Tag Archives: news

Hasbro partners with TOMS to launch limited-edition Candy Land range

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Hasbro has partnered with the ethical shoe brand TOMS to launch a new collection of footwear inspired by the popular Candy Land brand. It is the first collection in a series that has been created in partnership with the international toymaker.

‘Inspired by the sweetest of pastimes,’ the TOMS x Candy Land range is a limited edition collection featuring slip-ons for women and children. It features a shimmering Queen Frostine and Princess Lolly as well as a series of four prints including the Candy Land logo on canvas, or a sampling of the game’s treats, all transposed to TOMS’ Alpargata design.

The TOMS x Candy Land range is available from this month with prices ranging from $36.95 to $59.95. TOMS is the original one-for-one company that has spent 14 years on a mission as a business to improve lives.

“Bringing people together has always been a big part of TOMS,” read a press release from the footwear specialist. “The same goes for Hasbro, the brand behind some of today’s most iconic toys and games. Needless to say, TOMS is thrilled to collaborate with a brand that has brought joy, laughter, and time well spent with friends and family to countless players and across generations.”

 

Nelvana and Spin Master secure raft of new broadcasters including Netflix for the hit Bakugan franchise

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The children’s animated and live action content distributor, Nelvana and kids’ entertainment company, Spin Master have secured a raft of new broadcast partners for both seasons one and two of the hit Bakugan franchise.

The new distribution deal for both Bakugan: Battle Planet and Bakugan: Armored Alliance includes Netflix in the US and Canada, Pop in the UK, 9Go! in Australia, and Dreamia in Portugal for the second season, as well as Televisa in Mexico, Dreamia in Portugal, Nelonen Media in Finland, Dexy Co in Serbia, and Talent Show in Croatia for season one.

These new distribution deals are in addition to the previously announced broadcast partners including TeleToon in Canada, Cartoon Network in the US, Cartoon Network in Spain, Italy and Middle East, Gulli and Canal J in France and Africa, and Pop in the UK, alongside a host of others.

“Bakugan is a revered franchise with a loyal fan base that has achieved great popularity worldwide as the series continues to enthrall and capture the attention of young audiences,” said Mellany Masterson, head of Nelvana Enterprises. “The momentous addition of these leading international broadcasters elevates this powerful franchise to the next level and allows Bakugan to be shared and enjoyed by many more brawlers around the world.”

Thom Chapman, senior director, sales and distribution, Spin Master, added: “The continued influx of international distribution deals is a strong testament to the franchise’s reigning popularity.

“Bakugan is an exemplary franchise for Spin Master proven in its long-lasting brand affinity. We look forward to bringing the epic world of Bakugan to more fans with this expansion.”

Bakugan: Armored Alliance is the second season of Bakugan: Battle Planet. The anime adventure series follows the adventures of Dan Kouzo and his best friends as the first kids on Earth to bond with the mysterious alien creatures known as Bakugan. The fate of not one but two planets rests in the hands of this new breed of Bakugan Brawlers.

The new season launched earlier this year on Cartoon Network in the US, and TeleToon in Canada.

Along with the new season, Spin Master launched Bakugan: Armored Alliance toys in North America in Spring 2020, with a new wave of products launching this autumn in US and Canada. Additionally, the children’s entertainment company will be rolling out their Bakugan: Armored Alliance toy line internationally this autumn.

 

Elmer the Patchwork Elephant lands successful first baby wear range at Matalan

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Elmer the Patchwork Elephant‘s Licensing Agent, Metrostar and licensee, Paul Dennicci have delivered a new first for Elmer with the launch of his latest baby wear range at Matalan. The range comprises a bodysuit, vest set, dress and bib each featuring on-trend monotone graphics alongside Elmer’s signature colourful patchwork.

Working alongside its partner License to PR, Andersen Press supported the range with a coordinated campaign, inviting a select group of influencers to post pictures of their little ones wearing the range. Plush from Rainbow Designs, cards from Hype and a puzzle from Ravensburger also featured in the campaign that reached over 324,000 people.

Paul Black from Andersen Press, said: “It’s great to see Elmer breaking into yet another new retailer and we’ve been bowled over by the social media engagement with Matalan’s new range. We are fully committed at Andersen Press to supporting our licensee’s efforts to secure new distribution channels for their Elmer products, and get as many people celebrating Elmer as possible.”

Claire Potter at Metrostar, added: “Elmer’s messages of friendship and inclusivity are more important and relevant than ever. They mandate us to ensure he is accessible to all, while delivering high quality consumer products. The range at Matalan is an important step in that endeavour.”

The Very Hungry Caterpillar gets cosy in Peter Alexander’s new sleepwear collection

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Australia’s leading sleepwear brand Peter Alexander has partnered with Haven Global to launch the retailer’s first collaboration with Eric Carle’s timeless classic, The Very Hungry Caterpillar. The new deal sees the arrival of a 12-piece capsule collection of men’s, women’s, and children’s sleepwear.

“This collaboration has been a long-time coming,” said Yvonne King, managing director at Haven Global. “We knew Peter would create something really special and memorable with the world’s most famous caterpillar.”

Launched officially on August 7th, Penguin Random House, owners of the World of Eric Carle IP, were thrilled to see Peter Alexander debut his much anticipated first Hungry Caterpillar collection.

“We are delighted to bring these two brands together,” said Jackie DeMaio, licensing director, The Joester Loria Group. “The collaboration of Peter Alexander and Eric Carle’s The Very Hungry Caterpillar brings Eric’s bright artwork and beloved character off the pages onto beautifully designed sleepwear that is sure to delight the whole family.”

The collection is available in-store and online now while stocks last.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar, one of the top selling children’s books of all time, has been translated into 60 languages and has sold over 52 million copies since its publication in 1969.

The Asian Animation Summit goes virtual for 2020

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The ninth annual Asian Animation Summit has bitten the bullet and confirmed that this year’s event will take place in the virtual landscape, a move made in response to the continued travel restrictions and health and safety issues related to the coronavirus pandemic.

The Summit will now take place online from November 16 to December 4 this year.

The event will see its regional partners undertake the process of selecting the most promising projects from their regions that are new to the market, and look for financing and partners. Event delegates will be able to watch along in real time as these projects are presented to panels of programming buyers.

Project presentations will be scheduled in morning and late evening time slots (EST) over three weeks. Because time zones and scheduling conflicts at home and work may prevent delegates from tuning in live, the sessions will also be recorded and made available for two weeks of catch-up viewing online.

“We are excited about the new opportunity this virtual AAS format creates to invite many more leading broadcasters to participate in the event than is usually possible,” said Kidscreen VP and publisher Jocelyn Christie. “And without the challenges of travel to consider – the costs, and time away from work and home – we are hoping that more attendees will be able to take part in the event virtually this year and discover some great new content from Asia-Pacific.”

Kidscreen’s intention is to return to a live AAS event format in 2021, and the regional partners remain committed to holding the event in Bali, Indonesia next year.

Registration for AAS Virtual 2020 is now open. More information about the event can be found online at www.asiananimationsummit.com.

Jetpack Distribution secures major content deal with South Africa’s SVOD service Showmax

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The international children’s and family distributor, Jetpack Distribution, is rocketing into South Africa having secured a new deal with the region’s subscription-based VOD service, Showmax for an entire suite of children’s properties.

The deal, finalised last week, will see more than 153 hours of content from Jetpack’s expanding catalogue broadcast across a range of devices in sub-Saharan Africa, including South Africa.

Shows available through the service in 2020 and 2021, will include the BES comedy animation Kitty is not a Cat, Funrise’s hit animation Rainbow, Butterfly, Unicorn, Kitty, Outfit 7’s Talking Tom and Friends, Pop-Up Workshop’s puppet live action show Pop Up, CBBC’s award winning liver action drama Katy, and more.

Jetpack CEO, Dominic Gardiner, said: “In the last few years, we’ve been increasingly focused on building a rich and diverse catalogue, one that spans beyond our heartland of comedy animation; breaking new ground where possible.

“This deal demonstrates that we can offer a great deal of choice and variation for one network. While consistently delivering high quality and enduringly appealing content.”

Showmax head of content, Candice Fangueiro, added: “Our business has fundamentally changed over the past few months with SVOD usage jumping dramatically, and kids’ content in particular has been extremely popular. The timing for this deal, which adds a wide range of new kids shows, couldn’t be better, and it’s a perfect complement to the total revamp of the kids section that we recently completed, giving parents full control over what their kids can see.”

ADK Emotions NY prepares for 20th anniversary of Beyblade with archived epsiodes drop on its YouTube channel

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The US-based Japanese IP specialist, ADK Emotions NY, has debuted a selection of archived episodes from the global anime and toy franchise Beyblade across its official YouTube channel. The classic Generation  One content is now available to watch on demand, laying the foundations of Beyblade’s 20th anniversary celebrations in 2021.

Focused on exploring the two-decades rich history of Beyblade, ADK Emotions NY is embarking on a nostalgic journey back to the origins of the global phenomena. With weekly classic episode drops in both English and Latin American Spanish, the brand’s YouTube channels – which boast more than 2 million subscribers (excluding Asia) – is connecting with a groundswell of rekindled fandom for the franchise.

All of the episodes are being promoted by a robust social media campaign that serves both Beyblade demographics: the long-time fans, who have responded to the nostalgia of the campaign, and a new generation of fans keen to discover the classic content for the first time. Meanwhile, the Beyblade Geeks, long time Beyblade YouTubers, have also come on board to release a special episode that will give fans past and present alike, a chance to dive into the storylines and concepts of Generation One.

Buoyed by the social media buzz generated by the classic content campaign, ADK Emotions NY will be releasing brand new Beyblade Generation One apparel which will also be available this summer on Amazon.

New content in the form of Beyblade Burst has been championed by international broadcasters and it has enjoyed a profile presence on Netflix and YouTube where we have seeded more than 1,600 videos and achieved 360 million global views.  The addition of classic content is the perfect kick-off to what promises to be a comprehensive and coordinated campaign of fresh content and bold new consumer products that will take Beyblade into its third decade.

ADK Emotions NY will continue to engage Beyblade Burst fans in as many ways as possible in the latter half of the year. In September, a digital EP featuring the series theme songs will be released on all major digital distribution platforms including Spotify, iTunes, and Google Play Music, meeting the fans fervent demand for music.

Moonbug and The Point. 1888 eye ‘evergreen retail space’ for CoComelon, Blippi, and rest of portfolio

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Following on from last week’s Moonbug and MGA Entertainment partnership announcement, the global entertainment company has now turned to the brand licensing agency, The Point. 1888 to expand the Moonbug portfolio, including CoComelon, Blippi, My Magic Pet Morphle, ARPO, Supa Strikas, and T-Rex Ranch.

Under the new partnership, The Point. 1888 will look to ‘provide streamlined consumer products roll-out across EMEA’, with the ambition of owning evergreen retail space for the collection.

“As our audience continues to grow, we remain focused on widening consumer engagement touchpoints at a global level, and part of that is having a trusted partner in EMEA,” said Simon Philips, Moonbug. “We’re confident in The Point.1888 and look forward to seeing what we can achieve together.”

Collectively, Moonbug receives over 7 billion monthly views, and will now operate the largest network of kids channels on YouTube, encompassing 235 million subscribers, and its beloved kids’ brands are available on over 100 platforms globally, including major on-demand streaming services such as Netflix, Apple TV, Sky and Hulu.

Will Stewart, founder and managing director at The Point.1888, said: “We are so excited to get started on this. It is not often that you find a unique digital IP partner like Moonbug that is ahead of the crowd producing safe and fun content, with such speed that appeals to all the family, every gender and all our diverse nations.

“The stats speak for themselves proving the success across all the properties and really offer endless opportunities for this licensing programme.”

The Point.1888’s retail-first brand extension model has been one of the biggest drivers of the agency’s growth in the last 12 months. Its team, headed up by Commercial Director Bethan Garton is rapidly expanding and is currently made up of 19 industry professionals with vast and relevant experience having previously worked with other big brands such as the Gruffalo, Star Wars, LOL Surprise, Marvel, Clangers, Mr Men, Noddy and Sesame Street.

Mattel has the power in new Masters of the Universe toy line reveal featuring UNO, Fisher-Price and Mega Construx

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Mattel has unveiled a new generation-spanning collection of toys, action figures, tabletop games and even a themed version of its popular card game UNO all based on the Masters of the Universe franchise, proving that the global toymaker really does ‘have the power.’

Revealed at this year’s virtual edition of Power Con, Mattel finally shed light on the much anticipated Masters of the Universe toy line for 2021, a launch that will coincide with the arrival of a new Masters of the Universe series on Netflix. And it’s a range designed to truly bring generations together.

For the first time, Masters of the Universe is launching in to the pre-school space with a line of Fisher-Price toys under the Little People moniker. The line-up of four figures features He-Man, Skeletor, Man-at-Arms, and Beast Man.

Mattel then begins to transition up the age groups with the introduction of a new action figure line from its Imaginext collection. The Fisher-Price Imaginext Masters of the Universe XL Action Figures line features a collection of super-sized 10-inch action figures including He-Man, Skeletor, and Beast Man.

Mega Construx comes roaring into play as the brand expands its Masters of the Universe offering with a reissue of last year’s Pro Builders Series Castle Grayskull. The 3,508-piece building set includes three floors featuring the Throne Room, Command Centre, Dungeon, Power Sword-activated Jawbridge, and more. It also includes six collectable micro action figures.

Meanwhile, the Mega Construx Masters of the Universe Skeletor Skull Assortment comes with three collectable Skeletor heads, each containing micro action figures and building materials.

Skeletor and Panthor signature sets complete the line up, alongside a Battle Ram vehicle with Tri-Klops and Mekaneck micro action figures.

Mattel has also got the gaming sector covered with a Masters of the Universe themed version of its hit game UNO. The new launch features vintage artwork from the franchise’s archives of oil paintings created by Williams George and Ruby Obero in the 1980s, tapping into the retro-revival with vintage appeal.

Finally, Mattel has also detailed the first tabletop roleplaying game to feature Masters of the Universe, introducing players to Legends of Grayskull. The launch is the result of a multi-year licensing deal with Fandom – the team that developed D&D Beyond – to produce a roleplaying game complete with a 250 page hardcover guidebook with pull-out maps, a digital companion app and toolset, a community content creation and sharing platform, and a ‘play programme that gives fans the chance to participate in a connected, living story with other players around the world.’

 

Studio 100 acquires worldwide distribution and licensing rights to eco-tainment IP SeaBelievers

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Studio 100 has acquired the worldwide distribution rights, as well as the licensing and merchandising rights, for the CGI animated series, SeaBelievers, a series based on the SeaBelievers IP itself. Studio 100 will present the show at this year’s MIPCOM Rendezvous Cannes for the first time.

SeaBelievers is recognised as the first TV series to represent a whole genre of Eco-tainment, a genre whose creation is credited to Brien Arone, founder and SeaEO of SeaBelievers. It combines the benefit of edutainment for children with being informative about real-life issues affecting the world’s ocean, and encouraging kids to make a difference.

Its content is presented in a fun and entertaining way, with engaging musical adventures and original tunes to sing and dance along to. Each animated episode leads kids on an ECO-adventure in the sea or on shore, by following the positive SeaBelievers characters.

Each character features distinct seaweed hair, a seashell nose, sea-colored eyes and webbed hands and feet, while each episode sees them problem-solve and take action around key environmental issues. Each SeaBeliever carries a Magic Sand Dollar which ignites his or her unique super powers – fueled by their self-belief.

The CGI Animation is targeted at children aged four to seven, the first season of 52 x 11 minutes will be ready for delivery in 2021.

Brien Arone, SeaEO and Founder of SeaBelievers, said: “Last year at MIPJunior we were looking for distributors who share the same vision, enthusiasm and commitment to our new genre and who are willing to bring SeaBelievers to children around the globe – with passion and expertise.

“SeaBelievers is the first kids Eco-tainment show in the world that tells stories that will thematically matter and empower kids. It is so important to let kids know that they can change the world and that there are role models for that in real life, and in shows with authentic characters they really can relate to.

“We want kids to know that the SeaBelievers are at their side and will always believe in them. For that Studio 100 is the right partner for us, not only because they have the reputation, but their aspiration and personal commitment convinced us. Thus, to be able to implement the exploitation of the series and L&M with one dedicated team is the ideal partnership for us.”

Martin Krieger, CEO of Studio 100 Media / International, added: “SeaBelievers enthralled us right from the start. A series with such high-quality animation and detailed designs, combined with a strong message and the corresponding cosmos of values and real, informative educational content is exceptional – both from a content and licensing and merchandising perspective.

“We are very happy with the trust that has been placed on us not only because SeaBelievers comes from the heart and its important message about the environment, but also because it’s about the future of this planet for our children. The devotion and energy with which the SeaBelievers team works on this important cause continues to impress us – their commitment is outstanding.”

SeaBelievers has already been guests at the White House for Earth Day 2019 entertaining 36,000 children and they were the only children’s characters to perform at ‘The Super Bowl LIVE’ leading up to the February 2020 Super Bowl in the US. It has also been a proud and active member of “1% for the Planet” and the first children’s character line to be a member of this global organization that connects businesses, individuals, and nonprofits, empowering all to drive positive change.