Year of the dog

"If it's adventure you want, you've come to the right spot." That's one of the things the new talking Wishbone doll will tell you when you squeeze its left front paw.

Although he looks a little embarrassed to admit it, Rick Duffield scripted and helped actor Brantley compose all 12 phrases that the toy dog utters.

But the brand marketing of Wishbone is something Duffield is trying to distance himself from. He did work on the Wishbone CD-ROM, and does help oversee the two different series of Wishbone books. (One is The Adventures of Wishbone, retellings of famous works of literature like Don Quixote and The Odyssey, published by Richard Leach. The company is also publishing Wishbone mysteries, original stories in which Wishbone and his friends try to solve puzzling events by using clues from great literature.)

But there is a lot more Wishbone stuff that Duffield keeps at bay: the Wishbone prizes in Crackerjack boxes, the Wishbone fan club--with some 7,000 members at $10 a pop--the Wishbone sheets, the Wishbone lunch boxes, the Wishbone character figurines that were available at Wendy's.

The Wishbone paraphernalia may be a source of chagrin for Duffield, but for Richard Leach and his entertainment empire, mass marketing is clearly the pot of gold.

Let the dinosaur fade into the sunset. Wishbone is ready to step to the plate.

"Wishbone has arrived," says Donna Breedlove, the director of strategic marketing for Big Feats! Entertainment. "We want to manage him as a long-term brand.