TOMY International will introduce a new line of baby toys developed in collaboration with Robin Arzón, athlete, mom, entrepreneur, advocate and New York Times bestselling author of children’s book, Strong Mama and its highly-anticipated follow-up, Strong Baby, publishing in February 2023.
On Thursday, October 27, 2022, the biggest names in specialty games and crafts will be training retailers and their staff at the Mass Mutual Center in Springfield, MA. Due to the success of the Portland, OR and Long Beach, CA Game and Kit days, ASTRA thought it would be a great idea to have one on the East Coast. The Mass Mutual Center is centrally located for easy access from all the New England States as well as Upstate, NY. A knowledgeable staff helps increase retail sales – why not have fun at the same time?
BEGiN, the company behind industry-leading early learning programs HOMER, codeSpark Academy, Little Passports, KidPass, and Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit educational organization behind Sesame Street, launch Learn with Sesame, the first offering to come out of their partnership. The new app uses Sesame Workshop’s tried-and-true educational approach alongside BEGiN’s four-step learning framework, ‘The BEGiN Method,’ which builds confidence, promotes problem-solving, and fosters a lifelong love of learning. Learn with Sesame, featuring the beloved characters from Sesame Street, offers social-emotional learning and academic skill development with a research-based framework. Through interactive games, stories, videos, and songs, the app provides kids from ages 2-5 opportunities to navigate everyday challenges and emotions as they explore foundational concepts such as numbers, colors, shapes, and more.
The Insights Family – the global leader in kids, parents, and family market intelligence has launched its inaugural Licensing Report at Brand Licensing Europe. The report – in association with Licensing International – identifies some of the key trends that The Insights Family are seeing in its Kids Insights and Parents Insights data across the 22 markets which it serves. The report also includes expert commentary from industry professionals who share their opinions as to the opportunities and challenges that they see resulting from these trends.
The Pokémon Company International announced that the Pokémon Trading Card Game (TCG): Pokémon GO Elite Trainer Box has been awarded Game of the Year at The Toy Foundation’s September 2022 Toy of the Year (TOTY) Awards. The TOTY Awards recognize the top toys, games and licenses, with winners decided by votes cast by the public and industry based on a pool of finalists determined by expert judges. The Game of the Year category is evaluated based on the product’s creativity, design, playability and marketing, and was previously won by The Pokémon Company International in 2021 for its Pokémon TCG Battle Academy family board game.
Moose Games, the family gaming innovation division of the award-winning Moose Toys brand, announced the acquisition of the Worst-Case Scenario license from the game developer, Miami Beach game company, All Things Equal, as well as the licensor, Quirk Productions. Quirk oversees the licensing rights to Worst-Case Scenario and has entered a long-term licensing deal with Moose Toys for exclusive global rights to sell Worst-Case Scenario games, including the original game and a newly developed adults-only version, effective immediately.
ASPIRE, the dedicated Corporate & Lifestyle division of world-leading brand licensing agency WildBrain CPLG, has secured a deal with the Simba Dickie Group’s Smoby Toys for a master role-play toy range based on the established cleaning-technology brand Kärcher. Brokered by WildBrain CPLG’s German office on behalf of Alfred Kärcher SE & Co. KG, the partnership will see Smoby Toys create a role-play toy range based on the design of original indoor and outdoor Kärcher products.
Moonbug Entertainment, a subsidiary of Candle Media, announced an agreement with MultiChoice, Africa’s leading entertainment company, to launch an exclusive linear preschool channel on Sub-Saharan African direct broadcast satellite service DStv. The new Moonbug Kids channel will include content from across the Moonbug portfolio of much-loved IPs.
MGA Entertainment, one of the largest and fastest growing privately held toy companies in the world, just dropped the first trailer for the all-new L.O.L. Surprise! Winter Fashion Show Movie, available for streaming globally on Netflix – excluding China – beginning Saturday, October 22. The sixty-minute movie will bring to life the L.O.L. Surprise! fashion show toy segment, which has begun rolling out across retailers just in time for the holidays.