No joke.  Microsoft is producing their own line of action figures.  (http://msdn.microsoft.com/events/hero/)  They look like bastardized Lego figures.  Last month they started an online comic called "Heroes Happen Here" (http://www.microsoft.com/heroeshappenhere/cool-stuff/comic/default.mspx) about all the ways in which Microsoft saves the day.  (Note: if you want to see any of the previous strips you have to install Microsoft Silverlight which is a bloated reinvention of Flash.  Not recommended regardless).
Is it me, or has their marketing department been smoking something?