One of the most anticipated properties of the past year has been Magic: The Gathering. The tremendously popular collectible card game almost single-handedly pioneered a new industry in both game play and collectibles. An action figure line was a natural extension of the licensing for this property.

All seemed right with the world last year when toy maker ReSaurus was slated to create Magic action figures, even having two full series in development. But things took a turn for the complicated late last year as a new player entered the arena.

Wizards of the Coast (WotC), makers of the Magic card game, were acquired by Hasbro in October of 1999. Of course, everyone knows that Hasbro is a leader in the action figure world with such popular lines as Star Wars, Batman, Beast Wars, and GI Joe. So, this acquisition could have possibly set up the odd situation where, technically, ReSaurus was making Magic: The Gathering action figures for Hasbro.

But that is where things begin to break down. Rumors on the net have been circulating for weeks now about the future of the Magic line from ReSaurus. The usually forthcoming ReSaurus has not issued any statement on the matter. When contacted by RTM, sources at ReSaurus remained very tight-lipped about Magic and its future.

To add fuel to this fire, Action-Figure.com is reporting their receipt of an e-mail from a Wizards of the Coast employee stating that the internal perception at WotC is that the ReSaurus deal is dead and that the license has been brought back under the Hasbro umbrella. RTM has received similar confirmation from a WotC employee who stated that ReSaurus' license for Magic had been revoked in December.

ReSaurus would only say that they are still looking into the matter.

RTM's analysis of the situation is that it only makes sense for Hasbro to want to pull back this potentially lucrative license. And if one were to pit Hasbro against ReSaurus, we would have to guess that Hasbro's larger size and pool of resources would make it difficult for the smaller ReSaurus to win in that fight.

All in all, neither side has been extremely forthcoming. Despite weeks of probing on this story, no company representative was willing to go on record either way. Perhaps Toy Fair will illuminate the situation somewhat, but as it stands now, the chances of a ReSaurus Magic line look to be next to nil.

This will be sad news to some fans, given that the ReSaurus line plan was generally well-received. As to how Hasbro might handle the line remains to be seen.

We will bring you further updates on this story as new information comes to light.

[Updated 02/03/2000]