The innovative new Care Bears toys are expected to launch at retail in autumn 2020.
Care Bears are coming back to the children of millennials who first met the colourful, caring and lovable characters over 30 years ago.
Basic Fun! has announced that it has been awarded the master toy rights in North America and the UK for the classic brand from IP property owner Cloudco Entertainment. The company is planning a new, fresh and unique line of products for today’s kids that will feature interactivity, collectability and playability, with an emphasis on sharing and caring.
Care Bears first came to market in the early 1980s as an American Greetings card line, quickly followed by a highly successful Kenner toy line. The property became a runaway hit when reintroduced in the early 2000’s by Play Along, which was co-founded by Basic Fun!’s CEO Jay Foreman. Peak years for Care Bears toy sales were 1984/5/6 and 2003/4/5 with the brand racking up more than $1b in retail toy sales and more than $4b across all categories.
“When we relaunched Care Bears at Play Along, we were blown away by how big it hit and how well it was received by kids and collectors, considering it had only been off the market for just over ten years,” said Jay. “Now that we are truly in the sweet spot between the confluence of the millennial mom and her child with this heritage brand, and the craze of collecting, our launch has the potential to be bigger than ever.”
“We couldn’t be happier to bring back this brand with the same team that made it happen for us almost 20 years ago. Jay has a real flair for reigniting and reinventing classic brands and making them relevant for today’s kids and gift givers,” said Sean Gorman, president of Cloudco Entertainment. “With an all-new look, an all-new TV series, and lots of fantastic partners starting with Basic Fun!, we’re confident that The Care Bears will command the attention and love of all their long-time fans as well as an entirely new generation of kids.”
Basic Fun plans to debut the new Care Bears line to key customers at the Fall Toy Preview in Dallas in October, to the broader trade at Toy Fair New York in February 2020, and to have product on shelf in the second half of 2020 throughout North America and the UK.
The new animated series, Care Bears: Unlock the Magic, which debuted earlier this year in the US on Boomerang and Cartoon Network in the US, as well as Tiny Pop in the UK, is a modern take on the colourful, kind-hearted bears from Care-A-Lot.
