International News

A “bucket full” of toys based on CCI Entertainment's animated TV adaptation of the children's book series Harry and His Bucketfull of Dinosaurs are filtering into retail in the United Kingdom and Australia in time for the holidays. Buoyed by the success of the book and the television series, which airs on the U.K.'s Five Network and on Australia's ABC Australia and Nickelodeon, CCI Entertainment is launching a dino-sized licensing campaign headed by Fisher-Price as master toy partner. In the U.K., Fisher-Price last month released six Harry-themed products at 65 Toys “R” Us stores across the country, which will be followed by a range of puzzles from Falcon Games, outdoor toys and wooden games from Halsall International, and in 2007, storybooks, easy readers, activity books and other book types from Puffin Books. In Australia, Fisher-Price will launch its first six products this month at 171 Kmart stores nationwide. Funtastic, which has designed a full line of themed clothing, will follow the toy program by launching at Kmart later on in the year. In 2007, Dryen will release a complete line of Harry-themed bedding and Penguin Publishing will issue all new Harry storybooks, easy readers, and activity books. “Each of our partners has created innovative and high quality products in multiple categories and we expect these products to be just the tip of the iceberg for Harry and his dinosaur friends,” says Arnie Zipursky, president of CCI Entertainment, Toronto…In other licensing news, Big Tent Entertainment, New York, has signed a deal to bring cuddly Japanese monster Domo to Nickelodeon's international broadcast channels. Nickelodeon will premiere 26 stop-motion Domo shorts on its networks in Europe, Latin America, Australia and New Zealand in 2007. It's a big step for the fuzzy, brown cave-dweller that began life as the mascot of Japanese TV station NHK in 1998…In classic character news, United Media has signed Copyright Promotions Licensing Group Limited (CPLG), London, to represent comic strip properties Peanuts and Dilbert in France. The deal took effect immediately upon its announcement last month. “Peanuts and Dilbert continue to be popular in France and with the business expertise of our new partner, United Media is confident Copyright Promotions will yield a very successful licensing program in France,” says Rita Rubin, United Media's senior vice president, international licensing. “We're looking forward to a long and fruitful relationship with CPLG.”