Marvelous

If you havent noticed, Marvel are back. After a few years of the wilderness and some less than impressive movie ventures they seem to have turned a corner. Iron Man the movie has turned some heads and put the franchise firmly on the map, and is a pre-cursor to a series of films and properties surrounding the Avengers. Their stand at the licensing show was dominated by Iron Man, but the thing that did intrgue me was a new property called Marvel Super Hero Squad. Not much info at the show about the nature and point of view on the new show, but expect to hear more in the near future.

Can you feel the Force?

The Star Wars phenomena isnt over. If you think it ended with the finale of the second trilogy of films, you wrote it off too soo. LucasArts are about to launch another assault on the youth Sci-Fi market with the continuing Star Wars adventures with The Clone Wars. The animated show focuses on the years between Episode 3 and Episode 4, a period refered to in the films as the Clone Wars. The look and feel of the characters and the animation are quite stylised and in keeping with the asthetic of the films, and with the Lucas marketing dollars behind it, will be a massive success post its August '08 launch.

LucasArts itself had a low key presence at the recent Licensing Show in New York but the video screens on the stand were showing long sequences from the forthcoming series, but having watched the showreel several times during the course of the show, I can't predict anything other than 'hit' for this one.

Who ya gonna call ????

Licensing Show 2008 in New York didnt have a barrel of suprises for the regular visitor but one thing I wasnt expecting to see was an attempt to relaunch the Ghostbusters franchise. There is a very nice looking Playstation 3 game on show as well as the usual cheesy marketing activities, 4 guys dressed as the ghostbusters walking around the show floor for photo ops. The films still have a fan base, I loved the first one but was cool on the second one, but I guess enough time has passed between the original releases and now that a re-entry into the market might bring the concept to a whole new audience.

My biggest gripe was not being allowed to take pictures of the PS3 game, which in this day and age is ludicrous, pathetic and counter-productive, as I am now not going to blog or write anything nice about the game having being stopped from taking shots.

Keep your eye open for the game and probably some impeding press release on a new film or tv show.

Kung Fu Panda

At last years Licensing Show, I made a call on Kung Fu Panda being big when it hit the streets. Im happy to say I got that call right, and whilst it might not be everyones cup of tea, its obviously a winner at both the box office and at the shops with the merchandise.

The KFP bandwagon was still rolling at this years show, and wait for the announcement of the sequel, I can't see them not doing a second one.

Play a game and do some good ...

www.freerice.com
Play a word game and donate rice at the same time. Great if you just want something to play for a few minutes.

Innovation Edge

I was going through a recent notebook and I came across some notes I took at a recent event I attended in London, called Innovation Edge. The event is part of the NESTA program. NESTA stands for National Endowment for Science Technology and the Arts. Its a publically funded organisation in the UK which helps young people create and innovate.

Speakers on the day included Tim Berners-Lee (creator of the Internet), Bob Geldof and as indicated by the picture, Gordon Brown, the current Prime Minister of the UK.

The day was generally good, the speakers were interesting, the information was relevent to the audience and the tempo was high, meaning the day didnt drag or become boring.

If you want to know more about NESTA, check out http://www.nesta.org.uk/

Live long and prosper ...

I had the great prvilage to meet Leonard Nimoy of Star Trek fame today at the licensing show in New York. He was signing autographs and posing for pictures. He is 77 now but looks extremely well and spoke very elequently about the longevity of the Star Trek franchise. It was a pleasure to speak to him for a couple of minutes.

As part of my video games career, I have had the opportunity to work with some of the other actors from the original Star Trek series. It now feels like I have the set ...

America

Im in New York for the Licensing Show at the Javits Convention Centre. Its a yearly pilgrimage for me, I get a chance to see the size and shape (and the health) of the licensing industry, the epicentre of which is New York.

The Javits Centre is a good location for the show, I like it, as convention centres go its a good one. I do a lot of shows and conventions so I consider myself to be a little bit of an expert, if you can be an expert in that sense.

What can make or break a show is the attitude of the people exhibiting. The mood here is grossly different from last year but America is in the grip of a different kind of fear that has nothing to do with the global war on terror. Petrol is now $4 a gallon which for the American truck-loving public is just horrific. The economy, the impending election, the whole Hilary versus Obama pantomime, the extremely hot weather, its made for a very different trip this time around.

Im here for a week, a mixture of meetings and just taking in as much from the show as possible. Consumerism is at the heart of the show and to be frank, the American licensing fraternity does bullshit like no other. It gets a little taxing listening to one company after another tell you they have the next Barbie or Bratz. Innovation is what keeps this industry alive (or should do) but I have to say that this years show is a little void of anything thats going to bring the house down, especially in Europe.

A new blog ...

After a few years of keeping a blog on my Myspace account, I've decided to move across to a new blog site. It reflects the fact that Myspace has become a playground for a lot of people who I dont really care for, and my changing feelings about blogging in general.

Its a little like clearing my mind for something new, and I feel good about it, so lets see what comes out of the change ...