PRESS
RELEASE
Faster Playing, More Collectible MLB
SportsClix Announced
November 10, 2004 (SEATTLE) — Topps
Inc., makers of the best-selling MLB™
SportsClix™ collectible miniatures game
(CMG), is proud to announce the upcoming
2005 MLB™ SportsClix release, next
season’s new SportsClix release. The
game is produced by WizKids Inc., a
subsidiary of Topps.
“The 2005 MLB™ SportsClix set offers
more options for collectors and players
alike,” said Mike Samora, WizKids® vice
president of Marketing. “Everything
about this great game has been expanded,
improved and tweaked for this exciting
release.”
The game plays faster, with everything
two people need to get into the dugout
packaged in one low-priced Starter Set.
Booster Packs expand collections with
rare Hall of Fame players like Lou
Gehrig and Babe Ruth, and they also
include the elusive Master Piece Babe
Ruth figure.
Starter Sets (MSRP $9.99) contain four
preselected figures, enough tokens to
fill a dugout, complete rules, special
dice, a playmat and a collector’s list.
Booster Packs (MSRP $4.99) contain two
randomly selected figures. Learn more
about MLB™
SportsClix online.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TOPPS BASEBALL BRINGS THE BAMBINO
BACK TO BOSTON
Nov. 11, 2004 (NEW YORK) - The Topps
Company announced today a charity
auction for the first Babe Ruth
SportsClix figure, and a chance to own a
part of history! Only fifty of these
extremely rare figures will be made, and
the miniature up for auction is number
one of fifty. The miniature Ruth, who
stands a little over an inch tall,
features the Sultan of Swat in his 1917
Red Sox uniform, the year he started
more than thirty regular-season games.
This figure, hand-sculpted and
hand-painted by the award-winning
artists at WizKids, Inc., was completed
on October 20th, 2004, the night of the
Red Sox' historic game seven victory
over the Yankees. Topps conceived the
figure six months ago, little suspecting
that by returning the Babe to Boston on
the day of the Sox' win, they may have
contributed to lifting the "curse of the
Bambino!"
This Master Piece figure is the ultimate
piece for any baseball collector, and is
a must-have for Red Sox fans. It is one
of only fifty pieces created for the
2005 MLB SportsClix game, the only
baseball collectible miniatures game!
The miniature Babe is being auctioned on
eBay (number 5933894420), and all
proceeds from the auction will go to the
Boys and Girls Club of America.
Link:
Founded in 1938,
Topps is a leading creator and marketer
of distinctive confectionery and
entertainment products. The Company's
confectionery brands include "Ring Pop,"
"Push Pop," "Baby Bottle Pop," and
"Juicy Drop Pop" lollipops as well as
"Bazooka" bubble gum. Topps
entertainment products include trading
cards, sticker and album collections,
and collectible games.
A 'Fusion' of Nintendo
and music equals one amazing concert
So, what do you get when you mix the
hottest bands in rock music with
Nintendo video games? The Nintendo
Fusion Tour, which rocked the house in
Roseland Ballroom, Manhattan on October
26.
This rock and roll party included bands,
such as, Amberlin, My Chemical Romance,
and the two headliners of the tour,
Lostprophets and Story of the Year.
Video games were set up in the back of
the room, showcasing the hottest new
games for Nintendo GameCube. Fans also
caught a sneak preview of the new
NintendoDS, an innovative dual-screen,
and wireless, hand held video game
system.
Full Story
Nintendo Cracks Down
on Major U.S. Piracy Operation
The U.S. District Court for the Western
District of Washington has issued a
temporary restraining order against the
import and sale of video game systems
containing counterfeit versions of
Nintendo games being sold at numerous
shopping malls.
Full Story
Generation D&D
It is late Tuesday, and the Dragon's
Lair store in West Springfield appears
closed for the night.
The doors are locked, but in the rear of
the store, owner Sean Tingley is setting
up a map and dice on a large table.
Gathered around, are four men in their
30s, pulling out small painted figurines
and preparing for a game of Dungeons &
Dragons that will involve bandits,
thieves, orcs and goblins.
Full Story
Call to
Creative Kids to Join International Toy
Challenge
TOYchallenge 2005 Documentary Film to
Put New Face on Engineering
Sally Ride, Smith College and Hasbro,
Inc. (NYSE: HAS) are giving students in
grades five through eight the chance to
step out of their classrooms and broaden
their engineering, science and design
skills by creating their dream toy for
the third annual TOYchallenge(TM). The
mission of this fun-fueled toy- and
game-design competition is to motivate
kids, especially girls, to pursue
science engineering education and
careers. A key feature of TOYchallenge
2005 will be the production of a
theatrical documentary film that will
show engineering in a different light.
Hasbro has been the program's presenting
sponsor since its inception. Sigma Xi,
The Scientific Research Society serves
as a principal sponsor for the second
year in a row.
Full Story
The
Search for the Greatest Kaijudo Master
is on as Atari Ships Two Exciting New
'Duel Masters' Games
BEVERLY, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 3,
2004--The Kaijudo library is about to
expand as Atari, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATAR) and
Wizards of the Coast, a subsidiary of
Hasbro Inc., today announced that two
new Duel Masters(TM) titles have
shipped. Fans looking for the ultimate
Kaijudo battles will embrace the
stunning 3-D graphics offered by the new
self-titled game Duel Masters, which
marks the first time ever the series has
appeared on PlayStation(R)2 computer
entertainment system. Additionally,
gamers on the go will enjoy the highly
anticipated sequel to Duel Masters:
Sempai Legends with Duel Masters:
Kaijudo Showdown for Game Boy(R)
Advance.
Full Story
The
'Two Swords' Debuts at #1 on the Wall
Street Journal's Bestseller List; R.A.
Salvatore's Classic Tale of Fantasy
Triumphs on Bestseller Lists Nationwide
RENTON, Wash. --(Business Wire)-- Nov.
8, 2004 -- Less than two weeks after its
release, R.A. Salvatore's new fantasy
novel 'The Two Swords' landed at the top
of The Wall Street Journal's list of
hardcover fiction bestsellers,
establishing a new record in the history
of its publisher Wizards of the Coast,
Inc., a subsidiary of Hasbro, Inc. (NYSE:HAS).
Salvatore's gripping story about courage
and friendship also debuted at #2 on
Publisher's Weekly bestseller list and
#4 on The New York Times's bestseller
list. Wizards of the Coast, Inc. is one
of fantasy fiction's most prominent
publishers, and has sold more than 45
million copies of its 600 titles in the
two decades since its founding.
Full Story
Starwars: Battlefront - Activision (PS2)
FOR those worshippers at the church of
the online gamer, Starwars: Battlefront
is the new holy grail.
A hellfire and damnation-style assault
on your phone line, we’re talking
two-horned big red fire-spitting action
at every step of the way and bloody
fingers, bleary eyes to boot.
That you get to play as most of the
decent characters from the Star Wars
saga is phenomenal (though much has been
moaned about the inability to cross-polinate
your choices across the different eras)
and the whole presentation (sound,
graphics and gameplay) without parallel,
certainly in online games.
Full Story
Resident Evil 4 coming to PS2 'end of
2005'
A PlayStation 2 version of the
hugely-anticipated Resident Evil 4 will
be released in Japan at the end of 2005,
Capcom has confirmed, ending the
long-term exclusivity arrangement it had
previously signed with Nintendo. The
move could also pave the way for long
overdue ports of other previously
GameCube-exclusive titles Resident Evil
Zero and the well-received remake of
Resident Evil.
Full Story
Microsoft snaps Project Zero II for Xbox
Xbox owners now have the chance to
experience (and presumably ignore)
Tecmo's excellent follow up to Project
Zero, following Microsoft's decision to
snap up the publishing rights to the
snap (un)happy survival horror title.
Continuing the industry's obsession with
the word 'crimson', Tecmo's snappily
subtitled Crimson Butterfly is
confusingly a prequel to the bad-selling
but critically acclaimed original, in
which you follow the misfortunes of a
young Japanese girl Mio and her twin
sister Mayu.
Full Story
Godzilla: Save the Earth stomps on PS2
Everybody's favorite guy in a giant
green lizard suit lands on the PS2
today.
Atari today announced that the
PlayStation 2 version of Godzilla: Save
the Earth has shipped and is available
in retail outlets beginning today. The
sequel to 2002's Destroy All Monsters
Melee, Save the Earth takes that title's
destructive brawling gameplay and adds
online play. An Xbox version will ship
on November 22.
Full Story
How big
is Halo 2? Enormous
The billboards are up, the discs have
been pressed and Microsoft's mighty hype
machine is in full gear: The Xbox game
Halo 2 is out Tuesday.
So what is all the fuss about? Chalk a
lot of it up to the beguiling scent of
money. Even people who have not laid
eyes on an Xbox or played a video game
since Pong will be impressed with the
numbers, the sheer size of the haul.
Full Story
Pokemon
FireRed/LeafGreen
Reviewed on: Game Boy Advance
It was during the late '90s that the
first Pokemon games — Red and Blue -
came out on Nintendo's old
black-and-white Game Boy handheld. It
was the beginning of what would
eventually become a an empire of young
monster-collectors and Pokemon
enthusiasts, who caught Pokemon and
traded them with friends via link cable,
trying to live up to the slogan "gotta
catch 'em all."
Full Story
Master
of Yu-Yu holds all the cards
At 23- years-old, Jeremy Borchardt is
ahead of the game.
The Baldwin Park resident is a game
master of Yu-Yu Hakusho, Dragon Ball Z/GT
and Pokemon, a card game which brings
the pop culture of comic book and
Japanese animation characters to a deck
of cards.
He placed first in the largest Yu-Yu
tournament this year in Philadelphia and
traveled to Arlington, Texas, last
weekend to compete in the Wizard World
Texas competition.
Full Story
Pokemon
Product Recall
TOMY Co. is recalling about 7,400
Pokémon plush dolls, beanbags and key
chains involving 13 Pokémon characters
sold at Pokémon Center in New York and
on the firm's Web site,
www.pokemoncenter.com, from January to
August. All recalled toys have a sewn-in
label reading "TOMY" and a production
code on the toy's label that begins with
a letter, followed by two numbers. These
production codes are included in the
recall: A04, B04, C04, D04, E03, E04,
F03, F04, G03, G04, H03, I03, J03, K03
and L03.
PROBLEM: Tips of sewing needles have
been found in the stuffing.
WHAT TO DO: Contact TOMY Co. for a
refund or free replacement toy. Call
800-691-8055, 9 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Monday
through Friday, or visit the company's
Web site at www.tomy.com. Photos of the
toys are posted at www.cpsc.gov.
Source
'Doom
3' voted the best PC game and the
ultimate game of the year:
[Technology India]: London, Nov 8 : If
you are wondering what to buy for your
young nieces and nephews this Christmas,
the computer game 'Doom 3' might be a
good idea, after having won the ultimate
game of the year and well as the best PC
game awards at the annual Golden
Joystick awards.
Source
More Dragon Ball Games
Coming
Atari have announced four new Dragon
Ball games for next year, find out which
one is making it to the GameCube.
It seems that the Dragon Ball franchise
is not going to die yet, with Atari
planning four more games based around
the series.
Full Story
Ultimate DVD Companion for 'Dragon Ball
Z: Budokai 3'
g-NET Media LLC, a leader in videogame-
related entertainment, announced that it
has entered into an agreement with
FUNimation Productions to create the
exclusive, official DVD strategy guide,
or "iGuide," for the upcoming "Dragon
Ball Z: Budokai 3" videogame, the latest
release in the successful Budokai
fighting franchise published by Atari.
Under the agreement, g-NET will
officially produce and FUNimation will
distribute the "Dragon Ball Z: Budokai
3" iGuide in North America on November
16th.
Full Story
Magic the Gathering
