4Kids Talkback: The Madness Ends Here - The 4Kids Discussion V2

[PC!]

Actually, you have one more week.

 

[Daxdiv]

Actually, you have one more week.

Yeah I saw the Ad during Spidey, though I find it funny that the announcer said the 25th, but the words on the screen said 24th. The ad showed off the shows airing currently, but since 4kids programing won't take over until late summer, the change at the beginning will be minimum, I guessing they'll trasit their own program at a small pace that the majority of people won't notice.

 

[D Dubbs]

Yeah I saw the Ad during Spidey, though I find it funny that the announcer said the 25th, but the words on the screen said 24th.

I heard the announcer say the 24th.

A promo also aired on 4Kids TV this morning showcasing the new online Dino Holder (meant to complement the Chaotic Scanner). You basically use Yahoo Maps to find dinosaur cards that are hidden in certain areas of the world, with hints that the game gives you about those locations.

Interestingly enough, the first two cards (Terry and Chomp) are located in Japan, and the hints for those locations refer to Japan as the home of the D-Team. Hopefully this means that 4Kids won't try to work around the issue of the D-Team living in Japan in future episodes.

 

[D Dubbs]

May 12, 2008 - 8:10 AM EDT

4Kids Entertainment Reports First Quarter 2008 Results

4Kids Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE: KDE), a global provider of children’s entertainment and merchandise licensing, today announced financial results for the quarter ended March 31, 2008.

Net revenues in the first quarter of 2008 totaled $15.0 million, compared to $14.9 million in the same period in 2007. Revenue included approximately $2.4 million from the sale of Chaotic® trading cards, which were rolled out at major retailers across the U.S. and Canada throughout the quarter. The Company’s net loss for the quarter ended March 31, 2008 was $(6.4) million, or $(0.48) per diluted share, as compared to a net loss of $(0.2) million, or $(0.02) per diluted share, for the first quarter of 2007.

The Company’s financial position was negatively affected by conditions in the market for auction rate securities (ARS). During the first three months of 2008, the Company recorded a reduction in the Company’s equity of $9.2 million due to the decline in market value of its portfolio of ARS. At March 31, 2008, the Company continued to hold ARS with a market value of approximately $39.0 million.

“Our first quarter results reflect the continued investment in the development of our new initiatives, including a year-over-year increase of $3.6 million in selling, general & administrative expense and costs associated with our Chaotic trading card game and website subsidiaries, as well as decreased licensing revenues from some of our more established properties,” said Alfred R. Kahn, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, 4Kids Entertainment. “We believe that the development initiatives undertaken over the last several quarters will be a main growth driver for the next several years.”

“I am pleased to report that since the national retail launch of the Chaotic trading card game in January of 2008, Chaotic has gained substantial traction at over 15,000 stores, including Wal-Mart, Target, Toys “R” Us and Kmart. In addition, the Chaotic trading card game is one of the top two selling trading card games in Canada. Chaotic also continues to expand its popularity online, with more than 15 million cards registered online and over one million unique visitors to the game site, www.chaoticgame.com, to date.”

“We look forward to announcing the new 4Kids TV lineup for the 2008-09 broadcast season. Beginning this fall, we will supply 50 percent of children’s broadcast television programming on Saturday mornings, including a five-hour block on the CW Network and a four-hour block on Fox. The new CW agreement, which we announced in October 2007, provides us with greater visibility for our hit children’s entertainment programming and a more favorable cost structure than our existing agreement with Fox. We also expect to introduce some exciting, new properties at Licensing Show in New York in June,” Mr. Kahn concluded.

Hmm, not as bad as I thought. They only lost $6 million this quarter, compared to $16 million last quarter. If Chaotic continues to sell well, they might actually make a profit next quarter.

And I guess June is when we'll learn about 4Kids' upcoming properties. I'll listen to the conference call later today and see if Kahn had anything else to say.

 

[CyberCubed]

Gee, a 5 hour and 4 hour block on Saturday mornings at the same time...and 4kids barely has enough properties to fill up a single block without doing double airings.

I'm quite interested to know how they pull this off. Whatever they do they'll be pitting their shows against one another, so if Chaotic airs on the WB it could go against Yu-gi-oh GX on 4kids...etc.

This should prove interesting at least.

 

[Rahxepy]

Breaking News for Chaotic!!!!!!!!!!!11 just listened to most of the Conference call and apparently 4Kids are changing the series. They are going to animate the series in 2D animation rather than flash for the new series for CW. AL Khan stated that it will better suit the series and help sell more cards..I think that is Amazing. Finally no more Flash.

 

[Rahxepy]

Also From the conference call They will be announcing some new properties for the fall at the licensing show next month..So I wonder what anime they licensed to fill empty spots..I know Yu-Gi-Oh 5D's will be one of them but I wonder what the others or other might be.?



One thing I was hoping to hear was that they would get Dino King, Yu-Gi-Oh, and TMNT on Toon Disney by the fall. looks like I still have to wait.

 

[Jeff Harris]

Not really familiar with YGO 5D or whatever it's called, but does it have something to do with racing?

I asked because Fox aired a promo for "the next evolution of Yu-Gi-Oh racing your way soon" during the NASCAR race this past Saturday night.

I find that curious because if this was for the new Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D, it would seem that series will be on Fox rather thank The CW, as so many people said it would air.

 

[Rahxepy]

Not really familiar with YGO 5D or whatever it's called, but does it have something to do with racing?

I asked because Fox aired a promo for "the next evolution of Yu-Gi-Oh racing your way soon" during the NASCAR race this past Saturday night.

I find that curious because if this was for the new Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D, it would seem that series will be on Fox rather thank The CW, as so many people said it would air.

it does..But thats waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyy tooooo early for them to be promoting the series that they didn't announce officially yet. But from what I know the series is gonna air on CW. they might air it on both networks..who knows.

 

[Undrave]

Here's the YGO 5Ds opening:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmGERnz9XBg

I think it looks awesome

I'm pretty sure we'll have more Dinosaur King. As for other anime 4Kids might pick up... I dunno.

I wish they would give Class of the Titans a spot on CW, even if they totally dropped the ball on Di-Gata Defender ><

Hmm... Time Jam maybe?

 

[D Dubbs]

Yeah, Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds is about dueling on motorcycles. >.>

Despite the silly premise, it's not a bad show. The animation is spectacular(it's produced in high definition), the music is epic, and the plot seems to be pretty decent so far, juding from the first five episodes or so. There's obviously a lot more money going into this series than there was going into Yu-Gi-Oh! GX. The show does take itself rather seriously, though, perhaps even more so than the original, so you probably won't be able to get into it unless you like card game shows.

But airing a promo for it during NASCAR? That seems pretty strange. Is there a video of it online somewhere?

Hmm...Chaotic will be produced in 2D animation? Cool. Nice to see 4Kids putting more emphasis on quality.

 

[Undrave]

Yeah, Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds is about dueling on motorcycles. >.>

Well there's still plenty of standard dueling going on though.

 

[Sonic_Eclipse]

I only watch Chaotic sometimes when waiting for Spider-Man, it can be pretty good sometimes. I always thought the show could benefit from better animation and I'm glad to hear that it is, the current animation just looks to flat and stiff for whats going on sometimes.

 

[PC!]

It'll be interesting to see Chaotic in straight 2D. I wonder how radically the designs will change, if at all.

 

[Light Lucario]

Here's the YGO 5Ds opening:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmGERnz9XBg

I think it looks awesome

I'm pretty sure we'll have more Dinosaur King. As for other anime 4Kids might pick up... I dunno.

I wish they would give Class of the Titans a spot on CW, even if they totally dropped the ball on Di-Gata Defender ><

Hmm... Time Jam maybe?

Yeah, I've heard both the opening and ending themes to 5D's and they are pretty awesome. I've heard good things about this series so I'm really looking foreword to seeing it in the fall. I find it amazing that I'm much more open minded for 5D's than I was when I first watched GX. Oh well. I'm surprised that they would promote 5D's during NASCAR since I've only heard of them dueling on motorcycles and regular standing duels. I'm not sure how that relates to NASCAR per say, but whatever.

Yeah, Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds is about dueling on motorcycles. >.>

Despite the silly premise, it's not a bad show. The animation is spectacular(it's produced in high definition), the music is epic, and the plot seems to be pretty decent so far, juding from the first five episodes or so. There's obviously a lot more money going into this series than there was going into Yu-Gi-Oh! GX. The show does take itself rather seriously, though, perhaps even more so than the original, so you probably won't be able to get into it unless you like card game shows.

These are the kind of comments that make me look foreword to watching 5D's in the fall. I'm not surprised that the show takes itself seriously. Every Yu-Gi-Oh! series, even the first one, made every game completely serious. But that's always one of the aspect that makes the series interesting as they can make even a card game more interesting than usual.

I've seen Chaotic every now and then and it's interesting to hear that they're going regular 2D style for new season. That probably will provide interesting new character designs and the animation will probably flow better. I wonder if they'll release new character designs like they did with TMNT at some point.

 

[Undrave]

5Ds looks darker than GX. I mean Neo Domino City is pretty dystopian, what with the shiny futuristic city being surrounded by slums ("Satellite") and the people of Satellite not being allowed into Neo Domino City without permission. And when they do break that law they get branded. On the FACE oO with some sort of tracing thingimajig?!

And everybody's obsessed with card games.

 

[D Dubbs]

Interesting Notes from the Conference Call

• TMNT merchandise is down from last year, since last year there was the TMNT movie to drive merchandise sales, though 4Kids is planning a large number of events for the 25th anniversary, many of which will be revealed at the next quarterly conference call
• Yu-Gi-Oh! sales have remained stable, and 4Kids believes that bringing 5Ds over will help keep the momentum going for the franchise
• Chaotic is the third bestselling TCG in the U.S., after Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh!, and they predict that the franchise will generate between $20 million and $30 million this year.
• 4Kids is planning a large licensing program for Dinosaur King (action figures, trading cards, etc.), and the revenues from the franchise have been positive so far.
• 4Kids.tv streams approximately 9 million episodes a month, and 3 million episodes are ordered on 4Kids TV on Demand per month.
• Hmm, seems like they want to get back into the licensing biz. Wonder if that means more anime, other foreign shows, or what...

 

[Undrave]

• TMNT merchandise is down from last year, since last year there was the TMNT movie to drive merchandise sales, though 4Kids is planning a large number of events for the 25th anniversary, many of which will be revealed at the next quarterly conference call
• Yu-Gi-Oh! sales have remained stable, and 4Kids believes that bringing 5Ds over will help keep the momentum going for the franchise
• Chaotic is the third bestselling TCG in the U.S., after Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh!, and they predict that the franchise will generate between $20 million and $30 million this year.
• 4Kids is planning a large licensing program for Dinosaur King (action figures, trading cards, etc.), and the revenues from the franchise have been positive so far.
• 4Kids.tv streams approximately 9 million episodes a month, and 3 million episodes are ordered on 4Kids TV on Demand per month.
• Hmm, seems like they want to get back into the licensing biz. Wonder if that means more anime, other foreign shows, or what...

HOLY SMOKES?! The third after Pokémon and Yu-gi-oh!? Wow... those poor guys from Magic must be devastated to see all the kids stuff popping around XD

That's one thing Chaotic got going for it. Just like yu-gi-oh! its not based on the plot itself, but its a game the characters play. They're not constrained by the show like Bleach, Naturo and other liscenced deals are. Even if the show was to dissapear they could keep expending the universe at will.

4Kids seems to be doing great buisness with Dino King... I hope we can get some mini dino figures! I also hope it becomes a buisness model for them because its a darn decent dub job.

Glad to know celebrating TMNT's 25th aniversary is in 4Kids' plans.

 

[D Dubbs]

HOLY SMOKES?! The third after Pokémon and Yu-gi-oh!? Wow... those poor guys from Magic must be devastated to see all the kids stuff popping around XD

Well, Kahn mentioned that a good chunk of Chaotic TCG players are also adults.

Anyway, 4Kids isn't sure what they're going to do in the fall yet. One idea they seemed to toss around was to play reruns of the old Chaotic series on FOX, while having the new Chaotic series air premieres on CW.

And Kahn made it pretty clear that it was going to be a new SERIES (not season), so I wonder if it's going to feature entirely new characters. It would be weird if they did that though, given the cliffhanger ending of the season finale.

 

[Undrave]

Well, Kahn mentioned that a good chunk of Chaotic TCG players are also adults.

Anyway, 4Kids isn't sure what they're going to do in the fall yet. One idea they seemed to toss around was to play reruns of the old Chaotic series on FOX, while having the new Chaotic series air premieres on CW.

And Kahn made it pretty clear that it was going to be a new SERIES (not season), so I wonder if it's going to feature entirely new characters. It would be weird if they did that though, given the cliffhanger ending of the season finale.

Yeah TCGs are filled with adult players but a lot of M:TG players have a renowned disdain for anything moving in on their turf, especially when it comes from children cartoon's property.

Hmm... I'd like to see the show get some sort of plot going, or at least a semblance of explaination as to WHAT THE HECK the whole Chaotic place IS and who created and for what! I personally suspect the Codemasters don't do any scanning but actually CREATE the places and they're like super programmers of what is essentially an artificial reality.

A change in character dynamic would be apreciated too.

Well when it come to TV exec 'series' and 'season' can easily be swapped around. Its all pretty loose. The British for exemple never really use the term 'season'.

you know what would be a genius approach to a new Chaotic serie? Go one step further in the whole meta and fourth wall stuff.

Make it about a player of the real life Chaotic game and fan of the Flash show who finds out that Chaotic and Perrim really do exist like in the show XD

Its like...onion reality or something