McFarlane Toys has completed its clean sweep of all four major sports by inking agreements with Major League Baseball and the Major League Baseball Players' Association.  McFarlane Toys Sports Picks lineup now includes Major League Baseball, the National Football League, the National Basketball Association and the National Hockey League.  The acquisition of the baseball license certainly must have pleased Todd McFarlane, who played minor league baseball and demonstrated his love of the game by paying some $3 million for Mark McGwire's 70th homerun baseball.  But how could the baseball establishment refuse to choose McFarlane Toys, which has done such a superlative job in capturing the power, grace and likeness of the top athletes in the NHL, NBA, and NFL in its various Sports Picks series.  Just as McFarlane Toys revolutionized the regular action figure category with its superbly detailed Spawn figures, the Sports Picks have blown previous attempts at creating sports action figures and figurines out of the water.

 

The first series of eight McFarlane MLB Sports Picks is due to hit stores in April 2002.  It includes: Ichiro, the amazing right fielder of the Seattle Mariners; Pedro Martinez, the fireballing righthander from the Boston Red Sox; Ivan Rodriguez, the Hall of Fame caliber catcher from the Texas Rangers; Sammy Sosa, the charismatic outfielder of the Chicago Cubs; Mike Piazza, the superb hitting catcher from the New York Mets; Shawn Green, the homer-happy right fielder of the L.A. Dodgers; Randy Johnson, the dominating 'Big Unit' from the World Champion Arizona Diamondbacks; and Albert Pujols, the incredible rookie third baseman from the St. Louis Cardinals.  Series two includes: Nomar Garciaparra, Alex Rodriguez, Roger Clemons, Kerry Wood, Ken Griffey, Jr., Greg Maddux, Derek Jeter, and home run champ Bobby Bonds. Series 3 will feature: Manny Ramirez, Chipper Jones, Adam Dunn, Jason Giambi, Curt Schilling, Roberto Alomar, Juan Gonzalez, and Jose Canseco(?).

 

WalMart Here We Come

McFarlane Toys plans a major mass-market presence for its now complete Sports Picks lineup.  Since Hasbro's Kenner brand pulled the plug on its Starting Lineup sports figurines, McFarlane Toys has the sports action figure category pretty much all to itself.  While the rest of the McFarlane Toys lineup for 2002 is clearly targeted at the specialty market, the Sports Picks remain the one area where McFarlane intends to compete in the mass market.  There is no equivalent to last year's Shrek in this year's McFarlane Toys lineup -- and judging from Todd's quotes in the current issue of Kidscreen Magazine; he appears to be a bit chastened by his experience with the big green guy.  Though he maintains that the Shrek figures did reasonably well, it doesn't appear that he is ready to license another blockbuster film, 'The trouble is you're directly competing with Hasbro and Mattel.  And trying to compete with an 800-pound gorilla with a company the size of mine isn't necessarily a smart business move.'  With his Sports Picks, McFarlane competing with the big boys by following the wisdom of that old baseball adage, 'Hit 'em where they ain't.'