It’s been a good week for some companies and people, but no so good for others – let’s dive in and see who some of the winners and losers are.
The Entertainer has had a good week, after it agreed a deal with Pop Mart to bring its blind box collectibles to six trial locations, where customers can seek out limited edition favourites like Molly and Skullpanda. A great opportunity for The Entertainer in a category that remains one of its strongest, and indeed one of this year’s top performing categories across the whole UK toy market (more on that later).
David Ripley has also had a good week, as he’s back in the toy community after spending some time away, having taken up a new position as Business Development manager – Collectibles at eBay. Any collectibles suppliers wanting to reach David can contact him on dripley@ebay.com – David tells me that he is actively seeking new sellers. In his own words: “We are focusing on Kidult as a proxy for Collectibles which from a category perspective touches Toys, Games, Trading & Sports Cards and the relevant adjacent collectible Gifting products such as Harry Potter, Marvel Universe, Star Wars etc.” I am going to guess that his inbox might be quite busy after people read this, even on a Friday in the summer.
It’s also been a good week for the Golden Bear Sales and Marketing team, with several enjoying promotions and new roles moving forward – click here to see the full list of who’s now doing what.
For the sake of balance, not everyone is storming ahead right now – Claire’s Accessories filed for bankruptcy protection in the US this week (again), prompting potential bidders for the UK arm to back away. Employees and suppliers to Claire’s will be watching developments very closely, but right now it’s not looking good. We already lost Great Gizmos a few weeks back, and you get the sense that there may be a few other toy companies in a precarious position right now.
I’m curious to see how that affects retail stock levels in the run-up to Christmas. There are numerous competing factors at play here: perhaps a few struggling suppliers, retailers keeping orders tight in the first half of the year, some knock-on impact from the US tariff situation, certain lines doing so well that those suppliers will be fighting for more stock, which may or may not materialise… I just get a feeling that there are still opportunities to get lines away at retail this side of Christmas, when normally most people would be starting to focus on 2026.
Read the rest here.
