{"id":148,"date":"2025-06-13T11:14:00","date_gmt":"2025-06-13T15:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/joepanc.com\/clixalmanac\/?p=148"},"modified":"2025-06-07T23:32:37","modified_gmt":"2025-06-08T03:32:37","slug":"clixtory-topps-to-acquire-wizkids","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/joepanc.com\/clixalmanac\/2025\/06\/13\/clixtory-topps-to-acquire-wizkids\/","title":{"rendered":"Clixtory: Topps To Acquire Wizkids"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em>JUNE 23, 2003 (SEATTLE)<\/em> \u2014 Today, The Topps Company, the trading card, collectibles, and confectionary company, announced it is acquiring WizKids, Inc (\u201cWizKids\u201d), a privately held designer and marketer of collectible strategy games, headquartered in Bellevue, Washington. WizKids\u2019 current games include&nbsp;<em>Mage Knight, HeroClix,<\/em>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<em>MechWarrior<\/em>, all of which utilize collectible miniature figures with a patent-pending \u201ccombat dial\u201d that encodes relevant game information in the base of each piece.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>Topps Chairman and CEO, Arthur T. Shorin said, \u201cThe acquisition of WizKids represents an important step in our strategy for growing the Entertainment segment of the business as it provides efficient entry to the growing collectible games market. Founded in 2000, WizKids enjoys a strong reputation for its innovative game design, effective marketing skills, and high-level customer care. In addition to the existing product line, there is a healthy pipeline of new games in development.\u201d He added, \u201cJoining forces with WizKids will enhance the licensing reach of both companies and will further leverage Topps brand franchises. We look forward to welcoming the management and employees of WizKids to the Topps family.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jordan Weisman, WizKids\u2019 co-founder and CEO, will be responsible for the day-to-day management of WizKids and its 95 employees. Mr. Weisman, 43, has been one of the gaming industry\u2019s most successful and prolific designers over 20 years. He will report directly to Scott Silverstein, EVP and head of Topps Entertainment Division.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mr. Weisman commented, \u201cWe are delighted to join with Topps and look forward to enhancing the Company\u2019s product offerings with the addition of collectible strategy games. With the support of Topps resources, its distribution know-how, industry presence, and brands, we are excited to realize the full value of our game products and to play a role in the successful evolution of Topps entertainment lines.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>WizKids manufactures and distributes \u201ccollectable miniatures games,\u201d a category of tabletop strategy game invented by Weisman in 1999, and now played in 56 countries all over the world. To date, the company has sold more than 100 million toy figures under the game brands Mage Knight\u2122, MechWarrior\u00ae, and HeroClix\u2122.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The latest game to bear WizKids\u2019 imaginative stamp is Shadowrun\u00ae Duels, which hits store shelves this month. Shadowrun combines full-sized action figures with a complete set of tabletop \u201ccombat\u201d rules, combining imaginative play and rules-based game play. In September, WizKids is launching Creepy Freaks\u2122 the Gross-Out 3-D Trading Game that combines the collectability of card games with the tabletop strategy of a miniatures game. It is also the first WizKids title designed exclusively for kids.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For additional information on WizKids, visit www.wizkidsgames.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>JUNE 23, 2003 (SEATTLE) \u2014 Today, The Topps Company, the trading card, collectibles, and confectionary company, announced it is acquiring WizKids, Inc (\u201cWizKids\u201d), a privately held designer and marketer of collectible strategy games, headquartered in Bellevue, Washington. WizKids\u2019 current games include&nbsp;Mage Knight, HeroClix,&nbsp;and&nbsp;MechWarrior, all of which utilize collectible miniature figures with a patent-pending \u201ccombat dial\u201d [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-148","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-clixtory"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/joepanc.com\/clixalmanac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/joepanc.com\/clixalmanac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/joepanc.com\/clixalmanac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joepanc.com\/clixalmanac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joepanc.com\/clixalmanac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/joepanc.com\/clixalmanac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":227,"href":"https:\/\/joepanc.com\/clixalmanac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148\/revisions\/227"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/joepanc.com\/clixalmanac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joepanc.com\/clixalmanac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joepanc.com\/clixalmanac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}