Atomic Betty (left) and D.I.C.E. represented animated TV shows making the leap to licensed properties. ©2005 Atomic Cartoon Inc. Distributed by Playmates Toys Inc. (left) and © Bandai America Inc.

Many of the licensed introductions this year were tied to films. Mattel showed products inspired by Fox’s Robots, Warner Bros.’ fourth Harry Potter film (including a mini-terrarium to grow plants for making spells) and the upcoming Batman movie. Hasbro also highlighted several film-based lines, including Star Wars: Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, Disney’s Chronicles of Narnia and Chicken Little, and DreamWorks’ Madagascar. Toy Biz spotlighted toys tied to Curious George (which is being made into a PBS animated series that will debut after the film) and this summer’s Fantastic Four movie. (Several exhibitors said they had to pull Cars merchandise, tied to the Disney/Pixar film, which was deemed not yet ready to show.)

While film properties took center stage this year, several toy introductions were tied to TV series as well. Fisher-Price launched items based on Nelvana’s Miss Spider’s Sunny Patch Friends, Big Tent’s Koala Bros. and Nickelodeon’s All Grown Up and Lazy Town, while Mattel had Warner Bros.’ Hi Hi Puffy Ami Yumi. Playmates debuted its Atomic Betty playsets and posable plush, based on the animated series from Breakthrough Ent., while Bandai premiered D.I.C.E., a new brand developed by Bandai’s U.S. division that airs on Cartoon Network.

Co-branding was also a popular concept. Here Waterbabies meets Nemo with the Dress Up Cuddler Water Babies Nemo (left) while Darth Vader unites with Mr. Potato Head to make Darth Tater. © Playmates Toys (left) and © 2005 Hasbro, Inc.

Toy Play launched a line of dolls and playsets based on Scholastic’s Maya & Miguel, which is being supported by promotions with organizations such as Major League Soccer (some of whose players are depicted in episodes of the animated PBS series). Leslye Schaefer, Scholastic Ent.’s svp, marketing and consumer products, said the Maya & Miguel Website has generated more than 50 million page views.

Many licensors and toy makers working with TV properties emphasized the need for a good fit between the partners -- always an important factor but even more so in today’s competitive TV and toy environments -- and the need to collaborate to promote a property and build it slowly. Action Products debuted a toy line tied to Taffy Entertainment’s ToddWorld, airing on TLC and represented for merchandising by L&G+ Licensing. “We both [L&G and Action Products] have the same philosophy about growing a brand so it becomes an evergreen and not a flash in the pan,” says Linda Rutherford, Action Products’ director of product design and development.

Other ToddWorld partners include HIT for videos and Little, Brown for books. The video packages feature a message about the books, while the books include an ad for the videos; all of HIT’s 15 million preschool videos will feature trailers for ToddWorld that support the books as well as the videos and the series itself. Liz Stahler, one of the principals at L&G+, points out that a new TV property can be a challenge to license unless it’s on a network with the highest viewership, namely Nickelodeon or Cartoon Network. Partners such as HIT, Action Products and Little, Brown strengthen a property significantly, not only because they have strong distribution, but because they have similar objectives for the property. “They’re the right partners for us,” said Stahler. “They really understood the brand.”

One notable toy-industry trend that has strengthened this year is co-branding, the combination of a license with a well-known toy company brand name. Hasbro showed Ants in the Square Pants and the Game of Life in Bikini Bottom, both of which paired SpongeBob with long-established board games, as well as a Candyland game based on Dora. The company also promoted its Darth Tater figure (Star Wars plus Mr. Potato Head), Sorry! Madagascar, a Star Wars-branded Trivial Pursuit game and Operation: Simpsons Edition, among other examples. Similarly, Playmates married its Waterbabies line with several licenses, including Disney characters, Care Bears, Teletubbies and Nick Jr. properties.