NEWS

Exclusive: Toikido – doing things differently

Published on: 2nd February 2021

Toy World finds out more about master toy partner for hit game Among Us, Toikido, and how the start-up will be ripping up the rule book.

Darran Garnham, formerly CEO at MTW and VP EMEA NBCUniversal, is off to a strong start with his new venture, Toikido, landing a master toy deal with the studio behind the lockdown smash-hit game AmongUs, Innersloth Games.

“We want to do things differently,” Darran told Toy World. “I have been in the entertainment business for 20 years, having bought and sold rights, watching amazing companies succeed and grow, some fail, and others go public. All of this has led me to this point. Toikido will bring that experience, passion and knowledge to everything we touch. We’ve designed our culture and structure to enable us to move fast and be the partner of choice for the new breakthrough brands that are ripping up the rule book.”

Darran told us about Toikido’s master toy deal with Innersloth Games on AmongUs, the most downloaded game of 2020. Demand for product is huge, with the fan community  already getting creative with its own unofficial solutions and artwork that has been widely shared across social media.

Among Us product won’t be the the only string to Toikido’s bow, as Darran explains how he is using his vast experience to build a company with an ecosystem across licensing, gaming, music, live events and entertainment, partnering with existing studios as well as developing its own brands, games and content. He says: “We want to curate a complementary portfolio and dedicate ourselves to sharing visions with our partners.”

The company boasts a pool of knowledgeable talent: “We are new, but we’ve got decades-worth of knowledge, relationships and, perhaps most importantly, trust,” adds Darran. “Our team includes Grammy and BAFTA winners, inventors, investors, social media and tech experts. It also includes my kids – Freddy (10) is chief gaming officer, Seb (8) is chief creative officer and Bertie (1) will be chief play officer.”

To find out more about Toikido, Among Us products and what else the company has in store, read the full article, which appeared in the February edition of Toy World, here.

Readers can also contact Darran by emailing darran@toikido.co.uk.

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