Deals Announce Impending Start of Licensing Expo

The annual Licensing Show is set to open its doors Tuesday for three days of licensing (or licencing, if your British) craziness in Las Vegas.

There’s always a ton of announcements related to animation properties coming out of the show, so here’s a rundown of some of the pertinent deals that have been announced so far:

• Suckers and Angus&Cheryl from BRB Internacional, have just been acquired in Italy by Switchover Media. Briefly, both will be shown in an open-broadcast format there: Suckers via K2, and Angus&Cheryl by Frisbee. Also, the Italian company’s Licensing Division will be in charge of managing the licensing rights for both properties there.
• Mattel and Classic Media will be celebrating the 30th anniversary of Masters of the Universe with the launch of a consumer products program for the iconic franchise that will include 30th anniversary apparel from Changes, costumes from Disguise, and a special 30th Anniversary edition DVD box set from Mill Creek Entertainment. Publishing partners will be announced shortly.
• Moonscoop has merged its international TV sales, consumer products and ancillary rights activities into a new single division. The new combined department will handle all rights exploitation across TV, consumer products, VOD, online and interactive from its diverse library of animated properties.
• Classic Media announced a further commitment from the BBC for the U.K.’s favorite postie and popular preschool television series, Postman Pat Special Delivery Service.
• Nelvana Enterprises has announced a partnership with Fisher-Price to act as its master toy partner in the U.S. for the popular bunny sibling brand, Max & Ruby.
• Warner Bros. Consumer Products and Nexcare Bandages from 3M announced a new licensing agreement to bring some of the most popular Warner Bros. characters to first aid aisles across the mass market, supermarket and drug store retailers nationwide. As part of the themed collection of Nexcare Bandages, Warner Bros. characters such as Scooby-Doo, Batman and Looney Tunes will be featured on Nexcare Comfort Pals and Nexcare Tattoo Waterproof Bandages.
• FremantleMedia Enterprises and CBBC announced production of a new, multi-media, comedy series for kids ages 6 – 11. Strange Hill High is a 13 x half-hour comedy series produced with an all-new innovative technique combining puppets, stop-motion and CG, dubbed “hypervynorama.”
• This fall, American Greetings Properties will debut a major addition to the magical world of Strawberry Shortcake: Cherry Jam. For the first time in more than five years, Strawberry Shortcake and her friends are welcoming a new girl to the group who impresses everyone with her incredible musical talent.