The 70-year legacy of the Rubie’s Costume Co. continues as the company emerges from Chapter 11 Bankruptcy under new ownership.
On Friday afternoon, the sale of Rubie’s and several of its related entities officially closed. The deal was approved on Sept. 21 by the Honorable Alan S. Trust, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge in the Eastern District of New York. The sale, originally slated to close by Sept. 30, took a couple of extra days to cross the finish line as the final details were ironed out.
Rubie’s emerges as Rubies II LLC, a newly-formed entity owned by strategic operator and managing partner Joel Weinshanker, majority owner of Elvis Presley Enterprises; managing partner of Graceland Holdings; and the sole member, chairman, and founder of the National Entertainment Collectibles Association Inc., best-known to those in the toy industry as NECA. Funds are being managed by Atalaya Capital Management LP and members of the Beige family, carrying on the lineage of the founders and previous family ownership.
“We would like to thank our stakeholders and the hundreds of employees who will be taking the new journey with us,” says Weinshanker. “We look forward to elevating the properties of our licensing partners with quality and innovation, and we will strive to provide our retail partners with the best products and the best tools to service their customers.”
In recent years, NECA has made a number of strategic acquisitions including Kidrobot, Loot Crate, Chia Pet, and The Clapper as its product selection has grown. Additionally, the company’s collectibles and action figures have taken increased space at major retailers including Walmart and Target over the past year. The combination of the companies, including assets from Rubie’s Costume Co. Inc., Forum Novelties Inc., Buyseasons Enterprises LLC, Masquerade, LLC, The Diamond Collection LLC, and Rubie’s Masquerade Company LLC will result in numerous synergies across wholesale and direct-to-consumer markets in categories spanning costumes, toys, collectibles, and more.
“The future is bright at Rubie’s. We will continue to dominate the Halloween space, and make it even clearer to everyone that there is only one place like home for Halloween — Rubie’s,” Weinshanker says.
NECA’s Loot Crate recently debuted a collection of masks based on the Universal Monsters franchise.
