Including Mattel’s Hot Wheels brand confirming its sponsorship of CarFest 2017.
The Source rounds up more news from the licensing industry across the globe from the week.
Mattel’s Hot Wheels brand is lending its support to CarFest 2017. The family festival – created by Chris Evans and BBC’s Children in Need – takes place from July 28-30 (North) and August 25-27 (South). The Hot Wheels sponsorship includes exclusive branding in the demo zone – this includes a track in Hot Wheels’ signature orange, where the brand will take part in the car parade. There will also be a specially designed Hot Wheels stand where aspiring racers can put their expertise to the test when it comes to building the ultimate track, and battle it out to create the best jumps, loops and track combination on a four-lane raceway. In addition, Hot Wheels will also launch its new Ai range at CarFest.
Alpha Animation & Toys has appointed Kayes of Cardiff as the exclusive distributor of Super Wings in the independent market in the UK.
Kuju is eyeing up moves to provide its VR and AR services to brands in the licensing and toy space. The company has teamed up with brand experience agency Ralph Creative to offer a one-stop-shop for creating groundbreaking VR and AR experiences across any platform. The news follows on from the earlier co-production of a music remix experience for Grammy Award winning duo The Chainsmokers and Sony Music.
Zodiak Kids has secured a UK deal for its preschool series, Floogals, with Channel 5’s Milkshake. The first series of 52 11-minute episodes have been revoiced with a UK cast and premiered earlier this week as part of the newly refreshed preschool block.
Staying with Milkshake’s refresh, and Puffin Rock – the preschool series narrated by Chris O’Dowd – is also launching on the block this month. Hoho Rights is managing the UK and international licensing rights for the brand (excluding China).
Chupa Chups is collaborating with Take n’ Care for a new collection of bath and body products for children and teens in Thailand.
ITV Studios Global Entertainment is working with Kuato Studios to develop a story-telling game app based on Thunderbirds Are Go. The app will launch in early 2018 on the iOS and Android platforms. The brand has already enjoyed success in the app space with Play With Games – the company recently launched Parker’s Driving Challenge, which went top 10 on iOS in over 114 countries and had over two million downloads in the first few weeks.
WDR mediagroup in Cologne has licensed Gigglebug Entertainment’s Finnish kid’s programme, Gigglebug, to Channel 5’s Milkshake block.
The Roblox platform is on track to payout $30 million to independent developers in 2017 fuelled by its growth, now boasting more than 56 million monthly players worldwide.
DHX Media has secured a distribution deal with Virgin TV UK for streaming rights in the UK and Ireland, and linear rights for its Irish network (TV3 Ireland), for a total of 615 half-hours of content. A total of 30 titles from DHX Media’s library have been licensed on a non exclusive basis, including Bob the Builder, Fireman Sam, In the Night Garden and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.
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