distribute collectibles based on the world’s greatest pop culture characters and stories under a new brand name, DC Unlimited. The first series of DC Unlimited products will be unveiled at New York’s American International Toy Fair, and will be distributed to all retail outlets, including mass market and specialty channels.

COWBOY CURTIS!!!!

Although the first line of the press release makes no sense to us whatsoever, we are still excited to know that Diamond is putting out MOUSE GUARD toys. We can’t wait to see ‘em!

Put your pant legs in your boots because the mice from David Petersen’s MOUSE GUARD are coming courtesy of Diamond Select Toys and Collectibles (DST) and ASP Comics. The licensing agreement will bring to life collectibles based on the popular characters from the best-selling comic book series, including our heroes Saxon, Kenzie, Lieam, and Sadie; in time, other characters will include Celanawe the ancient mouse of the Old Guard, Conrad the brave but crusty peg-legged mouse, Midnight impersonating the Black Axe, and more.

More details and samples of this upcoming line will be available at the International Toy Fair, February 2007.

“You have no idea how excited I am about seeing these characters of mine brought to life,” said MOUSE GUARD creator, David Petersen. “Heck, I’d even sculpted my own figures before—whether because I’m obsessed or in need of character study pieces, I don’t know. What I do know is that none of this would have happened without the support of the fans who have helped turn MOUSE GUARD into something special. I can’t wait to stage my own siege of Lockhaven in my living room!”

“When we first saw MOUSE GUARD,” said DST Director Chuck Terceira, “we knew they’d inspire some terrific licensed products. With how strong and popular the series has been, and the ever-growing legion of fans David and ASP have created, we just had to produce these adorable but fierce warriors.”

MOUSE GUARD is the story of a band of mice trying to survive in a hostile medieval world, to prosper among harsh conditions and vicious predators. The story began innocuously enough with three members of the Mouse Guard on a mission to find a grain peddler who disappeared on his journey from one protected mousehold to another. This seemingly minor event, however, opened the door to an epic mystery of intrigue, deception and danger as Saxon, Kenzie, Lieam and Sadie attempt to thwart a mouse in possession of the Black Axe and his plot to unify the mice under one, all-controlling, and all-powerful leader.

There’s been so much hoopla over the new season of 24 that even The Beat — who normally eschews serial television–has gotten caught up in the excitement. And part of that excitement is news of a series of 24 toys from McFarlane. However, it seems that the toys are coming out very much DESPITE the enthusiasm of star Kiefer Sutherland who mistakenly set fire to a precious prototype during a night of drunken boozing:

Sutherland explains, “They tried to come out with one a couple of years ago and they had sent me the doll for my approval… We took the doll out for a night to have some fun and we’d had some drinks. We sat it on the corner of the table.

“We started torturing him around 11 o’clock at night, and, by two o’clock in the morning, we had set him on fire in the parking lot. We got up the next day and there was just this puddle of wax. His clothes didn’t burn, which I thought was pretty cool… and then I got a call the next day saying, ‘Did you like the doll?’ I said, ‘Yeah, it was great.’ And they said, ‘Well, OK, good, you gotta send it back to us because that was the prototype… It took that guy a year to make it.’

“I said, ‘Well, let me look for it, I think I left it in the trailer.’ This went on for about a week and then I had to just kinda come clean.”

There are all sorts of morals to be drawn from this story, so many we’re dizzy. Foremost among them: are these alcohol-soaked toy torturing movie stars any kind of role models for the youth of today?

If you want to know everything that happens in SPIDEY 3’s finale go to this link. We haven’t clicked so we have no idea of it’s been taken down or not. We advise you not to click but we know some of you like to know this kind of thing.

For a more widely circulated spoiler, here’s the Sideshow Venom, which shows how the villain will appear in the film.

§ CBR presents an archival interview with the late Dave Cockrum about his model kit designs:

DC: I did a set of science fiction characters and a time machine that would link them to the Prehistoric Scenes line. It never got off the paper, but they liked it. It might have been a little too ambitious for them at the time. I got involved with the Comic Scenes line and it turned out to be all re-issues, although I had concepted several new figures. I did a Phantom kit [this design has since been produced in resin by Action Hobbies of Louisville, Ky.], and Dick Giordano designed a Flash Gordon and Ming kit. It was really a beautiful sculpture; the two of them were dueling with swords and Ming was stepping back and off balance. It was wonderful. I did the box art for the Superboy model, and instructions for five or six of the kits.

§ Comics Fodder presents a long discussion of why six-issue story arcs are bad. Not sure we agree with all the conclusions, but don’t have time to rebut at the moment.

The rise of the writer as rockstar phenomenon and the six-issue story-arc has taken the former serial format of long-running comics and attempted to condense all series into an endless cycle of mini-series. As editors attempt to draw marquee talent for just a few issues to drive up sales, and writers refuse to stick any one place in hopes that the next paycheck will be bigger (or, perhaps that was their one idea), even flagship titles can’t seem to land writers who will publicly state that they will stay on a single book. Even if the checks keep clearing.

The effect has been chilling for readers. Writers, by necessity, do not write toward the long-term. Instead, readers can expect a story with as little impact as possible with respect to the tropes of a franchise. One could safely argue that it is the duty of the editor to ensure that the writer can bring whatever they would like to a title and assist them in working it into continuity, but, instead, readers often see stutter steps of half-completed thoughts and storylines. As mentioned before, the effect of multiple six-issue story arcs occuring one after another is that the stories often fail to ever reference one another, and one wonders if each arc couldn’t have been part of an independent mini-series.

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Robert Tonner is a high end specialty doll maker, whose made collectible figures for Harry Potter and other familiar figures. He’s just turned his skills to the DC Stars Collection:

Robert Tonner has long been a fan of the power and might of Super Heroes; each with its own fascinating story of heroic powers and secret identities. Introducing the debut Tonner Character Figures™ (TCF™) collection based on classic superheroes appearing in DC COMICS. The DC STARS Collection, by award-winning designer, Robert Tonner, bursts onto the scene with WONDER WOMAN and SUPERGIRL. Tonner Character Figures™ are approximately 16” tall with multiple points of articulation for the most powerful poses; each also has separately available wardrobes from origins to secret identities. Look for more TCF™ products for the DC STARS Collection in 2007!

The dolls retails for between $69.99 and $189.99. Check out the link for Wonder Woman’s crazy polka dot “career” outfit, and Supergirls loungey silver threads, the very latest in Kryptonian Kasual.

You may have noticed that we had to take down our thoughts on 300 yesterday, due to…oh, stuff. It’s kind of cool because when you have to take stuff down you’re in the blogging elite. Anyway, it turns out we may be involved in some other V.V. exciting 300-related activities. More to come. We will say that it looked spectacular, and was the bone-crunching, head-slicing, Spartan-shouting extravaganza they all say. And DDGB was very, very kingly.

In the meantime, we’re a little sad that none of our Beat Spies thought to remind us about all the cool 300 merch coming out. We can’t be EVERYWHERE you know!

First, as we have mentioned in casual convo with some pals in the past, there WILL be a 300 video game. If ever a movie was made for a video game, it was this, believe you me. GameSpy has a preview of 300: March to Glory:

300: March to Glory doesn’t just celebrate ancient head-popping, but also the upcoming film of the same name. But unlike many modern movie-to-game adaptations, 300 won’t try to recreate the movie scene-for-scene. It’ll draw upon the film (as well as the Frank Miller graphic novel) for inspiration and general style, but will focus more on gameplay than on rehashing every minor plot point. Given the number of ham-fisted movie games that are out there, any sort of variation on the old routine is welcome. Sometimes game designers come up with better level ideas than screenwriters.

In even more exciting (for The Beat) news, Neca will be releasing 300 TOYS., er, action figures. The figures include Immortal, Queen Gorgo, Ephialtes and, of course, Leonidas. We hear the figure’s midsection doubles as a washboard! Not that you can tell from this photo. COME ON, MOVE YOUR GODDAM SHIELD.

Radar Online has a pretty funny feature on the most dangerous toys of all time, including a 50s mini-lab that included radioactive material — Hello, Putin! — and several classics like Jarts and the PlastiGoop Thing-Maker. We had great fun with the latter toxic toy, back in the days when children were tough enough to master high temperature plastics extrusion and consider it play. One item on the list did puzzle us, however, the dreaded mini-hammock which is claimed to have strangled or nearly strangled dozens of kids.

The culprit was a missing set of “spreader bars,” supports meant to keep the hammock open when it was “at ease.” Unfortunately, children seeking to spend an afternoon like Gilligan became entangled in the net and strangled to death. That’s what happens when you spend $4 on a hammock.

This is really odd to us, because we had one of those spreader-free hammocks — in fact we spent many an afternoon in one from the 1976-82 period during our youth in Somerville, NJ. (The set-up was almost exactly like the one pictured — two trees, a picket fence, the works.) It was in this contraption that we enjoyed many a long comic book reading orgy, a pile of Defenders or Master of Kung Fu at the ready, with perhaps a chocolate dreamsicle as an added treat. It was an idyllic time, our very own “golden Age” of comics, and to learn that we were moments from panicky entrapment all that time is alarming, to say the least. Or perhaps we should merely be more proud of the natural athleticism and dexterity which our survival suggests. God, we were tough then!

[Thanks to Franklin for the link.]

Safety-conscious Australian toy inspectors have found no fewer than 129 dangerous toys on sale in New South Wales, up from last year’s tally of 76. The deadly toys threaten to choke, drown, strangle or electrocute children unfortunate enough to try to play with them.

According to Fair Trading Minister Diane Beamer, the list included eye–putting out projectile weapons, cheap battery-powered death traps, laser pointers, laser guns and “A swimming vest which did not provide sufficient buoyancy put children at risk of drowning while three water yo-yo balls had cords which could lead to strangulation.” There were also the usual small, swallowable parts, and a particularly dangerous mini-cutter with a retractable blade.

Parents are strongly urged not to by their children mini-cutters. It can only lead to heartbreak.

Via Boing Boing and everywhere else.

Eric Shanower is once again offering his Wizard of Oz Lunch Box Only $16.95. Seriously, how could you not want this?

PS: we recently received a copy of Eric’s ADVENTURES IN OZ compendium, published by IDW, and it is stunning and lovely.

movie blowjob

When cellular telecoms services were launched, phones and calls were very expensive and early mobile operators (carriers) decided to charge for all air time consumed by girl pic user.

§ The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinal rounds up the grueling life of the daily strip cartoonist, and looks at notorious drop-outs like Watterson, Larson and now McGruder.

§ The Detroit News updates the William Messner-Loebs story, and things seem to be going well for him for a change, which is good news.

§ You will prolly not get that much out of this link unless you speak Hip Hop, but it explains the real deal on Jay-Z and KINGDOM COME and the comics connection.

§ New Gorillaz DVD, iTunes EPs, Book And Toys Coming Soon, We said…TOYS!

Toy maker Kidrobot is teaming up with Gorillaz again to make soft vinyl figures of characters 2D, Murdoc, Noodle and Russel. They’ll come in three different colour variations, with manufacturing runs of 60,000 for the basic edition (available on October 16), 4,000 of the white edition and 1,000 of the two-tone edition (both available on November 2). They’ll be available through the Kidrobot website as well as Kidrobot stores and other select retailers. A previous line of Gorillaz toys from Kidrobot sold out within weeks.

§ We never watch Conan any more, but apparently a cartoon feature called PALE FORCE is popular enough to be turned into Webisodes:

Jim Gaffigan’s superhero satire was originally launched in Sept. 2005. The toons chronicle the misadventures of muscular Pale Man and his skinny sidekick, Conan O’Brien, as they use their paleness to fight crime.

NBC.com will host 20 new 90-second webisodes of PALE FORCE as part of its TV 360 initiative.

In addition, the toons will be made available to Sprint users for free a week before they arrive online.

Thanks to all who sent in links!

We Were Wrong Dept: While reporting on Barbie and Tanner, the amazing crapping toy, yesterday, we mentioned that the Teresa and Mika cat-themed playset does not come with cat turds. It turns out that it doesn’t, but it does come with piddle.

Teresa doll has an adorable cat named Mika who is just like a real cat! Mika can drink some water from a bottle and then wets in her litter box. Teresa scoops up the litter clumps. Teresa doll and Mika come with a kitty litter box, bottle, cat litter in a variety of colors, litter scooper, cat food bowl and cat toys. Teresa doll measures 12″ tall.

The product information also notes that the toy is intended for “ages 3-14″ which might be a bit over-optimistic, we think. Any 14-year-old who has nothing better to do than sift pretend cat pee clumps from a tiny litter box has more problems than we can solve.

Barbie also comes with a horse, so there may be no end to Mattel’s line of toys that poop and pee.

Steve Bunche alerts us to one of the most alarming Barbies ever: Poopin’ Pup Barbie. This Barbie comes with a lovable Lab named Tanner who just can’t stop pooping! In fact, since Barbie is feeding him shit, it’s no wonder it goes right through him. You can see a video of Barbie and her pooper scooper in action here at the Mattel website.

But wait, there’s more! For those more feline-friendly, there’s Teresa, who spends her days joyfully lifting turds from cuddly Mika’s litter box. Sadly, this play-set does not come with toy turds, because nothing says fun like cleaning clumps of cat shit. And trust us, we know.

You might think that this was the worst Barbie ever, but it probably isn’t. There was Potty Training Kelly, who sat on the pot herself (accompanied by a merry tinkling sound in the TV ads), and Cock-Ring Ken, of course. Kids gotta learn somehow.

Mark Martin is selling this.

[LInk via Jim Woodring]

Have you been admiring the many stirring and awe-inspiring full-size Batmans made from Lego over the past year’s convention season? Now one can be YOURS courtesy of FAO Schwartz:

At 6′6″ tall, a Batman statue would be an impressive guardian against whatever lurks in the shadows. But when he’s made entirely of Lego bricks, you know Batman’s reached new heights. Lego Batman statue is realistically rendered and wears a black bat-suit, yellow utility belt and heavy fabric cape. Comes crated in 3 sections, which can be put together easily wherever crime doesn’t pay. 78″T.

We’re a little sad that it comes pre-assembled, but then again time is money.
[Thanks to Tom for the link.]

sloan

In North America, loan nevada home equity ring cadence is “2-4″, or two seconds of ringing followed by four seconds of silence.

Do you have a way with sculpey? You may be just the person DC is looking for:

Following the incredible success at last year’s COMIC-CON INTERNATIONAL - SAN DIEGO, DC Direct will be holding its second annual Sculptor Search - “A Cut Above”.

Join us this year and meet Georg Brewer, DC’s VP - Design & DC Direct Creative, Jim Fletcher, Senior Art Director, and Shawn Knapp, Associate Art Director. The creative team behind DC Direct will be discussing the unique challenges of turning some of world’s greatest characters from comic art into amazing 3-D product.

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Shocker Toys will be at SD in force, debuting their Indie Spotlight line of toys. The first wave includes WItchblade, Madman, Shadowhawk and Judge Death. Hm. methinks we wants our Madman toys. They’ll also be GIVING away exclusive toys each day, includind exclusive Gwar and Toxic Avengers toys. See details in the jump.

So you know that Shocker Toys will be at Comic Con International in San Diego(Booth #5488). You know we will be debuting some amazing new lines for you to see such as GWAR wave1 and a new 6�? comic book line of action figures which will strengthen the bonds of loyalty between fans of Independent Comics and the men and women who create them using a new hyper articulated action figure line named Indie Spotlight. The line will kick off with WAVE 1: WITCHBLADE, MADMAN, SHADOWHAWK and JUDGE DEATH. Focusing on classic characters as well as underground favorites and new arrivals to the panels, INDIE SPOTLIGHT will bring these icons of the Independent Comic Universe to comic shops all over the world and into the homes of the fans who have come to love them. For the first time ever, the likes of Witchblade and Shadowhawk will stand toe to toe with Judge Death and Madman!

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