Jun 2007
Mattel gets the Master Toy License for DC Comics Characters
Friday, June 29, 2007 Filed in: Toys
Offical Press Release:
Warner Bros. Consumer Products (WBCP), on behalf of DC Comics, announced today that it has entered into a multi-year deal with leading worldwide toy manufacturer, Mattel, Inc., which names them master toy licensee for the complete DC Universe property portfolio. Under the terms of this strategic alliance, Mattel is granted unprecedented access to the complete breadth and scope of the DC Comics vault of characters, which includes more than a thousand world-famous DC Super Heroes and Super Villains, such as Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, The Joker, and The Riddler. Further, the agreement includes well loved characters such as The Flash, Green Lantern, Aquaman, Shazam!, Green Arrow and Hawkman. Financial terms of the relationship were not released.
In addition to the rights to existing DC Comics characters, animation and motion pictures, the deal gives Mattel rights to produce toys based on future DC Universe film and animation projects that are developed and produced during the term of the agreement. Mattel will support the DC Universe characters across all of its key brands including Hot Wheels, Radica, Fisher-Price, Tyco and Mattel Games.
Mattel will bring the talents of their world-class sculptors, designers and developers to create product lines that target both kids and collectors. In combination with their expertise in kids and kid-targeted marketing, product and content development, they will develop DC SUPER HEROES sections in the toy aisle designed to attract a new generation of kids into the DC Universe for the first time while fueling the flames of collectors’ and fans’ passion for these characters. With the broad scope of category rights granted, Mattel is uniquely positioned to leverage this rich portfolio across many different categories.
“Combining the power and richness of the DC Comics Universe with the unparalleled creativity and expertise of Mattel makes for an incredible alliance,” said Brad Globe, president, Warner Bros. Consumer Products. “Knowing that the vast catalogue of DC Comics properties will be in the hands of the world’s most successful toy manufacturer ensures a consistency and quality in product development for years to come.”
Beyond the strong stable of notable heroes that serve as the face of the DC Universe, characters from such world renowned super powered teams as the Justice League and Teen Titans will allow Mattel to expand on their extensive, existing relationship with DC Comics to develop products that go far deeper and broader with their individual characters.
“Working closely with Mattel across a broad spectrum of our characters will increase the variety available to our fans and collectors, and help introduce the DC Universe to a new generation of toy buyers. We look forward to collaborating with their dedicated team to make toys as yet undreamed of into playful reality,” said Paul Levitz, President and Publisher of DC Comics.
During its seven-year relationship with Warner Bros. Consumer Products, Mattel has created and delivered a number of successful toy lines that bring the fun, action-packed heroism and excitement of DC Comics’ characters to life, including top-of-the-line action figures and vehicles for the 2005 release of “Batman Begins,” innovative toys for “The Batman” animated series, along with a collection of heroes and villains from the popular Justice League Animated Series and the Batman and Superman family of DC Super Heroes action figure lines.
“We are thrilled to expand our long-standing partnership with Warner Bros. Consumer Products,” said Neil Friedman, President, Mattel Brands. “We strongly value our close-working relationship and Warner Bros. Consumer Products’ extensive portfolio of characters from the DC Comics Universe presents a fantastic opportunity for us to bring even more characters to life for kids and collectors alike.”
RapidWeaver 3.6.1 Released
Friday, June 29, 2007 Filed in: Web Design
Realmac Software has released an updated version of RapidWeaver.
Everything you need for modern website creation
Say hello to RapidWeaver. He's a revolutionary, but friendly piece of web design software made
exclusively for the Mac. He'll help you create and publish beautiful, modern sites, compliant with
today's web standards.
Using easy drag and drop technology you can build a website tailored to your personal needs.
Blogs, Photo albums, Movie pages, Styled text and more can be created at the click of a button
and customised to make a site to be proud of.
Create anything from a small family site with photos and movies, to a professional business site.
RapidWeaver comes with almost 40 professionally designed themes as standard.
Powerful Enough For Professionals
RapidWeaver has many powerful features that will appeal to professionals and high end users.
These include: Modifiable themes, live PHP rendering, mix and match WYSIWYG and HTML,
smart publishing, XHTML and CSS based site output, viewable source code, built-in error
checking and more...
One Click Flash Slideshows
RapidWeaver can produce beautiful Flash slideshows from your photos. You no longer need to own
or learn Flash. It's as simple as picking the images you want and letting RapidWeaver do the rest.
Don't worry if flash isn't your thing, RapidWeaver also makes stunning CSS based galleries.
Publish Anywhere
Publishing your site to the internet couldn't be easier with RapidWeavers built-in one click publishing.
You can publish to .Mac, FTP, SFTP and even locally to your desktop. RapidWeaver keeps track of the
changes you make to your site and only uploads modified pages, keeping publishing time to a
minimum. We call this Smart Publishing!
Award Winning
RapidWeaver consistently recieves excellent reviews from the Mac press. The 3 major Mac
magazines in the UK all awarded RapidWeaver 4.5 stars out of 5 or above.
Feature Highlights
• Drag and Drop Site Creation
• Photo & Movie Albums
• iPhoto Integration
• .Mac, FTP & SFTP Publishing
• Built in Image Editing
• Blogging with RSS & Podcasting
• Smart Publishing
• Unlimited Sub-menus
• Generates XHTML valid sites
• Flash Based Slideshows
• Live PHP Rendering
• And much, much more...
System Requirements
• Power PC or Intel Mac.
• Mac OS X 10.4 or higher.
Languages
• English
• French
• German
• Italian
• Japanese