With his philosophical toy, Vaucanson invited man to play god.

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Besides being a fancy toy for a very rich man, the phone enabled Mr. Stone to visually emphasize Gekko's early-bird-gets-the-worm work ethic: "There he was, prowling the beach at dawn, " says Mr. Stone.

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The reason was the strong performance of Toy Story 3 and Iron Man 2 in the third quarter of 2010, as opposed to the weaker performance of Cars 2 and Thor in the current quarter.

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He was the man who launched Pixar, and Pixar begat Toy Story and Finding Nemo.

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And while Mr Khodorkovsky, sentenced to nine years in jail for various alleged crimes, is now sharing a cell with ten other prisoners, Mr Abramovich, his successor as Russia's richest man, will this weekend watch his favourite toy, Chelsea Football Club, begin its defence of its English Premiership title.

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Man of Action Studios has also created successful video games, toy lines, comic books and stage productions.

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