The Licensing Blog

  • View the Latest Issue Online
  • Subscribe to the Licensing Book

A New Friend

Lost in the packing and unpacking of boxes over here was the news that a new Uglydoll was released, which to us is kind of like when they pick a new Pope, but, you know, with Uglydolls.

Meet Suddy. Here’s her description:

“Suddy is a very busy girl with a lot going on. She’s got no time for slow pokes and doesn’t want to wait around for laggards. If you want to keep up with her, you’ll have to live life in the fast lane. That means waking up in the morning and lived your life to the fullest! But what does that mean? It means she loves you and also candy.”

Suddy loves candy and we love Suddy, but that doesn’t mean we love candy. Candy is a sometime food. Suddy is an all-the-time friend. Write it down. We just did.

Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure in Licensing

The time-traveling duo Bill S. Preston, Esquire,  and “Ted” Theodore Logan, of Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure, were a big hit back in the early ‘90s, popularizing such So-Cal jargon as “most righteous” and “excellent,” spawning a sequel and a cartoon spin-off, and launching the career of at least one of its stars, Keanu Reeves.

Although the duo haven’t serenaded audiences with air guitar in quite a few years, their spirit lives on in the world of licensing. Universal theme parks in Orlando and Hollywood are renewing Bill & Ted Excellent Halloween Adventure for the 20th year and Creative Licensing Corporation has signed on three new licensees for the Bill and Ted roster, including American Greetings for online greeting cards, Perri’s Leathers for guitar picks and straps, and Microgaming for online slot machines.

Word has it Bill and Ted will make a big screen comeback with a third movie. We all know what Keanu’s been up to, but we admit it would be pretty cool to see an older Alex Winter.

—Mackenzie Allison

Unofficial Licensing: It’s a Peeps Party!

Easter is just around the corner and grocery store aisles everywhere are filled with Peeps—the marshmallow candies covered in colorful sugar. Not officially licensed, but fun none the less, The Washington Post recently held its 2011 Peeps Diorama Contest, which asks its readers to create topical dioramas using the famed candy. The winning diorama came from Mary Jo Ondrejka from Reston; Bryn Metzdorf from Fairfax; and Margaret Hartka from Parkton, Md. who created the Chilean CoPeepapo Mine Rescue, based on the rescue of 33 Copiapo, Chile miners  last October. Several of the 35 runner-ups took inspiration from movies, apps, and artwork. Our favorites?  The zero-gravity hallway fighting scene from Inception, transformed to Inpeeption; Angry Peeps, based on the popular mobile app Angry Birds; and Vincent Van Gogh’s Starry Night got a rework as Vincent Van Peep’s Starry Night.

Yes, we are aware this isn’t licensing per se, but it’s Friday and we thought we’d have a little fun. Plus, we have no objections to seeing any of these creative dioramas transferred onto a T-shirt or coffee mug one day.

—Mackenzie Allison

Family Guy Comic Hits Newsstands this Summer

Move over Archie: Peter Griffin and the gang are headed into comic book territory. Titan Comics, a publisher of licensed entertainment properties in the U.S., Canada, UK, Australia, and New Zealand, and Twentieth Century Fox Consumer Products, recently announced the launch of the Family Guy comic series, based on the hit animated Fox show.

The comic will follow new exploits of the Griffin family and their fellow Quahog, Rhode Island residents.

Artwork for the comic series is provided by comic artists SL Gallant (G.I. Joe, Torchwood) and Anthony Williams (Judge Dredd, Superman, and Batman).

The first Family Guy comic will hit U.S. newsstands and specialty comic book stores July 27.

Schwarzenegger to Become Comic Book Character

Let’s imagine for a moment that Arnold Schwarzenegger has a bucket list. He could already check off “become a champion body builder,” “make millions as a movie star” and “have a successful political career.” Assuming it made the list, the Terminator star might soon be able to cross off cartoon and comic book character.

According to a recent report by Entertainment Weekly, Schwarzenegger is working with comic book guru Stan Lee on an animated TV series, as well as a comic book, that will mix the real life of the actor and politician with the superhuman exploits of the characters he’s played.

“The Governator” will battle the evil organization Gangsters Imposters Racketeers Liars and Irredeemable Ex-cons (or G.I.R.L.I.E. Men). The project is still in the development stages and won’t be completed until next year.

Schwarzenegger has stated that the cartoon is his plan B, and that if he could run for president, he would. Too bad that’s one he can’t check off of the list.

—Mackenzie Allison

Eastbound and Down Bobbleheads

Bobbleheads are a pretty whimsical thing. Funny properties lend themselves nicely to these collector’s items. I mean, come on, nobody has a Mussolini bobblehead, right?

HBO has partnered with Bif Bang Pow to create two talking bobble heads based on the main character from the comedy series Eastbound & Down, Kenny Powers. The bobbleheads feature the ex-baseball player in his uniform as well as an all-black outfit. A new bobblehead, Kenny on his jet ski, will debut in stores in late July coinciding with 2011 San Diego Comic Con.

We choose the Muhammad Ali Monopoly tokens

Over at ali.com, you can rank the potential tokens for USAopoly’s forthcoming Muhammad Ali Monopoly game. So we did.

The rankings ranged from 10 (highest preference) to 1 (lowest preference) for 10 contenders: a set of boxing gloves, a pair of boxing trunks, a butterfly, a bee, a championship belt, a silhouette of the champ, the Muhammad Ali autograph, a boxing shoe, a speedbag, and a ring bell. Here are our choices, with our reasons.

10/9: Butterfly and bee. We ranked the butterfly ahead of the bee, but the important part is that these are the top two. If you’re making a game specific to Muhammad Ali, these are the single two most important things to include. They’re the most fun, and the most likely to promote storytelling (Why is there a bee, daddy?), and repeat plays (I want to play the butterfly game!).

If these are not in the game, we will eat a bee pie, stingers and all.

8: Championship belt. Who doesn’t want to be the championship belt? You’ve won before the game even started. That’s a strong selling point, and reinforces that Ali was, you know, the champ. Good to remember in a game bearing his likeness.

7: Bell. We will not play regular Monopoly if we are not given the Iron, so we’re suckers for kitschy, slightly offbeat tokens. It’s just fun in a way that’s not Ali-specific — but make every single aspect of the game Ali-specific, and you’ll risk alienating people who could use it to learn about the greatest. (Editorial note: he was, and still is, the greatest.)

6: Gloves. Since you literally couldn’t make a boxing game without a boxing gloves token, we’re going with this one here. Someone will say “I want to be the boxing gloves!” before you even open the game.

5: Boxing shoe. Nice continuity from the original Monopoly game with this one. It’ll getyou pulling down the old game and comparing the two, and maybe even playing that one again too. Savvy.

4: Speedbag. A nice idea, but it’s kind of hard to tell what it is. You want the pieces to be self-explanatory.

3: Boxing trunks. These made me think of sweat. I don’t like thinking of sweat.

2: Champ statue. A big gratuitous, but the big problem is that it’s not identifiably Ali the way, say, a Michael Jordan logo would obviously be Michael Jordan. Many people would probably think it’s Rocky. In an Ali-branded game, that would seem to be a mistake.

1: Autograph signature. A decent idea, but far too gratuitous in the company of clever ideas like the ones above. No one would choose this piece, ever. Or at least no one we’d like to play with, or be afraid of losing to.

Disagree? You can assign your own rankings. That’s the great part. (We’re pretty confident in ours, though, and would post photos of all of them if formatting wasn’t such a hassle.) Happy Friday!

“Crazy Charlie” Signs Licensing Contract

Celebrities gone wild makes for good TV—celebrities gone crazy makes for good TV and T-shirts.

By now, unless you have been living under a rock, you’ve probably heard about the exploits of the recently unemployed Charlie Sheen. The actor, who made a comeback with Two and a Half Men, has enjoyed something of a whirlwind media tour—debasing  his boss, show creator Chuck Lorre, to anyone and everyone who will listen.

The once critically acclaimed actor from Wall Street and Platoon parlayed his media exploits into a social-networking firestorm and jumped on the Twitter train. Now, according to irishcentral.com, the fallen star has agreed to a merchandising and licensing contract with the concert promoters Live Nation. The company will focus on producing Charlie Sheen memorabilia.

Live Nation execs have deemed him a “folk hero” for standing up for himself in light of his recent termination.

The company is hoping to have some items for sale as soon as next week. Merchandise will include mugs, T-shirts and badges with some of the actor’s famous catchphrases, including “winning.”

More Charlie Sheen rants? Nah. A T-shirt? Maybe…

Like the WWE Superstars? Now You Can Eat ‘Em

Pizza Prints has made a licensing deal for two new WWE Edible Image designs—flat-printed decorations that are made of starches and FDA-approved edible food colors—for pizza featuring Monday Night Raw and Friday Night SmackDown Superstars.

So what’s the deal? With a natural cheese flavor, these pizza decorations allow consumers to literally “consume” their favorite stars.

The WWE Edible Image designs are available at more than 1,200 independent pizza parlors nationwide.

For those who aren’t fans of the WWE, the company also has licensing deals with Nickelodeon, the NBA, NCAA, 80 colleges and universities, as well as Bob the Builder and Thomas.

What goes good with SpongeBob? Maybe ham and pineapple?

Tupac and Biggie Bobbleheads???

Everyone knows someone that collects bobbleheads. It could be your mother, best friend, or even the crazy cat lady at work—the one who also boasts an ever-changing array of holiday sweaters. Chances are, their collections include sports stars, cartoon figures and maybe even a politician or two. Come next year, they can add a touch of Hip Hop cool to their collection with Biggie and Tupac.

Barrett LaRoda, chairman of the LaRoda Group Ltd., has finalized a deal on behalf of Funko that will license celebrities as Hip Hop-branded figures. Funko manufactures bobbleheads, vinyl action figures, and plush toys. LaRoda negotiated the licensing for Biggie and Tupac, making them the first two figures that will hit the market worldwide in early 2011. LaRoda has targeted several other Hip Hop artists for the Funko Hip Hop product line. Funko President Brian Mariotti says, “Traditional bobbleheads have always been caricatured and haven’t resembled the artist, whereas Funko has created a line that not only resembles the artist, but captures their swagger.”

Latest Deals

  • The Tetris Company and Licensing Works! Sign Two Sub-Agents

    The Tetris Company, LLC, the exclusive licensor of the Tetris brand, and its merchandising agent, Licensing Works!, signed two sub-agents to launch new merchandise licensing programs. The Tetris Company welcomes aboard Caroline Mickler, Ltd and Plus Licens as part of the global Tetris family. The new partnerships will allow manufacturers [...]

  • Beanstalk Promotes Allison Ames to President, North America

    Beanstalk has appointed Allison Ames as president, North America. In her new role, Ames will oversee Beanstalk’s operations in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, and South America. She will continue to report directly to Michael Stone, CEO. Effective immediately, Ames will assume full responsibility for all clients operating in the North [...]

  • Activision Hires Licensing Executives

    Entertainment licensing veteran Ashley Maidy has joined Activision to head the newly formed licensing division. Maidy has more than 16 years of experience, building licensing and merchandising programs for Sony Pictures and Saban Entertainment. In her new role, Maidy will extend Activision’s properties into complementary product categories, as well as [...]

  • Licensed Toys Dollar Sales Rose 2 Percent in 2011

    U.S. retail sales of toys generated $21.18 billion in 2011, a decline of 2 percent compared to 2010 numbers, which totaled $21.68 billion, according to market research company The NPD Group. While the average retail price for a licensed toy was 57 percent higher than that for non-licensed toys, licensed [...]

  • Paul Southern Named Head of Lucas Licensing

    Howard Roffman is passing the baton to Paul Southern as head of Lucas Licensing. Roffman will remain with the company as a senior advisor. Both Roffman and Southern will report to Micheline Chau, Lucasfilm president and COO.  

  • Lionsgate Acquires Summit Entertainment for $412.5 Million

    Lionsgate has completed a transaction to acquire Summit Entertainment for a combination of cash and stock valued at $412.5 million. The transaction unites two studios with powerful brands and complementary assets. By acquiring Summit, Lionsgate enhances its feature film and home entertainment offerings, and further broadens its 13,000-title filmed entertainment [...]

  • Schylling Teams Up with Pretty Ugly

    Schylling and Pretty Ugly released a new Uglydoll Rocket Ride Wind Up Toy that has a lever mechanism instead of a key, stands eight inches tall, and is suitable for ages 3 and up. They also released new youth umbrellas in three styles, Ice-bat, Ox, and Uglydoll Rainy Day, suitable [...]

  • WME Signs Cosmetics Deal for Patti Stanger

    WME Licensing’s client Patti Stanger, an American matchmaker and television producer with her own Bravo TV show, The Millionaire Matchmaker, and the founder and CEO of Millionaire’s Club International, Inc., has signed a license with Hyper Interactive to create a full line of PS I Love You Cosmetics. The initial [...]

  • Jazwares to Manufacture Fruit Ninja Products

    Jazwares is slicing into the mobile app category after being awarded the master toy license for Halfbrick’s popular app, Fruit Ninja. Inspired by Fruit Ninja’s fruit-slicing, action-packed adventures, Jazwares’ new range will include fruit figures and plush, featuring “splat” sound effects, slicing features, ninja blades, and branded bandanas, as well [...]

  • So So Happy License Granted to Commonwealth Toys

    Art Impressions has licensed Commonwealth Toys to produce a line of So So Happy plush toys, beanies, plush backpacks, and related products featuring the brand’s quirky cast of friendly monsters, robots, and other oddball characters. The companies’ first collaborative series will roll out nationwide in May at specialty chains, boutiques, [...]

Twitter