LIMA – the International Licensing Industry Merchandisers’ Association – has just revealed the nation’s favourite licensed toy brands among British children, with LEGO and Barbie taking the top spots on boys’ and girls’ lists of the most favoured toy licences this year.
The top brands are based on findings from a survey of 30,000 children and parents across the globe; 80 per cent of the top ten girls’ toy licences are centered upon a character, while this drops to 60 per cent for boys.
Almost every top brand has a tie-in comic in the UK, published by a British publisher, with Marvel’s Spider-Man perhaps the most obvious in the top boys list. Immediate Media publish the LEGO Chima comic magazine, and LEGO themselves offer digital downloads of some Chima comics.
The top ten toy licences for boys, according to the survey are (tie-in publisher listed in brackets:
- LEGO (Immediate Media)
- Disney’s Cars (Egmont)
- Thomas & Friends (Egmont)
- Toy Story (Egmont)
- Hot Wheels (has featured in Titan’s Totally)
- NERF
- Spider-Man (Panini)
- Star Wars (Titan)
- Mickey Mouse (Disney and Me, Egmont)
- Playmobil
The top ten toy licences for girls, are:
- Barbie (Egmont)
- Hello Kitty (Egmont)
- LEGO
- Peppa Pig (Redan)
- Minnie Mouse (Disney and Me, Egmont)
- LEGO Friends
- Disney Princess (Egmont)
- Monster High (Egmont)
- My Little Pony (Signature Publishing)
- Mickey Mouse (Disney and Me, Egmont)
The study was devised to measure the relative awareness, popularity and merchandise appeal of important children’s brands in over 30 countries around the world, the research carried out by Kidz Global on behalf of LIMA. The study quizzed 30,000 children and parents, polled online across the globe. 1250 of the respondent were based in the UK.
“The dominance of strong licensing programmes has clearly won the hearts and minds of British families,” said Kelvyn Gardner, managing director for LIMA UK. “Despite the strength of global iconic brands and franchises, it’s also good to see home grown talent such as Thomas & Friends and Peppa Pig feature in the top ten list.”
• The full results of Kidz Global Studies are one of the many exclusive benefits of LIMA membership – click here for more information on joining
• The Brickblogger Guide to collecting LEGO comics
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The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.
He’s the writer of “Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies” for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.
Categories: British Comics, downthetubes Comics News