Hasbro has applied for a new Trademark at the United States Patent and Trademark Office, TFW2005 learns. The trademark is named UNIT:E and is classified under various categories including Motion Picture.
The description clearly mention a numerous amount of detail that may apply to many of Hasbro’s brands including Transformers, G. I. Joe, My Little Pony, Nerf, Monopoly and many others (complete description, after the jump).
This new trademark may apply to anything, for we do not know exactly what it means. However, if you all would recall, last year in May, leaked information from Hasbro mentioned a movie featuring many of its brands; a movie very much like Toy Story but with Hasbro toys.
We will update you on this new development as soon as we hear more stuff. Stay tuned with TFW2005, HISSTANK and TOYARK for more info. Complete Description:
Toys, games and playthings, namely, toy action figures and accessories for use therewith toy vehicles and accessories for use therewith; toy playsets for use in connection with toy action figures and toy vehicles; toy vehicles and toy robots convertible into other visual toy forms; toy robots; plush toys; stuffed toys; plastic and vinyl toy characters and toy animals; toy figures; radio-controlled toy vehicles; mechanical toys; toy construction sets, building toys, wind-up toys; water squirting toys; toy modeling compounds, toy molds and toy extruders for use with toy modeling compounds; toy balls, namely toy footballs and baseballs; toy baseball bats; toy swords and toy shields and accessories for use therewith; toy projectile shooters and toy projectiles for use therewith; jigsaw puzzles; board games; parlor games; action skill games; card game; role-playing games; trading card games; electronic hand-held games not for use with external displays or monitors; target games; dice games
ediblesteak
I don't know,
with all joking aside, this is a huge gamble for hasbro.
I know already that some critics and audience will say that "it's just a marketing ploy to sell
more of hasbros' toys. it's just a 2 hour long toy commercial."
So depending on how they write the plot and characterization, it could be a flop.
edit: whoops, and here I thought it was going to be made into a movie soon
Sideswipe1954
For those wanting it, Hasbro Toy Shop is selling it for $4.59
Exclusives at HasbroToyShop.com | UNIT:E SPECIAL EDITION COMIC BOOK Product Details
HMRC4EVR
Having Mask and Vortech in the same sentence gives a credability to VT that it doesn't deserve. Crappy toyline with half-@$$ remolds of MASK toys and a cartoon that just made me want to cry. I'm not saying MASK was perfect as a cartoon, but as a toyline there were a lot less misfires overall compared to other lines at the time.
Hasbro's done several of MASK-lite toys in the recent past (Stealth Force anyone?) but we still haven't gotten a proper MASK revival. I'm not a purist and know it'll have to be updated (Scott leading a new team-say the kids he met in the org show have grown up to join his new M.A.S.K outfit) but if they do it anything close to Vortech, I'd rather not see anything at all. This isn't a 'play my way or I'll take my ball and go home' but more 'I've seen that garbage once-I really don't want to see it again'. Beast Machines after Beast Wars was bad enough, but BM is poetry compared to Vortech.
I just want to see a Visionaries relaunch. As popular as the magic/mystical/supernatural is nowadays, a relaunched series done right could do pretty damm good.
Plus we'd finally get that second wave of figures that never was released!
RedAlert Rescue
The MASK Premise seems wasteful. It would have worked better with Vortech or simply as MASK the next Generation. but to have someone who's still Matt Trakker in a Robocop's Detroit seems odd to me.
I can't say I'm impressed by Hasbro's need to rework everything all the time, sure it sometimes works but even when it works it often detracts from the Original in some way.
Even Prime has the bad feature of mixing Comic with Cartoon continuity story points and using the name Orion Pax – who is just made of lame really. so it is a little distracting from the character arc as I'm remembering the whiny looser (Young Luke Skywalker) like character he was in the cartoon. I always thought Orion Pax smacked of childish wish fulfilment really where a child becomes a super hero.. Optimus Prime is not Captain Marvel ! and never should have been.
wyze2099
Hey Mattel! Do something with Dino Riders!
Oh, and C.O.P.S. could be a fun one for Hasbro to revive. I'd heard that in some places they'd had to rename it "Cyber-C.O.P.S." or somethin' to avoid confusion with the show with the "Bad Boys" theme song, so they might have to continue with that name. But either way.
wyze2099
Nah, not really. All it'd take is Agent Fowler pulling some strings at the Pentagon to bring in a squad of Joes. The "Renegades" version of the team might be tricky, though.
NormanB
I only read a few pages back, but has anyone brought up the possibility that they're doing this just to keep their trademarks active?
tas262
I think unit:e is centurions they transported the suits from a space station called skybolt. Maybe hasbro lost the trademark to the name.
ZacWilliam
No. Skibones, That's NOT Inhumanoids. That's Primordia. A new Hasbro property introduced later in the book.
-ZacWilliam, again, read review on previous page.
Incepticon
Agreed. Same goes for Centurions!
JukeOutlander
Man and Machine! Power Extreme!
skibones
next to the pic of snake eyes
skibones
yes there is on the right side
ZacWilliam
There is sadly NO Inhumanoids pic. That's a new different property called Primordia.
-ZacWilliam, see my long review, on the previous page.
Spunky
Just like "My Little Pony"?
skibones
Inhumanoids pic looks cool.. would like to see them come back.
Thundershot
Too bad there's no Visionaries. That's a property that I'd buy the whole line to…
Krueger
You can bet your life that there's much more to this than meets the eye (excuse the pun). Hasbro aren't a comic-book company. They specialise in toys and cartoons of their brands.
Yobuster
Hmm i wonder if this is Hasbro's way of bringing these properties back into the public conscious and then trying to gauge which old property is the most popular and then proceeding to create a new show or toyline from that. The main ones that appear are obviously the top of their list in terms of "most likely to be popular" and the easter eggs are just that.
IF that's the case my vote is for MASK to return and I do like the concept they have provided there. The only thought is if that is DET in the future, some of the MASK vehicle concepts and technology might not be anything particularly new. I mean back in the 80s transforming vehicles and the possible tech behind it was far out, but now we can totally envision real-life transforming vehicles so they have to explain that somehow to make it even more amazing.
ZacWilliam
So since this is definately public now…
HasLabs Crossover Comic Review
First up, despite what many kinda assumed because of its placement on the top of the cover, Unit:E doesn't seem to be the name of this Comic crossover. It’s seems to be just another one of the properties crossing over inside whose logo happens to be placed near the top of the cover. So, cover promises Unit:E, Candyland, Stretch Armstrong, Battleship Galaxies, Primordia, The Action Man, Jem, MASK, and most especially Micronauts. That's definaely an unprecidented crossover. The inside of the cover tells us this is a HASLAB presentation, the comic is written by Andy Schmidt (I know) and drawn by more names than I have any interest in typing.
Review:
Now. A spaceship. Unseen figures discuss someone waking up. The figure almost immediately flashes back to being a boy with his elderly father in helmetless Acroyear armor telling him that it is “time.” In the present the young man with the cyborg arm greats Biotron from Micronauts and a hologram woman who we learn via flashback is Synergy (originally from Jem, now apparently moonlighting as Cortana) a trusted ally given to him by his father. They are under attack. They don’t answer his question about who is attacking, but reveal that they are taking him to Earth to find teammates with a unique noble spirit. Apparently we have a lot of this on Earth so here they are. They pull a Han Solo in an asteroid field to lose the attackers. (And we see that it looks like there’s a giant Biotron making up the bottom of the ship. I don’t know Micronauts, is that normal? He’s definitely mentally linked to the ship here.) Syn shows him shots of his prospective allies in a big spread: All the properties on the cover + Transformers + G.I. Joe + Drizit. I actually forgot Hasbro owned DnD for a second and that surprised me, then I remembered and wished again they’d use some real synergy and do a DnD toyline and cartoon for kids again.
Anyway, now we do focus pages on each property as they are detailed for the young Acroyear. First up is a two page spread of Stretch Armstrong reimagined as a sort of young, tech augmented, Reed Richards, and the first Superhero on this version of Earth. He trains and leads a team of heroes known as the Flex Fighters.
Next up is MASK. They kept the name, the name Matt Trakker, the transforming vehicles and the masks but the story seems to be totally different. It’s an urban dystopia future Detroit abandoned by the government, with social services shut down. Police officer Matt Trakker and his 4 civil servant friends found an ancient cache from some group called “the League of Ancient Wheelmen” and are using that tech to augment themselves and their vehicles and fight for their disintegrating city. Reading it now, it’s not a bad set up for a toyline/comicbook adventure really, but I was thrown on my first read by just how different it is from Classic MASK. Like the art on the characters a lot here definately.
Next is JEM. Nice art here too. This seems to be Jerrica just before becoming JEM, (Which makes sense as she needs Synergy for that.) Synergy expresses special protectiveness towards Jerrica and says that even without powers she has a great destiny composing the “music of the spheres.” (Seriously. I wonder if that was speaking figuratively or if JEM’s music will really have Bill and Ted/Lynn Minme power…)
Next is Action Man. I know little of him but it’s a nice set up. A legacy of Heroes who pass on their memories and abilities, the last one having gone bad and become a villain, the new one fights against him. I also like that this is the first of the Good guys that young Acroyear likes at least somewhat.
Now, Battleship Galaxies. Set in a possible future from the “Now” the heroes of the ISN Everest fight against a bunch of supervillian names in a war they should not be able to win. Is this a game? Is there a Sci Fi Battleship variant?
And then she reminds him of his own history as an excuse for an admittedly fairly awesome Micronauts two page spread. Micronauts was before my time really, but I have to say these look awesome, and I would totally buy a toyline that looked this cool.
Now comes Unite:E they’re a group of “Challengers of the Unknown” and investigators of the eerie who operate from a space station called Skybolt outside of reality to protect reality. All we get to see are silhouettes and a shot of the space station. Interesting concept. Looks like it would be more cartoon than toyline oriented from what little we see here, but who knows…
Heh… and here’s Candyland. Acro Jr rightly laughs, but Synergy says that though the Fairies may look silly or childish, they can be powerful and dangerous when they choose to cross over to our plain of reality. It’s about as well as you could link Candyland to these more serious older properties.
And lastly we have Primordia… giant Kaiju meets Inhumanoids-ish monsters in a city. Only one of them can speak apparently, they have some vastly developed beast instinct that makes them dangerous, they are mysterious and they may be allies or enemies. It’s hard to say what this is with the little info we get, all I know is I really wish it were Metlar, Tendrill, and Decompose on these pages.
The kid doubts any of these earth heroes have the power or ability to help him defeat Baron Karza, but then remembers what his father said as he granted him the armor and named him the new Acroyear and suddenly the armor is on him as he decides that they will make it work and that he has heroes to gather!
Lastly we get an explanation from Andy that this isn’t meant to set any status quo for these properties but is a fun “What-IF love letter” to the properties and the brands. He wants to know if folks liked it, cause if they did they might do more or more like it. (He also mentions that other properties like Centurions are Easter Egged inside. Didn’t know Hasbro owned them, and regardless I couldn’t find that one. Can anyone help me out there?)
Overall thoughts… I liked this. It definitely reads better when it’s not 1am (as when I first read it). Nice art (very nice in some spots) and cute crossover concepts. It is all basically set up for the idea of a crossover though. I’d love if this was something Hasbro did more issues of as I’d really like to see the story actually get to the crossover part of the story. Then there’d also be room to really get to know the properties and how they interact AND to work in Inhumanoids and Visionaries darn it! So overall? It’s a fun little what if lark if you’re a fan of these properties, but I wish we were maybe really getting this story, rather than just imagining the possibility of it, y’know.
-ZacWilliam, I’d definitely snag a physical copy if I ever get the chance, just as a curiosity if nothing else. But I hope they do more. It's just too geeky not to love…