We’re also not really going for the status quo – there’s enough companies out there that compete for certain well-established properties – so we target what I call the new toy economy.

Why did Pembe tick some of these boxes?
Well I actually owe this to my friend Jayson Esterow from License 2 Play. We talk every now and then, and he’s a partner of ours in the US, and he mentioned Pembe the Pink Cat. He told me it was going viral on Giphy.com… I had never heard of Giphy.com so I had no idea what the guy was talking about! We had a meeting at New York Toy Fair where License 2 Play was showing and I fell in love with it right away.

The look, the design, the audience, the messaging… It all appealed. It looks like a Japanese brand but it comes from a guy that lives in Denmark – Sertan Christoffersen. He loves design and he’s a toy guy from heart.

But I was also intrigued because while Pembe was out there, it wasn’t really getting noticed. So we were able to pick up a lot of rights outside of North America. Then we presented and we turned it around very quick. I think we signed the deal memo end of July 2025 and we had first products at the LA previews in September 2025. It’s an amazing product line that’s been well received by our customer base.

For anyone new to the range, what’s in there?
We have a very nice line-up of plastic toys – figures in blind and open packaging, including a bento box, which is amazing. Then we have soft toys, including squishies – or stretchies as we call them – in small and large sizes. We have an eight-inch foam figure in a squishy format that’s been received extremely well. Then we have the line of plush. We don’t own the plush rights for Europe, but we do have the plush rights for Africa, Middle East and Asia. And we distribute some of Rainbow Designs’ plush line in our own territories.

We also have cosmetics in our portfolio, because within The Goodmark Group, we have a very successful cosmetic division. You will see some very nice Pembe cosmetics coming from us. We also have a costume division, so we have costume rights, including accessories. We even aerosol production too, so we’re also going to be putting out Pembe licensed sprays – dry shampoo and that kind of stuff. So, it’s a pretty big portfolio.

Yes, an expansive slate!
It makes us interesting because that combination – cosmetics, costumes, aerosols, toys –makes us a very unique proposition to licensors. It makes us attractive as a licensing partner as we are essentially a one-stop-shop for many categories.

How do you balance working with brands with cultivating your own IP?
BOTI is a lean, mean, relatively small company, and as such, a lot of things between product development and what we do in Hong Kong and China got mixed up with our distribution business in Europe. So, back in April, we created a proper slit. The European distribution business is led by a team here, and I’ve stepped out of the day-to-day of that to focus on product strategy, brand development and global sales.

Terrific. I also wanted to ask about Doctor Squish which seems to be going from strength to strength?
Yes, we’re going into year five with Doctor Squish. Nobody expected us to be five years into the programme, but it’s still growing. We’ve turned the Doctor Squish Squishy Maker into an evergreen – and we are still growing distribution. Actually, 2026 is going to be our best Doctor Squish year since our launch in 2022, with a growth of 30% compared to 2025.

It shows that if you have the right innovation – and a little bit of luck and the right timing – you can build something that can last for years. And that’s what every toy company needs. You need that one thing that goes year in, year out. That gives you the opportunity to start expanding and growing in different areas, because you have that steady income year in, year out. We’re lucky to have it, we’re happy to have it and we worked hard for it.

How did that Doctor Squish collaboration come about?
Seven Towns showed me a concept at the New York Toy Fair in 2018 or 2019. It was essentially a balloon maker. It’s an interesting proposition where you can make a small balloon and put a fairy character in it. I was intrigued by it and decided it was something that we wanted to have.

Then we started developing it together with the help of Seven Towns’ excellent team – and we changed the concept into a machine for kids that can make stuffed balloons, which were very trendy at that moment. We started developing Stuff-a-Loons and managed to get it patented as well, which was a great relief for us. Now, in reality, it was a great innovation but a little hard for kids to make. But we had a good sell in because everybody liked the concept.

Then I was approached on Linkedin by Melissa Hunter, who was the agent of a lady called Doctor Squish. I’d never heard of Doctor Squish, but she’d been using our balloon machine to make squishies… I thought that was interesting, so I looked on her YouTube channel and saw she was only using half of the machine. She was using it to suck the air out and put slime in – and then she would seal it off herself to make a squishy out of it… I thought it was brilliant! A much better idea!

And so we contacted the agent and said: “We have this idea. We can make a squishy machine and it would be great if Doctor Squish would endorse it.” So we could use her name, and that’s how the Doctor Squish Squishy Maker came about. It launched in 2022 and outsold our Stuff-a-Loons by a thousand times!

Amazing. Now, I want to ask you about the International Toy Board, which you are a founding member of. For anyone new to this organization, how would you pitch it?
It started during COVID, when Hong Kong was less frequented, especially by American retailers. LA was already there – albeit smaller than it is now – and I would go every year because buyers would invite us to come to LA. We felt like meeting in LA in September and April was not a bad idea… Especially to see our American and Latin customers who were not going to Asia. And with DISTOY becoming increasingly dysfunctional, we felt that while we’re in LA, why don’t we start showing product?

We started in the El Segundo area with an office space you could rent, but there was a beautiful building on the other side of the street which was almost empty, because it had been renovated right before COVID. So they had space and Jonathan Busher came up with the idea that perhaps we could use that building as a central point for the LA activity. We all loved that idea and that’s how the LA Previews took shape in the way it has today… And it soon grew out of proportion!

Yes, so how big was your first event?
At the first event we had maybe 40 suppliers. The year after we had 120. Then last year, it grew to over 300 suppliers showing products. This year we’ll probably hit 400 in September – and September is the most important one. That takes organization and communication.

Which explains the need to unite and create this body.
Exactly. Because you will have noticed, in the industry, there’s no international toy federation or association. There was obviously interest from other toy associations trying to ‘capture’ the LA Previews, but we felt LA should not be organized by any toy association.

Why not?
Well, it grew organically level and, simply put, it didn’t need an expensive organization or an expensive lease. It needed to be available for everyone. So with that pressure coming from other sides, we felt the need to organize ourselves. We said, okay, for the purpose of the LA Previews, let’s organize an International Toy Board. It’s where retailers, suppliers, manufacturers, designers and the media can get informed and ask for advice regarding the LA Previews.

What we have noticed in the meantime is that the interest in advice and information goes beyond the LA Previews. There’s a real need for a platform for the global toy community, so that’s also what we’re trying to fill. Now, we’re not a toy association, as you may in the UK, the US or in any other market. We don’t go that deep in the market. We’re more of a global go-to body to help people… They might ask: ‘How do I rent space?’, ‘I need some legal advice’, ‘I need some tax advice’… We can help or connect them with those who can help.

The other important thing to say is that it’s a non-profit and we have a very low barrier to entry. For $50 a year you can be an associate, and you’ll get access to tons of things. With that money, we organize events, we invite speakers, we have advice – but all the board members do this free of charge. It means we don’t need a lot of money to keep this operating and running, but we can offer a lot of service in return. The fees we ask are to cover basic organizational costs.

And where can people go to become an associate?
They can go to https://internationaltoyboard.com/become-an-associate/. You can become a member for $50, $250 or $500, depending on the size of your company. We highly recommend anyone related to the toy industry to join the International Toy Board. We will also host out first ITB event in LA, on Tuesday September 15th from 5.30pm to 7pm. For more information, head to: https://www.eventbrite.nl/e/the-international-toy-board-foundation-launch-party-tickets-1991561157032?aff=oddtdtcreator

Sounds great. Before I let you go, for any inventors reading, what is BOTI interesting in seeing at the moment?
To be honest, we haven’t bought much from inventors lately because there’s only so much we can do. And I see quite a few inventors who show us things that are not exciting enough for us – or too complex for us. And I know it’s tough being an inventor at the moment, but the reality is that great ideas always get rewarded. We’re very good in novelty, we’re very good in activity, but I would say that a concept has to be innovative. People sometimes bring us construction ideas or games, and we’ll always take a look, but they aren’t our area of expertise so it’s unlikely we’d go in that direction.

When we last did an interview, we delved into your origin story, including your time at Upper Deck working with the likes of Gregory Benassar, Joeri Hoste and Hedley Barnes. Is it interesting seeing how this group of people have gone on to do some great things in the industry?
Well, back at Upper Deck, my management style was… Well, I hate micromanagement! I’m not good at it, moreover it’s boring and disrespectful to my opinion. And I may be a good leader, but I’m surely not the best manager. So I have to surround myself with great people, people that are self-starters in a way and better managers than I am.

I would always encourage my team to treat the company as if it was their own. This promotes empowerment, but requires responsibility and accountability in return. This is how you get the best out of your staff, in my opinion. So I would give my managers the freedom to ‘run their own shop’ if you like. But don’t get me wrong, in return I expect full commitment, maximum effort and loyalty.

It takes a special breed of talent who can work like this. Hedley, Gregory, Joerie, but also Rene Baas and Bruno van Speybroeck, who have been with me since Upper Deck. There were – and are – all very capable. And there are few more former colleagues out there who have had successful careers.

Take someone like Gregory. He came into my showroom in Essen in 2000 as this little crazy French guy. He was hyperactive and his English was so-so, but there was something about him… Nobody in the company could understand what I was trying to do with him.

He had some trading card games that he had developed for Dragon Ball and I offered him a job. He drove everybody nuts in the beginning because he was like a bouncing ball. But I kept him and he was very much liked and ultimately we put him into let’s say new business development and inventor relations. That turned out to be his ultimate strength. And now he’s a CEO, it’s fantastic. And then Joeri is a CCO at Exploding Kittens, Hedley is an SVP at Spin… They all started their careers at Upper Deck and I think it was a unique time and a unique bunch of people.

Last question! What is the most underrated item you’ve ever launched?
We launched, many years ago, a product called Soft Spots and I thought it was great. It was a line of mini flocked dog collectors – and it was an inventor item. It was at the start of our company in 2012 and it was very nice and well executed, but timing is everything. It just didn’t perform as we hoped – and it didn’t help that Shopkins was launched around the same time.

But I still believe Soft Spots had legs. I would never do it again to be honest, because we paid a lot of money to make it happen and it almost killed us. But I think from a product perspective and the sweetness, it actually shares a lot of the same sentiment as Pembe. So yes, the idea was great, the timing was wrong. It deserved better recognition.

Nico, always a pleasure. Thanks again!

The post BOTI’s Nico Blauw talks Pembe the Pink Cat, innovation – and the International Toy Board appeared first on Brands Untapped.