Archive for the ‘Toys’ Category

Thanks to the popularity of the Transformers War for Cybertron game, developer NetDragon has been given the green light by Hasbro to make a MMORPG based on the Transformers.

Currently the game is only scheduled to be released in China, Asia, Russia, the Middle East, and North Africa.  There are no plans for release in North America, Europe, or Australia.

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra director Stephen Sommers is set to return and direct the sequel for Paramount Pictures.

Sommers, famous for directing movies like The Mummy, The Mummy Returns, and Van Helsing, will start reviewing the script that Zombieland screenplay team Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick have written.

G.I. Joe 2 is expected some time in 2012.

One of the action figure packages coming to San Diego Comic-Con 2010 will be the Starro mega-pack that comes with a large Starro, and figurines of Flash, Martian Manhunter, Green Lantern, Aquaman, and Wonder Woman all arranged the way they were on the Brave and the Bold comic #28.  Not only does it have all of that, but the packaging lights up and talks (featuring the voice of Kevin Conroy, aka TV’s voice artist of choice for Batman) to you about the history of the comic, and each of the characters.

Check out the video below!

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Marvel Comics and McDonalds are teaming up to bring more comic happiness to Happy Meals on July 23, 2010. 

McDonalds plans on rolling out eight different superheroes as toys for their Happy Meals, including Silver Surfer, The Thing, Captain America, Wolverine, The Human Torch, Iron Man, Spider-Man, and the Hulk.

Check out what the heroes will do:

• The Thing yells "It’s Clobberin’ Time!" with an electronic sound chip!
• Captain America throws his mighty shield!
• Spider-Man can wall-crawl magnetically to metal surfaces!
• Iron Man rolls in a flying position with a pull back mechanism!
• The Human Torch is made of translucent plastic and lights up with an LED!
• Wolverine extends his adamantium claws!
• The Hulk slams his fists together!
• The Silver Surfer can detach from his surfboard!

Fast Company got their hands on some of the upcoming Tron: Legacy merchandise that’s coming to stores everywhere once the movie debuts.

Included in the video are the Light Cycles that climb walls and go across ceilings.  They also produce a streaming trail of light that if another car passes by, will cause the cycle to fall to the ground like in the upcoming movie.

Check out the Cycles and the rest of the products below!

The Cycles will retail for $34.99 each… kind of expensive if you ask me.

Dreamworks Animation is working on making a movie based on the Good Luck Troll dolls.  That’s right… the little fuzzy haired troll dolls of the past are about to get a movie made about them.

Dam Things of Denmark own the rights to the troll dolls, and was founded when Thomas Dam carved a doll based on Scandinavian Trolls for his daughter in 1959.  Neil Dam (Thomas’ son) now owns the company and had this to say about the upcoming project:

"My father would have been very happy to know that his Troll has found its dream partner in DreamWorks Animation."

CEO of Dam Things, Calle Ostergaard, added:

"We have been planning to bring the Good Luck Troll toy line back into homes around the world, and we are excited to see how the talented storytellers and artists at DreamWorks Animation will bring them to life."

The script will be written by siblings Adam Wilson and Melanie Wilson.

If you thought Toy Story 3 would be the last time you’d see the characters of Toy Story, think again… Disney/Pixar has plans to show the characters in a short movie before Cars 2.

"We know that people love the characters, love Woody and Buzz, and would hate to say good-bye to them completely.  I don’t know that there would ever be a ‘[Toy Story] 4.’ We don’t have any plans for one — but we are trying to find ways to keep the characters alive.  We have announced we’re going to do a short film in front of ‘Cars 2′ that uses the ‘Toy Story’ characters.  We’re going to keep them alive; they’re not going away forever." – Toy Story 3 director Lee Unkrich

Cars 2 will be in theaters June 24, 2011.

When I heard they were doing a Stretch Armstrong movie, I didn’t see how it could be taken seriously, but writer Nicholas Stoller told ComingSoon that his goal is to make it just that… serious.

“Rob had a great take on ‘Stretch’ and he told me about it, and I said, ‘Please let me write it.’ It’s a superhero origin story taking it totally seriously, kind of in the ‘Iron Man’ tone—for lack of a better descriptor. We’re taking it seriously, but it will have a light tone to it. Hasbro has an idea of it and it’s based on a new version of that character. It’s kind of a blank slate. There wasn’t really much of a backstory to the original Stretch Armstrong so we’re just kind of inventing it from the ground up. “

“With ‘Stretch,’ I don’t think there are a ton of original Stretch Armstrong fans out there. It’s more about creating a universe of superheroes that I’m really excited about. Rob and I have cracked a pretty cool story I think and Rob has a really cool take on what this can be, and it’s going to be a huge budget spectacular thing. I love ‘Iron Man,’ I love ‘The Dark Knight’ and it’s exciting to get to play in this world, because the budgets of these comedies are pretty small, and to get to do something that’s just gigantic and exciting but a totally grounded human story at the center of it that I think people are going to respond to.”

We’ll see when Stretch Armstrong arrives in theaters in 2012.

Mattel challenged its designers to come up with a new toy line that could also be turned into a movie, TV show, or game at the same time, and they did.

The winning toy line will be based on an alien civilization that lives in the furthest depths of the Earth’s oceans.  Mattel has partnered with producer Neal Moritz and is looking for a screenwriter for the media version of the toys.

No other word on the project  is known at this time but I’ll be sure to let you all know if I find out!

The folks over at Vulture are claiming that Taylor Lautner has decided to drop Mattel’s Max Steel movie that he was going to star in, in order to play Hasbro’s Stretch Armstrong.

Seems the battle of the toy company movies wasn’t a hard decision for Lautner, seeing that Hasbro is a corporate client of Lautner’s agency, WME Entertainment.  Not only this, but Hasbro and Universal were moving faster on the Stretch Armstrong project, and have been developing it for the past two years.  That progress and speed was vital to Lautner’s decision according to a source close to the news.

"When you sign up to make a movie with Hasbro, you know it will be in theaters a year later."

So look for Lautner to be Stretch Armstrong within the next year.  Sorry Max Steel fans…

Kotobukiya, the company behind the statues and busts based off of DC, Marvel and Star Wars characters has revealed their version of Iron Man 2’s Mark VI armor.

Iron Man 2 will be in theaters May 7, 2010.

A few weeks ago, Warner Bros. made it clear that they have parted ways with Mattel and had dumped the plans for a movie remake for “He-Man”.

Now word comes from The Hollywood Reporter that Sony Pictures / Columbia have picked up the rights to the film and plan on bringing it to the big-screen.

“Just weeks after “Masters of the Universe” parted ways with Warner Bros., the Mattel toy property is in negotiations to be preemptively picked up by Columbia with Escape Artists attached to produce.

Stevenson is no longer attached and the project would be built from the ground up.

Run by partners Todd Black, Jason Blumenthal and Steve Tisch, Escape Artists’ credits include “The Taking of Pelham 123,” “Knowing” and “The Pursuit of Happyness.””

Disney has HUGE plans for the Muppets this year and in the future… here’s a rundown of what to expect:

• More Youtube videos featuring the Muppets performing classic songs like Ode to Joy
• A Muppets Halloween and Christmas special next year
• More extras for the MuppetVision 3D attraction at Disney’s California Adventure
• A new book coming from Statler & Waldorf called “From the Balcony” and other books featuring other Muppets
• Muppet iPhone and iPod Touch apps like Animal’s Drum Kit, Pepe’s Love Meter, Gonzo Grams, and a Statler and Waldorf theater app
• Music CD’s
• Muppet stuffed toys/dolls starting with Kermit, Pigs in Space, etc.
• Green And Lovin’ It Organic line of products like shirts, dishes, etc
• Muppet Whatnot workshops coming to Disney Parks
• Graphic Novels (comic books) for Muppets characters like Pigs in Space
• And finally, a new movie called “The Cheapest Muppet Movie Ever Made”

“G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra” had an excellent weekend, thrusting it to a whopping $100.3 million worldwide opening, thus giving Paramount the “go ahead” to start work on the sequel.

Rob Moore, the studio’s vice chairman, confirmed that a sequel will go into development and the lead actors/actresses are already signed to do another picture.

Sienna Miller is out and about “promoting” G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, and the reason I put promoting in quotes is that she is really not doing that great of a job and may hurt the film.

She basically said that:

She almost got burnt by a controlled explosion:

"Luckily it wasn’t my breasts, it was the bit in-between. It got a bit burnt when an explosion got a bit close."

The black leather suit is too much to get into and she couldn’t move:

"Squeezing myself into that with the aid of talcum powder every day for five months was more than enough. I could barely move in it anyway."

Her acting abilities weren’t great in this movie:

"You know, ‘GI Joe’, it’s not going to be the best acting work we’ve ever done,"

Entertainment Earth has their version of Devastator for pre-order at $119.99!

Yeah, the price is high, but this thing is detailed and huge!

Click the image to go to the site to order this monster!

Hasbro has made the toy based on the movie version of Destro, and here is how he will appear at some point in the G.I. Joe movie:

The Wonder Twins from the classic Super Friends cartoon show are getting their own figures from DC Universe Classics. 

Check out the video below!!

Remember the “old” Stretch Armstrong doll from when we were kids?

BusinessWeek reported that Hasbro has inked a deal with Universal Studios to bring the toy to life in the movies in 2011.

What’s more bizarre is that the original article stated that Ron Howard would be directing the movie (which I don’t honestly see), and now that’s been removed from BusinessWeek’s article.

Ahh… the good old days are returning again!

Newsletter readers, click the post title to see the video above!!!