The brand new Samurai Jack animated series by Genndy Tartakovsky just debuted on the Cartoon Network last night (8/13/01), and action figures are already available?  Say what?  In an unprecedented move, the Cartoon Network is offering six different Samurai Jack action figures through its online store.  The eight-inch tall figures were designed in-house (at the Cartoon Network) and sources have indicated to ICv2 that there are only a few hundred of each figure available now.  Does this mean that the Cartoon Network is about to expand into the toy business?  Well, maybe not, but the Samurai Jack series is already generating a lot of buzz (see 'Samurai Jack Makes a Splash'), and if the figures sell out in a flash (which they are likely to do), then the heat they generate could result in quite a bidding war for merchandising rights.

With major U.S. toy companies cutting way back on the amount of licensed merchandise they are producing, perhaps it makes sense for the Cartoon Network to provide potential licensees with an object lesson in how to create a hot property.  Certainly selling a few hundred sets of figures (or a few thousand) online doesn't begin to realize the potential that a property like Samurai Jack could create if it were properly merchandised and distributed through the toy and specialty markets, but the Cartoon Network is part of AOL/TimeWarner -- and certainly has access to all the elements necessary to create its own licensed merchandise, if it wanted to expend its efforts in that direction.  Certainly DC Comics, another division of AOL/TimeWarner, has done a superb job of creating an impressive line of collectibles in-house through its DC Direct program (see 'DC Direct Has a Full Slate').  But with its prime time national exposure, Samurai Jack has big time potential, and the betting is that the Cartoon Network will find a major toy company to partner with at some point, if the Samurai Jack series turns into the hit that many think it will.