Terragon, who keeps up with the latest news (when there is any) concerning Toy Vault’s Middle-earth Action Figures has reported on his Bravenet message board that he spoke with Jon Huston, president of Toy Vault, at Comicon.
Huston apparently told Terragon that Toy Vault is not making any public statements concerning the Middle-earth license at their attorneys’ direction until the legal issues are resolved. The Toy Vault license, acquired from Tolkien Enterprises before Peter Jackson’s production of “The Lord of the Rings” commenced, does not provide for any association with the current movies. The movie-based toy license was awarded to Marvel Comics’ Toy Biz division a few weeks ago.
In a recent update of the Middle-earth Toys Web site, all the background essays written by Michael Martinez under contract to Toy Vault were removed without explanation. Since the essays were written as works for hire, they can only be published again by Toy Vault or Tolkien Enterprises (when the Toy Vault license reverts to Tolkien Enterprises after their present contract expires).
Toy Vault will be releasing two new action figures, Galadriel and the Barrow-wight, later this year. Aragorn and Legolas are next on the production schedule, but since their contract runs out at the end of 2001 many collectors and fans are concerned about whether more action figures will be produced for the line.
Toy Vault currently has contracts for FARSCAPE and EVERQUEST action figures, and they recently just announced a new H.P. Lovecraft/Cthulhu line of action figures.
