Warner Bros. Consumer Products has announced a global partnership with McFarlane Toys to introduce an all-new line of action figures based on characters from the well-populated Hanna-Barbera cartoon library.  The first Hanna-Barbera action figures from McFarlane Toys should be available in stores in the summer of 2006.

Bill Hanna and Joseph Barbera started out making theatrical cartoons, most notably the lengthy (and Oscar-winning) Tom & Jerry series, for MGM and they stayed with the studio until MGM dropped its animation unit in 1957.  Hanna and Barbera then formed their own production company and found their greatest success on the small screen, using limited animation (only the body parts that moved were animated -- and more fully animated action scenes such as a character walking were used over and over and over again) -- and recycling characters from popular live action series.  Still Hanna-Barbera's borrowing was often quite creative.  Their biggest prime time TV hit was The Flintstones, which featured working class humor and characters swiped from The Honeymooners, but set in a stone age 'civilization' that provide plenty of opportunities for puns and anachronistic humor.

The Flintstones, along with Tom & Jerry and Quickdraw McGraw, will be featured in the first action figure releases from McFarlane Toys, with single figures at approximately $12 and box sets at around $22. Given the enormous number of Hanna-Barbera characters from Atom Ant and Augie Doggie to Wally Gator and Yogi Bear, the parade of McFarlane Hanna-Barbera action figures could last for a very long time.  The broad target audience for these figures includes demographics ranging from aging baby boomer collectors to twenty-first century kids who catch the endless parade of Hanna-Barbera cartoons on the Cartoon Network's Boomerang channel.