THE WORLD'S BEST ROBOTS LAUNCH WITH "BRAMBLE!"
Ashley Wood and HyperChild Unleash New Robots!

June 27th, 2005 - Coming this Fall 2005 from HyperChild and 7174 Inc. is the new line of statuettes called WORLD'S BEST ROBOTS, starting with its first character, "BRAMBLE."

In development since mid-2004 by award-winning creator ASHLEY WOOD, (Popbot, Spawn, Metal Gear Solid) this new property marks the first collaborative effort between 7174 and creative firm HYPERCHILD. In the midst of completing a very successful 12-issue run on Metal Gear Solid for IDW Publishing, Wood found time to design his latest artistic masterpiece: the WORLD'S BEST ROBOTS.

In the universe of the WORLD'S BEST ROBOTS, the WBR creates the robots most needed by Earth. Built in a secret orbital factory, their robots not only protect mankind from himself, but also from new emerging horrors such as crazed Nazi Squid, Bambalad and Shuffling Vintage.

"Ashley has come up with an amazing new property here and we're happy to be working with him to launch it as a product line first," says Casey Lau, Head of Creative for HyperChild. "I've been a fan of Ashley's work since he was drawing Ghost Rider 2099 and loved how his style evolved on Spawn, so I'm extremely excited to be taking the first step with him on WBR by bringing his stylish take on robots into the third dimension with our statuettes."

"I have known Casey Lau of HyperChild for many years, and it's great fun working with HyperChild to make the WBR world a reality. HyperChild are a forward thinking bunch, nay visionaries!"

click to see larger image (89k, 629 x 716)

The first statue is the 9" BRAMBLE, who comes with a 20-page hardcover book, which details his background through all new original paintings and story by Ashley Wood - it's the definitive collector's piece! It will be available from specialty and comic book stores around the world this Fall with special artist editions available at the worldsbestrobots.com website.

This is the first of eight World's Best Robots, which will be released on a quarterly schedule with BRAMBLE available in August and the next piece in December.

HyperChild will debut the World's Best Robots at the San Diego Comic-Con July 14-17th, with Ashley Wood in attendance with a special signing session with dates and times to be announced soon.

World's Best Robots official site: http://www.worldsbestrobots.com

HyperChild official site: http://www.hyperchildwow.com

Ashley Wood official site: http://www.ashleywood.com

About Ashley Wood
Ashley Wood is an internationally acclaimed, award winning commercial illustrator, concept designer and comic book artist. Ashley has been a professional illustrator for over ten years and has worked for most major publishing and entertainment companies. The list includes: Dreamworks, Warner Bros., Sony, Konami, Vivendi International, Random House, Marvel Comics and Todd McFarlane Productions.

Ashley's work has appeared in books, movies, magazines, comics, television and video games. He is a three-time Spectrum Award winner and a two-time Communication Arts award winner. His art is published worldwide on a regular basis and he has contributed to both joint and solo fine art exhibitions.

Art books include, Uno Fanta, Dos Fanta, Tres Fanta and the compilation work Grande Fanta. His Popbot editions are also available in several formats and multiple languages.

Ashley Wood is the founder of studio 7174 Inc.

About HyperChild
Founded in 2001, The HyperChild Workshop is a creative studio that develops new intellectual properties and produces and designs special projects in Asia and around the world. In 2003, they launched THE DEVIANTS as a line of vinyl figures - which will be expanding next year - and are currently designing the MARVEL SAGA COLLECTION line of statues. Working in many different mediums and with different artists, HyperChild is continually developing high-end collector projects around the world.