When licensing executives walked the aisles of Toy Fair years ago, they would see products based on the top entertainment and character licenses at the booths of exhibitor after exhibitor across the show floor. Today, licensing activity in the toy category, even for the hottest licenses, tends to be consolidated with the master licensee and a relatively few other specialists (e.g. for construction, craft, or science kits), rather than extending across multiple toymakers.
Still, there are always opportunities beyond the master licensing deal. Examples spotted at this year’s show:
- Tynies, a creator of hand-formed glass miniatures, was showing a collection of Paul Frank characters and is adding Hello Kitty and Smurfs.
- Marshmallow Fun, a maker of marshmallow-shooting weaponry, was marketing a Stay Puft Marshmallow Man range tied to Ghostbusters.
- Rory’s Story Cubes, purveyor of a dice game that fosters storytelling, was highlighting a Batman version and has the Moomin license.
- Paper Punk, a seller of folded-paper sculpture kits, was offering Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in various sizes.
- InRoad Toys, a marketer of road- and track-imprinted tape to be used with toy vehicles, was touting its Thomas & Friends-licensed version manufactured for Thomas train licensee Bachmann.
- Identity Games, owner of the FindIt searching game, involving a tube full of tiny objects, was featuring its new Elf on the Shelf and NFL Players Inc. lines.
As this sampling shows, the potential always exists—whether in the toy industry or in other categories—to license specialized items the major players do not supply.
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