Day: February 2, 2006

Marvel Severs Its Odd Relationship With ToyBiz in Favor of Hasbro

In December, Marvel severed its odd relationship with ToyBiz and reached an agreement with Hasbro to produce toys based on its characters. The relationship was odd because Marvel owned a ToyBiz sister company, and essentially ToyBiz manufactured the toys which were then sold to the sister company which in turn handled distribution. ToyBiz was expected to ask for a lot more money when its contract expired in December 2006, as its deal with Marvel was generally seen as extremely favorable to Marvel.

Regardless, ToyBiz produced pretty much hands down the best superhero-related toy line over the life of its contract with Marvel, although some of the DC Direct stuff comes close (like the Alex Ross JLA figures). Apparently the designers of the ToyBiz figures, however, were in-house at the sister company so hopefully Hasbro will tap that talent.

What is amazing is the amount of money that Marvel was able to coax out of Hasbro,

In conjunction with the signing of the Hasbro license agreement, Marvel will receive a non-refundable advance of $100 million.

Damn. Hasbro stockholders better be hoping that X-Men 3 and Spider-Man 3 are enormous hits if the company is ever going to recover that kind of advance.

Source:

Hasbro Awarded Five-Year Strategic License to Marvel’s Library of Over 5,000 Characters; Product Inspired by Spider-Man 3 Movie to be Among the First to Market. Press Release, Hasbro, 2005.

Best Duke Nukem Forever Commentary

The best commentary on the apparently on-again Duke Nukem Forever was from Attack of the Show’s Sarah Lane who said that 3D Realms was denying rumors that the game was going to be renamed Duke Nukem: Chinese Democracy. Heh.

(And aside from Rose’s insanity, the best commentary anyone ever made about Chinese Democracy was back in 2003 when The Offspring hilariously threatened to call their next album Chinese Democracy but eventually went with Splinter).

The Reason for the Season

Who knew Groundhog Day was such an ancient holiday? About.Com claims it is a pagan festival turned into a Catholic holiday transformed by Americans into its current incarnation, but in fact Groundhog Day goes back much further.

The Romans deserve the real credit, celebrating a Hedgehog Day at the beginning of February in which they’d observe a hedgehog coming out of its burrow at night. If the hedgehog saw its shadow (i.e. there was a full moon) then that meant there was six more weeks of winter. There are definitely similar folk beliefs about the Catholic Candelmas, but they were probably a transformation of the Roman traditions rather than the other way around.

There not being hedgehogs in North America, German immigrants apparently settled on the groundhog as a close enough substitute.

Personally, though, I think Groundhog Day has become overcommercialized. The real meteorological reason for the season gets lost in the commercial madness that the holiday has become.

Is The World Ready for an Aquaman Show?

Yes the same network that cancelled Angel and attempted to replace it with a horrible new version of Dark Shadows that WB then refused to even air, has apparenlty given the greenlight for a pilot for an Aquaman live action show. That’s right, I said Aquaman. What, was someone already working on a live action Wonder Twins series? Why not Trading Spaces with Bane? Didn’t WB learn its lesson with Birds of Prey (okay, I confess, I watched every episode they aired of that despite its suckage)?