New skus and new territories: Marc Sach discusses global licensing deals for Fuzzballs

It’s been a while, Marc! You spoke to Billy Langsworthy about your early licensing journey in our sister magazine; people can read that here: For now, though, what’s new?
Where to begin?! We’ve had a lot of retail launches, a lot of new licensees coming on board – and lots and lots of new products coming out. One of our big expansions is into the US market, and a few other other countries as well… We’ve also got a new book coming out in September; we’re doing a big launch in Walmart, Kroger – all the big American stores.

You’ve had cookbooks before, haven’t you? What’s the new book about?
We’ve made some small books before – what I call prototypes… I can show them to people and say, “This is what I’d like to do for the future: let’s see if the fans like it.” We self publish those, but now we’ve teamed up with a company called Quarto to do at least three publications. Our first is a colouring book for adults. It’s pretty thick; lots of lots of pages. Some are easy to colour, some are more difficult to suit different needs.

So Quarto is doing the colouring book – and that’s hitting America first?
Well, they’re going worldwide with it! Obviously, America is one of the biggest countries for that sort of product. They’re also going in big with companies like Big W in Australia. And for some of the territories – like Australia – it’s the first time we’ve had a Fuzzball’s product in those countries…

It takes another step to get into other countries: you need to have the right licensees, distribution, retail and products. With Quarto being so big – and frankly, amazing – they can get the book to companies who wouldn’t ordinarily know we exist… So this then opens up doors for other people to come in with other products.

Sounds amazing. Of which, am I right in saying you’ve been dealing with the folks at Fanattik?
I love the folks at Fanattik! We’ve got at least nine SKUs coming out with them: desk pads, sticker packs, coasters, key rings, bottle openers, limited-edition coins and mystery enamel pins. I’m really excited by the pins because mystery products are really big, and our enamel pins are already one of our biggest sellers. We’ve also got a poker deck coming out, which is cool. Fanattik really know what they’re doing in terms of their product because they’ve done it for a long time – and with some of the biggest video game and film ranges out there. To partner with them and sit next to some of those brands on shelf is absolutely amazing.

I’m curious: why have you gone with those products, specifically?
As you may know, Fanattik tends to focus on metal products. And actually, I first spoke to Anthony Marks many years ago. He knew Fuzzballs wasn’t quite right for them back then, but as the brand’s grown, so has the kidult market. He’s also expanded his range to include more films and video games, and now he’s targeting that Kawaii style… So he’s come to feel that he can add this kind of character into the metal-product range.

Yes, the market’s broadened enough for you to intersect in the middle there… This is a print interview, so nobody can appreciate that I’m making a Venn diagram with my hands here. Ha! But yes, that intersection is quite a lot bigger than before.
That’s exactly right. And a lot more retailers are now more receptive to this sort of thing, too.

Worth mentioning that we’ve interviewed Anthony a couple of times; I’ll put some links to some of his stuff here and here. Now, in your piece with Billy, I think you said licensing had been a long, tough journey. Obviously, that was a a few years ago… I was wondering, though, if it’s getting easier for you?
I think things have got easier for us over the last few years as we’ve become more recognisable in the industry. Fans and customers recognise us, of course, but you need that recognition in the licensing and retail industries. Traditionally, they’re not very online focused so they don’t follow us at Comic Con or on Instagram or anything. But that’s where they could be looking to find new brands. At the same time, a lot of people are trying to play it very safe – especially with how the economy is going…

So yes – while we’re getting more recognition, the risk aversion is getting stronger and some retailers – especially in the UK – are sticking with things like Harry Potter and other very traditional brands. It reminds me of something someone said to me about a phrase that’s used in the computer industry: “You never get fired if you buy Dell.”

Ha! Because Dell is so reliable, I suppose…
Right! You say to your boss, “I bought a Dell computer!”, they’ll be happy. It’s good, it’s safe, it’s reliable. Whereas if you get the newest thing, then there’s more risk involved – even if it might be better – and there’ll be more questions from your boss!

I love that! So it’s got easier in some ways, but not in others…
Definitely. We’ve now got some licensees on board who have a much bigger worldwide impact, which is helpful… Because as soon as you say you’re in Walmart, other big retailers prick up their ears. It’s definitely a slow growth for us; that way of showing people what we’ve got and why it’s working… That really started with HMV and Gary Williamson. He’s a big champion of the brand; he’s opened so many doors for us! People look at HMV and think to themselves, ‘Well, if it’s selling there, why isn’t it with us?’

Fantastic! Let me ask you this: what do you think is the appeal of Fuzzballs, Marc?
The answer to that is something I find from the customers! It’s the relatability. While we’re a cute brand – and cute sells – we do skew older… Our audience age tends to be 15 to 35. We definitely hit that kidult market: teens and adults who want a bit more joy and happiness in their lives, or the relatability to the characters. Because our characters have different foods, they love video games, they love anime… They have different adventures, and fans relate to the individual characters on those levels.

This character does that… That reminds me of me.
And that makes me feel happy, or not so alone maybe. I think that’s the main part of it, as well as our humour. Our humour is accessible to all ages, but it does change depending on your age. I call it Pixar humour: the kids hear something like “Put yummy things in me!” and they laugh because it’s silly. The adults hear the same thing and snigger and giggle at the innuendo! I think that makes us stand out from all the other cute stuff out there – we’re not just cute. It’s our relevancy and impact and how we relate to normal lives that attracts people.

Good answer. Smoothly done! What else is on the horizon, Marc?
We’ve got a card game. This should reach retail in the next couple weeks. It’s going to be in Waterstones and Forbidden Planet and all the major places you’d expect to find one. Our licensee for that is Scrungo. They do the Cyanide and Happiness card games. The designer is Laura Wing. She came up with the initial concepts, the rules and gameplay, then we themed it to Fuzzballs.

And that’s called what?
It’s called Pizza Thief. Every card has unique artwork! It’s a really fun, easy game for games night; it’s a beginner game… Something to ease you in: you don’t need to read pages and pages of instructions! But it’s filled with interesting, characters and artwork and stuff like that. Every time you get a new card, you get something cool to look at. It’s just arriving at the distributors now, but we launched it at the UK Games Expo. It was really fun seeing people playing it for the first time.

Oh, you must’ve been chuffed to pieces!
It’s great to see people pick up the box and say, “What’s this? Tell me about it!” And then, because it sounds good, they buy it. That’s the exciting part.

And I recall books and a game being on your wish list… You must be working your way down it! Amazing. Let’s wrap this up, Marc. What’s the one question I could’ve asked you today that I didn’t?
I guess: what’s our big thing for 2026?

Then I’m all ears! What IS your big thing for 2026?
We’ve got further books, more card game and all these new products… But our biggest launch is going to be into the Comic Cons in America. We’ve teamed up with a company called Op Studios. They run the US brand for a company called Milk Mocha Bear, which is a a South Korean Kawaii-bear thing. Quite similar to us, I guess. Anyway, Op Studios run all the Milk Mocha Bear stuff at Comic Cons, and they’re taking our booth from the UK and doing the same in America. We’ll be doing one show every single month!

Oh, wow!
We’ll have a big convention scene, more or less duplicating what I did here initially: taking Fuzzballs to Comic Cons, direct to customers, and showing them what we have and building the fan base. Obviously, that then ties back to retail because they’ll have all these customers from the Comic Cons wanting the product. I’ll be going to some of the shows myself because I think it’ll be a fun experience to meet the fans. We have a huge American fan base who, until recently, haven’t really been able to get hold of product so easily.

Amazing! What extraordinary news, congratulations! Well, thanks again for joining me, Marc; always lovely to get an update and it sounds like you just keep going and growing!