Jakks Entertainment (Disney, Hannah Montana, Care Bears, etc) is looking forward to a weak 2009, after worse than expected 4th quarter results, and low sales in 2008. Net income in Q4 was half that of Q4 2007. Sales were down 6%. In essence, they’re saying that sales of new toys are not enough to offset the declining sales of brands no longer in favor, such as Hannah Montana. (source)

Leapfrog (mostly toys) lost $68 million on sales of $459 million in 2008. They cut 131 people in the first nine months of ‘08, and an additional 43 in sales staff. As a result, they paid no executive bonuses. What a concept. (source)

4Kids (Chaotic) was also down in 2008. Revenue was up over 2008 ($63.7 million compared to $55.6 million in 2007), though down in Q4 ($14.3 million compared to $16.5 million in 2007). Net loss was $36 million. A quarter of the revenue for 2008 was from Chaotic cards, but even these underperformed in Q4. They still have big hopes for the brand in 2009. (source)

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Using awesome-looking technology from Total Immersion that you may have seen on CNN – and wondered what the point was – Topps baseball card packs now come with special cards that can produce 3-D images when held up to a webcam.

Pop-em up and watch them roam around, on your card in your cam but in your physical world, doing basic things like pitching, hitting, and batting in a simple casual game world environment.

And if you missed it, Topps has a game you can play with your baseball cards (special versions thereof) called Topps Attax. Each player flips a card, and the one with the higher value wins.

Wow. I bet it took a lot of late-evening brainstormers to come up with that design.

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And speaking of Luxist, head over to the site for your free chance to win a $250 Dal Negro Backgammon Set from Zontik Games. US residents only.

Zontik Games is a well-known retailer of luxury board games.

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