Sadhana Bharandiharan, Ryan Tuchow & Cole Watson
Moose Toys
YouTuber MrBeast (Jimmy Donaldson) is moving his brand into the toy aisle, hooking up with Australia’s Moose Toys to co-create a range of licensed action figures and collectibles featuring his signature panther character. An initial wave of merch is slated to roll out to retailers worldwide this fall. Donaldson has amassed the largest following on YouTube to date; he has more than 234 million subscribers, and his videos have been viewed more than 42 billion times.
Wes and Willy
The Nebraska-based apparel company has scored a touchdown with the NFL to produce a new line of licensed clothing for young boys and girls. Includinf t-shirts, sweatshirts, pyjamas, jackets and dresses featuring all 32 NFL teams, the collection will roll out to retailers across North America later this year. This new business builds on a deal Wes and Willy struck in 2018 to manufacture and distribute licensed apparel for more than 250 NCAA teams.
Coolabi Group
Coolabi and Tencent Video are gearing up to co-produce the first animated adaptations of publishing phenom Warrior Cats. The partners are developing both film and TV series concepts based on the feline fantasy book series for tweens that has sold more than 70 million copies worldwide in 38 different languages. Outside of publishing, the brand has almost two billion views on TikTok, and Roblox game The Warrior Cats: Ultimate Edition has been played more than 430 million times.
GO-N Productions
A raft of broadcasters have snapped up a fifth season of preschool series Simon Super Rabbit (52 x five minutes, pictured), which is in production at GO-N and co-produced with France Télévisions. Presales are closed with SVT (Sweden), RTS (Switzerland), DR TV (Denmark), Cartoonito (Italy), HOP (Israel), VRT (Belgium) and Télé-Québec (Canada), and season five will be delivered early next year. In addition, German broadcaster ZDF has ordered the first four seasons of Simon for KiKA in a deal brokered by Federation Kids & Family.
BBC Children’s
The UK broadcaster has commissioned Crongton, a 10 x 25-minute series for BBC iPlayer based on a same-name tween/teen book series by Alex Wheatle. Set in an urban housing estate, the dramedy will target 10 to 12s with a premise about youngsters grappling with peer pressure, identity and other coming-of-age woes. London’s New Pictures and All3Media International are co-producing, with writer/comedian Archie Maddocks attached as a scriptwriter.
Wondery
The podcast studio has teamed up with Rhode Island-based toyco Thames & Kosmos to create science kits based on Tinkercast’s Wow in the World series, in which a pair of hosts tackle science topics ranging from animals to outer space. Aimed at kids ages four and up, the kits will include a volcano experiment and an air rocket when they launch in North America this fall. The toys will also come with a three-month subscription to audio streaming service Wondery+ so kids can get into the podcast. Wow in the World is already something of a podcast-to-product success story; its book deal with HarperCollins has yielded four books about fun science facts, animals and space.