In their efforts to land the Star Wars toy license for the upcoming new trilogy, officials for Galoob Toys announced that they have signed an initial commitment letter for a 200 million dollar credit facility with BT Commercial Corporation, a unit of Bankers Trust New York Corporation.

Roger J. Kowalsky, executive vice president and chief financial officer stated, "This represents another step in the company's efforts to secure a major portion of the toy license for the second Star Wars trilogy to be released beginning in 1999."

Kowalsy explained how Galoob's exchanging of preferred stock last year combined with this credit facility proposal will put them in a stronger position to market and support the new Star Wars license.

"The earlier transactions provided Galoob with a debt free balance sheet and an excess cash position of $27.9 million at year-end 1996," continued Kowalsky, "and that combined with this new proposed credit facility would provide the financial strength to complement the product and marketing proposals to support the new Star Wars license."

In other Galoob financial news, officials announced last week that sales for the first quarter of 1997 rose to $40.6 million, an increase of 8 percent over 1996 sales.

"First quarter results exceeded our expectations,” said Mark Goldman, president and chief executive officer. "Domestic sales increased by 18 percent, driven by extremely strong consumer demand for our Star Wars Micro Machines and Pound Puppies product lines."

Goldman noted, "Further 1997 growth momentum is expected from sales of three new feature film-based product lines set to ship later in the year. Toy lines based on Men in Black and Starship Troopers. These are scheduled to begin shipping in the summer and fall.

"The third product line is based on Twentieth Century Fox's animated feature Anastasia, anticipated to be the event movie of the 1997 holiday season," continued Goldman. "We are very pleased that Anastasia, the first toy line produced under Galoob's exclusive first-look arrangement with Fox, will receive the broadest retail trade support ever given to a Galoob new product launch.

The Starship Troopers line is described as a massive army of giant alien bugs. The Tri-Star film is scheduled for a November release. It is based on the best-selling book by Robert Heinlein, the famed Hugo Award winning science-fiction writer. It's the story of a fierce army of giant, intelligent bugs that launch an attack against earth.

Galoob's toy line includes ferocious bugs, interplanetary vehicles, and poseable-action figures in their unique scale.

Deluxe Bugs/Vehicles (approximate retail price range $9.99 - $11.99) will each be sold with two figures. The deluxe packs include the Warrior Bug with "exploding" body, Hopper Bug with articulated legs, spinning head and pop-open wings, Plasma Bug that "spits acid," and a Tanker Bug with firing weapons. They are sculpted and detailed to reflect the bug qualities from the movie, such as clasping pinchers and chewing mandibles.

Vehicles include the TAC Fighter, with spring-fired weapons, and the Retrieval Ship with opening cockpit and a bomb chute that drops eight bombs.

Men In Black, another highly anticipated movie is represented in a toy line from Galoob.

Amblin Entertainment's movie, scheduled for an early July release, features stars Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith.

Galoob has developed a line of action figures, vehicles and accessories that capture the movie's adventure and humor. They were named master toy licensee for the film in June 1996 by Sony Signatures Film and Television Licensing.

Scheduled to arrive in retail outlets simultaneously with the film's theatrical debut, Galoob's Men in Black action figures (approximate retail price range $5.99 - $6.99) feature some of the hidden aliens lurking among the people of earth and a poseable Alien-Attack Edgar with pop-up alien head is also available. All of the figures can be posed on or off their special display base, which showcases a hidden alien feature.

Deluxe Action Figures (approximate retail price range $9.99 - $14.99) are packed with spring-loaded action and surprise elements such as "exploding" body parts and rotating heads. Body-Slam Jay vs. Alien Perp features Jay battling an alien perpetrator with a hidden alien inside his "blow-apart" chest. Jeebs with Regenerating Heads is equipped with heads that "grow back" plus a rotating display case that hides removable alien weapons. Mikey with Exploding Body features his rotating human head and his "exploding" alien head.Ultra Alien Terrorist Edgar (approximate retail price range $14.99 - $16.99) is the ultimate alien foe. This Edgar stands 12" high and includes a removable Men in Black figure that fits inside the alien's translucent belly. Other alien features include snapping jaws, and movable legs, arms and tail.

Playmates Announces Limited Edition Star Trek Figures

Officials with Playmates Toys announced last week that they will include one limited edition Star Trek action figure in each wave of its Star Trek basic figure assortment. This decision was made to maintain full, nationwide distribution of the figure line. There will be 10,000 pieces of each limited-release figure produced. The company will not pre-announce the identity of the "limited" figures, but they will confirm which one is limited in each product wave after the product reaches retailer shelves. According to Jim Garber, senior product manager for Playmates, the decision was made by Playmates' management team, after consulting with its retail and licensing partners, in order to ensure full retail support for this segment of the brand.

Will it be one these?

Or one of these?

"Our primary objective is to keep the basic figure assortment easily available to consumers across the country. Based upon the retailer feedback we received, having some limited-release figures makes the figure assortment more collectable and creates excitement among consumers," Garber said. Playmates also confirmed that it will limit production of its "Collector Series" figure assortment to 15,000 pieces of each figure. The new Strike Force and Combat Action figure assortments scheduled for release later this summer will not include any limited-release pieces.

Puppet Master action figures headed for toy stores

Charles Band, president of Full Moon Studios, the movie company most well-known for its horror and science fiction films, announced today the formation of Full Moon Toys. Poised to aggressively pursue the expanding collector market for action figures, Full Moon Toys will launch this August with two of its most popular characters, Blade and Six-Shooter, from the studio's highly successful Puppet Master movies.

"We've been receiving countless letters and phone calls asking us to make action figures of our movie characters," Executive Vice President Rick Phares explained. "We carefully examined all of the different possible scenarios and decided to form our own company to manufacture these figures. We have spent a great amount of time and effort to create our characters and wanted to have a more 'hands-on' involvement."

Full Moon Toys has contracted with Palisades Marketing to assist with marketing, development, and sales of the line.

Blade and Six-Shooter will be the first figures released and are scheduled to ship in early September. "These are two of our most popular characters," Phares commented. "It was only logical that we kick off the line with them."

The initial assortment of figures will coincide with the latest installment in the popular series, Curse of the Puppet Master, releasing in September. The initial prototypes are in development and will be unveiled in the coming weeks. Additionally, look for Full Moon Toys at several of the comic book shows this summer, presenting the first look at the Puppet Master Action Figures.

previous toy time

Toy Time for Dec. 19, 1997
Toy Time, Dec. 12, 1997
Toy Time, Dec. 5, 1997
Toy Time, Nov. 26, 1997	A look at the newest toys from McFarlane and upcoming Witchblade figures, and praise for Daredevil.
Toy Time, Nov. 21, 1997	A look at the newest high-end and large-scale Trek products from Playmates.
Toy Time, Nov. 14, 1997	Reviews of Avengers figures and the Batman movie figures collection.
Toy Time, Nov. 7, 1997
Toy Time, Oct. 31, 1997
Toy Time, Oct. 24, 1997
Toy Time, Oct. 17, 1997
Toy Time, Oct. 10, 1997
Toy Time for Oct. 3, 1997
Toy Time, Sept. 26, 1997	Micro Machines! Micro Star Trek! All things Micro!
Toy Time, Sept. 19, 1997	All the toys that are fit to play with. And KISS action figures, too.
Toy Time for Sept. 12, 1997
Toy Time, Aug. 29, 1997	Three new Marvel assortments head up this week's Toy Time.
Toy Time, Aug. 15, 1997	The Klingon weapon with the spring-loaded tangs is just one of the new Star Trek hand-action toys.
Toy Time, Aug. 8, 1997	We take a look at some higher end collectibles this week. But hey, we can dream can't we? Legend in 3-D are putting out some of the coolest statues around. They've also got all of the hottest licenses out right now including Babylon 5, Star Trek and Star Wars. Catch a glimpse here. Plus take a gander at the Al Simmons exclusive figure from the San Diego Comic Com.
Toy Time, Aug. 1, 1997	What's Toy Biz up to?
Toy Time, July 25, 1997	New toys unveiled at the San Diego Comic Convention!
Toy Time, July 18, 1997
Toy Time, July 11, 1997	A look at the hot toys hitting shelves now!
Toy Time, July 4, 1997	Turok: Dinosaur Hunter toys
Toy Time, June 27, 1997	What toys through yonder window breaks?
Toy Time, June 13, 1997
Toy Time, June 6, 1997
Toy Time, May 30, 1997	The Men in Black are hereand MANIA's got 'em. Plus: Star Wars Exclusives and a new Limited Trek figure!
Toy Time, May 23, 1997	They're addictive, demanding and really strange looking. They're children! Get yours today... or try easing into the water with electronic pets such as Tamagotchi.
Toy Time, May 16, 1997	Irwin offers internet ReBoot action figure deal. We've also got pictures of the latest Applause Marvel release.
Toy Time, May 9, 1997	shelves.
Toy Time, May 2, 1997	Galoob makes a stab at the licence for the new Star Wars Trilogy. Full Moon launches toy line. The Men in Black line prepares to invade the toy stores.