Toy Biz
Toy Biz is now the toy division of Marvel Entertainment. Originally, the company produced toys with a license from DC, and later acquired an exclusive contract with Marvel. The Marvel line starting with an X-Men specific line and a Marvel Superheroes line. Later, the company would expand to cover the wrestlers of WCW, as well. When Marvel went Bankrupt, Toy Biz jumped in and helped them out by merging with the comics company. Toy Biz would handle the action figure front for Marvel, drastically improving upon the original Superhero and X-Men line's rather low quality of sculpting. Toy Biz first began producing better toys for a new Spider-Man toy line, based mostly on the Fox mid 1990s television show, and also superior sculpts for the characters in the X-Men mythos, as well.
Early DC Action Figures
This short lived toyline was notable for its unusually bad sculpts and unworkable action features. Lex Luthor with a "Kryptonite punch" that amounted to little more than him punching his own forehead, a water spraying Green Lantern and a reused Mr. Freeze originally seen with Kenner's Super Powers line.
Early Marvel Action Figures
Initially, Toy Biz produced action figures for X-Men, and Marvel Superheroes. Later on, as Marvel's characters gained animated series and more popularity, Toy Biz produced lines and better detailed molds for Marvel Heroes, by way of the existing X-Men line, and expanding to animated lines focusing on Spider-Man, Hulk, Fantastic Four and Silver Surfer cartoon figures. Although a cartoon never existed for the property, Toy Biz produced a line for the Ghost Rider comic book. Eventually, Toy Biz would launch a Spider-Man Classic and Marvel Legends line which would greatly improve the sculpting and detail of the animated and comic book incarnations of Marvel's toy presence.
Spider-Man Classic and Marvel Legends
Toy Biz launched a new line, Spider-Man Classics, which featured the famous wall crawler and one of his most well known modern foes, Venom, in brand new sculpts with nearly 30 points of articulation, providing for the most realistically poseable Spider-Man figures ever. Marvel followed up the 4 figure wave with a second series, including Spider-Man ally Daredevil and villain Rhino, who was in several episodes of the Fox cartoon, and made for a bigger scaled figure when standing next to Spider-Man.
The success of Spider-Man classics lead to a spinoff, Marvel Legends, which debuted with Marvel icons Captain America, Hulk, and Iron Man, and also included a fourth figure, Toad, whose figure was originally to be in a comic/movie two pack for an X-Men movie comparison line, but the Toad 2 pack never came out and a figure with far less articulation than the other three was included.
Due to poor sales, the Spider-Man classics line was put out off production. However, Marvel Legends was a huge success and has over 15 different series to its name. After the success of Marvel Legends, The Spider-Man Classics line was re-introduced with new figures, all of which were far more articulated.
Marvel Movies
As Marvel's franchises flourished, Toy Biz would handle the action figures for the films, as well: Hulk (later adapted to focus on his comic book exploits), Fantastic Four (the live action film and second animated series), and the X-Men and its sequels and an X-Men Classics line have all had Toy Biz action figures. The final Marvel related film to receive Toy Biz action figures was Fantastic 4. (Due to the rushed production, Toy Biz wasn't able to produce a dedicated line of figures for the third X-Men film, X3: The Last Stand, instead they chose to revive the cancelled X-Men Classics line)
Playsets
Toy Biz also focused on Superhero playsets and props for Marvel, such as the Spider-Man stunt system, Hulk Hands (arm encasings that when knocked against surfaces produce sounds associated with the Hulk's thrashings and later adapted into Thing hands, as well as Thing Feet), Wolverine claw play gloves, Spider-Man silly string shooting gloves, and much more. Toy Biz would also release twelve inch deluxe sized rotoscoped figures based on its X2, Hulk, and various Spider-Man lines.
WCW and The Lord of the Rings
Toy Biz added to its wide selection of Marvel toys by adding WCW wrestling figures, based on many of its famous wrestlers. Most famously was their "Smash'n'Slam" and "Grip'n'Flip" series. The latter was most known for its "magnetic" wrestling figures, which was new. The "Smash'n'Slam" series were traditional wrestling action figures with stars like Goldberg (w/Rey Mysterio), The Giant (w/another Rey Mysterio), Kevin Nash (w/referee), Scott Hall (w/breakable table and mask), Randy Savage (w/Chair), Sting (w/Baseball Bat and Coat), Lex Luger (w/Breakable Police Barricade), DDP (w/Breakable guardrail) and of course, Hollywood Hulk Hogan (w/Spraycan, Belt and Stairs). Another, and newer, Smash'n'Slam series called "Ringmasters" was later released with Bret Hart, Chris Jericho, Lex Luger and Hogan. All these figures had features that resembled their name. Lex Luger had an executioners mask, axe and a torture rack (info: Lex Luger's finishing maneuver was called the "Torture Rack"), while Hollywood Hulk Hogan came with a directors chair and all (resembling his Hollywood gimmick). ToyBiz also managed to acquire the license for The Lord of the Rings toys, based on the New Line Cinema trilogy of films. Both lines would have several waves released.
Total Nonstop Action Wrestling
In 2004, Toy Biz acquired the license to make action figures based off of TNA wrestling. The first wave of figures was released in the Summer of 2005 and featured A.J. Styles, Jeff Jarrett, Abyss, and Raven. Shortly there after, the Six Sided Ring with exclusive A.J. Styles and Series 2 with Christopher Daniels, Shark Boy, Ron Killings, and Jeff Hardy were released. A series of 2-packs has been released featuring Triple X members Christoper Daniels and Elix Skipper, 3Live Kru members Konnan and B.G. James, and America's Most Wanted of Chris Harris and James Storm. 2006 has seen the release of Series 3, featuring Chris Sabin, Monty Brown, Raven, and A.J. Styles, Masked Fury, featuring Sting, Shark Boy, and Abyss (each figure came with a replica mask of the wrestler), an NWA World Championship playset that features a mini ring and mini figures of A.J. Styles and Jeff Jarrett, another Six Sided ring with a new exclusive A.J. Styles, a repaint set featuring Elix Skipper, A.J. Styles, Jeff Hardy, and Ron Killings, and Series 4 of Kevin Nash, Petey Williams, Rhino, and Chris Harris. The second set of 2-packs has also been released, which has A.J. Styles vs. Samoa Joe, Jeff Jarrett vs. Monty Brown, and Jeff Hardy vs. Abyss. Each of these sets was modeled after a specific Pay-Per-View match between the two wrestlers and they come with special CDs with highlights from that match.
At the 2006 San Diego Comic-Con, Toybiz revealed new prototypes of Alex Shelley, Kevin Nash, Brother Ray, Brother Devon, Sabu, James Storm, Chris Harris, Samoa Joe, Eric Young, Petey Williams, Bobby Roode, Christian Cage, Lance Hoyt, Kip James, B.G. James, Scott Steiner, Jeff Jarrett, Matt Bentley, Rhino, Raven, Chris Sabin, Sonjay Dutt, the line's first female figure, Traci, and the Six Sides of Steel set that was shown at TNA Lockdown 2006.
Controversy and Fate
The owners of Toy Biz, Avi Arad and Isaac 'Ike' Perlmutter, believed rightly that their business relied heavily on the success of Marvel. So, during an expensive battle between business financier Ronald O. Perelman and corporate raider Carl Icahn over the rights to Marvel, Arad and Perlmutter seized the opportunity of a lifetime.
Perlmutter, a businessman who made his money in discount or "dollar-store" merchandising, and who bought collapsed companies like Remington, found himself owning the near collapsed Toy Biz -- a toymaker with the license to make Marvel Comics character action figures. Arad was an Israeli toy designer of Avi Arad & Associates, who made millions in royalties on his creations. Instead of entering a complicated arrangement, they just went into Marvel together.[1].
The Story
Toward the end of 1980s, Perelman, coming off his successful takeover of the cosmetics firm Revlon, bought Marvel Entertainment. He issued more comic books and also acquired trading cards and a few other subsidiaries. Wall Street was seemingly supportive; after Perelman took the company public, Marvel's market value topped $3 billion.
Perelman than began selling junk bonds with Marvel’s inflated value and Marvel's debt exceeded $600 million. The unfortunate downfall of the comic and trading-card markets left Marvel’s assets wide open to takeover.
Icahn, who had invested heavily into Marvel's bonds as one of his standard take-over methods, now went to work to take the company. Perlmutter and Arad, depended on Marvel’s comic characters, realized that Toy Biz’s fate was at risk. The prospect of losing their interest caused them to become passionate about purchasing Marvel. Perlmutter arranged his own financing group, and ultimately bid over $400 million for Marvel.
Icahn and Perelman fought it out, while Arad and Perlmutter managed to beat them both. Later, the rights to names like, Spider Man were being challenged. Toy Biz hired an attorney to review their license agreement. A Los Angeles based patent attorney named Carole E. Handler[2] found a legal loophole in the patent and licensing of the Marvel name and was successful in reclaiming Marvel Enterprise's movie rights to its character "Spider-Man,"[3][4][5][6][7].
End of an Era
Although Toy Biz announced it would no longer produce Marvel's toys, they will continue producing the TNA action figures and Curious George toys while working on getting new licenses. Starting in 2007 the company will be renamed Marvel Toys, although the Marvel Movie franchises and Legends lines will go to Hasbro.
References
- ^ Comic Wars by Dan Raviv, Broadway Books, April 2002
- ^ Carole E. Handler
- ^ Variety, Spider-Man's legal web may finally be unraveled, Judge tying up Marvel's loose ends, By JANET SHPRINTZ. August 19, 1998
- ^ Comics 2 Film
- ^ Guardian Unlimited, Court web snares Spider-Man, April 27, 2003
- ^ Variety, Inside Move: Rights snares had Spidey suitors weaving, May 19, 2002, Jonathan Bing"Marvel lawyer Carole Handler found a legal loophole: The original sale to Cannon hadn't been registered with the U.S. Copyright Office, so rights reverted to Marvel."
- ^ Managing Intellectual Properties, News focus: Swinging into action, September 2004 “As Dan Raviv explains in his book Comic Wars, the issue was eventually resolved by Carole Handler, a copyright and antitrust lawyer then at O'Donnell…”
See also
- Marvel Legends
- Toy Biz v. United States, a court case that determined that Toy Biz action figures were toys, not dolls.
- Avi Arad