Mattel is releasing a space-themed toy line inspired by Disney•Pixar’s Toy Story. The line includes a Toy Story Buzz Lightyear Spaceship Command Center and character action figures. To introduce the line, Mattel and Disney Consumer Products released a “toymation” video that uses stop-motion animation. The video stars Buzz Lightyear, Woody, and Rex as they travel into outer space.

A crew of eight people worked more than 1,300 hours during a span of four weeks to complete the toymation, according to Mattel and DCP. The companies also reported that every second needed 12 frames of pictures, and every shot needed at least three takes, many of which had to be done separately with each toy and composited together later.

Other toymation facts include:

• Each toy had to be taken apart and reassembled with wire and museum putty to be rigged properly to animate.
• The dust bunnies were created from an old carpet the team almost threw out right before production on the toymation project began.
• The crew made five trips to the supermarket to clear out its asparagus, big broccoli heads, and artichokes to build the vegetable forest set.

Comic-Con International has brought franchises including Voltron, Captain America, and Star Trek, to the estimated 125,000 comic fans gathered in San Diego July 21-24, while toymakers have embraced the opportunity to funnel exclusive licensed merchandise to collectors.

Toy companies like Mattel and Hasbro offer exclusive merchandise presented in unique packaging that committed collectors would appreciate, according to Gregory Schmidt’s New York Times article about toymakers at Comic-Con. “Packaging is not just something to hold the figure,” said Frank Varela, an art director for Mattel, in the article. “Packaging enhances the experience of having the toy. It harkens to nostalgia for the fan boys.”

Along with Swamp Thing and Voltron toys, Mattel comes to Comic-Con with a 20-inch replica of the Stay-Puft Marshamallow Man from Ghostbusters, with a city diorama and packaged inside a box resembling a suitcase. Mattel also brings two Hot Wheels vehicles, including the DeLorean from Back to the Future with a movie diorama.

Hasbro brings a Star Wars set that includes 12 action figures in a box designed to look like the Death Star. The company will also display Ultimate Optimus Prime, Marvel Universe Sentinel, Transformers, G.I. Joe, My Little Pony, and the new Kre-O brand, which is making its Comic-Con debut with 12 building sets featuring Transformers characters.

Despite the current temperatures this week (96º in NYC), Comic-Con isn’t always so hot for film studios.

Comic-Con attendees can generate negative buzz that hurts a film, said Tim Palen, Lionsgate’s president for theatrical marketing, in an AdAge.com article by Andrew Hampp.

“If the fans don’t think something is cool, they will let you know—instantly, and passionately,” Palen told Ad Age. “So if you come to Comic-Con, you’d better have the goods, because there are other opportunities to launch, and it’s very hard to recover from bad Comic-Con buzz.”

Mid-sized studios Lionsgate and Relativity Media are presenting at least four movies each, showing screenings or selected content from their upcoming releases, while Warner Bros., Disney, and DreamWorks stayed home this year.

Relativity announced at Comic-Con that it has optioned the feature film rights for Voltron from World Event Productions. The studio will adapt the live-action big screen version from the 1984 animated series Voltron: Defender of the Universe. Comic-Con is big for Voltron this year, as the franchise made it Comic-Con panel debut Thursday with a presentation of new and classic Voltron content.

Dissenting from the worry of other big studios, Sony has a panel for 2012’s The Amazing Spider-Man movie and is advertising the Ghost Rider sequel. Comic-Con also scored participation from Summit Entertainment with a panel for The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Universal with a Cowboys and Aliens premiere, and Paramount with a Captain America: The First Avenger screening and a panel for The Adventures of Tintin. Audience members of Captain America will receive RealD 3D Collector’s custom red, white, and blue Captain America glasses, a limited-edition poster, and a grand prize package of Captain America merchandise and other Marvel items given away to an audience member at each screening.

Television properties have a presence at Comic-Con as well. Nickelodeon, Toynami, and vinyl toy brand Unkl partnered to create co-branded SpongeBob SquarePants urban vinyl toys, modeled after Unkl’s UniPo figures, available this fall. Toynami unveiled working prototypes of the first wave of figures at Comic-Con, which will include SpongeBob SquarePants, Patrick, Squidward, Mr. Krabs, and The Flying Dutchman. Nickelodeon Consumer Products also unveiled a new lineup of toys from Jazwares for Fanboy and Chum Chum, available in August from Toys “R” Us.

CBS has come to the convention with exclusive sneak peeks, signings, and limited-edition products based on its television brands, including Star Trek, CSI, NCIS, Dexter, Charmed, Cheers, and The Twilight Zone. Since these TV properties have been long-established and don’t face the same need movies have to garner buzz and then box office sales, TV shows seem to cater to the collector in a similar way as the toy companies. CBS attends Comic-Con to reach its audience directly, said Liz Kalodner, executive vice president and general manager of CBS Consumer Products. “By offering these exclusive items we can reward our greatest fans with products that can’t be found anywhere else.”

—Melissa Tinklepaugh

Walmart Will Share Sales Data

Big news from the retail front, where Walmart has agreed to share sales data with research organizations through Nielson & Co.

Walmart previously kept sales data to itself, leading research firms to use consumer panel data and advanced modeling to estimate the mega-retailer’s packaged-good sales totals.

Nielsen’s Niffer Frighetto told Advertising Age‘s Jack Neff that sales data will be available in a “few months,” and that the data will cover sales from U.S. Walmart stores, Neighborhood Markets, and Sam’s Club, and will include some historical data.

NHL Announces A Good Number of Deals

The National Hockey League, of which the Boston Bruins are champions, announced 23 new licensees at its annual licensing and trade show Wednesday and Thursday.

New licensees include A&E Group for outerwear; Coveroo for cell phone covers; and Levelwear for apparel and outerwear in Canada. Franklin Sports also signed a renewal agreement for its two-decade partnership to create NHL Street Hockey Gear.

Did we mention that the Bruins won the Stanley Cup?

—Bryan Joiner

Comic-Con kicks off today in San Diego. It’s kind of a big deal. We’ll have full coverage tomorrow, but until then here’s a New York Times article by Gregory Schmidt about how toymakers including Mattel and Hasbro are using the convention as a launching pad for new and limited-edition toys.

The big news from yesterday was Disney signing a deal with the National Hockey League for co-branded Phineas and Ferb merchandise for the 2011-12 season. We and others have talked about how Disney is actively using Phineas and Ferb to make inroads into the boys 6-11 market. We’ve also talked about how sports labor issues in the NFL (though that seems on its way to a resolution) and NBA might affect licensed product sales, but we haven’t talked about how it could affect deals and dealmaking. If there’s no NBA season next year, which seems like a real possibility, the value of Disney’s deal with the NHL would increase—perhaps not dramatically, but increased nonetheless. Sports-hungry eyeballs have to go somewhere when football isn’t on.

Warner Bros. announced that it has teamed with Lego to create Lego DC Universe Super Heroes. Lego has access to the entire library of DC Comics characters (including Batman, Robin, Catwoman, The Joker, The Riddler, and more) and stories. And not to step on our Comic-Con coverage, but 3,000 exclusive Batman and Green Lantern minifigures will be distributed to kick off a five-month promotion for the launch.

Finally, big news from WME Licensing, where The Little Prince has been sold as an animated series with 54 half-hour episodes in more than 72 countries, with a motion picture now in development. Licensing for the classic storytime book and the animation series is now underway, and interested parties should contact Rob Stone, president of WME Licensing, at rstone@wmeentertainment.com.

—Bryan Joiner

Marvel Entertainment, LLC, and the National Basketball Association have announced a collaboration to launch an exclusive collection of co-branded merchandise featuring NBA team logos alongside Super Heroes in the Marvel Universe.

The line will include co-branded apparel and accessories, with artwork featuring a variety of Marvel Super Heroes, including Spider-Man, Iron Man and Captain America, dressed in NBA team colors and logos.

The collection will launch with headwear and apparel, including T-shirts and sweatshirts by C-Life, as well as headwear by New Era.

Modell’s and Madison Square Garden will launch the New York collection and the STAPLES Center will be the first destination for L.A. Lakers co-branded merchandise to debut at the NBA All-Star game on February 20. The products will then be made available in other national and regional sporting goods retailers, specialty stores, additional NBA arena stores, and mid-tier channels sports apparel departments.

Twentieth Century Fox Consumer Products has once again partnered with Kidrobot, creator and retailer of limited-edition art toys and apparel, to release The Simpsons series 2-vinyl toy mini-figures. The second series features two alternate versions of the popular family as well as 15 new characters (including extended family members and friends).

Kidrobot’s The Simpsons mini series two includes 25 new figures, which can be sold separately for $9.95 or purchased by the case. The figurines are available at Kidrobot stores, kidrobot.com, and select retailers worldwide.

Not quite sure if this common truth extends to middle America, but here in New York the rent is too damn high and gubernatorial candidate Jimmy McMillan possesses a certain part of the male anatomy to say so. McMillan, founder of The Rent Is 2 Damn High party (yes, the number two), has been making waves in the Empire State with his rants (akin to a mentally ill homeless man), muttonchops and skintight black gloves—Agent. Orange. Kills.

Now, the folks over at Herobuilders.com , a company specializing in custom and political action figures, have turned this crazed politician into a talking doll. For $49.99 people who collect kitschy things like this can display the pop culture hero on their mantel, coffee table or wherever else someone would put a kitschy thing like this. Spouting the famous phrase, “The rent is too damn high,” the doll is sure to be a conversation starter for those in the McMillan camp as well as his detractors. With a talking doll now under his belt and Saturday Night Live showing him the love, maybe McMillan has a fighting chance to win that coveted position in Albany.

Bulldog Licensing has announced that four new UK licensees have joined the list of partners for kids’ property Gogo’s Crazy Bones.

The new additions to the Gogo’s licensing fold are VMC for a range of apparel accessories such as hats, gloves and scarves; Toybrokers for a craft product that lets Gogo’s fans make a rubbery pencil topper; Lightbody for celebration cakes; and Titan, set to produce a monthly Gogo’s magazine, due to launch in September.

The new licensees join a host of others including Bacup for footwear, Sambro for stationery, Portico for greetings cards, Pyramid for posters, Roy Lowe and Sons for socks, Infocado for calendars, Zap for bedding, Halsall for wheeled toys, Poetic Gem for apparel, MV Sports and Leisure for plush, Alpa for back to school and giftware, Vogue for lunch boxes and bottles, Winning Moves for top trumps, and Penguin and Random House for publishing.

Gogo’s Crazy Bones collectible figures are produced by Magic Box International and PPI Worldwide Group.

If you’re like us, you watched the Lost season premiere last night and thought it… was… awesome. (We hope you’re like us.) So to come in this morning and to see that Bif Bang Pow!, in conjunction with EMCE toys, will make ’70s style action figures based on several properties, Lost included, was a particular treat. The only way it could be better, we thought, is if they were also making toys for The Big Lebowski… which they were.

So yeah, they’re definitely getting a blog post.

More than 40 new figures standing eight inches tall will be produced for Lost, Leboswki, The Venture Bros., Dexter, The Twilight Zone, Flash Gordon, and Scott Ian. And that is not just, like, our opinion, man.