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Monday, May 14, 2007

Basketball by The ToyFactory - 2007

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Here's another wonderful item, an Aquaman vs. Mongul basketball, courtesy F.O.A.M. member Charles Howell and the fine folks at The Toy Factory.

Charles wrote me a few months back, right around the time we posted his company's
Aquaman Plush Doll, and said he was prepping a possible Aquaman basketball, and told me what villains might be used for it. From what I remember, he had something like The Joker, Brainiac, and Mongul to pick from, and he wanted to know if I agreed with his selection of Mongul, even though he's not an Aquaman villain, per se. I said I did, since obviously The Joker and Brainiac are so specifically tied to Batman and Superman.

So just last week, Charles sent me a photo(top) of the now-in-production basketball!
And if that wasn't cool enough, he also sent me the preparation artwork for the basketball, which was first commissioned--born, if you will--on August 16, my birthday! Talk about kismet!

As Charles points out, like all of Toy Factory's products, they are frustratingly only available "[from] amusement type vendors only; so the best way to get these plush in your area is to ask crane operators and amusement centers to start carrying it. Tell everyone to keep an eye out at crane machines and fun centers near you." He adds: "these should be hitting crane machines later in the summer I hope. There are eight designs as follows: Aquaman, Batman, Joker, Green Arrow, Superman, Solomon Grundy, Supergirl, and Wonder Woman. The balls are rubber with the basketball grip, 5" in diameter." Cool-o!

So while I may never actually own one of these basketballs(unless I start spending a lot more time at Great Adventure), it's just neat that Aquaman's got fans out there, looking for ways to get him on more stuff. What do you think about that, Arthur?
sg
"I heartily approve. Thanks, Charles!"

4 comments:

Louie Joyce said...

Cool. I totally want one.

Rick L. Phillips said...

Why didn't they think of using Black Manta?

rob! said...

>> Why didn't they think of using Black Manta?<<

from my days designing licensed stuff, you got sent guides by Marvel, DC, whoever, featuring certain characters. if they weren't in the style guides, you couldnt use them.

so (charles correct me if i'm wrong) the ToyFactory doesnt have Black Manta to use. Charles is an Aqua-fan so you can bet he'd have used him if he could!

chunky B said...

I would have put Black Manta on that ball without thinking twice, but Rob is correct The "canned artwork" from the styleguides limits you some. I could have illustrated to my best the Black Manta in the Timm style or had Warner Bros. contact DC for situation art with Black Manta, but the cost would be a little high for the amusement market and we are limited to characters that have appeared in the show.

Hasn't a character similar to Black Manta appeared in the show and later yanked because some other Aquaman deal was in the works? I would have even used him to...

Sorry,

Charles