April 23rd, 2018
27 comments
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BBC Studios Doctor Who licensing News
From www.bbc.co.uk
Doctor Who will undoubtedly be a main attraction as excitement builds for the new season, which will include Jodie Whittaker as the first-ever female doctor in the series.
Titan has already renewed their licensing agreement for the U.S., Canada and UK for figurines, apparel and gifts/novelties. In addition, in the U.S., Canada, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand, Funko has renewed their licensing deal for “Pop Vinyl” figurines, “Rock Candy” figurines and novelties. Meanwhile, Lady Sandra, who has brought to market incredible home goods for the brand, including comforters, pillows and more, has renewed for U.S. and Canada. Also, home decor licensee Rabbit Tanaka has renewed in the U.S. and Canada for various home goods, including lighting, mirrors, clocks and wall décor. Further new deals for Doctor Who will be announced in the coming months.
With over 55 years of history as the world’s longest running sci-fi television show, Doctor Who is a hit global franchise, watched in over 239 countries with hundreds of thousands of fans worldwide and nearly 70 long-standing global licensees including Character Options, Penguin Random House, Winning Moves, Eaglemoss, Kokomo and Brand Alliance. Recent launches for the brand that have proved an immediate success include Penguin Random House’s collection of Dr. Men books and with RP2 Global’s UK launch of Dr. Men figurines.
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TheBEAST
April 25th, 2018 - 4:23pmCan anyone advise me who ‘seven20’ are? I’ve seen them mentioned in these comments as interested in doing their own version of figures. Have they done figures for anything else before?
booboo
April 25th, 2018 - 4:40pmthey are basically the “start again from scratch” renamed side to what was underground toys USA
Apparently they no longer deal with CO and i have read they have said they are doing their own “action figures”, however their Doctor Who portfolio is virtually non existent at the moment.
Anonymous
April 24th, 2018 - 9:39pmPlease BBC
Market this season really well
I want trailers that annoy me so much that I am forced to see it to get them to stop
Ian
April 24th, 2018 - 12:11pmThey may say 55 year history but in reality they seem to care more about who from 2005.
Phillip
April 24th, 2018 - 1:42amI will buy a 13th doctor action figure…Simply to custom the cr@p out of it into a ROMANA 2 FIGURE
Anonymous
April 24th, 2018 - 10:31amSurely they will release a Romana 1and 2 figure, long over due. The article sounds promising.
The Outcast
April 24th, 2018 - 11:39amI wouldn’t say surely. Character Options have stopped doing classic figures and are solely focusing on NuWho figures as they are the only ones that will sell well enough. IF the NuWho figures start selling well again and IF they continue to do so, perhaps Character will return to the world of classic Doctor Who with their figures, but there is no promise they will do a Romana, yet alone both. In fact, I’d say a Susan or Jamie would be more likely, as they are companions for Doctors that don’t have any and also have some repaint potential (well, maybe not Jamie, but he was at the top of the most wanted classic companion poll they did here a few years back).
I honestly don’t think either Romana will ever be made and if one ever is, I reckon it’d be Romana 2 in her Destiny of the Daleks costume because they might be able to borrow some of the parts off the 4th Doctor figure for that one.
Ian
April 24th, 2018 - 12:12pmWishful thinking a Romana figure.
Doctor Stu
April 24th, 2018 - 6:41pmI feel like classic figures would be more in demand if character were still dishing out figures like they used to during series 9-10 as there were loads of references to classic who that may have spiked an interest again
7thWhoKnots
April 23rd, 2018 - 9:10pmBooBoo and others, do you think CO should do a kickstarter for new figures like the Jabba the Hutt ship set Hasbro are doing. For example: Each person would pledge 15 pounds and a certain amount of signatures would be required.
I think this would work for the Nightmare in Silver Cybermen in particular
The Werewolf
April 24th, 2018 - 12:57amAnd open it worldwide or just UK? Since The Khetanna is only available in the US and Canada, but Doctor Who is a much smaller brand.
Bundy
April 25th, 2018 - 8:08amI’ve always wondered about the viability of a Kickstarter – there are approx 560 B&M stores and from my experience they never have as many as 10 of any particular box set at any one store, but using that stock figure for easy maths means an order of 5,600 per box set. Again for easy maths let’s say B&M buy each set at £10 then that order costs £56,000.
I know for multiple production/retail reasons it would never be quite like this, but just to get to a starting figure if we divide £56,000 by 3 then an order for 5,600 single figures would be approx £18,600 – which is £3.33 per figure.
Again, pretending all costs are equal, if CO can make a profitable run of 5,600 figures for £3.33, if they’d sold via Kickstarter at £10 then they would only need to sell 1,860.
As I say, there are a lot of false assumptions on prices here and this is all re-issue variant rather then new sculpt – but even so it doesn’t seem the numbers of sales needed are that big to keep this line going.
Any idea how many sales is typical for a single figure?
Dominic
April 23rd, 2018 - 8:59pmHopefully the BBC will actually advertise Doctor Who like they used too. When they’d have posters around cities on billboards.
The Outcast
April 24th, 2018 - 3:27amI hope they do. The BBC need to make sure people know that this is a new beginning for Doctor Who.
Omega63
April 23rd, 2018 - 8:57pmRather disappointing considering this so called ‘new era’. To be honest, I can’t see much in the line of merchandise improving, if this final push for the market doesn’t work, I can’t see it ever being revitalised to even half of it’s quality and quantity of 2006-2010.
Phillip
April 24th, 2018 - 1:46amYeah I agree, whats wrong with the original formula of Guy adventuring around the universe with a female companion in various stages of romance and fighting the odd Villain/monster/Alien and or historical period piece.
Iain97
April 24th, 2018 - 6:52amAnd the problem is that many merchandise company’s don’t do lots of female figures if it’s a “boys thing” as they don’t sell well
And now the lead is female
The Outcast
April 24th, 2018 - 11:42amI could see the line getting to a somewhat healthy state with this relaunch, but I do agree, I highly doubt we’ll ever see another Golden Age for merchandise, at-least not for a long time (e.g. a good few decades, maybe NuNuWho?). The 2006-2010 Golden Age was lightning in a bottle I think.
booboo
April 24th, 2018 - 11:52amI think we also need to look at the fact the the main drivers of the golden age were Woolworth and toys r us, both of which have gone.
Also sets containing the last 2 “classic” companions, Ace and Jo have been, or are still being sold off for next to nothing years after their release
Doctor909
April 23rd, 2018 - 7:56pmWait hang on, what about Funko UK? I’m probably just missing it but I assume that’s all ok?
booboo
April 23rd, 2018 - 8:00pmone would hope so, but that fact that everyone’s playmobil orders got cancelled and other (UK) retailers now have Amy Pond police in stock whilst people have had orders in for weeks with FP with no stock and its been available overseas for months doesn’t inspire me with confidence
Anonymous
April 23rd, 2018 - 7:08pmIt’s not really news. Nothing much has changed.
Pip
April 23rd, 2018 - 6:50pmRock Candy figures should be interesting. Nice to see that the brands have faith in the new direction.
booboo
April 23rd, 2018 - 7:04pmvery USA biased but they could have expanded on that much more I feel.
its more interesting to me in what it doesn’t say
LastOfTheSonics
April 23rd, 2018 - 6:32pmFinally, some more pop vinyls. I only hope we don’t have to wait all the way until Series 11 to get some. Rock candy figures would be nice too.
As for Titan, well their most recent Who-set is a massive disappointment so I’ve given up with them.
Anonymous
April 23rd, 2018 - 5:31pmOh, nothing much from Character though.
booboo
April 23rd, 2018 - 5:34pmthey renewed some months ago, no mention of seven20 either who are supposedly doing their own figures of some description
only newish snippet is Doctor Who rock candy figures although funko had already hinted this