Warner Bros. Consumer Products presents the licence highlights at the toy fair

Warner Bros. - January 2009

Looney Tunes Active, Tweety, Lauras Stern and Batman –
Warner Bros. Consumer Products starts into the new year with a lot of action, healthy exercise and cult-superheores
and presents the licence highlights at the toy fair

This year Warner Bros. Consumer Products [WBCP] will again present attractive licence topics at the toy fair. The focus is on one of the best-known superheroes of all times: Batman. For generations Batman inspires his fans all over the world. The phenomenal success of the blockbuster THE DARK KNIGHT even further enlarged the brand’s unique attraction. THE DARK KNIGHT inspired the critics and broke all box office records: The latest Batman adventure is the most successful superhero movie of all times!

The world of Batman is unique, with electrifying, heroic characters, suspense, action and spirit and extraordinary gadgets, that no other superhero offers. The Batman brand offers a broad range of possible merchandise products for many different target groups: from very young fans to grown up men. The extraordinary superhero cult continues with a special series that primarily addresses a younger audience and promises pure action: soon the new TV series “Batman – The Brave & the Bold” will be broadcast. It presents a new side of the superhero. While THE DARK KNIGHT shows Batmans dark side, “Batman – The Brave & the Bold” presents a lighter and more humorous side of the Batman character and shows the bold and brave hero working in teams with other DC superheroes, who fight together against the evil in the world. “Batman – The Brave & the Bold” addresses the target group of boys from 6 to 11. The series presents new vehicles, new, appealing equipment and especially a brandnew, stunning Batmobil. Next to Gotham City, other locations will play a more important role, since Batman is going to discover unknown territories with his friends.

The company Matell is going to present a new collection of toy products at the toy fair, that are, on the one hand based on the famous Batman figure and, on the other hand, are inspired by the new series “Batman – The Brave & the Bold”, including toy figures with interesting equipment and a brandnew Batmobil. Other licence partners of Batman are amongst others Powerslide, Carrera, 4Tronyx and Parker Sanford.

Another highlight of the toy fair is Looney Tunes Active. WBCP, together with its partners, is going to continue the successful concept of the Looney Tunes Sportparty 2009. For the Roadshow, between May and September, 20 event days are planned in 10 cities. Many known and big licence partners have already launched Looney Tunes Active products, amongst them are e.g. Nestle, Simba with a big toy collection, the private dairy Bauer from Wasserburg, with a new children product line, or Carromco with fitness machines for children. In order to give industry and business partners the chance to be a part of the Roadshow, WBCP assignes tour partnerships for the Looney Tunes Sportparty 2009. The companies have the option to present a single or several modules. The toy fair offers the possibility to gain a first impression: on February 9th the Looney Tunes Sportparty will be present at the sport themes day in Nuremberg with a show-jumping course and two costume characters.

For 2009 several show-jumping course stations are planned, next to the showstage, the Wile E. Coyote rocky gorge, the Tasmanian Devil Bungee Run, the Basketball Court, Tweety vs. Sylvester, the Looney Tunes Active Jump Wall, or the Crazy Looney Tunes Twister. Furthermore there will also be the information tent and costume characters. Tour partnerships are available for all these areas. The partners have several possiblities of presentation e.g. through individually designed modul branding, add-on on the action counter, or an information counter. Furthermore, all partners are integrated in advertising material and press work. As the sales figures of 2008 show, a participation in the Roadshow is very attractive for future licence partners: TV-spots and an elaborate press campagne reached about 130 million contacts. In addition, about 60 million on-site brutto contacts and 250.000 direct contacts on the Looney Tunes action area were generated.

“Lauras Stern” will also launch at full force this year. Based on the film “Lauras Stern und der geheimnisvolle Drache Nian”, that will conquer the movie theaters in 2009, Warner Bros. Consumer Products presents an attractive artwork. Laura is in the centre of the story, who, this time, experiences exoctic adventures in far away China. The stories of “Lauras Stern” are based on the bestseller books of the same name by Klaus Baumgart. The book, the ZDF and KiKa series, as well as the first Warner Bros. motion picture have been a great success and the film was awarded the renowned German Filmprize in 2005. 2006 Laura was part of the KiKa summer tour Roadshow through Germany. More than 500.000 children visited the Roadshow. Numerous licence partners already use the all around positive brand image of Laura, the products with “Lauras Stern” are among the top-sellers in the licence market. Now the success story continues: Based on the motives of the motion picture “Lauras Stern und der geheimnisvolle Drache Nian” WBCP has developed an attractive licence programme. Laura conquers China and gains new, unusual friends. The colourful artwork shows Laura in elaborately styled Chinese costumes and convinces with exotic, visual backgrounds.

Harry Potter is a global phenomen. The five Warner Bros. blockbuster movies, which have been released have reached 4.5 billion in box office revenue, and more than 110 million Harry Potter DVD’s has been sold. Also Harry Potter is one of the most succesful Merchandise brands worldwide with an enormous publicity. In July 2009 the sixth Harry Potter movie „Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince“ will be released. The movie has inspired a strong supporting licensing programme. Among the licence partners of Harry Potter are the companies Panini, Hasbro and Interactive. In 2010 and 2011 the final Harry Potter movies based on the last book „Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows“ will follow. There will be regular Harry Potter events until 2012 and after, among others the three event movies, three DVD releases, as well as an exhibition and a theme park.