Hey folks, Harry here... Here's a great report from TOY FAIR Germany regarding some properties we're dying to see more on. Specifically - a first report on footage from THE INCREDIBLE HULK. I hate that toy of the Abomination that's shown up online, just hope the film version is better... by leaps and bounds.

Hi Harry,

This week I attended the Toyfair in Germany. Maybe the following is of
interest to you.

This year a lot of movies will find their merchandise in toys and videogames
In Nurnberg Pixar’s Wall-E ruled in terms of licensing. But there was also
a lot of Star Wars, Indiana Jones and Marvel. Usually the companies who
actually bought a certain a license, show their partners and press contacts
some inside glimpses of what’s coming up.

Let’s start with STAR TREK. One of the toy companies had a special room
filled with upcoming Star Trek toys. As a fan I look at the new JJ Abrams
movie with both excitement and hesitation. I think the reboot is a good way
to bring Star Trek to a new younger audience. I can’t imagine that the LEGO
Star Wars kids will run hot for William Shatner as Kirk or even Scott Bakula
as Archer. So in terms of survival the reboot is a good thing. But my fears
were that JJ Abrams would bring too much realism in Star Trek – like the tv
series Enterprise, ignoring the magical atmosphere of the original series.
Fortunately I feared too soon. In the special Star Trek room were about 50
action figures, a few phasers, playsets, Spock’s ring, Spock’s ears and the
new Enterprise. The action figures were not the final versions, but you
could hardly tell that they weren’t from the original tv-series but from the
new movie. Kirk wore his famous yellow uniform (and black trousers), Spock
his blue one (a little bit darker though) and Scotty the red one. The
Leonard Nimoy Spock had a white monk-like robe, that looked like a variation
on the one he wore in The Search for Spock. Highlight was Zoe Zaldana as the
new Uhura. She wore the same red communication uniform, but this time the
skirt was much shorter and there was much more emphasis on her breasts. In
this movie she will give Seven of Nine a run for her money!
The phasers and communicators were almost the same as in TOS. Even the
sounds were identical. And then… the new Enterprise. As a toy it had a great
TOS feel to it. It’s a little more ‘organic’ than the original one and I
think the two warp engines and the ‘bite’ taken from the central body are a
little bit bigger. The floor of the new transporter room is red, by the way.
Also shown was another spaceship. It resembled an octopus and could have
appeared in one of the Matrix sequels. I don’t think it was Romulan.

Hasbro has the Marvel toy license for Hulk and Iron Man. We had a small
preview of the two new movies and wow – they both rocked!
For IRON MAN we saw the scene in which Tony Stark tests his Iron Man suit
for the first time (in his garage). Of course this almost goes wrong. He
speeds into a tunnel, gets out in the open and flies past a Ferris wheel. A
malfunction in his suit makes him go higher and higher, almost leaving the
stratosphere and running out of air. Then the suit goes completely dead and
Stark falls to the earth. Just in time he manages to get his suit working
again, making a mess of the traffic in the streets.
What I really liked about the scene was the performance of Robert Downey Jr.
He gives his character so much tongue in cheek humour that we actually
should worry about the scenes with Iron Man himself. Forget the superhero,
show us Tony Stark! I hope the Iron Man movie will go through the roof at
the box-office. I have confidence it will.

It was great to see the first footage of the INCREDIBLE HULK. I think the
Ang Lee movie was terrible, but I have a lot of faith in this one. What we
saw looked like the first official trailer. The scene opens with Edward
Norton meditating. We see images of a lab, experiments, Banner escaping from
the (Russian?) military (led by William Hurt and Tim Roth), running in the
streets, kissing Liv Tyler, guns, shooting, more running… The ‘trailer’ ends
with Abomination walking towards Hulk. Remember the end of Rocky III? Apollo
Creed wants to hit Rocky in their friendly duel? That’s exactly the way the
trailer ends. Abomination wants to hit Hulk. Hulk wants to hit Abomination,
but before it actually happens the trailer is over. Abomination looks like a
Hulk with the Voldemort face from the first Harry Potter movie. A really
mean motha. He sure is a great opponent.
I thought the shown footage was awesome. It promises much more action than
the Ang Lee movie, a great love story and an even greater fight. Edward
Norton makes a great Bruce Banner. He isn’t that muscular which makes his
transformation into Hulk much more interesting and exciting. Imagine John
Cena as Bruce Banner! That would be completely wrong, wouldn’t it?

Finally STAR WARS: no doubt, it has still the Force. The new action figures
and Lego looked fantastic. And for us Europeans it was great to got the
confirmation that CLONE WARS ANIMATED movie – the first three parts of the
new tv-series - will indeed be shown in our theatres in September as well –
so not only in England. That will give a huge boost to all the toys that
will be released this year, guaranteeing the future of that (or any other)
brand or franchise.

Mark Single