Tag: My Little Pony

Sightings > Disney in talks to buy Hasbro?

Here’s some new grist for the rumor mill, courtesy MTV Geek: Disney may be in talks to buy Hasbro, thereby picking up some big brands like G.I. Joe, Transformers, and My Little Pony.

It’s just a rumor at this point, but does anyone else think – if this turns out to be at all true – that it’s all happening a little too fast? First Disney buys Marvel, then Lucasfilm, and now Hasbro? The crossover fan in me (and I’m a big crossover fan – it’s my weakness) is imagining all sorts of cool possibilities, but as someone who’s skeptical that giant corporations are a good thing for the world in general, the idea of one company owning so many different geek properties is vaguely troubling to me. What do you think? Would this be a good or bad thing?

Toy Fair 2012 Updates, Part II

There’s already a ton of news and the damned show hasn’t even started yet (though it will have by the time I get this post up). On a side note, the Mattel collector show–and subsequent MOTUC reveals–will be at 3pm ET today.

JediCreeper is going to do a write-up tonight, including the Mattel event. In the meantime, he’ll continue to tweet all day.

I’ve also uploaded a ton of Hasbro press pics of yesterday’s reveals, which you can check out on my Flickr account. If you want to see pics of the Horsemen event, including pics of the upcoming Raven and Vampire Queen figures from FANtastic Exclusive, I recommend this gallery from PCN.

Pic of the Day > an action figure a day 1/365 by lamont_cranston

an action figure a day 1/365

Pic of the Day

an action figure a day 1/365

an action figure a day 1/365 by lamont_cranston

5 Questions With > Jonathan Gray

Earlier this year I did an interview with Professor Henry Jenkins, a professor of communication and media studies who also had a lot to say about toys and their relationship to transmedia. In that interview he mentioned Jonathan Gray, another media studies professor who is even more interested in toys and the points at which they connect with media. Therefore I considered it my sworn duty to bug the very busy Professor Gray for an interview, which he gracefully agreed to. Enjoy! –PG

Real Name: Jonathan Gray
Specialty: Educator
Base of Operations: The Extratextuals
History: Jonathan Gray is an Associate Professor of Media and Cultural Studies at University of Wisconsin, Madison. A Canadian-Brit, he grew up around the world, with Star Wars toys as the constant thing in common between all others and myself. He then fell in love with media studies and wrote a dissertation on parody, intertextuality, and The Simpsons, which later became his first book, Watching with The Simpsons: Television, Parody, and Intertextuality. His second single-authored book is Television Entertainment, and his third is the newly released Show Sold Separately: Promos, Spoilers, and Other Paratexts, though he’s also edited several books — Fandom: Communities and Identities in a Mediated World; Battleground: The Media; and Satire TV: Politics and Comedy in the Post-Network Era. He’s an avid media consumer, and as avid a media analyst.

1.) First off, street cred time: what were the toys you enjoyed playing with while growing up, and why?

There were a lot, but the answer must begin and end with Star Wars. My father got these plans from a friend for a massive space station, about 4 foot by 8 foot, standing off the ground, and it took him several months to build. The plan was for it to be our Christmas present, and then two weeks before Christmas, we weren’t allowed to see it, until Christmas Day itself, when we came downstairs and there it was in all its awesome glory, covered in Star Wars toys. It seemed wrong for any other toy to hold as key a place in my heart thereafter, and I still remember the sad moment when as a pre-teen I realized I was meant to stop playing with them. I just loved the Star Wars world, and it helped that everyone my age knew it world-wide, especially since I grew up moving. My father (who, as you can see, was my dealer too) also took frequent trips to Hong Kong, where they were made, and would come back with SW toys before they’d been released elsewhere, so they allowed me special status when I was otherwise doomed to be the awkward, odd foreign kid.

That said, I also had a fair serving of Playmobil when I was really young, then Transformers and GI Joe, but also Marvel and DC action figures, especially when I was a comic book fan. Mask toys were the best thing ever for a few months of my life. And Lego. Lots more that if you put in front of me I’d remember lovingly, but I’m blanking right now.

SDCC Exclusive Reviews Roundup

Some early reviews of SDCC exclusive toys are starting to pop up. Here are the ones I’ve come across:

I’ll update the list as I come across new reviews (or as you point them out in your comments).

No sign of the review I want to see–Egon Spengler.

5 Good (and 5 Not-So-Good) ’80s Toy-Based Feature Films

prime_dead

With the imminent release of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra and the announcement that Tom Hanks may star in a Major Matt Mason movie, big-budget films based on toy lines are big business. The last (and first) time this happened was in the 1980s, when there was a slew of feature films based on the various fad toys of the era.

Here’s a look at some of the best and worst toy-based films of the 1980s. With one exception, all of these movies received a theatrical release.

My Little Urban Vinyl

Now here’s a clever idea: take the creativity of the urban vinyl movement and merge it with classic properties like My Little Pony.

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I realize that’s not quite what’s going on here, but if Hasbro’s smart, they’ll start hiring artists to design collector-oriented MLPs. The generic form of the ponies is perfect for it.

There’s already an active community of artists doing this sort of thing–check this out.

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