Sometimes the pop culture products industry gets pretty wild and woolly, and last week was such a time, with three stories in different venues providing some diversion from our regularly scheduled programming.

Decipher Inc. announced this week at GAMA that they have acquired the license to create roleplaying games based on the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Wizards of the Coast announced an ambitious slate of products for 2001 at the Gama show held in Las Vegas this week.

Las Vegas, Nevada. The GAMA (Game Manufacturer's Association) Trade Show opened big at the Orleans Hotel here on Monday, March 19 with as many badges distributed the day before the exhibits opened as were distributed during the entire show run last year.

Warner Brothers has registered the domain name 'Akiramovie.com.'

Bakuten Shoot Beyblade is a new animated series that debuted on Japanese television on January 8 th .

An article by Jim Rothenberg sensationally entitled 'A Wave of Violence Engulfs Children's Cartoon Programs' graced the front page of the Sunday, January 28 th New York Times.

Just a week after it debuted on the Cartoon Network, the anime Outlaw Star reached #54 on the Lycos chart of computer searches for the week ending January 20, 2001.

A raft of new anime titles, including the highly anticipated Earth Defense Family , are debuting on Japanese TV this January.

All this and more in Shop Talk, our roundup of comic and game store news.