World of Warcraft! Actually just "Warcraft." The toys are hitting as of late February/early March, with the movie itself screening in June. Depending on where you land in your toy history, this is either sensible or way too early. Toy Biz comes to mind, with Spider-Man 2 toys hitting January 1, 2004 and the movie in May, with Lord of the Rings' first toys hitting around September and the movie in December. It's not exactly a long time in advance, but for impatient big box stores the march to June may as well be an eternity.
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Big Figs, Roleplay, and a normal suite of action figures are up for grabs as is a "micro" line. Popularized by Hasbro's Marvel movie toys, Warcraft has a "Deluxe Mini Figure Set" with some swell creatures and warriors, plus a number of accessorized figure 2-packs. The smaller "armies" scale did some nice business for Lord of the Rings as well back in the day.
With the Axe of Durotan and a Doomhammer, there's a lot for fans of the games, customizers, cosplayers, and potentially movie fans to love here. The movie is directed by Duncan Jones of Moon and Source Code fame, so regardless of your opinions on Blizzard's long-running swords-and-sorcery game series there's probably going to be a decent movie at the core of all of this. The duration of the toy line is as of yet unknown, but Jakks seems to be making more plays for the boy action market - something other manufacturers should probably also do.
--Adam Pawlus
