Very Neko launches Frozen clothing collection 

Fans of Disney’s Frozen can now get their hands on the exclusive clothing range launched in partnership with online retailer Very Neko.

The new loungewear, aimed at both adults and children, contains everything from hoodies to pyjamas and t-shirts and features iconic characters from the movie franchise; Elsa, Olaf, Anna and Kristoff.

Embellished with popular phrases from the movies, including ‘I love warm hugs’ and ‘Head rush’, the collection is a perfect tribute to the fan-favourite which captured our hearts back in 2013.

The collection includes a number of ‘colour your own’ items, allowing kids to design their own t-shirts. Very Neko is also offering a selection of accessories, including a Loungefly mini backpack and wallet as well as keyrings, storybooks and jewellery boxes, all celebrating the iconic film.

The new exclusive range is now available on VeryNeko.co.uk, with prices starting from £12.99.

 

 

 

Bluey billed “most important preschool IP since Frozen” as Stor SL readies merch portfolio for UK, Ireland, and EMEA

Bosses at the global product manufacturer, Stor SL have hailed BBC Studios’ preschool property, Bluey “the most important property since Disney’s Frozen” as it prepares to launch a portfolio of more than 50 licensed items to the UK, Ireland, and EMEA markets in the coming months.

The range, spanning drinkware, lunch bags, plates and bowls, cutlery, bottles, and more will be made from sustainable and eco-friendly materials such as stainless steel, aluminum, and porcelain and will add natural fibres to traditional plastics to reduce the percentage of plastics by up to 30 per cent.

Stor will also be offering tailor-made options to retailers who request an exclusive line.

Valentin Ortiz, CEO of Stor SL, said: “In my view, Bluey is without a doubt the most important pre-school property since Frozen. It has been a real phenomenon in Australia and the USA and is becoming a huge global hit. Our retailers, customers and Stor local office directors have been asking about this opportunity and we are proud to work together with them to develop our Bluey range.”

Anita Majhu, senior licensing manager, BBC Studios, added: “We are delighted that Stor is joining our raft of world-class partners for Bluey. This partnership offers a fantastic opportunity to reach fans across the UK and Ireland and EMEA markets.

“Stor’s commitment to sustainability also complements BBC Studios’ work in this area and we welcome bringing Bluey products to market that are responsibly sourced.”

The Bluey line of product from Stor will complement extensive launch plans for Bluey licensed product across UK and EMEA driven by ‘exceptional TV ratings’ and led by a comprehensive toy programme.

First launched in Australia in October 2018, Bluey is quickly becoming a global hit, achieving ‘outstanding ratings’ and attracting a multitude of best in class partners.

In its home market, Bluey was the number one children’s programme on metro broadcast television in 2020 and is the number one series of all time on ABC iview, with over 480 million views across series one and two. The property also won Pre-School License of the Year for the second year in a row at the Australian Toy Association (ATA) Awards.

Meanwhile in France, Bluey is available on France Télévision’s free-to-air channel France 5 and its catch-up kids’ platform OKOO. Toys from global master toy partner Moose is set to launch at retail in France in 2022.

The series is also available on CBeebies in the UK, where it has become the top programme on the channel since it launched in April. Its episodes constitute the top five most requested CBeebies episodes on BBC iPlayer. Toys from global master toy partner Moose will launch at retail in the UK in July.

BBC Studios has a global broadcast deal with Disney for Bluey and recently announced that the third season will debut on Disney Channel, Disney Junior and Disney+ in all territories outside of Australia, New Zealand and China.

Kids’ audio platform Yoto welcomes Frozen, Mickey Mouse and more in Disney and Pixar partnership

The children’s audio platform, Yoto – the team behind the Yoto Player – has detailed a new partnership with Disney and Pixar to release a collection of childhood classics and fantasy favourites, including Frozen, Mickey Mouse, Moana, and more across its library of content.

The new line-up will launch this May and throughout the year. Alongside licensing existing audio, the studio will also release new, original content created by Yoto.

The first collection of five-minute stories will be released in May and will feature much loved Disney characters such as Anna and Elsa from Disney’s Frozen, Mickey Mouse, Moana and more. These will be followed by classics such as Disney’s 101 Dalmatians and Aladdin, and Disney and Pixar’s Finding Nemo and Cars. Throughout the year, recent blockbusters including Onward and Soulwill also be released.

Ben Drury, CEO and co-founder of Yoto, said:We’re thrilled that the Yoto platform will now feature beloved childhood classics from Disney and Pixar. Helping children to explore their creativity and imagination through storytelling is incredibly important for us and this will be amplified even further with these new Disney cards featuring some of our favourite childhood characters that will be released throughout the year.”

The Disney cards will be available from Yoto in the UK, Ireland, USA and Canada from 20th May 2021.For more information please visit www.yotoplay.com.

Children’s entertainment licenses praised by Toy Retailers Association among its Toy of the Year Award winners

Children’s entertainment licenses PAW Patrol, Super Mario, Harry Potter, and Star Wars have been among those praised by the Toy Retailers Association for the role they have played in helping the toy industry through a troubled 2020.

In this year’s Toy of the Year awards, reflective of the change of pace for the retail scene in general over the course of last year, a strong line-up of licensed product has been championed alongside some of the best performing companies to have fuelled the industry’s five per cent year on year sales increase.

In a change of approach to the usual Toy of the Year selection process, this year’s listing reflects the impact that the pandemic has had on the sector. Yet, while online sales have accounted for just under half of all toy sales of 2020, suppliers and retailers have still played a major role in keeping the nation’s children smiling.

Amid the uncertainty, there have been four outstanding categories which have played their part in delivering the industry’s growth, all of which have outperformed the overall market.

The TRA recognises that multiple suppliers have played an integral part in each of the categories, but the selection panel has decided to highlight a ‘winner’ in each of these categories to represent the largest overall contribution to the category in a unique year for the industry.

“This year, in keeping with the year we have just experienced, we decided to be total different in our approach,” Alan Simpson, chairman of the Toy Retailers Association, told ToyNews.

“When people look back at award winners in years to come, they will notice that 2020 was totally different. I believe that this was the correct approach to reflect the challenges we have all had to overcome.”

GAMES & PUZZLES

This was a key performer in the overall market. As well as helping educate and entertain children, this category topped the growth (year on year) performance with various suppliers driving this increase.

It was the like of Ravensburger, Orchard, Gibsons Games, Asmodee, Hasbro and Tomy (Drumond Park) that all performed superbly well throughout the year.

The panel has chosen RAVENSBURGER as its standout performer in this category.

BUILDING & CONSTRUCTION 

This is an area dominated by one supplier, although Hornby with its Airfix range added a different dimension to this category with notable ranges from K’Nex and Geomag.

The winner in this category is LEGO. Delivering remarkable growth consistently over the last 10 years, LEGO has yet again outperformed the market and is to be commended for keeping the nation’s children (and kidults) entertained and amused throughout the Covid-19 pandemic and various lockdowns.

OUTDOOR & SPORTS

In a category that benefitted from people having to stay at home, it was inevitable that growth would be achieved in this area. Many products helped with our children’s mental and physical health – bicycles, trampolines, skateboards, as well as outdoor ranges from the likes of Little Tikes.

The standout performer in this category was MOOKIE TOYS for its swingball range.

ARTS & CRAFTS

Again, a variety of suppliers contributed to making this category such a success. These were Galt, Crayola, John Adams, and Spin Master with its Kinetic Sand, to name but a few.

The winner in this category is HASBRO for its domination in the arts and crafts sector through its Play Doh brand.

Many other suppliers contributed to the success of 2020 and the panel recognised the most notable listed below, with the reasons noted alongside. These will all receive a “Highly Commended” certificate this year.

BANDAI for its launch of the Cocomelon range.

CHARACTER OPTIONS
 for continued success with its Peppa Pig, Goo Jit Zu and Pokemon ranges

FUNRISE for its Fart Ninja line

GOLDEN BEAR
 for its Hey Duggee and Bing ranges

MGA ENTERTAINMENT
 for its L.O.L. Surprise! range

MATTEL
 for its success with its Barbie, Hot Wheels and Star Wars’ The Child ranges

SPIN MASTER for Paw Patrol

VTECH
 for its varied pre-school learning range

ZURU
 for the successful launch of its 5 Surprise Mini Brands range

Meanwhile, LICENSES continued to play a big part in 2020. In addition to licenses already mentioned, Frozen, Super Mario and Harry Potter continued to deliver throughout the year.

The TRA sincerely hopes that ‘normal service’ resumes in 2021 when we can revert to our customary criteria and identify the actual toy winners and allocating awards accordingly. In the meantime, we wish you all a successful and healthy 2021.

Arts and crafts firm Craft Buddy lands major Disney licensing partnership

The arts and crafts specialist, Craft Buddy, has struck up a major licensing partnership with Disney to bring a raft of new licensed Crystal Art lines to market in spring next year. The range will be based upon some of Disney’s most iconic and popular characters.

The license will be available in a range of kits and sets across Craft Buddy’s established Crystal Art range (also known as diamond painting or diamond art), targeting an audience of children aged eight and upwards. Kids and adults across the UK will now be able to create pieces of wall art, cards, notebooks and more.

The technique used to produce sparkling Crystal Art is similar to painting by numbers with each design featuring a numbered, adhesive template. Using the magic pick up pen (included), artists can simply lift up the coloured crystals and place them on the corresponding dots. The result is a piece of rhinestone art which can be kept or gifted to loved ones.

Famous Disney characters will feature across all areas of the Crystal Art portfolio with more designs and products being added to the collection across the year. Disney fans can now re-create iconic movie characters using Crystal Art in four new Notebook designs: “Pride Rock” scene from The Lion King , “The Little Mermaid”, “Classic Minnie” and “Moana”.

Crystal Art Canvas Kits are available in a host of different sizes and multi-character designs, each pre-mounted on wooden frames making them easy to display. Four 30x30cm kits featuring a host of instantly recognizable Disney family favourites will launch as part of the new collection: “Elsa, Anna & Olaf”, “Lion King Family”, “Pooh and Tigger” and “Minnie and Mickey”.

Larger designs include three 40x50cm Crystal Art Kits “The Lion King Medley”, “Beauty and the Beast Medley” plus “Lady & The Tramp” alongside a 70x70cm Kit featuring “Frozen Friends” and a dazzling 90x65cm “Disney Princess Medley” design.

“This is an incredible range that we can’t wait to bring to market and which we have worked extremely hard to develop in partnership with the team at Disney,” said Gary Wadhwani, co-director at Craft Buddy UK Ltd.

“Crystal Art is a creative medium which appeals to all ages and through which we can see characters and scenes brought to life in dazzling formats. It lends itself perfectly to re-creating those iconic and much-loved Disney characters and we are already seeing huge potential at retail for this extensive range.”

Utilising their extensive fan base across their company social channels, Craft Buddy ran a survey earlier this year to find out which Disney characters their consumers would love to see integrated into their hugely successful Crystal Art collection.

Winnie The Pooh came top of the list of favourite characters chosen by their consumer base followed by Mickey and Minnie, Bambi and the Lion King; all of which feature heavily across the new licensed range.

Kids’ audio system Tonies adds Disney and Pixar hits to growing licensed line-up

The children’s audio system Tonies has added a slate of Disney and Pixar characters to its line up of licensed character Tonies, welcoming children’s favourites Frozen, Cinderella, Toy Story and Finding Nemo to the fold. The new characters will join the portfolio in October and November this year ahead of what the firm’s believes will be a ‘bumper Christmas for the brand.’

The Toy Story Tonie will be available from October 22nd this year and will feature a 17-minute re-telling of the modenr classic, as well as timeless tunes such as You’ve Got a Friend in Me, performed by Randy Newman.

The Frozen Tonie, meanwhile, includes four iconic songs from the hit film, such as Let It Go and For the First Time in Forever, before transporting listeners to Arendelle and telling the story of Elsa and Anna’s magical journey.

Next up, children will be transported to an underwater world with the Finding Nemo Tonie, which tells the aquatic tale along with songs like Sea Cruise and Under the Waves.

Lastly, one of the original Disney princesses will also be gracing the Toniebox; the Cinderella Tonie will tell this enchanting story and play four songs including the iconic Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo.

The Frozen, Finding Nemo and Cinderella Tonies will be available from November 12th.

Tonies UK, general manager, Manon Sel, said: “We are excited to announce four fantastic additions to our Disney and Pixar collection, all of which are sure to fill bedrooms across the country with audio magic this Christmas. The perfect stocking filler, these family favourites join an already stellar line-up and enhance our expanding range of stories and songs.”

Launched in the UK in 2018 by Patric Faßbender and his friend and co-founder Marcus Stahl, the Toniebox is an intuitive speaker system that is revolutionising story time for children. An interactive way for three to eight-year-olds to play their favourite stories and songs, they can simply place a Tonie on top of the box and the audio content related to that Tonie will begin to play.

Over 14 million Tonies and 1.5 million Tonieboxes have been sold across Europe since the launch and 2020 started with the exciting announcement of the brands’ expansion to the USA – expected towards the end of this year.

Star Wars and Frozen II fuel Q4 sales growth for Hasbro as toy firm hits $1.43bn

Strong sales of Star Wars and Frozen II toys have helped Hasbro enjoy a three per cent increase in revenue, hitting $1.43 billion in sales in the fourth quarter.

Despite the fallout felt from President Trump’s trade war with China, net income rose to $267.3 million in Q4, ended December 29, a stark increase from the $8.8 million it made just one year earlier.

It’s a return to form for Hasbro who was previously weighed with the threat of tariffs in the third quarter, disrupting the company’s supply chain and leading some retailers to cancel shipments. The company had been working to diversify its supply chain and reduce its reliance on sourcing in China.

On an earnings call, chief financial officer, Deborah Thomas, said that the coronavirus has since disrupted Hasbro’s supply chain and commercial operations in China, citing a ‘small impact’ to date, yet highlighting the difficulty in quantifying the potential magnitude.

The biggest increase for Hasbro in its q4 results came from its entertainment, licensing, and digital segment in which it saw revenues rise 22 per cent. The company recently completed a $4 billion, all cash purchase of the British production and distribution company, Entertainment One.

While it saw particular success in Frozen II and Star Wars toys, it was Hasbro’s Magic: The Gathering Arena and the Transformers: Bumblebee film that helped drive entertainment and licensing revenue.

For the full year, partner brands rose 24 per cent to $1.22 billion, with strong sales of Frozen II, Avengers, Spider-Man, and Star Wars lines. Hasbro currently owns the master toy license for Disney’s Marvel and Star Wars franchises.

Hasbro CEO Brian Goldner said that the partnership with Disney is “very successful” and noted that “The Rise of Skywalker” and “The Mandalorian” have been big drivers of sales for the company.”

On the topic of the impact of the coronavirus on Hasbro’s business, Deb Hancock, senior vice president of investor relations for Hasbro, said: “Impact to our business today is small, but it’s challenging to quantify the potential magnitude at this time, as it will depend on how long it takes to contain the outbreak.

“If it takes a significant period of time to control, there could be a larger impact of our business.”

In games, Hasbro saw revenue fall eight per cent to $246.4 million, driven downwards by a decline in in sales of Pie Face and Speak Out. Even strong sales of Hasbro’s Dungeons and Dragons couldn’t off-set the drop.

Dungeons and Dragons revenue grow for the sixth year running, and Magic revenue increases more than 30 per cent during the year.

Disney’s Frozen II becomes the highest-grossing animated film in history

Disney’s Frozen II has become the highest-grossing animated film in history, having generated $1.325 billion at the global box office to date and pushing past the franchise’s 2013 flagship, Frozen.

The sequel has surpassed both the $1.281 billion made by Frozen, and the $1.243 billion made by The Incredibles to secure the top spot. It hasn’t quite trounced the remake of The Lion King, which stands at $1.65 billion in 2019.

The announcement has stamped Disney’s dominance over the animated film scene, being responsible for the top three biggest cartooned movies of all time.

Frozen 2 notched a number of box office milestones since debuting on November 22. It launched with $130 million, setting a November record for an animated movie and becoming the first animated title outside of summer to surpass triple digits in its first weekend. 

The movie also set a new pinnacle for the Thanksgiving box office, earning $123 million over the five-day holiday frame.

Frozen 2 was Disney’s sixth 2019 release to reach $1 billion in ticket sales and Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker will soon become its seventh. That’s the most billion-dollar films from a single studio in one year.