Battle Beasts to return on April 12, 2012?

January 2, 2012 | Poe

I was perusing the Battle Beasts News and discovered something I’d completely missed: a countdown timer for Battle Beasts from Diamond Select. (Or supposedly from Diamond Select–BBN says Diamond posted it, but I couldn’t find the original link.) It appears to be set for April 12, 2012. What will happen on that day? BBN speculates that there will be some sort of announcement at C2E2, which begins the 13th.

What will it be? More of the Minimates-style Battle Beasts we’ve seen so far? Or the even more awesome fully-sculpted figures they showed at SDCC 2010?

As a reminder, I’m not sure we’ve ever confirmed whether Diamond Select has the rights to anything aside from the trademark name “Battle Beasts”–i.e., they may not have the rights to any of TakaraTomy’s character designs.

Five Pitches for More Toy-Based Movies

September 30, 2011 | Poe

Whatever you think of Michael Bay’s Transformers films and G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, there’s no denying that toy-based movies have been successful. So what beloved childhood toyline will be made into a movie next, and which auteur’s vision will it be?

I asked several fellow geeks to join me in imagining what would happen if Hollywood convinced some of Hollywood’s most successful directors to make movies based on playthings. (more…)

NECA nabs Heroclix, Diamond gets Battle Beasts

August 4, 2009 | Poe

I thought I’d draw your attention to two fairly significant corporate acquisitions that may have been buried amongst the SDCC news.

heroclix-logo

After months of rumors, it’s been pretty much confirmed (there hasn’t been an official announcement yet) that NECA has bought Wizkids from Topps. Wizkids’ biggest property, as I’m sure you know, is the tabletop miniatures game Heroclix, which features characters from DC, Marvel and Dark Horse, among others. There’s also the spinoff game Horrorclix, which features Jason, Freddy, and even Cthulhu himself.

I don’t have any sense of how well the Clix property has fared over the last couple of years. I imagine that once they’d gotten down to the third- and fourth-stringers in the DC and Marvel universes, there might have been a problem keeping up interest in the game. I also thought it was a mistake not to make Heroclix and Horrorclix fully compatible. In any event, it seems NECA will be taking the reigns, and we’ll have to see what they do with it.

In other news, Diamond Select now has Battle Beasts, the 1980s toy line featuring little manimals with weapons and stickers you rubbed to find out if their strength was wood, water, or fire. (more…)