Hasbro Studios, the Los Angeles-based entertainment distribution division of Hasbro Inc., entered international deal with Cartoon Network to distribute the first season of the animated series Transformers: Cyberverse to Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America. The deal includes both linear and digital distribution to bring the show, which already airs on Cartoon Network in the U.S., to the rest of the...
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The winners for the ninth annual Toy & Game Innovation (TAGIE) Awards were announced at a gala on Navy Pier in Chicago on Friday night. The TAGIE Awards paid tribute to toy and game inventors from around the world, and excellence was recognized in the Toy Innovator, Game Innovator, Rising Star Innovator, and Digital Toy or Game Innovator categories. Industry colleagues and the public selected the winners. The evening’s events included a keynote address by Nancy Zwiers, executive vice president and chief marketing officer of Spin Master, and culminated with Lifetime Achievement Awards being given to David Small and...
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Consumers say they will spend an average of $1,007.24 during the holiday season this year, up 4.1 percent from the $967.13 they said they would spend last year, according to the annual survey released today by the National Retail Federation and Prosper Insights & Analytics. The consumer survey comes on top of NRF’s annual holiday spending forecast, which takes into account a variety of economic factors to project overall spending rather than per-consumer spending. The forecast estimated that holiday retail sales in November and December will increase between 4.3 percent and 4.8 percent over last year for a total between...
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LeapFrog Enterprises Inc.’s LeapStart 3D is now available at major retailers nationwide. LeapStart 3D is an update to the LeapStart Interactive Learning System, which combines real books with 3D-like animations. Touch-and-talk activities enhance learning with interactive animations to help kids build math, reading, problem-solving skills, and more. The stylus reads invisible dots on every page, triggering questions, challenges, songs, and more. The LeapStart leveled library has also grown with new licensed titles featuring popular children’s characters, including Mickey and the Roadster Racers, Disney Princesses, and Pixar characters such as The Incredibles, Lightning McQueen, and Nemo. The entire LeapStart library...
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Epoch Everlasting Play kicked off the holiday shopping season with an interactive pop-up experience to celebrate the retail launch of the Calico Critters’ new Town series. The series, first introduced in 1985, features detailed animal figures that live like humans with a focus on nature, family, and love. The collection is now available at specialty stores nationwide and online at Amazon. The pop-up experience took place at Stella’s Exclusive Town Tea at Lady Mendl’s Tea Salon in New York City. It featured life-size replicas of the play set, including a chance to step inside Stella’s Designer Studio, taste testing...
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The startup Pocket.watch is repackaging content from top YouTube kids’ channels, including Ryan ToysReview, into half-hour TV show formats that are now streaming on Hulu and Amazon Prime Video, according to an article by Variety. The first format is called “Ultimate Mishmash,” which strings together best-of clips from Pocket.watch’s collection of YouTubers into 22-minute episodes. The initial series are individually dedicated to five creator partners: Ryan ToysReview, HobbyKidsTV, EvanTubeHD, JillianTubeHD, and CaptainSparklez. Pocked.watch also has an original half-hour series called “Pocket.watch Challenge Squad,” in which a team takes part in fun challenges, such as Oreo taste-tastes. Hulu licensed a...
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September’s retail sales increased 0.4 percent over August on a seasonally adjusted basis, and were up 3 percent year-over-year unadjusted, according to calculations released today by the National Retail Federation (NRF). The numbers exclude automobiles, gasoline stations, and restaurants. September sales were up 4.5 percent on a three-month moving average, compared with the same period last year. NRF’s numbers are based on data from the U.S. Census Bureau, which released overall September sales—including automobiles, gasoline, and restaurants—were up 0.1 percent seasonally adjusted from August and 4.7 percent above September of last year. Specifics from key retail sectors during September include: Online...
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Cartoon Network Enterprises grows its licensing program for the popular Adult Swim series Rick and Morty. With more than a dozen new partners, a diverse range of products will be available for fans that span across multiple categories, including home décor, apparel, accessories, toys, and more. Just Toys will produce a line of Rick and Morty SquishMe’s available during the holiday season at mass retailers and specialty stores. Kidrobot will release Rick and Morty Slippery Stair figures this month, available at kidrobot.com with a glow-in-the-dark exclusive colorway available at Hot Topic. Fuckjerry launched the Rick and Morty expansion pack of its popular What Do You Meme adult party game exclusively at Spencer’s stores...
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Cryptozoic Entertainment will release Pantone: The Game on Aug. 22. In this competitive party game, 2 to 20 players try to identify pop culture characters that are represented only by abstract arrangements of colors, inspired by Pantone. Players will create recognizable characters with a few well-placed color swatches. Like a small puzzle, they will arrange the colors to reveal the character with bare essentials. When another player guesses the character correctly, both players score points. If no one can guess the character during a round, a hint is given at the start of the next round, with each hint reducing...
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The Genius of Play inspired more than 100 days of play this summer with its “Tag, You’re It!” sweepstakes. The organization received more than 2,540 entries on Instagram and Twitter combined, each featuring photos of families and children having fun and expressing themselves through play. The “Tag, You’re It” sweepstakes took place on Instagram and Twitter between July 9 and Aug. 6 to help promote the importance of play during the summer months. During that time, parents were asked to share pictures of their children at play using the hashtags #GeniusofPlay and #sweepstakes and to tag their friends for a chance...
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