Over the past few years, the building category has evolved. New products continue to offer kids new ways to play while giving retailers a chance to refresh their assortments and cash in with increased sales and revenue.
Amid the growth in building sets, the magnetic tile space has become increasingly competitive. Now, Moose Toys is entering the category with a new brand, Tile Town. To learn more, The Toy Book caught up with Joe Smith, Vice President of Global and U.S. Marketing, Licensed Brands, at Moose Toys for some insights.
“We’ve been following and brainstorming around the building space for quite some time, and in early 2023 we locked in the concept for Tile Town,” Smith says. The brand, launching this fall, brings fresh ideas to the play pattern.
BUILDING: EVOLVED
“It is important for us to innovate in the space given the competition,” Smith explains. “We aspired to create a brand that adds play value for kids with our Magnetic Action Tiles, Magnetic Characters and Figures, and unique builds based on kids’ favorite themes and top-tier licensed properties.”
Licensing is rare in the magnetic tile space, and at launch, one of the first residents of Tile Town is a familiar blue heeler, Bluey. Working with licensed brands, Moose Toys finds inspiration to engineer new shapes that unlock additional possibilities for play.
“We loved the idea of applying our thinking with the Tile Town brand in general to licenses,” Smith says. “With our licensed sets, you’ll see unique, bespoke tiles that make iconic structures come to life. A good example is the chimney on the Bluey Heeler Family Home.”
The team at Moose also created an ownable look for its figures, a style and form factor upon which licensed characters may be applied. Bluey and Bingo are prime examples.
“We collaborated with our licensing partner to create the most authentic tile-based playset possible,” Smith says. “BBC Studios has a long-term relationship with Moose and is a fantastic launch partner with Bluey.”
ACTION TILES
A major point of difference between Tile Town and other products on the market is the inclusion of Action Tiles in each set. “Action Tiles are magnet-activated feature tiles unlocked by our Magnetic Figures,” Smith explains. “This opens up some really cool action and reaction moments, extending the ‘play’ aspect of the playsets.”
In the Bluey Heeler Family Home, kids can use Bluey’s iconic Kiwi rug to get up to four figures spinning and dancing while placed upon it.
REINVENTION & EXTENSION
It’s only natural that kids tend to cross-pollinate the toy box, and Tile Town is built with that in mind. Retailers should be familiar with the oft-used label, “Compatible with Major Brands,” and Tile Town most certainly is. “We thought this was important for parents and kids to not have a barrier to maximizing their tile play,” Smith says.
BUILDING SUCCESS AT RETAIL
Moose Toys is launching Tile Town with Bluey, but that’s just the beginning. Additional licenses, like Jurassic World, and original IP are set to join the fun in the months ahead as Moose unleashes a 360-degree marketing campaign, “Click, Build, Play,” with a robust slate of media to support it.
“We’ll be welcoming our retail partners from around the world to our Los Angeles showroom this fall,” Smith says. “In addition to our launch lineup, we look forward to showing the trade what’s in the pipeline. We can’t wait for kids to start building their own Tile Towns.”
A version of this feature originally appeared in the 2024 Action & Adventure Issue of The Toy Book. Click here to read the issue.
