Los Angeles: Move over Green Lantern. The new stars of this week's Comic-Con International comic-book festival may be Barbie and Strawberry Shortcake.
Like Hollywood studios, Mattel and Hasbro view the annual Comic-Con gathering in San Diego, the biggest US comic-book and movie convention, as a pipeline to fans who can build buzz for new products.
They're pushing to put toys in films and on TV, and see the show as more than a nerd-fest.
"It's turned from a fanboy event to a family event," said Doug Wadleigh, vice president of boys action play marketing for Mattel, in El Segundo, California.
"Parents are bringing their kids," he said.
About 40 per cent of this year's attendees would be female, the organisers said.
Mattel and Hasbro, the world's largest toy companies, would sell limited-edition dolls and offer peeks at new products to an estimated 125,000 fans registered to attend starting today.
Hasbro said it was bringing figures based on characters from G.I. Joe and Transformers. Mattel is producing Masters of the Universe and Ghostbusters toys.
Mattel would spotlight girls toys at Comic-Con for the first time, Wadleigh said. Barbie had a booth and the company was selling a limited-edition Polly Pocket figure, he said.
Mattel is also promoting Monster High, a toy line that targets girls.
Worldwide toy sales rose 3.6 per cent to $80.3 billion last year, researcher NPD Group in Port Washington, New York said.
Adult collectors spend more than $1 billion a year on film and comic-related products and even more on toys for their children, said Jim Silver, editor-in- chief of the TimetoPlayMag.com website and Royalties$ magazine.
Limited-edition toys were a popular draw.
"It gets your fans talking," Silver said. "They talk a lot on the Web. If you do a really great collector's item, it can enhance the overall value of that toy line."
Hasbro, based in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, said it would offer an exclusive Strawberry Shortcake doll and a My Little Pony figure.
Typically, 1,500 or so copies of exclusive toys were made for and sold only at Comic-Con, Silver said.
"Exclusives are really what bring people in," Silver said.
Comic-Con is also designed to give toymakers an opportunity to showcase products at the same time studios are promoting movies the toys inspired.
Hasbro's Transformers and G.I. Joe toys have become the basis for big-budget movies produced by Viacom Paramount Pictures.
Sales of Transformers toys and merchandise rose to $590 million last year with the release of the second movie from $480 million in 2007, when the first film was released, John Frascotti, Hasbro's global chief marketing officer, said in an interview.