The agreement will see TOMY handle the roll out of existingThe Traitors games portfolio to markets around the world. This includes the existing The Traitors board game across multiple territories in EMEA, North America and APAC, as well as the card game (excluding the UK).

The deal will also see TOMY create a raft of new games for the brand. The first to launch will be One Night of The Traitors, launching in multiple international markets. This standalone one-evening experience is a pitched as a ‘fast-paced game of strategy, bluffing, and social deduction’.

As part of the continued development of the range, the UK edition of The Traitors board game will be refreshed for AW26, featuring six brand-new missions designed to reinvigorate gameplay.

“We are delighted to be working closely with All3Media International to bring this hugely successful format and its board game to fans around the world,” said Morgan Weyl, Managing Director, Licensing & Global Development at TOMY.

“As The Traitors continues to grow across territories, captivating new audiences and this partnership allows us to expand the brand’s reach as well as looking to deliver new compelling gameplay experiences for fans worldwide.”

Jason Easy, VP Licensing (Sales) at All3Media International, added: “The Traitors has become a truly global on-screen phenomenon, with local versions commissioned in more than 30 territories. Through this new partnership with TOMY, we’re thrilled to give fans worldwide the chance to experience the show’s addictive gameplay at home with family and friends, through TOMY’s growing games portfolio for this brand.”

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The first wave launches in March, with a second line landing in August.

The spring range introduces a mix of character water squirters, pouring toys and a water-play pipe set inspired by Super Mario elements. The line-up includes Mario, Goomba, Super Mushroom and Fire Flower, along with a playful pipe-themed set and colourful nesting cups.

“Mario has a unique ability to bring generations together,” said Morgan Weyl, MD of Licensing & Global Development at TOMY.

“Partnering with Nintendo allows us to take the timeless creativity of the Mushroom Kingdom and reimagine it through Toomies’ playful preschool lens. This range is designed to spark joy, imagination and shared family moments, starting with bath time.”

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TMP?
TMP! As the plot line goes, the old starship returned from its five-year mission and underwent a massive upgrade, or refit, in which everything was replaced, much like modern naval ships undergo every few years.

Great answer! I appreciate it being the ‘in universe’, too! So… What are the big differences between the two models?
Besides sharing the same structural configuration of the hulls and the engine nacelles, everything is different! The most striking difference is probably the paint job and sweeping nacelle pylons. While the TOS Enterprise was mainly gray, the TMP Enterprise is more off-white, but covered in multicolored iridescent panels that have a fascinating visual effect. TOMY’s TMP Enterprise is also slightly bigger than TOMY’s TOS Enterprise, and has visually dynamic lighting effects that can interfaced via the display base.

Why do you think those changes we’re desirable? Why were the fans so enthusiastic for it, I mean?
Many Star Trek fans fell in love with the Enterprise refit as they watched the movie on massive cinema screens in 1979. The ship’s design itself was a work of art, and the fans really wanted us to replicate it in every possible way.

As a designer, what was the greatest challenge you faced on this model?
Nailing the iridescent effect on the starship is critical, and TOMY is doing its best to recreate the effect. It requires a massively increased amount of painting techniques compared to TOMY’s TOS Enterprise – so we’re excited to offer this to collectors.

I’m glad you mentioned that, actually! The surface finish is incredible… I was curious how you’d achieved it. How did you do it?
I’m extremely fortunate to have a crack squad of Treksperts at the ready who have been integral in helping TOMY recreate the iridescent patterns on the starship… Karl Tate and Gary Kerr spent many hours analyzing previously unseen reference photos of the TMP Enterprise filming miniature, and ultimately created the most accurate visual map of the patterns ever to be deciphered.

Wow! Is that right? They unearthed original images from the late 70s? That’s incredible.
Isn’t it?! And now TOMY is doing its best to recreate that look at the factory level. We’re excited to see this model displayed proudly in Star Trek fan collections.

I’ll bet. Let me ask you this: if you could’ve waved a magic wand and included one more dream feature on this, what would it have been?!
Fully functioning transporters without any corruption of the buffer pattern during rematerialization – because screaming blobs of flesh are a real buzzkill, man!

Ha! Heck, now it’s more important than ever to find a magic wand! Ha! That’s funny! Alright… What’s the one question I could’ve asked you about this today but didn’t?
Hmmm… From my personal perspective, what’s the most amazing thing about this project?

Love it! What’s the answer?
I had the incredible opportunity to show TOMY’s original USS Enterprise Refit model to Adam Savage and Norman Chan of TESTED.com.

Oh, no way?!
Yes way! I’m a huge fan of Adam and Norm which made my visit to their awe-inspiring studios a dream come true.

Perfect answer. Thank you, Chris. And perhaps we’ll speak again next year looking at the NCC 1701-A…

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Carlin West Agency secured Momiji’s partnership with TOMY, which promises ‘fresh ideas and bold new directions’.

“TOMY is the perfect partner for this next chapter,” said Cameron Read, Co-Founder and Managing Director of Momiji.

“They have a legacy of quality, innovation, and deep respect for creativity. Their passion for collectibles and play aligns beautifully with what we do at Momiji, and together we’re ready to create something truly special.”

Julie Gwaltney, VP of Toy Division at TOMY, added: “Momiji is a brand that has mastered the art of storytelling through design. Our collaboration isn’t just about expanding the range, it’s about unlocking new creative possibilities to Make the World Smile.

“We’re exploring exciting new ways to expand Momiji’s world, creating new products that will continue to engage collectors of all ages.”

Carlin West, CEO of CWA, said: “This partnership is the start of something extraordinary. We’re working on plans that will surprise and delight in ways that only Momiji can. When the time comes to reveal what we’ve been crafting, we believe it will be a game-changer in the toy and collectibles world.”

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At what point in the brand’s history did you guys begin collaborating with PEPPA PIG?
We jumped into Peppa’s puddle back in 2008 – so pretty soon after she debuted on screens. We launched with Aquadoodle at the time and our range of products kept on increasing since.

How do you assess when to ‘embrace’ a brand? Are there benefits to being an early champion?
If there was any formula as to when embracing brands, I think all companies would follow. We naturally keep a close eye on brands that embrace our company’s core DNA and values – and Peppa naturally ticked all the boxes. There is always value at being an early champion as you naturally build a connection, relevance and trust with fans – and retailers of course.

“PEPPA PIG, very simply and graphically, embodies what families of toddlers and pre-schoolers go through on an everyday basis.”

Can you talk us through some of the stand-out items in your PEPPA collection?
Difficult to only focus on some as they all bring a different developmental play experience and are also complementing each other in the range. If I had to pick specifically… In our Toomies bath line, I would go with Peppa’s House Playset. The house is iconic to the Peppa Pig franchise and a nice tie to bath time at home. It comes loaded with fun features that use water as the central power source to create movement, showering, splashing and pouring.

It sounds simple but would be disrespectful to our amazing design team if I stated that designing bath toy is easy. Where many bath toys out on the market focus on simplicity and low price point, TOMY and our design team excel in creating role play/adventures in the bath that keep kids playing and laughing, discovering and re-discovering, inventing and creating.

Great pick. And away from the bath range?
In our Toomies toy line, it would have to be Pull Along Peppa. To me, it is the quintessence of an evergreen toy. Not only was it inspired by a heritage Toomies item – the Quack Along Duck, which already delighted generations of fans – but it just encompasses toddler pre-school core learning and values… It’s a genuine “grow with me” toy which, whether you crawl or walk, will bring Peppa, George and his favourite dinosaur to life.

As they roll along, kids will hear a happy tune and funny little snorting sounds from Peppa and George. Again, always adding surprise in our toys, Dinosaur will occasionally roar, keeping kids surprised. A great developmental toy, building confidence and keeping kids engaged!

Fantastic. Not all hit kids’ TV shows replicate that success in toys. What do you feel the brand lends itself particularly well to bath toys and your Toomies brand?
PEPPA PIG, very simply and graphically, embodies what families of toddlers and pre-schoolers go through on an everyday basis. We can all genuinely relate to what they are going through and it brings personal and cherished memories back to life. Once this emotional connection is made, you want to bring a piece of it in your own life. Both PEPPA and Toomies embrace the same core values, driving fun play experiences, building confidence and helping children’s emotional learning and development.

And what has the Hasbro team been like to collaborate with?
We have a very strong partnership and It’s been a pleasure to partner with the Hasbro team. The licensing, retail and creative teams are fantastic to work with. They are all true brand guardians and understand the nuances of capturing the spirit of the characters and storytelling in the consideration of toy development. Both companies are driving towards the same goal; making sure PEPPA PIG shines at the top of most demanded pre-school properties and fans feel part of the journey as they enjoy unique products and experiences. While they have a strong global minded strategic thinking, they equally manage to implement local nuances to optimise every opportunity.

What’s the key to successful creative collaborations with brand owners?
Understanding each other’s expertise, embracing and respecting the values that each team brings, whether they are cultural or corporate. Honestly and openly communicate, celebrate our successes but most importantly tackle challenges and learn from them together. The Hasbro licensing team trust in their partners to create the very best toys. They guide us to ensure we capture the rich DNA and history of the brand which makes for a very symbiotic relationship.

Morgan, this has been great. My last question is, design-wise, why do you think Peppa is an interesting IP for your design team to work on?
There’s only a very small number of brands that continue to innovate and capture new generations of audiences and that’s all credit to the people involved in this brand. The storytelling, characters, environments and themes are constantly evolving and that’s all great ingredients to create really interesting toys, especially in a category such as toddler. Being able to capture unique storytelling moments for a younger audience enabled us to think differently about Peppa and exactly how an 18 month or two-year-old would understand and interpret the stories though developmental toy and bath play.

Thanks again.

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The ‘My Favourite Toys’ collection includes two sets of quilted pyjamas based on Epoch’s Sylvanian Families, and one centred around TOMY’s ANIA brand.

The sets launch later this month. Check them out below:

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To find out how TOMY is making the occasion, Start Licensing’s Ian Downes spoke with Natalie Frow – European Senior Brand Manager at TOMY – to learn more about the centenary and how the firm is looking to grow the Britains fanbase.

Hi Natalie. Great to connect. Can you give us a brief introduction to the Britains Farm Toys brand and its history?
Britains is Europe’s oldest specialist in agricultural toys and collectibles, having established itself since 1921 with high quality innovation in perfectly replicated diecast miniatures. Britains offers a full range of diecast farm models including tractors, implements, vehicles and accessories, allowing children aged three plus to build their farm, and we constantly refresh and update our collection for our enthusiasts.

2021 marks the 100th anniversary of the brand. How did you plan to celebrate it?
We knew we had to do something special to celebrate this huge milestone with our fans, so we planned various activities throughout the year, appealing to both our long-term fans as well as reaching new fans, with the hero being the relaunch of our very first tractor – the Fordson Major – at the centre of the celebrations

It has been a tough 18 months for all of us, whether we are in the agricultural world or the toy industry, and so the 100 year anniversary felt like a great way to give our fans a positive focus for the year. We are very overwhelmed by the incredible response we have received.

How easy has it been to engage fans and collectors around the anniversary? How do you manage your relationship with fans?
We have a very loyal and highly engaged fan base who have supported us throughout the years. They are passing their Britains models down through generations, always giving us great feedback which we constantly review and use for our future developments.

Our social channels are a great way to communicate with our fans, and we are seeing significant growth in this community, but the best by far are when we get to meet our fans in person, through the farm shows, which sadly have been postponed due to the pandemic. We are looking forward to getting these back again in the new year and sharing our new ranges.

You also developed Britains Farm Toys Activity Trails with The Big Sheep and the Rural Life Centre. How has that been? Do you see Britain’s doing more of this kind of thing?
One of our key objectives this year was to recruit younger consumers to Britains. As such, we partnered with two great venues – The Big Sheep and Rural Life Museum – which offer great family experiences and were a perfect fit with Britains.

We created a fun activity trail to encourage families to explore the venue looking for hidden Britains items and introduce new fans to Britains. We have had such positive feedback from families that we extended the trails beyond the summer, and we would love to expand to more venues in the new year.

We’ll keep an eye out for those. You also teamed with Tomato Source to launch a commerarative anniversary medallion. From a design point of view, was it easy to translate the brand into this category?
Our core and existing fans are the heart of the brand and we wanted to give them something special to mark the centenary. We worked closely with Tomato Source to identify what we thought would be a unique way to translate this celebration into a keepsake for our enthusiasts, and agreed a medallion would fit perfectly.

The relaunch of the first tractor, the Fordson Major, was the centre of our celebrations, and with the support of the Ford licence, we worked together to create the silver medallion with the key features from the tractor. We enclosed it in a wallet for our fans to read the history of brand and understand every detail of the medallion.

It’s a lovely piece so well done on that. You mentioned there about working with Ford. Can you give us some insight into how you select brands to work with and what your relationship is like with brand owners when it comes to product development?
We have long standing history with licences within the agricultural industry. Our relationships are crucial to Britains and we have regular contact with each of the brands to understand their future plans, and how we can replicate this into our future models.

The brands are selected by our fans demands. If we see a high demand for a particular licence in our UK, European and global markets and we think it will translate well into a toy and collector item, then we will pitch to the relevant licence, and the process of development begins into hopefully another successful long term range of products.

Finally, looking forward what can we expect to see from Britains Farm Toys in 2022?
2021 was a big year and even with the challenges we have had, we will be launching one of the highest number of products into the range than in recent years.

For 2022, we have some very exciting new launches across all our categories of tractors, implements, vehicles, heritage and accessories – we are ploughing away in the background to continue the great momentum and all I can say is, watch this space….

Ploughing away – very good! Can’t think of a better way to end then with a farm pun! Thanks for taking time out for this Natalie and congrats again on the anniversary.

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What’s the road not taken then, Al? If this wasn’t your job, what would you want to have done instead?
Great question… As a young kid, I always had dreams of joining the RAF as a pilot and saving the world. Maybe I watched too many reruns of Top Gun at the time! But as I entered my teens, I really enjoyed two subjects: economics and design. Thankfully, I chose design for which I had a real passion, especially at the start of my GCSEs due to a great teacher.

The right teacher can make all the difference. Growing up, what was your favourite toy or game?
I had a few toys that I remember favourably as a child. The toy that I was most fond of was a 1982 Hotwheels Pontiac Trans-Am. I used to carry it everywhere I went, and remember constantly playing with it on my grandparents’ sofa. I’d treat the 80’s fashion of floral sofa patterns as roadblocks and parking spaces to manoeuvre in and out of. I also loved Centurions by Kenner. Max Ray was my favourite! As I got older, and LCD games became popular, TOMY’s Tronic 3D Shark Attack was another one of my standouts.

Some great answers! And let’s stay with this… We know that, as a child, you used to physically dismantle Tonka Toys and put them back together again… Do you still break things apart to see how they work?
Absolutely. Breaking toys apart to see how they work provides so much insight and helps generate ideas and solutions for future product development. It lets you marvel at the clever, simple engineering that you not only learn from, but also helps you appreciate the intelligence in which the Toy Industry relies on. As the industry is increasingly challenged on pricing and value, learning how products work is an absolute must for all toy designers.

In terms of the industry, your jobs and brands include Hasbro, Golden Bear, Vivid, Mattel, Disney, TOMY… Given that, what advice would you give your younger self if you could?
I’ve been very lucky to work on a variety of amazing products, with amazing people and amazing companies throughout my career. The best advice I’d offer my younger self is to keep practicing your craft. Only do things that make you happy, allow yourself to perform at your very best and always be open to learn and try new things. Also, be grateful to the mentors that provided you with the training, vision and inspiration to get you where you are today.

In terms of your personal creativity, you’ve spoken about how you travel, visit retail and play with your kids. What else inspires you?
I’m a really visual person and embarrassingly, I don’t read as much as I should. Nearly all of my inspiration comes from simply looking at things – whether in real life or digitally – and asking myself the really simple question: is this interesting enough for a child to positively notice?

You’ve also mentioned – very much in passing – your idea book. Tell us about that: what happens when something’s caught your attention?
When I spot something interesting or have a creative brainwave, I take a picture, save a link, write it down, sketch it or make a sound recording straightaway… I have quite a short-term memory! Then I simply show it to my kids for their immediate response.

A stringent filter!
Very much so! And anything that filters through then goes into some further thinking time to see if there’s a product possibility. As I’m getting older, I’m realising the beauty in simplicity and focusing my efforts on how to innovate with straightforward ‘ingredients’. It’s a challenge, but I look at the most loved toys in the world and the simple innovation that always captures the audience imagination and love for toys.

Well, let’s look at an example of that… This June sees you releasing a new line of licensed preschool toys for the Toomies brand. Working with Universal Brand Development, you’re launching Jurassic World items… Chase & Roll Raptors, Spin & Hatch Dino Eggs, a Pic & Push T-Rex… Tell me about these!
There are probably five movies in my lifetime that I’ve been to the cinema multiple times to watch… And Jurassic Park is proudly a part of those five.

I’m with you. Great film. Brilliantly made, fantastic premise and – at the time – the closest we’d ever been to seeing real dinosaurs!
And dinosaurs are such a classic part of a child’s life from a very young age. So when developing this exciting new range, we were finishing our new Jurassic Park line, which expanded our famous eggs into a complete, interactive world. We wanted to define what direction we could take the line down in the future. It was after a conversation with Alpana Virani at UK Toy Fair that an immediate memory of the egg incubator sparked from the first movie. And I just thought, wow, Jurassic World and Hide and Squeak Toomies could be awesome.

To read the full interview on our sister site Mojo Nation click here

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