Including Beano Studios marking the 70th year of comic character Dennis with the launch of a stamp collection from Royal Mail.
Source rounds up more news from the licensing industry across the globe from the week.
Beano Studios is marking the 70th year of iconic comic character Dennis with the launch of a stamp collection in partnership with Royal Mail. Six stamps look back at Dennis through the ages – from his first ever black and white comic strip in 1951, to important events in his life such as meeting his baby sister, Bea and adopting Gnasher. A further four stamps – exclusively illustrated by the current Dennis artist, Nigel Parkinson – show the culmination of an exclusive comic strip which focuses on Dennis’ birthday celebrations and has been written especially for Royal Mail.
Ahead of Haribo Goldbear‘s 100th anniversary in 2022, the confectionary brand is rolling out a colourful suite of toys, apparel, footwear and homeware this year. The CP programme – with deals brokered by IMG – kicked off with the worldwide launch of a Puma footwear and apparel collection. Additional upcoming products include shoes for kids with European footwear retailer Deichmann (launching at the end of July), Haribo toys, collectables and plush arriving in the autumn from Jakks Pacific and KidsOne tableware in Korea.
BBC Studios has secured a licensing deal with Stor for a Bluey collection of more than 50 items for the UK and Ireland and EMEA markets including meal sets, drinkware, lunch bags, tumblers, canteens, plates and bowls, sandwich boxes, placemats, cutleries, porcelain mugs, bottles and storage boxes. Stor will also offer tailor-made options to retailers which request an exclusive line. The range will feature sustainable and eco-friendly material such as stainless steel, aluminium and porcelain, as well as adding natural fibres to traditional plastics to reduce the percentage of plastics by up to 30%.
ViacomCBS Networks International has unveiled the first ever connect smart NickWatch by Nickelodeon at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Launching in 2022, the product will encourage kids to have a healthy lifestyle by promoting physical and social play activities with just enough story to inspire the imagination. Entertainment based on Nickelodeon IP will include fun photo filters, motion sound effects and musical instruments that play out according to hand movements. Regular content updates with new games, stickers, sound effects and more will be added on an ongoing basis.
Pop culture specialist, Fanattik has secured a pan-European gift licence with ViacomCBS Consumer Products for SpongeBob SquarePants. The new deal covers home decor, barware, gifts and collectables, with products launching from September.
Aardman and CITV have revealed the voice cast for the upcoming CGI comedy series, Lloyd of the Flies, which is due to air in autumn 2022. Tom Rosenthal (Friday Night Dinner, Plebs) will voice Lloyd, a housefly and middle child of 453 with plenty to prove. His best friend, Abacus Woodlouse, will be voiced by Alex Lawther (The End of the F**king World, Black Mirror), while Lauren Patel (Everybody’s Talking About Jamie) will voice his sister, PB. Callum Scott Howells (It’s A Sin) will voice Lloyd’s nemesis, Barry.
Silvergate Media‘s animated properties, Hilda and Octonauts have been shortlisted in an impressive seven categories by the Daytime Emmy awards. Five nominations were received for the second season of the Netflix animated adventure TV series, Hilda, while a further two nominations were picked up for the Octonauts movie specials.
S4C has partnered with NSPCC’s Pantosaurus, bringing a Welsh version of the video to its Cyw website. The five-year agreement also includes an option for broadcast. Developed for young viewers, the site includes games, songs, colouring and activities – the video, together with the guidelines and an activity pack will feature under the ‘Grown ups’ tab. The NSPCC worked with Aardman to create the Pants song and video.
eOne is expanding the footprint of PJ Masks and Peppa Pig in Japan, securing a new distribution deal with TV Tokyo.
Spacetoon is celebrating reaching six million subscribers and over two billion views on its YouTube channel. It is the first Arabic animation TV channel to hit these numbers on YouTube. The channel has recorded one million subscribers, 4.5 billion impressions, over 400 million views and 26.8 million hours of watching in the first two quarters of 2021. The Dubai-based company is attributing part of the increase to the release of its new original animation, The Moshaya Family.
Want to read more news like this? Simply sign up to our daily digest by clicking here. You can also follow @LicensingSource on Twitter and @licensing_source on Instagram.
