2025 got off to a fairly sedate start. I won’t lie, I was sitting here on Tuesday afternoon wondering how on earth I was going to fill today’s Blog without an awful lot of waffling. And then, bam – the floodgates opened. For the past couple of days, news stories have been coming thick and fast – and big / good ones too. It must be the fact that Toy Fair is just around the corner, but suddenly it’s all going off.
Let’s take a look at some of the positive stories of the week first. I was delighted to hear from Michelle Lilley, who called from LA to let me know that she has taken over as MD of MGA UK & Ireland. Michelle has been a fantastic servant to the company over the past decade, she knows the product range and culture inside out, and I am sure she will attack the role with her customary enthusiasm and passion (not to mention her refreshing frankness). Massive congrats to her from the whole Toy World team.
There were several other notable new appointments announced this week: Tony White has taken over as Sales director at Click; Kaya Leadsford has been promoted to head of Global Sales at Wow Stuff; there have been a raft of leadership changes at Asmodee, with Anil Boodhoo, Roger Martin and Greg Stanton all taking on new roles within the business, while The Entertainer has a new COO, former John Lewis Supply Chain director, Mark Robinson. And we are delighted to announce this morning that John Briggs has been appointed as Sales director at GP (Flair) and that Ben Cornwell has joined Wigston Global as Sales director, a company with major rebranding plans for 2025 (which you’ll read all about in Toy World very soon). We wish all the best to each of them in their respective new roles.
It was also good to finally be able to reveal one of the industry’s worst-kept secrets – namely the news that Addo Play has has signed a global deal to take over the running of the Meccano construction brand, under licence from Spin Master. Several retailers contacted me before Christmas to ask if I knew why Meccano had dropped off the Spin Master price list – I did know but I had to keep schtum. As well as being a great opportunity for Addo Play, it’s also an intriguing pointer towards the direction of travel for The Entertainer, adding exclusive toy brands to its portfolio.
Meccano wasn’t the only brand making headlines this week. Magicbox must be thrilled that the new Superthings Kazoom Power TV series will be coming to ITVX in March. This will undoubtedly introduce a lot of kids to the brand, and with further episodes being broadcast in the autumn, it gives the Superthings brand a strong year-round terrestrial broadcast presence that will surely propel it to new heights.
Elsewhere, Brainstorm has been appointed as the UK & Ireland distribution of the Freak Marbles range (which I’ve always liked the look of), while Dave Middleton’s incredible passion and persistence has paid off, with the announcement that the WereBears range which he has been championing all year will be brought back to life in 2025 by The Beverly Hills Teddy Bear Company and distributed in the UK by Character Options. Dave has singlehandedly taken it upon himself to resurrect the brand over 40 years after it made its debut, and with the current popularity of ‘scary cute’ brands, the timing may be spot on. I’m looking forward to seeing the range in the flesh in London next week.
Read the rest here.
