Action Blast! (partially lost TV infomercial series; 2006)
Action Blast! is an American infomercial variety television series produced by the toy company Hasbro and Tango Pix that aired exclusively on G4 between January 2nd and December 29th, 2006.[1] The hour-long daily program was an attempt by Hasbro to secure television placement for their shows, as they had issues maintaining a consistent run on other broadcasters at the time.
Action Blast! featured edited versions of Hasbro library content, with new hosted footage, promotional spots for Hasbro products (called "BAMs") plus shorts from Kaiju Big Battel and Dr. Physics. Due to the series being paid programming, the episodes were presented with no commercial breaks and the only G4 channel identifications came at the half-hour mark due to company requirements.[2] Consequently, many TV guides at the time listed the show's 8AM slot under a generic "Infomercial/Paid Programming" label.[3]
The weekday slots contained time condensed versions of two different Hasbro shows in the one hour runtime (initially Beast Wars and Battle B-Daman, but later adding G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero, G.I. Joe: Sigma Six and Transformers: Cybertron) alongside the new live-action content. On the weekends, the five animated episodes were edited into seven-minute segments. The latter were then distributed on Hasbro's website (now offline) as "webisodes".[2]
The live-action segments were shot around the Providence, Rhode Island Boston, Massachusetts area between January 2006 and January 2007.[2][4] Kaiju Big Battel's Jack Dourakos ("Louden Noxious") and an unknown actor played "Beav Wallace." Hayley Thompson-King played the role of "Dr. Physics."[5] The edited animation was done by Tango Pix.[6][7]
It's not known how many Action Blast! episodes were produced and the series has never been re-released after its run on G4. Few clips of the show have surfaced online. A promotional DVD was handed out at the 2006 San Diego Comic-Con.[8]
In 2009, Hasbro would later attempt a more large-scale attempt to rectify their TV placement woes, as the company entered into a joint venture with Discovery Communications to relaunch Discovery Kids as a new TV channel.[9] The new channel debuted on October 10th, 2010, as The Hub.[10]
Surfaced Content
External Links
- Official page at Hasbro.com Retrieved 18 Sept '17
- Official page at G4TV.com Retrieved 18 Sept '17
References
- ↑ G4 and Hasbro Join Forces to Bring Entertainment Based on Popular Hasbro Brands to G4 Audience Retrieved 18 Sept '17
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Action Blast! Retrieved 18 Sept '17
- ↑ G4's Action Blast Retrieved 18 Sept '17
- ↑ Matt R Newcomb Retrieved 18 Sept '17
- ↑ Action Blast! (TV Series 2006- ) Retrieved 18 Sept '17
- ↑ Web video streams a hot marketing tool Retrieved 18 Sept '17
- ↑ Local firms try to cash in on state’s film tax credit Retrieved 18 Sept '17
- ↑ WALRUSLAW'S DVD COLLECTION Retrieved 18 Sept '17
- ↑ Hasbro and Discovery Communications Announce Joint Venture to Create Television Network Dedicated to High-Quality Children's and Family Entertainment and Educational Content Retrieved 18 Sept '17
- ↑ Discovery, Hasbro ready Hub network for launch Retrieved 18 Sept '17