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PLAY AROUND
PLAY AROUND LAUNCHES THE METEOHEROES TOY LINE Play Around is the toy partner for MeteoHeroes, one of Mondo TV’s latest IP successes. MeteoHeroes is an interesting development opportunity for the new Italian Toy Company, known for its expertise in the toy industry and the licensing of Pea & Promoplast. To learn more, LM interviewed Massimiliano Piazzolla, Managing Director of Play Around. LM. How did you start your collaboration with Mondo TV? The collaboration with Mondo TV, as it is today, was born at the last Bologna fair, one of the last events before the Covid revolution. We already knew Mondo TV and had worked together in the past on the development of YooHoo collectibles for newsstands. But it is in the stands of the Licensing Hall of the Bologna Children’s BookFair that this new partnership began. We had just launched our brand Hatchies (the range linked to Angry Birds Hatchlings), and Mondo TV was planning to launch its new property, MeteoHeroes. I still remember the first description of the storytelling that took place standing in the
corridors of the Fair, and the enthusiasm that Valentina LaMacchia and the Mondo TV team brought to us, fully engaging us in the project. From that moment on, the next steps were quite natural and straightforward, even though most of them were carried out in full lockdown. What kind of products have you developed? The first part of the MeteoHeroes toy line for Spring ‘21 will focus on two types of products: 3D movable figurines of all six characters packaged in blister packs, and the Hyper Meteoband, which is the main gadget used by the MeteoHereos in their
Part of Play Around team. From left: Massimiliano Piazzolla, Cristina Scollo, Francesca Coi, Luca Testa (pre-covid picture)
Hyper Meteoband in Blister Pack adventures. Children can wear them on their arms, just like in the TV series, and project as many as twenty images from the series. The next products that we are already developing for Fall ‘21 will be amazing. We wanted to explore the environment in which the Weather Heroes live. To do so we have designed three items that will allow children to have fun emulating their heroes by interacting with the characters in the locations where the series takes place and that will be reproduced in the form of a playset. Who are the distribution partners? One of the positive surprises of this project is certainly the collaboration with Dynit. For MeteoHeroes and the toy channel, we have seen that the activity of Play Around, together with D-Fun (the division of Dynit that deals with toy distribution), could create a synergy not to be undervalued. Play Around’s ability to conceive, develop and produce products, together with their distribution strength and the widespread presence of D-Fun in the territory and in the newsstand channel, make this partnership very promising. If well structured, and implemented, the MeteoHeroes project is the perfect example of a replicable model in which bringing together two players operating in similar contexts, could generate benefits not only to those who are directly involved, but also to the other players such as licensors and licensees. In fact, thanks to an integrated strategy, the development process, distribution, and time to market, have been sped up and optimized on different channels. If we combine this with our close alignment with Mondo TV, the combination will surely be exceptional.
