Comics, Action Figures Add Up To Hobbyist Site Acquisition

Hobbyist e-tailing and entertainment site eHobbies.com has completed a deal to acquire NextPlanetOver, whereby NPO becomes a wholly owned subsidiary of eHobbies. The acquisition allows eHobbies to expand its online hobby presence with an established destination for comics and action figures on the Internet. The NPO.com site will continue to run independent of the eHobbies.com site and is also accessible through eHobbies.com's new Comics & Action Figures icon.

     The addition of NPO to the eHobbies family allows eHobbies to jump into the $19 billion comics, action figure, and related products industry that attracts more than 40 million entertainment hobbyists, says the Santa Monica, Calif.-based company. The acquisition follows the site's addition of three new hobby categories, astronomy, birding and comics and action figures, to round out its other hobby categories of diecast, models, radio control, rocketry, trains and tools and supplies. eHobbies plans to expand into other hobby categories throughout the year.

     Like NPO.com, eHobbies.com features informative content such as articles, tips, reviews, how-to's, a hobbyist community, auctions and more than 25,000 products in its store, it says.

     NPO.com acts as the exclusive comic-book retailer for Stan Lee Media, which creates, produces and distributes globally branded Internet-based superhero animation franchises created by pop-culture "icon" Stan Lee, creator of Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, the X-Men and the Incredible Hulk, among other characters.