Monsuno, a Japanese TV show about a group of adventuresome friends and their creature sidekicks, should soon mean a series of toys distributed in 30 countries.

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Some of the best moments in the script come when Will toys with a series of psychologists, even pretending to be hypnotized at one point to prove that he's way ahead of their game (he bursts into a chorus of "Afternoon Delight" while supposedly under the spell).

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Skylanders Swap Force -- the latest crossplatform entry in the mega-successful Skylanders game franchise -- cements Activision's annual approach to its "toys to life" series.

ENGADGET

He himself set up a series of front companies (Main Street Toys and Midtown Muscle among them), submitted paperwork to O'Quinn's bean counters for a sum, say, 30% higher, pocketing the spread.

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Activision also highlighted the success of its Skylanders franchise - a series aimed at children in which add-on toys unlock new characters and content.

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With Skylanders Swap Force being in the hands of Vicarious Visions this year it will be interested to see how they passed (or shared) the mantle of head character designer between them and Toys for Bob, particularly for the Series 3 reposed versions of existing figures.

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More recently Mattel launched an Apptivity series of iPad games designed to let kids control the games with their plastic toys.

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Skylanders Swap Force, the next iteration of the console game, introduces 16 new mix and match Swap Force Skylanders, 16 new Series 3 reposed figures, 16 new core Skylanders and 8 new Light-core toys.

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His latest album, The Toys of Men, functions as a career summary of sorts, with Clarke delivering a series of solo acoustic bass miniatures that reference past efforts while functioning with impressive restraint.

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