Any news from Playmates?

[Wardah]

In the US a big Easter tradition is giving kids a big basket filled with toys and candy on Easter. Like everything else in America the gifts in the basket have gotten bigger and evolved from just some jelly beans, a chocolate rabbit, and a paper coloring book to full sized toys and enough candy to last months. For example, Hasbro has been making an Easter edition My Little Pony and Mattel has been making an Easter edition Barbie doll for quite some time now.

Playmates might not have had any choice but to release the toys when they did. It might have cost them more to rent the warehouse space than they would have made on the dolls causing them to lose money. Of course their poor planning is what brought on the no win situation in the first place.

[Blondine Arc-En-Ciel]

.
Most of those baskets are pre-packaged. You can choose the basket but not the individual items inside. Yes, it's possible to make your own, but Easter is not a toy day like birthdays and Christmas. There were four Gen 4 dolls available this past Easter but that one event did not save the line or give it a major lift.

[Wardah]

Yeah but they didn't advertise them either. No kid is gonna be begging for something if they don't know the damn things exist.

[Blondine Arc-En-Ciel]

Yeah but they didn't advertise them either. No kid is gonna be begging for something if they don't know the damn things exist.

I think I have already addressed that issue elsewhere.

[Rainbow Brite]

Playmates has removed RB from their website. Goodbye dream of ever having a fourth Sky Power (aka STORMY) doll

And while United Media is still claiming RB as one of their brands, I just came across this article touting it as a brand (or upcoming brand) for Iconix Brand Group:

http://www.wthr.com/Global/story.asp?S=12845011
(the last paragraph)

I wonder what this means?

[Aquarius]

Playmates has removed RB from their website. Goodbye dream of ever having a fourth Sky Power (aka STORMY) doll

And while United Media is still claiming RB as one of their brands, I just came across this article touting it as a brand (or upcoming brand) for Iconix Brand Group:

http://www.wthr.com/Global/story.asp?S=12845011
(the last paragraph)

I wonder what this means?

I hope that means that more RB is planning to come out soon! Hope you can get more information soon about that.

[Wardah]

I dug a little further and found these little tidbits:

http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zht ... highlight=

http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zht ... highlight=

It seems Iconix bought out United Media. Iconix is the company that owns Ed Hardy (who's tattoo stuff has been on everything from handbags to lollipops) so if any company knows how to promote a brand its them. I wonder what their plans will be?

[Rainbow Brite UK]

Playmates has removed RB from their website. Goodbye dream of ever having a fourth Sky Power (aka STORMY) doll

And while United Media is still claiming RB as one of their brands, I just came across this article touting it as a brand (or upcoming brand) for Iconix Brand Group:

http://www.wthr.com/Global/story.asp?S=12845011
(the last paragraph)

I wonder what this means?

This may help

Often people are confused by licensing and this can lead to misconceptions.
Hallmark owns "Rainbow Brite" as a brand, they allow companies to purchase licensing giving that company the right to produce products with their brand/characters which makes both that company and Hallmark money.

The current license holder for the USA/Canada is "United Media". United Media looks for people who are willing to invest in the brand and produce products.
So far these other companies are:

• Playmates Toys (toys)
  Stickeroni (stickers)
  FAF inc (hair accessories, jewelry)
  Innovative Designs LLC (Stationary)
  Kent Cycles (Bikes in the USA)
  Stone Ridge Cycles (Bikes in Canada)

These people are allowed to release products in the USA and Canada, but NOT in any other country unless someone invests to expand the license to a more global company.

These current companies put forward money to create products.

Next you have the stores:

• Target
  ToysRUs
  Meijers

These stores also put forward money to put the toys in their stores.
Target : Dolls only (toys) but have expanded to classic items in the SeeSpotSave program providing stationary, hair accessories, etc
Meijers: Horses Only
ToysRUs: both dolls and horses

The items were shown at toy fairs and these companies chose to invest in the brand and sell the items. Other stores: Kmart, Walmart, Etc, May have been interested in the items, but chose not to sell them.

Walmart/Hallmark: Walmart does stock Hallmark Cards in their stores, Stickeroni is a provider for Hallmark, this is why the stickers are in Walmart, but no other products are.

United Media/Iconix

June 3, 2010 :
Iconix Brand Group, Inc. today announced that it has completed the acquisition of the Peanuts brand and related assets of United Media Licensing, a division of United Feature Syndicate, Inc. through a newly formed joint venture company, Peanuts Worldwide LLC, owned 80% by Iconix and 20% by Charles M. Schulz Creative Associates, managed by the Schulz family.

In addition, Iconix has acquired the licensing and character representation for a number of character brands, including Dilbert and Fancy Nancy.

You can read the whole article here:
June Press Release

Iconix bought the complete Peanuts line, but also a few others. Rainbow Brite is not listed as being taken over by Iconix, however she could be under the "other character brands" like Dilbert and Fancy Nancy. This can be a good thing, because as I mentioned earlier, you want a more global license, and currently United Media is US/Canada Only for RB items.

Do I think this is the end of the brand?
No, legally United Media cannot produce anymore toys because at this time they are still in contract with Playmates. They are attempting to broaden the license with other products, nothing has been solidified at this time so no other information is being provided, however once we do hear back we will be sure to let you all know.

We could very well get more Rainbow Brite.

Playmates may have removed her from their page, but they also removed "Tinkerbell" (recently acquired by Jakks Pacific), so you see both those items on the shelves.

BUT Hallmark's site has grown. It now includes a Spanish site with Spanish descriptions to expand the audience to more Spanish speaking children. They also re-released the 'theme song sing-a-long' Video to include Spanish subtitles!

It is too soon for me to give up, so I'm not.
Keep looking for your Rainbows!
Have a Rainbow Day!

[Rainbow Brite]

Sweet! Thank for the info you guys Hopefully this will be a good change.

[Wardah]

I was in Target Monday and the Tinkerbell dolls there said Jakks Pacific on the box. The truth about Playmates is hard to tell since they are less than forthcoming about what is going on. I don't know if it is possible for whoever owns a brand to pull the rights if they are unhappy with a licensee's performance or if a licensee can surrender the rights if they have no desire to continue owning it. However that said unless they have been making plans secretly with another company I doubt there will be any new toys for this fall. I will still hold hope for next fall tho.