Author: Stephan

Nickelodeon Acquires Global Rights to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Before Reading the following, please understand that we know you have a TON of questions…NONE of which we currently have the answers to. But we are working dilligently for you to find out. Now please, read on:

Nickelodeon to Develop New CG-Animated Television Series and Paramount Pictures to Develop Feature Film of Renowned Global Property

NEW YORK, Oct 21, 2009 — Furthering its mission to provide premium content to its audiences, Nickelodeon–part of MTV Networks, a division of Viacom Inc. (NYSE: VIA, VIA.B)–has acquired the global rights to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles from The Mirage Group and 4Kids Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE: KDE). The acquisition provides Nickelodeon, the world’s number-one entertainment brand for kids, global intellectual property rights to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the hit television, film and video game property that has delighted kids around the world for the last 25 years. The aggregate purchase price for the transactions is approximately $60 million.

Nickelodeon also announced plans to develop a new CG-animated television series based on the popular superhero franchise, anticipated to premiere in 2012. Additionally, in partnership with Viacom’s Paramount Pictures, a new release of a new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles feature film is also planned for 2012. Nickelodeon has also acquired all merchandising rights to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and will continue to work with its original and long-standing toy partner, Playmates Toys, which has been the creative force behind the successful TMNT master toy program over the last two decades.

“Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles shares a comedic sensibility with the Nickelodeon DNA, with added layers of action and fantasy that have kept this property an evergreen favorite with multiple generations of audiences,” said Cyma Zarghami, President, Nickelodeon/MTVN Kids and Family Group. “We are extremely happy to have the opportunity to be able to focus on this property and creatively re-introduce it to a new generation of kids.”

“Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is a property that maintains a very passionate global fan base, is rich with opportunity for a tentpole movie, and is exactly the right property for us to work together with Nickelodeon,” said Adam Goodman, President, Paramount Pictures.

“Mirage has been the proud keeper of the Turtles’ brand since 1984, and in 2009 we celebrated their 25th anniversary with our legions of fans,” said Gary Richardson, CEO, Mirage Studios. “Nickelodeon is a powerhouse global brand, and we are confident that the company will be a wonderful steward for Leonardo, Raphael, Michelangelo, Donatello and all the other TMNT characters and take them in all kinds of exciting and new creative directions.”

“We enjoyed our eight-year partnership with Mirage during which 4Kids and Mirage re-launched the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise for a new generation of kids around the world,” said Alfred Kahn, Chairman and CEO of 4Kids Entertainment, Inc. “We will also work with Mirage and Viacom so that our Turtles’ licensees can be assured of a seamless transition.”

Considered one of the most popular kids’ television programs of the 1980s, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is a classic, global property created in 1984 by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird. It first debuted as a successful comic book series and then became a hit animated TV show, a live-action television series, and later spawned four blockbuster theatrical releases. The property also has translated into a significant consumer products business–with DVDs, video games, toys and more–that has generated billions of dollars at retail.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is based on four mutant turtles–trained in the art of Ninjitsu–who battle evil from the New York sewers. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles animated television series–jointly produced by 4Kids Entertainment and Mirage Studios–will continue to air on “TheCW4Kids” Saturday morning programming block on The CW network through Aug. 31, 2010.

About Nickelodeon

Nickelodeon, now in its 30th year, is the number-one entertainment brand for kids. It has built a diverse, global business by putting kids first in everything it does. The company includes television programming and production in the United States and around the world, plus consumer products, online, recreation, books and feature films. Nickelodeon’s U.S. television network is seen in almost 100 million households and has been the number-one-rated basic cable network for 15 consecutive years. For more information or artwork, visit http://www.nickpress.com. Nickelodeon and all related titles, characters and logos are trademarks of Viacom Inc. (NYSE: VIA, VIA.B).

About Mirage Studios

The Mirage Group is a group of companies, including Mirage Studios, Inc., located in Northampton, Massachusetts, that owned and managed the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles property from its creation in 1984 through 2009.

About 4Kids Entertainment

Master licensing agent for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, 4Kids Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE: KDE), is a global organization devoted to the creation, development, production, broadcasting, licensing and manufacturing of children’s entertainment products, with U.S. headquarters in New York City, regional offices for its trading card business in San Diego, California, and international offices in London and Hong Kong.

Cautionary Statement Concerning Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains both historical and forward-looking statements. All statements that are not statements of historical fact are, or may be deemed to be, forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements reflect the Company’s current expectations concerning future results, objectives, plans and goals, and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that are difficult to predict and which may cause actual results, performance or achievements to differ. These risks, uncertainties and other factors include, among others: the worsening of current economic conditions generally, and in advertising and retail markets in particular; the public acceptance of the Company’s programs, motion pictures and games on the various platforms on which they are distributed; competition for audiences and distribution; technological developments and their effect in the Company’s markets and on consumer behavior; fluctuations in the Company’s results due to the timing, mix and availability of the Company’s motion pictures and games; changes in the Federal communications laws and regulations; the impact of piracy; other domestic and global economic, business, competitive and/or regulatory factors affecting the Company’s businesses generally; and other factors described in the Company’s news releases and filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its 2008 Annual Report on Form 10-K and reports on Form 10-Q and Form 8-K. The forward-looking statements included in this document are made only as of the date of this document, and the Company does not have any obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances.

SOURCE Nickelodeon

http://www.nick.com

GGM Participates in 350.Org day of Action!

There is a little shop in my neighborhood by the name of Zinnia. If I were to sum them up, I would say they are an alternative arts and crafts store. If you’re ever in South Pasadena, definately check them out.

On October 24th, Zinnia will be selling hand crafted art to benefit 350.org, a non-profit whos mission is “to inspire the world to rise to the challenge of the climate crisis—to create a new sense of urgency and of possibility for our planet.” You can read all about them in the link above.

Here is some infor about the event:

At Zinnia we are going to be participating in a global event called 350 http://www.350.org/
Scientists say that 350 parts per million CO2 in the atmosphere is the safe limit for humanity.

Zinnia is planning a really cool event. We are going to hang 350 pieces of art, each on a wood panel that will be
350 X 350 picas (almost 5″ square, that Zinnia will be providing), each piece will sell for 350 pesos (about $26.00),
350 cents of each piece will go to 350 Carbon.

This event will be unveiled Oct 24th at 3:50pm. The artist of each piece will remain anonymous, but we will be advertising the artists participating in this event in hopes to generate a lot of awawareness. The artist of each piece will be revealed when the purchaser takes it off the wall. So, Zinnia is hoping to persuade artist into participating in the event by sending out up to 6 wood panels per artist, and paying for the shipping both ways. To sum it up, each piece will sell for 350 pesos ($26.22). From that amount we will send 350 cents to the 350 Carbon, then subtract .350% ($7.96), which will go to Zinnia, and then the artist will receive $14.76.

So why are we talking about this on GGM? Because we entered a piece to be sold!

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Our Entry features a vintage Don figure I had lying around, busting out of an Archie comic. I figured, as this is for an environmental cause, an Archie comic featuring Manray of the Mutanimals would be appropriate 🙂

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By the way, our $14.76 will be going into the Fan Book Fund 🙂

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Large Photos of the Piece can be found here: http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v247/JNCOPosterboy/GGM/350%20Entry/

Eric Talbot’s Art Exhibit at Dream In Plastic!

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Do you love Eric Talbot as much as we do? Probably not! Because we love him a lot (it’s almost inappropriate)! Which is why we were so broken up about not being able to see Eric’s exhibit at Dream In Plastic of New York in person! But fear not fellow Talbites (see what I did there?)! GoGreenMachine contacted Jenny at Dream In Plastic and she was wonderful enough to take pictures for us and send them over! THANKS JENNY! If you want to see Eric’s exhibit in person, you can check out Dream in Plastic @ 177 Main Street — Beacon, NY 12508 from now until the 10th of November! Buy some Vinyl toys while you’re there, cause I know you don’t have enough!

For all of us that can’t make it out, Click the Pic above to for right to the album. Thanks Again Jenny, and Congrats Eric!

Eric Talbot Art Exhibit

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Check Out Eric’s Blog for more info. If someone is going, and would like to take pictures, we would be happy to feature them on the site. Email us at Stephan@GoGreenMachine.org

Some Questions Answered From Playmates

Hi Everyone!

We recently sat down with Adam Key, Playmates Product Manager for the TMNT, and he was kind enough to answer some of our questions in the wake of the press release from 9 days ago.

GGM: It has been public knowledge for quite some time now that the Comic Turtles line had been shelved (around the time that the ill-fated Music Turtles got the axe). Are these new comic turtles mentioned in the press release the same ones we saw debuted at NYCC09? And what was the inspiration behind bringing the idea back?

Adam: Yes, we knew that the collectors wanted these figures and we felt it was an appropriate time to bring them back after having success with the 25th Anniversary Figure Line. Only the 4 turtles will be brought back for the original Comic Book. No Splinter, Shredder or Foot.

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GGM: The press release mentions a continuation of the vintage rereleases. Can we expect a number of figures rereleased past what we’ve seen prototyped atlready?

Adam: For the first time since 1990, we are bringing back the Movie Star Turtles. We are very excited about this as we’ve seen that these are quite the hot commodity on Ebay. The texture of these figures really brings out the feel of the original movie.

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GGM: What is the current status of the Fugitoid figure? Pre-order stores have been pushing back the date to december. Is this accurate? If he performs at retail, could we hope to see more collector grade figures from Playmates?

Adam: These should be fulfilled shortly, but I will have to look into this and advise later.

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GGM: Many fans out there have been wanting to see the toyline return to it’s roots with more attention focused on secondary characters, and maybe even see Playmates work with some of the sculpting greats from the 90’s toyline again; such as Scott Hensey and Steve Varner. Any thoughts on these things happening down the road?

Adam: Unfortunately retail demand is mainly for the core turtles. We tried to feature as many secondary characters as possible for the 25th Anniversary line (i.e. Bebop, Rock Steady, Casey, April). We understand that there is demand for these from collectors, but there are high costs to tool these figures and the volume doesn’t support it. We believe in 2011 when the movie comes out, there will be more demand for a very deep line. Keep the suggestions coming….

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GGM: Is there anything else you’d like to convey to the fanbase or promote?

Adam: We would like to convey that we are continuing to support the turtle line throughout 2010 with TRU, and we expect a huge year in 2011 with the new movie that will continue into 2012 and beyond.

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As always, we would like to give a huge thank you to Playmates for giving GoGreenMachine.Org such candid access to their line of business. And a very special thank you to Adam for spending some time with us today. Have comments or suggestions for Playmates? feel free to email to them to us at Stephan@GoGreenMachine.Org or leave a comment here!