Licensing.biz sat down with Libertas Brands at BLE 2023 to find out more about the Fuggler brand.
In September, it was announced that licensing stalwart Mark Kingston had joined the newly formed Libertas Brands as CEO. The agency, co-founded by Stuart Grant, owns the exclusive rights to the Fuggler brand, and Mark’s sights are now firmly set on growing and expanding the Fuggler IP across a raft of new categories. Licensing.biz publisher John Baulch and editor Rachael Simpson-Jones sat down with Mark and Stuart at BLE to talk about Libertas Brands’ longterm franchise and licensing plans for it.
As plush ranges go, Fuggler is far from traditional. Each character sports a mouthful of unnervingly human teeth, bared in a permanently frozen smile/grimace, eyes that swing wildly between suspiciously squinted and wide open, and fur in a dazzling array of textures and colours. And of course, each has a ‘BUTT-on’ hole, exactly, er, where you’d expect it to be. The BUTT-on hole feature links to the rarity of each Fuggler and is kept secret thanks to the recycled and recyclable cardboard box, until the Fuggler fan gets home and opens it.
Fuggler lies firmly within the kidult and collector segments, with grown up fans taking to social media to share videos of them unboxing their latest character and hopefully, exposing its rare BUTT-on hole. Kidults are also fuelling a healthy secondary sale market, with some of the rarer characters going on eBay for hundreds of pounds – a first-gen Oogah Boogah reportedly ended up selling for £800 recently on eBay.
“Once our fans get the bug – or should that be the Fugg –they can’t help but want to get them all,” says Stuart. “It’s interesting to see the Marmite effect Fugglers inspire in people. They’re kind of cute, kind of scary, people sometimes don’t know exactly what to make of them. But those that love them really, really love them, in all their funny, ugly, toothy glory. We’re excited to bring that love to life through new partnerships as we head into 2024.”
You can read plenty more about the Fuggler brand here in the full article from Toy World’s December issue.
