Tag: licensees

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Marc Ecko gets more press

This time it’s the New York Times, checking out his new store in Chelsea. A brief paragraph addresses the Star Wars line:

He is also obsessed with “Star Wars” and somehow wrangled a licensing deal with the franchise. A white T-shirt has a storm trooper head rendered beautifully in little appliquéd crystals, while a likeness of Yoda in green dots on a brown T-shirt looks warty and nauseating. Mr. Ecko lovingly explains his fetish in a long paragraph printed on the back inside collar: “It’s no secret I am a fan of all things Star Wars,” it reads. “Just when I am getting pop culture fatigue, I watch Star Wars.”

In other merchandise news, StarWars.com features another line of t-shirts and a new Sideshow farmboy Luke.

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Hasbro and eFX share high-end prop market

Press release time! Hasbro is taking on the production of “collectible electronic lightsabers,” keeping the Force FX name, while newcomer eFX will handle the prop, vehicle and and helmet replicas. (Which will “…encompass the entire Star Wars universe.” Perhaps that means we might see some EU items? Master Replicas had made at least one step in that direction.)

Hasbro’s sabers will be out in the spring, while eFX will debut their products at SDCC.

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Dark Horse CEO on Star Wars

ICv2 interviews Dark Horse CEO Mike Richardson. He touches a bit on Star Wars and handling franchises:

Media tie-ins seem to be the thing across all businesses these days. Before Dark Horse, I don’t think many companies had that much success with what we call licensed titles. I think the reason for that is that it was basically a financial move on those companies’ parts and I don’t know that the books were always good. They could have slapped a logo on the cover and expect that to sell, and often the work inside the cover wasn’t that great or inspiring. We didn’t approach it that way. Being fans ourselves as opposed to business people, we decided to find properties that we were enthusiastic about. In those early days, Randy [Stradley] and I would plot out stories and bring a writer in, and we’d basically create sequels to the movies and try to do it in an intelligent way. Obviously the fans responded because our licensed books sold huge numbers and still do years later.

The Star Wars stuff is in part one; part two focuses on manga and creators, and part three discusses webcomics, ratings, and plans for the future.

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The “Thron Trilogy”? I missed that one.

mag-license.jpgRebelscum points towards a new magazine, License!, which is doing some features on Star Wars. Alas, they get off to not-so-great start on their publishing feature (warning: PDF download) with the above misspelling. Did their web staff bypass the copy editors, perhaps?

Elsewhere in the article, they do mention something I haven’t heard of before:

A collectible limited-edition, six volume set, entitled Star Wars; Frames will debut in fall 2008. Overseen personally by George Lucas, and available exclusively through Sideshow Collectibles and limited to 950 numbered copies, the suggested retail will be $1,999 for each mammoth set.

And in the final paragraph, a hint at continued relations with Random House, of which both Del Rey and Bantam are imprints:

What’s next for the Star Wars empire? Roeder says, “We’re looking at the ‘Legacy of the Forceful’ next year with the ninth book and we’re talking to Random House about what the next series will be.

Legacy of the Forceful? Umm….

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Lego’s ode to profit

Fortune article on Lego CEO Jorgen Vig Knudstorp mentions Star Wars:

When Lego decided in 1999 to launch a Star Wars series, recalls Jakobsen, “getting the license from Lucas was nothing compared to the internal struggle over having the word ‘war’ appear under the Lego brand.”

The rest of the article is actually rather depressing. I can’t say streamlining a business and making it more profitable are bad things, but Fortune makes it sound like any of the other company goals are irrelevant. (I guess that’s why I’m not the type of person who reads stuff like Fortune.)

Meanwhile, Starwars.com wants your vote on what the next Ultimate Collectors Set should be: R2-D2, FX-6, Vulture Droid Starfighter or an Electronic AT-AT walker? I don’t think the FX or the Vulture droid has much of a chance here…