Activision has decided to take Guitar Hero to the next level: Action Figures. This is a great move for the company, striking the iron while it’s hot! The Guitar Hero and Rock Band franchises are growing in intensity while big blockbuster titles like GTA IV are waning in sales and profit.
Pretty soon you and your children can purchase action figures in the liking of Guitar Hero, would you consider this or is it just a gimmick?
McFARLANE TOYS ANNOUNCES PARTNERSHIP WITH ACTIVISION
TO PRODUCE GUITAR HERO(tm) ACTION FIGURES
TEMPE, Ariz. ~ McFarlane Toys announces a partnership with Activision, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATVI) to produce action figures from the hit video game franchise, Guitar Hero®. The first line is expected to hit store shelves this fall.
The hugely popular Guitar Hero franchise delivers the ultimate guitar-bending experience and enabling aspiring axe-shredders everywhere the chance to Unleash Their Inner Rock Star. Featuring a wide variety of music spanning five decades, the franchise is highlighted by countless original recordings from many of the most beloved artists of all time.
Represented in the first line of action figures are four of the Guitar Hero game’s most popular characters:
JOHNNY NAPALM
AXEL STEEL
LARS ÜMLAUT
GOD OF ROCK
“We have very recently begun creating toys based on video games,” says McFarlane Toys CEO Todd McFarlane. “With Activision, we get to work on arguably one of the biggest video game franchises out there, and capitalize on the wide-ranging demographic that encompasses this game.”
Each figure has 15-18 moving parts. Additionally, a unique guitar is included with each character that is removable and interchangeable with the other figures. Each figure also comes with a sculpted Guitar Hero logo base.
McFarlane Toys’ 6-inch action figures retail for $10-$15.
Visit www.SPAWN.com for updates and the all the latest and to-the-minute news.
About McFarlane Toys
Grammy-and Emmy-winning producer/director Todd McFarlane, creator of Spawn and the founder of SPAWN.com, is the force behind McFarlane Toys, one of America’s top action figure manufacturers. With an eclectic array of movie, TV and music licensing tie-ins – as well as the officially licensed teams of the NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL, McFarlane Toys has become a leader and redefined the standards within the action figure industry. For complete information on this pop-culture powerhouse, visit SPAWN.com.
About Activision, Inc.
Headquartered in Santa Monica, California, Activision, Inc. is a leading worldwide developer, publisher and distributor of interactive entertainment and leisure products. Founded in 1979, Activision posted net revenues of $2.9 billion for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2008.
Activision maintains operations in the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Sweden, Spain, the Netherlands, Australia, Japan and South Korea. More information about Activision and its products can be found on the company’s website, www.activision.com.
@Culture Diversity in games: I don’t know which is sadder: That you both didn’t think of Quest for Glory or the Witcher 3 when asking how many games have Baba Yaga. Quest For Glory series explored not just European culture but Arabian (QFG2) and African(QFG3) as well. You get to deal with Baba Yaga as a villain three times once in QFG1 and once again in QFG IV (Slavic) (which you also faced Domovoi and Rasulka, along with Vampires and Werewolves) and finally in QFG 5 (Greco-Roman). I do have to thank Sierra games for showing me such diversity of cultural backgrounds in their games, they also had a series called the Incans.
Now Witcher has these Hags which seem like the kind of creature that Baba Yaga is, if you’ve seen some of them:
http://www.gameranx.com/updates/id/13158/article/the-witcher-3-concept-art-depicts-baba-yaga-and-other-mythical-creatures/
They should have had one of these “ladies” at the end of Blair Witch, that would have been great nightmare fuel.
I do agree we need more game diversity of cultural backgrounds and Sierra had a lot of that. Speaking of which Ken Williams gave an interview about the new King’s Quest game being made by the Odd Gentleman
http://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/2015/01/02/ken-williams-interview-kings-quest-sierra-game-informer.aspx
One point of the interview Ken says how he doesn’t like to categorize a game like “point and click” that they should be more an experience and not get stuck on trying to be next big thing. It made me think about how they tried to keep up with the changing game market back in the 90’s, struggles with FMV and then 3D games. Both this King’s Quest game and the GK1 remake are Corporation backed while the Kickstarted Hero-U and Space Venture are not and seem to be having trouble getting done at all.
@ “Selling out”: I like the saying if you can do something well, get paid for it. I think it makes sense, everyone deserves to eat even brilliant artists.
@ Hacker Punks: I cannot wait for these punks to be arrested; they committed a crime so YES they will be investigated. I had to laugh at the phrase “all the good hackers have done” yeah like what? Also apparently Sony was “asking for it” by not having better security, now I wish Sony had worked harder on being more secure it still doesn’t give the right for them to break in.
@Playing Online: I agree I don’t like trying to play with random strangers and having a group of friends is great. So speaking of Polycast we’re always open to you dropping by on Saturday Jonah. We’ve been playing Civ 5 and Beyond Earth lately.
@Christmas loot: I got a bag of holding from Thinkgeek, lightsaber chopsticks, a Star Trek communicator badge, a Professor Layton game and a doctor who Pocket watch. So I got some good geeky loot this Christmas!
@Help me mom, they hacked my Xbox!!!
I wasn’t affected this time around because I was with my family for New Year and mostly played offline. I will have to agree thou. Microsoft and Sony get hacked so often now that it’s not even news anymore. I find it ironic how a snot can spit down on a huge company whenever he pleases. Something has to change.
@STALKER: Shadow of >>>CENSORED<<<
Maybe the Ukrainian government did not want a tourist influx into their danger zone. The STALKER series did raise Chernobyl’s profile considerably. Last thing they wanted was amateur treasure hunters crawling around the Sarcophagus looking for artefacts. On the folklore cultures, there are quite a few different mystical entities that would make good game characters. In fact, there are many Russian games based on the Russian folklore. But they never make it out beyond the Iron Curtain. Not enough demand. The reason why Greek and Roman gods are so popular is because everyone knows them. On the contrary, most westerners can’t even pronounce Vodyanoy or Kikimore (mystical creatures).
@QOTW
Not as much as I would like too. I only play online with my friends, and currently we have a mismatch of gaming platforms (I have lots of consoles but no PC). I used to play a lot on Xbox Live. Have my fondest memories playing Bad Company 2, Borderlands and Left 4 Dead 2 till the latest hours of the night. But university fixed that. Had no time to play anything at all. Now I can’t get back into any online gaming. I have a huge of backlog of singleplayer games and no worthy multiplayer games to keep me interested. It has been a long time since something fresh came out. Maybe Evolve and Halo will fix that.