Licensing
Disney Charades Will Make A Monkey Out
Of You. Families can enjoy pretending to be monkeys, genies,
lions, mermaids and elephants in the new board game "It's The
Wonderful World Of Disney Charades Game." Building off of traditional
charades games, players can enjoy attempting to solve clues based
upon characters from Disney films such as Pinocchio and Toy
Story. After dividing into two teams, players select 12 cards
with characters from various Disney movies with which all of the
players are familiar. With more than 250 cards to choose from, teams
are almost always guaranteed to find characters they all know. The
game consists of three stages each increasing in difficulty. "The
Wonderful World Of Disney Charades Game" is currently available
nationwide and retails for approximately $34.99.
Can't Catch All Those Pokemon Cards? Is Pikachu anti-Semitic?
The answer is no, even after questions to the contrary circled when
parents complained of a swastika-like symbol appearing on the Japanese
language cards for Pokemon's Golbat and Ditto. These two cards,
not yet released in the U.S. card collection, include a Japanese
symbol called a "manji," which is a mirror image of a
swastika. The symbol, however, is a centuries-old, Japanese symbol
for good fortune. Not wanting to create any bad financial karma,
Nintendo has announced that it will discontinue the questionable
cards.
Toy Story Battles With Burgers & Toys. The war
between Toy Story and Pokemon over kids' piggy bank
change has moved to a new battle field -- the local burger joint!
McDonald's Corp., the U.S.-based, world-wide burger chain, has released
Toy Story 2 toys in connection with the release of the film.
The McDonald's promotion, featuring a collection of 20 different
characters from the Toy Story 2 movie, will be distributed
with each Happy Meal purchase. The chain will also offer six Toy
Story 2-themed candy dispensers for $1.99 each with the purchase
of a Happy Meal or large sandwich. This large campaign must now
compete with the wildly successful Pokemon toys featured
at McDonald's chief rival, Burger King. Demand for Burger King's
Pokemon trading cards and creatures, complete with a plastic
Pokeball key-chain, has caused shortages in Southern California
and parts of Texas. The 57 different toys available in the Pokemon
collection seems to be a daunting figure to collect for kids --
and parents who want children to eat meals that distinctly come
from the four-major food groups. However, fear not tofu warriors,
Burger King has allocated Tuesdays as Pokemon trading day.
Therefore, kids can get their weekly shake and fry fix while trading
away that sixteenth copy of Charmander that they really don't need.
With the leading fast-food chains locked in promotional combat,
the result will be hard times for other fast-food peddlers, predicted
Ron Paul, president of Technomic Inc., a Chicago-based restaurant
consultancy. Although Burger King's promotion may collect some of
McDonald's success, Paul believes both will emerge from the fourth
quarter with gains in same-store sales. "When all the attention
gravitates to a couple of players, it has an impact on the whole
market. There are still just so many lunches and dinners available.
It makes other players cringe," he said.
Bandai Set To Battle Pokemon. In continued coverage
of the war to empty the pockets of the Pokemon people, Bandai
America Incorporated, the company responsible for the Power Rangers
and Tamogotchi virtual pets, unveiled a new line of toys based on
the Pokemon-like Digimon: Digital Monsters, at an
event held at FAO Schwarz in New York. Since the debut of the TV
series in August on Fox Kids, Digimon has become the #1 ranked
show in its time period among all competition with Boys 6-11. Kids
can also visit the Digimon Web site which offers a digital
information center where they can gain more knowledge about the
Digimon and their toy line. The Digimon line of products
includes: Digimon cards; Digimon game cards and game
card booster packs; Digimon World, a Sony PlayStation game;
Digimon Digi dX, Mini skateboards; Digivice game, a battle
LCD game featuring lights and sound; action figures; collectible
Digimon sets, which include four to six Digimon in
different stages of evolution; Digivolving action figures, and the
Digimon kit, which includes a five-minute video, poster and
an action figure. Digimon: Digital Monsters follows seven
kids who are unexpectedly transported from summer camp to the 'digital
world' of File Island where the little creatures live. On File Island,
the kids befriend certain well-meaning Digimon, which have
the ability to "digivolve," changing from one form to
another and back again. In related news, there is no known plans
for a Gobot come-back.
