Action Figure Insider » World of Warships announces Popeye the Sailor Man collaboration in support of World Ocean Month
World of Warships announces Popeye the Sailor Man collaboration in support of World Ocean Month
First ever collaboration between Popeye and World of Warships to feature in-game commanders and exclusive items, while raising awareness for
World Ocean Month in June
AUSTIN, TX (April 24, 2023) — Wargaming, the publisher and developer of the leading naval multiplayer World of Warships, has today announced an official partnership with pop-culture icon Popeye the Sailor Man in a special collaboration recognizing World Ocean Month. This collaboration will take place in tandem with a charity partnership, to be announced ahead of the content becoming available to purchase. Taking place every June, World Ocean Month is an annual celebration of our ocean and a platform to raise awareness of the work needed to maintain the Earth’s greatest ecosystem. Check out assets supporting the announcement here.
The Popeye Charity Bundle will include in-game commanders Popeye and Bluto, including bespoke voiceovers, two flags, and a unique camouflage for the Tier VII USS Colorado.
Popeye, the iconic, spinach-eating sailor, and clean ocean advocate, is owned by King Features Syndicate, a unit of Hearst and home to some of the world’s most popular entertainment characters. A longtime advocate for ocean conservation, in 2020, Popeye announced his representation of The SeaCleaners, an organization that focuses on long-term and worldwide preservation of the ocean, joining its fight against plastic pollution and raising awareness of its ocean conservation efforts. This partnership with Wargaming continues Popeye’s commitment to sustainability and ocean conservation.
World of Warships is the world’s leading free to play naval warfare from Wargaming, where players battle against each other in the largest library of historically accurate war vessels from the 20th Century. With the game’s deep roots in the military community, Wargaming has an established track record of supporting veteran and historical non-profit organisations.
“Popeye the Sailor Man is a beloved childhood favourite for many of us here at Wargaming, so having the opportunity to bring him to our waters is an honour. It feels even more special knowing we are making a contribution to raising awareness about the ocean preservation while bringing joy to our players,” commented Marko Valentic, Global Business Development and Communications Director at Wargaming.
“As one of the world’s most recognizable pop-culture sailors, we could not think of a better gaming partner for Popeye than World of Warships,” said Jarred Goro, vice president, licensing, North America, King Features. “We are thrilled that World of Warships passion for ocean conversation matches our own and we look forward to bringing this in-game collaboration to fans around the world.”
About World of Warships
World of Warships is a free, historical, online combat PC game from Wargaming. With its massive fleet of most iconic war vessels, including five different ship classes and strategically designed environment, World of Warships provides the ultimate naval warfare gaming experience, suitable for everyone. Thanks to its largest collection of historically accurate ships available to play, World of Warships prides itself as a digital ship museum and a focal point for naval history enthusiasts. New thematic content and innovative game modes are being added on a regular basis, providing a diverse and exciting gameplay to its broad player base.
One franchise – multiple platforms
After the successful launch of World of Warships on PC, its unique gameplay and design has been adapted to bring free massive naval battles to other platforms with World of Warships: Legends available on PlayStation and Xbox and World of Warships Blitz on iOS and Android mobile devices.
Official website: http://www.worldofwarships.com
About Wargaming
Wargaming is an award-winning online game developer and publisher headquartered in Nicosia, Cyprus. Operating since 1998, Wargaming has grown to become one of the leaders in the gaming industry with 16 offices around the world, including studios in Chicago, Prague, Shanghai, Tokyo, Vilnius and Belgrade. Millions of players enjoy Wargaming’s titles across all major gaming platforms. Our flagship products include the free-to-play hits World of Tanks, World of Warships and World of Tanks Blitz.
Official website: wargaming.com
Sailor. Tough guy. Hero. Legend. That’s Popeye. He’s an underdog with bulging forearms, a mean uppercut and a love of canned spinach; he is unassuming, unsophisticated and undeterred by a challenge. From the minute he walked into the comic strip “Thimble Theatre” and muttered his famous “Ja think I’m a cowboy?” line, Popeye the Sailor Man captured the hearts of millions of fans around the globe. As the star of his own comics strips and animated content on the big screen and small, Popeye became quickly ingrained in American culture and today remains one of the most recognizable pop culture icons in the world. For more information, visit www.popeye.com.About King Features
King Features is a premier producer and distributor of the world’s most iconic intellectual properties and a leader in classic character licensing and franchise development. With one of the longest-running consumer products programs in the industry, King Features’ portfolio includes world-renowned pop culture brands such as Popeye®, Cuphead, Flash Gordon™, The Phantom™, Hägar the Horrible, Moomin, Prince Valiant® and Mandrake the Magician. King Features produced the Emmy nominated series The Cuphead Show! with Netflix Animation which debuted in 2022. As content syndication specialists, the company distributes beloved comics such as Blondie, Beetle Bailey®, Mutts™ and dozens of others as well as columns, editorial cartoons and puzzles across multiple platforms and content providers around the globe. King Features is part of Hearst Newspapers, which publishes 24 dailies and 52 weeklies, including the Houston Chronicle, San Francisco Chronicle and Times Union (Albany, New York), and operates local digital marketing services and directories.
Daniel Pickett
AFi founder and Editor-In-Chief Daniel “Julius Marx” Pickett has been around toys his whole life. The first line he ever collected was Mego’s World’s Greatest Super Heroes line back in the 70s. He has been surrounded by collectables ever since.
In 1999 he was confounded by a lack of information and news about some of his favorite toy lines he was collecting. Since he couldn’t find the information he decided to pursue it himself thinking other people might also be interested in the same news. He started writing a weekly column on the toy industry and action figure for a toy news site and in a years time he tripled the sites daily traffic with his updates, reviews and product features.
He built relationships with every major toy manufacturer and many sculptors, painters and mold makers. He grew his hobby into a world wide expertise that the industry has embraced.
In 2004 he teamed up with his toy buddy Jason “ToyOtter” Geyer and they created their own website www.ActionFigureInsider.com.
Daniel has been quoted in both industry and mass media press outlets. Over the years Daniel and AFi have been sought out as experts in the field. Daniel was regularly featured on “Attack of the Show” on the G4 network as the primary contributor to their “Mint On Card” segment, and our front page has been linked to from USA Today’s
“Pop Candy” Blog twice. Daniel’s content has also been featured on Bloomberg News, MSNBC.com, Time.com, The Wall Street Journal, The Saturday Evening Post, CNN.com, AssociatedPress.com
Wired.com, Fark.com, Boing-Boing, Gizmodo.com, Ain’t It Cool News, the Official
Star Wars blog, Geekologie, G4, CNet and Toy Fare magazine, among many
others. He has consulted on toy lines, books, documentaries and TV shows.
But all of that really just sounds snooty and “tootin’ his own horn” – the long and short of it is that Daniel loves toys and he LOVES talking about them.
