Animals Make Play

Tomy has worked the video game circuit before. Under its newly formed Consumer Software Division, they published the Naruto: Clash of the Ninja 2 video game last fall. Its success with Viz Media's popular anime property caught the attention of Redwood, Wash.-based Nintendo, and now the Santa Ana, Calif.-based toy division of Tomy, primarily known for its preschool product, will serve as master toy licensee for Nintendo's Animal Crossing: Wild World video game, the latest in the popular “T” for teen and older game series. The company has several categories of toys in the works, including action figures, plush, accessories and play houses.

Available to specialty this July, the new line of product will include the Wild World Figure Collection, six different three-packs of 1-inch characters Mitzi, Kaitlin, Katie and Aurora; Mabel and Rover accessories; the Figure/House Collection, three house playsets that each come with a 1-inch figure and two accessory pieces; 2.5-inch figures that double as stamps; key chains; Solar Bobbleheads with both head and arm movements that are activated by sunlight; coin purses and eight plush dolls of different characters.

In Nintendo's Animal Crossing, players choose an animal character and guide it through different life stages and events, such as buying a home, shopping for food and making friends. A unique feature is that the game occurs in real time. For example, if you start the game in winter and don't play again until it's springtime, flowers will be in bloom when you next log into the game.

To date, 7 million units of the DS version alone of Animal Crossing have been sold since November 2004. A few months ago, an animated film version of the game was released in Japan, generating $14 million in the box office, while licensed product reached more than $40 million at retail. All of this is proof that the U.S. market is also ready for Animal Crossing toys, according to Sandra Leo, Tomy's senior marketing manager.

She tells Playthings that Tomy specifically wanted to expand the relationship with Nintendo into multiple toy categories. She says that the company, although known for preschool products, has expanded into boys and girls, gift/novelty and electronics; taking on a video game property like Animal Crossing is the perfect way to show that Tomy does more than preschool, she says. Its new toys will be targeted primarily for girls ages 5 to 11, while the game is intended for slightly older girls.

“We felt it would make a great toy line to girls who are and are not familiar with the game itself,” Leo says. “The products will appeal to younger girls who may not be familiar with Animal Crossing but will be drawn to the characters, because of their cute features and personalities.”