Diamond Select continues to announce more licensing agreements than Carter has little liver pills. While the individual licenses are not necessarily the biggest names in their respective categories, the aggregate weight of all the rights acquisitions is impressive and should make Diamond Select an increasingly important supplier for pop culture stores.
Battle of the Planets
Diamond Select's latest acquisition is a license with Sandy Frank Productions for Battle of the Planets, aka Gatchaman, Eagle Riders, and G-Force. Under this new agreement Diamond Select gets the rights to develop action figures, resin statues, calendars, wall scrolls, building block figures under 3 inches, as well as the right to import Japanese toys based on the Battle of the Planets property.
Battle of the Planets debuted in Japan (as Gatchaman) back in 1972 and in the U.S. (as Battle of the Planets) in 1978. A revival on the Cartoon Network in 1995 and the more recent release of DVDs from Rhino (see 'There's Gold in Them Thar Old Cartoons') has kept Battle of the Planets in the public consciousness. Urban Vision's release of the new anime version of Gatchaman (see 'The Summer of Gatchaman') will also help to popularize this classic anime property. Together with Diamond Select's acquisition of the rights to anime/manga properties held by Central Park Media (see 'Diamond Select Nabs CPM'), the Battle of the Planets license should allow Diamond Select to augment sister company Diamond Comic Distributors' increasingly large imports of Japanese toys with anime action figures, resins, and kubricks produced by Diamond Select.
Dawn Statues
Diamond Select has also recently inked an agreement with Linsner.com, which gives the toy company the right to create resin products, statues, and busts as well as action figures. Given the statuesque proportions of Linsner's Dawn, and the success of previous Dawn statues, the rights to create resins, statues, and busts could well result in a wealth of very salable comic-related products based on Joseph Michael Linsner's popular Cry For Dawn comic series.
Kabuki
Diamond Select has also reached an agreement to create action figures, painted orbs, and replicas based on David Mack's highly regarded Kabuki comic book, which is published by Image. The very first product that Diamond Select will create for Kabuki is a full-scale replica of Kabuki's sickle, which is sure to become a 'must have' item for fans of Mack's Japan-based saga of political intrigue, corporate espionage, and familial duty.