Have you ever gone digging through a trademark site? I did, and I found a couple of really interesting ones.
Hasbro's Battle Beasts Trademark, filed 4/23/1987
Diamond Select Toys' Battle Beasts Trademark, filed 10/6/2008
Of the Diamond one, it says that it will cover such diverse ranges as: "Games and playthings, namely, board games, action figures, toy vehicles, electronic educational game machines for children, playing cards, card games, balls for games and sports, scale model vehicles, toy vehicles and radio-controlled scaled vehicles"
The most fascinating thing to me, though, is that this means they've had the brand since 2008. The first Diamond Select Toys Battle Beasts item was a promotional Minimates figure, given away in February 2010. I had no idea they've had it for so long!
Hmm, development money tight? Not wanting to launch into the teeth of a recession?
ReplyDeleteOr maybe the plans just fell behind a desk?
I would bet they've revamped their approach to the line, given the early response from the older collectors. When it was originally released that they would be redoing Beasts as 'Mates there was a big division among collectors of the originals...some loved it, but the vast majority were not impressed, and hoped for a closer rendition to the original line...I would think DST would want to appeal to as many people as possible, so hopefully this is the case. Either way, I'm excited to see what they do with the line.
ReplyDeleteSaw this..
ReplyDeletehttp://powet.tv/powetblog/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/DST_Minimates_post_banner.jpg
Crazy. Looks cool but the minimates alligator i like more theyre going kinda far and not very move-able..
Just looking to get some marketing lined up behind the launch, so it wasn't coming out in a vacuum.
ReplyDeleteWow I had no idea their plans went back that far, I always thought it was a recent (i.e. 2010) idea. You don't want to rush a towline out just to make it first, because that first impression could potentially sour everyone's taste for it. As the old saying goes: "You can't unring the bell.". Those concept figures they showed a few SDCCs ago had some appeal (the octopus & lizard were cool looking to me), but I hope they go in a more traditional direction at the end. I guess we'll have to wait for the timer to finish to find out what they'll be. :-/
ReplyDelete