New York Toy Fair 2003 - JAKKS Pacific, Page 3
Q & A with JAKKS Pacific
JAKKS Pacific is planning to pick up the Dragonball Z line where Irwin Toy left off, in addition to creating their own original figures. In fact, some of the Irwin items were so far along in development that they'll hit shelves with the Irwin logo, like the recently released vehicles.
JAKKS is deeply committed to keeping the line fresh in stores. That means regular refreshes, evenly spaced new releases, and loads of new products. Their intense dedication to to their market and to providing both fans and retailers with what they want, when they want it is going to serve as a "power-up" to the already strong Dragonball Z license.
The new two-packs will all be orginal molds, and will be released in two series: one good vs. evil, and one fusion series. The promo images of Goten and Trunks showed them in the middle of the fusion dance, which will make for some great display scenes.
The Irwin Energy Glow figures are going to segue into a new "lights and sounds" line, in which they hope to include different kinds of lights, voice recordings, and more.
The IF Labs movie collection is going to be continued, though it and the Dragonball line will be integrated into the JAKKS releases, rather than as a separate line. The Dragonball line will be on a 5.5 inch scale, to match the existing DBZ line.
When asked about the possibility of going back to make figures of characters from early on in the series, the JAKKS folks were extremely enthusiastic, and implied that it was a distinct possibility.
When asked whether their new figures would be carried over to Europe (where JAKKS Pacific also has the DBZ license), they said that there are no plans, as there are complicated licensing issues with AB Toys.
Some info from FUNimation on the anime on Cartoon Network: After the Kid Buu saga is finished, they plan to run once more through all 291 episodes before going on with Dragonball GT. GT is set to start in the fall, and the first DVD is aimed for Q2. FUNimation is slightly "remixing" the first few episodes of the series, in order to spice up what are considered to be the earlier, boring episodes.