Dateline: Dallas. The ComicsPRO Annual Membership Meeting. Improving comic stores and growing the market were the themes at this year’s ComicsPRO Annual Membership Meeting. Comic book retails descended upon Texas to meet with over 20 sponsors… including top comic publishers and distributors. This year’s topic? “Ideas for marketing and metrics to improve efficiency in comic book store sales.” Simply put: How do we get our asses out of the fire, just a little bit longer?

Many notable names and faces spoke, including Spawn’s creator (you do remember Spawn, don’t you?) Todd MacFarlane, IDW’s CEO Ted Adams, as well as DC big-wigs, Dan Didio and Jim Lee. While we won’t bore you with all the details… suffice to say? We’re not holding our breath for a revolution. As tablets become prevalent with hipsters and the Beiber-clan, so will digital comic distribution. And while the big boys have made a few comments regarding integration of digital comic purchasing THROUGH comic stores… face it. If you can buy comics in your underwear in mom’s basement, or have to actually put on pants… we’re betting at  least SOME people will choose to stay home. That’s less business for the stores. With 2010 comic sale’s down from the year before, and many stores facing diminishing returns… it was DC’s marketing initiative that caught our eye.

So, what did DC bring to the table to help the local comic store drive the unwashed masses to their brick and mortars? Buttons! Glorious Flashpoint buttons! Less plastic then those Blackest Night rings you all died to get… But perhaps with a pointy end, allowing you to proclaim to the world your love of Cyborg,  or Casino-Batman via your trendy messenger bag.

This is supposed to drive us back to the stores in droves? This is what will save a dying comic store from shutting it’s doors? 2 cents of plastic and tin, with nifty logo celebrating yet-another-crossover we’ll likely mock and or forget by next year? Well ComicMixers… what do YOU think?

Having fun at Toy Fair is hard work.

OK, So I’m not likely to get much sympathy about the “hard work” bit, but Toy Fair is an overwhelming experience at which toy manufacturers will show off their wares for retailers, wholesalers, and the press from around the world. Anything and everything from yo-yos to high ticket collectibles and everything in between. But on to the fun stuff.

The venerable cartoon “Thundercats” is getting  a reboot soon, and Bandai showed off a complete line of  4″ figures. They also had 8″ figures done of classic “Lion-O” and “Tygra.” Take a look at the difference between new and classic “Lion-O” (again – keep in mind that the Classic figure is really twice the size of the New one).

The 4″ figures have a magnet embedded in their backs that activate features in  other playsets & accessories. Of course, if you want Snarf, ya gotta get the ThunderTank. Ain’t that always the case?

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Deadline Hollywood reports that Friday Night Lights alumna Adrianne Palicki has been tapped for the title role in NBC’s Wonder Woman pilot, executive produced by David E. Kelley for Warner Bros. TV.

Palicki won the role of Wonder Woman, closely associated with Lynda Carter, who played Diana Prince in the 1970s series, in a decisive manner – she was the only actress invited to test for it.

The Daily Beast got a look at the current draft of the script for the pilot, wherein Wonder Woman/Diana Prince is a vigilante crime fighter and a successful corporate executive and a modern woman trying to have it all. It’s a bit… oh, lordie:

Diana’s first appearance, here in her guise as Wonder Woman, is a Hollywood Boulevard-based action sequence set, cringingly, to the outdated tune of Beyoncé’s “Single Ladies,” the first of many musical cues—including tracks by Lady Gaga and Kanye West—in the script, all of which seem to prove that a) Kelley is a few years behind the times, and b) he watches a lot of Glee, since nearly all of these songs have been covered by the show choir.

In the movies, Batman fights crime with a collection of, to quote Jack Nicholson, wonderful toys. Hisham Awad, project leader of defense company BAE System’s future protected vehicles group, liked some of those ideas so much he used them to build an assault vehicle:

While Awad was showing one of his team’s concept vehicles, the unmanned skirmisher known as Raider, another of the assembled journalists gave a low whistle.

‘I like that,’ he said. ‘Looks like the Batmobile.’

‘Ah!’ Awad replied, with a grin. ‘Glad you said that. That’s what we based it on.’

Pardon?

‘Yes, we liked the look of that, so we designed something similar.’

What, the Batmobile in Batman Begins and The Dark Knight?

‘Yes, that one. You see, it turns like a motorbike and it has the same wheel configuration.’

Yes, yes, but you’re basing a future fighting vehicle on something you saw in a film?

‘Well, why not?’ Awad replied. ‘In all seriousness, we decided that we didn’t have a monopoly on inspiration, and if we saw something in a film that we thought might be a good idea, why not take a look at it and see if there’s something practical we can develop?’

Hat tip (I can’t believe I’m saying this): FoxNews.com.