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ANIMATION WORLD MAGAZINE - ISSUE 4.3 - JUNE 1999

Licensing

 
Jedi Masters Yoda and Mace Windu in Stars Wars: Episode 1 The Phantom Menace. Courtesy of and © Lucasfilm, Ltd.

Star Wars Mania. On Monday in the USA, toymaker Hasbro introduced a series of action figures, play sets, vehicles, and other toys based on Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace, the prequel to the STAR WARS trilogy. Most Toys R Us stores and some FAO Schwarz and K-B Toys stores opened at 12:01 a.m. on May 3, and within hours their stock was sold out. "It was unbelievable. Insane," says AWN's Heather Kenyon, who visited four stores in the Los Angeles area. "People were leaving with shopping carts filled up. It was frightening how rabid the fans were for these toys." Several reports throughout the country speak of crowds of 200-300 people with sales being upwards of $100 per person. The big seller of the night was the line of 12-inch dolls, which includes characters such as villain Darth Maul and space creature Jar Jar Binks. The action figure for Mace Windu, who is played by Samuel L. Jackson, sold out almost immediately. With this new toy line, Hasbro has hopes of catching Barbie maker, Mattel, the number one seller of toys. Hasbro, based in the Providence suburb of Pawtucket, reported a record $668.4 million in revenues in the first quarter of the year -- a 38 percent increase from the same period a year ago. Mattel, headquartered in El Segundo, Calif., reported first-quarter sales of $692.1 million, down 2 percent. With two more Star Wars movies planned over the next few years and Hasbro holding a 10-year licensing agreement, analysts say the toymaker could see $5 billion in Star Wars spinoff sales over the next decade. Hasbro has agreed to pay about $600 million in advances on royalties to Lucas in installments over nine years. That amount includes advances promised to Lucas by Lewis Galoob Toys, which was bought by Hasbro last year. . . More Star Wars Mania. An Internet security firm is warning that the popularity of the 30-megabyte trailer for the new Star War film, which set an Internet record with over 3.5 million downloads in its first five days on-line, could cause corporate America's e-mail to come to a grinding halt. The security firm, Allegro of Dayton, Ohio, told the Los Angeles Daily News if six or seven people in a company start sending it around the office, it starts to chew up the server space, slowing overall productivity.


Note: Readers may contact any Animation World Magazine contributor by sending an e-mail to editor@awn.com.