No. 10 - Summer 2021

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ISSUE NO. 10

DEPARTMENTS

FEATURES

IN THIS

ISSUE

9 | WTF IS AN NFT?

Non-fungible tokens have the potential to revolutionize pop culture.

20 | SORTING THE SUS FROM THE MUST

5 | FROM THE EDITORS Good Vibes Only

6 | NERDY NEWS

The Latest Pop Culture Headlines

Innersloth builds an Among Us merch program focused on quality.

14 | MERCH MAKERS

48 | NEOPETS STAGES A COMEBACK

15 | THE REWIND

We’re checking in on these virtual pets from the age of dial up.

SHOW ME THE GOODS 52 / Sneak Peek: The Hottest Licensed Merch of the Year 63 | FROM THE STAGE TO THE SHELF

Music collectibles are hotter — and more important — than ever before.

70 | SECRETS OF ETERNIA

Masters of the Universe continues to surprise collectors as a new chapter begins.

Meet the team behind Cakeworthy.

25 Years of Pokémon

18 | FAN FUEL

Ith do leór! Make Outlander-inspired soup.

22 | FLAUNT YOUR FANDOM Treat yourself this summer!

24 | LEVEL UP

The Meteoric Rise of the In-Game Concert

50 | RETAIL RUNDOWN Fun.com has what fans want.

66 | COSPLAY CORNER Strong in Costume

68 | MINT CONDITION

Playing Hard to Get with Exclusives

72 | GEEK BOSS

Jonathan Cathey: A Little Bit Willy Wonka, a Little Bit Rock ‘n Roll

74 | COLLABORATING

76 | ARTISTS’ ALLEY

A Conversation with the Pop Culture Collab

78 | POP PICKS

FOR SOCIAL CHANGE IN POP CULTURE

Angie Hu: Drawing with Cat-titude

Fandom-Inspired Baby Gifts

31 |

*

34 | NEXT-GEN NEWS

The Latest in Kids’ Merch, Toys, and More

36 | MOONBUG TAKEOVER

Blippi, CoComelon, and Little Baby Bum are here, there, and everywhere!

38 | SHOW ME THE GOODS: JUNIOR EDITION

Brand New Merch from the Hottest in Kids’ Entertainment

45 | NO SCREEN IS TOO BIG, NO PUP IS TOO SMALL * The PAW Patrol squad heads out on its biggest adventure yet.

4 | Issue No. 10 | THE POP INSIDER

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FROM THE EDITORS

®

CEO Laurie Schacht laurie@popinsider.com PUBLISHER Jackie Breyer jackie@popinsider.com EDITORS-IN-CHIEF Ali Mierzejewski ali@popinsider.com Marissa Silva marissa@popinsider.com SENIOR EDITORS Jacqueline Cucco jc@popinsider.com Maddie Michalik maddie@popinsider.com James Zahn james@popinsider.com ASSOCIATE EDITOR Madeleine Buckley mbuckley@popinsider.com EDITORIAL ASSISTANTS Hannah Sacks hannah@popinsider.com Nicole Savas nicole@popinsider.com ART DIRECTOR Joe Ibraham joe@popinsider.com PRODUCTION DIRECTOR Bill Reese bill@popinsider.com DIRECTOR OF SALES & MARKETING James Devin jd@popinsider.com SALES & MARKETING EXECUTIVE Stephanie Infantino stephanie@popinsider.com ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE Erica Wieczorek erica@popinsider.com EDITORIAL INTERNS Ria Malatesta • Sydney Reynolds

Follow us @thepopinsider!

THE POP INSIDER, Summer 2021 — “THE POP INSIDER” (ISSN-2641-5496) is published quarterly by Adventure Media & Events, LLC, 307 Seventh Ave., Room 501, New York, New York, 10001. Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY 10001 and additional mailing offices. © 2021 Adventure Media & Events, LLC. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form, or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Printed in U.S.A. Subscription rates: $48 per year. THE POP INSIDER is a trademark and service mark of Adventure Media & Events, LLC registered in the United States Patent & Trademark Office Postmaster: Send address changes to THE POP INSIDER, c/o Adventure Media & Events, 307 Seventh Ave., Room 501, New York, New York, 10001 or e-mail bill@popinsider.com.

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GOOD VIBES ONLY Summer’s here — and we’re ready to serve looks!

I

t’s official: Summer is in full swing, movie theaters are open, and cons are on the calendar. We are here, we are ready, and we are leaning in.

Issue 10 is our Summer Swag issue, and we’ve got everything you need to outfit yourself with the best merch from your fave fandoms. Turn to the Show Me the Goods showcase on page 52 for a full lineup of brand-new merch hitting shelves through the end of the year.

This issue’s Flaunt Your Fandom is all about treating yourself to bright and bold apparel and accessories for some summer flair. Check out the hottest stuff on page 22. Plus, you can meet the team behind Cakeworthy, the company featured on our cover, on page 14.

While we’re all looking forward to steppin’ out in our best ’fits this summer, the pandemic has changed life as we know it in more ways than one. The video games category experienced massive growth fueled by the pandemic’s stayat-home orders, sparking a big increase in social games, innovations in existing gaming IPs, and a deeper love of the classics. Find out what’s next for Among Us on page 20; why the in-game, virtual concert will outlive the lockdowns on page 24; and how Pokémon is celebrating the Big 2-5 on page 15.

Another sector that’s been revamped by the pandemic is the music industry.

With the lack of live concerts for fans to attend, we’ve seen a big uptick in music licensing programs — and bands and artists are using these programs to connect with their fans through merch. Check out Senior Editor James Zahn’s stage dive into music licensing on page 63.

The pandemic was confusing for all of us, but some things would be confusing even in the best of times, like digital collectibles. The acronym “NFT” has been popping up in all aspects of our lives lately, but especially in the collectibles category. If you find yourself boggled by everything non-fungible tokens, check out Associate Editor Madeleine Buckley’s breakdown of the basics on page 9.

And for the lil’ fans in your life, be sure to flip through our Pop Junior section, where you’ll find a whole bunch of new merch for kids, along with a look at what’s new with PAW Patrol and Moonbug Entertainment, the company behind hit shows like CoComelon and Blippi.

And that’s not all: We’ve got spotlights on cosplayers and artists, the cutest ways to force your baby into your favorite fandoms, a look into how exclusive “exclusives” really are, and so much more.

So grab your sunnies and your swimsuits and kick back by the pool as you peruse everything this issue has to offer.

We can’t wait for you to dive into all of this fandom-fueled summer fun! ✪ Love you. Mean it.

SUBSCRIBE TO THE POP INSIDER! ABOUT THE EDITORS:

Ali Mierzejewski and Marissa Silva are editors-in-chief of the Pop Insider and the Toy Insider. They report on trends affecting the toy and pop culture industries, including the latest in TV, movies, video games, collectibles, and more. They have been featured on ABC World News Now, Good Morning America, The TODAY Show, MSNBC, Fox Business, and dozens more. Follow them on Twitter @ohsotrendy and @thattoygirl.

On the cover: Disney Princess Anniversary denim jacket from Cakeworthy

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Read more at thepopinsider.com

NERDY NEWS compiled by Madeleine Buckley, associate editor

MICROSOFT IS RELEASING A MINI-FRIDGE SHAPED LIKE THE XBOX SERIES X CONSOLE

Source: Microsoft

As part of the Xbox presentation at this year’s virtual E3 show, Microsoft took a break from game trailers and updates to reveal “a new system that’ll leave others in the cold.” Say hello to the Xbox Mini Fridge (yes, this is real), a working refrigerator designed to look like the Xbox Series X console. For those not in the know, this stems from fans on social media comparing the Series X design to a fridge when Xbox first revealed the system last year.

Now, all gamers — and nongamers who just find this hysterical — can get in on the joke. As revealed in a trailer, the new fridge can hold about 10-12 cans of soda and features a glowing green interior, along with an illuminated Xbox logo on the front, just like the Series X console.

The fridge will be available by the holiday season. Let’s hope it will be an easier gift to find than the Series X console itself! ✪

MARVEL PARTNERS WITH VEVE COLLECTIBLES TO ENTER THE WORLD OF NFTS Marvel is entering a new realm — the virtual trading realm, that is — in a partnership with VeVe Digital Collectibles.

VeVe, an app available on both iOS and Android, offers digital collectibles featuring a variety of fandoms, such as Adventure Time, Jurassic Park, Star Trek, and more. Soon, fans can start searching far and wide for Marvel non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to add to their collection within the app. The Marvel NFT offerings will include 3D statues and digital comic books, which users will be able to buy, sell, and display as an augmented reality collection. The collectibles will be available within the coming months.

To learn more about VeVe and fandom-inspired NFTs, turn to page 9. ✪

NETFLIX LAUNCHES AN ESHOP OFFERING LIMITED-EDITION FANDOM MERCH

Yasuke Haruto Clock designed by artist Nathalie Nguyen | Source: Netflix.shop

As part of its virtual Geeked Week fan event, Netflix launched Netflix.shop, an online shop selling limited-edition merchandise inspired by Netflix original shows and movies. The offerings on this platform will come in the form of collaborations with artists and designers and will feature exclusive, curated collections of apparel, decorative items, and collectibles.

At launch, the store offered four limited-edition collections inspired by its anime titles Eden and Yasuke, created by Hypland, Japanese apparel company BEAMS, Nathalie Nguyen, and Kristopher Kites.

According to an official release from the streaming platform, products inspired by fan-favorite series Stranger Things and The Witcher will join the platform soon, along with new Netflix logo-wear from BEAMS. ✪

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Iron Man Mark III Armor model Source: Fanhome

NERDY NEWS

CELEBRATE 20 YEARS OF ‘HARRY POTTER’ MOVIES WITH A GAME SHOW, NEW LEGO SETS This year marks 20 years since the premiere of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, and Warner Bros. is celebrating with a variety of new products and entertainment.

Fans can collect a new line of movie-inspired LEGO Harry Potter sets that come with golden anniversary mini-figures of popular characters.

Later this year, Warner Media Kids & Families will release two unscripted Wizarding World programs to commemorate the anniversary: a trivia show competition featuring Harry Potter fans and a retrospective special about the movies. ✪

A scarf made with Schitt’s Creek yarn.

Source: Lion Brand

LION BRAND TO RELEASE SCHITT’S CREEK-BRANDED YARN Lion Brand Yarn Co. has partnered with ITV Studios for an officially licensed Schitt’s Creek product line, including a selection of yarns featuring an exclusive Schitt’s Creek label in shades such as blush pink, black, and heather grey.

Crafty fans can use these yarns with a new selection of patterns (for both adults and kids) that will give detailed instructions for making clothes inspired by outfits the Rose family wore in the popular series.

In addition to the yarns and patterns, the collection will also include throw blankets and pillows.

This crafty lineup of merch will be available to purchase at the end of this year. ✪

FANHOME BRINGS ITS INTERACTIVE MODEL-BUILDING KITS TO THE U.S. Fanhome, a UK-based, subscription collectibles and model-building company, is expanding to the U.S. The company’s initial U.S. offerings include three build-up models: Iron Man, R2-D2, and the Dodge Charger from the Fast & Furious franchise.

The models are shipped in stages, and each building stage costs around $12-13, with four building stages included in each monthly shipment. Each shipment includes pieces for the model and a 16-page magazine complete with facts about the franchise and building instructions. Depending on the model, it can take anywhere from 1-2 years to complete the building stages.

The built models are packed with features, too. For example, the 24-inch Iron Man features the Mark III armor, complete with light effects and articulation. The kits are available to U.S. fans now, exclusively from fanhome.com. ✪

BRING ON THE ULTIMATE BURN BOOK BATTLE IN A NEW MEAN GIRLS PARTY GAME Hey, you wanna do something fun? How about playing Mean Girls: The Party Game from Big Potato Games.

In this new game inspired by the 2004 teen movie, players write their names on pages of the “Burn Book,” which also features blank spots where other players anonymously answer questions about them, such as “Who do they have an inappropriate crush on?” Players earn points by correctly guessing who wrote each answer.

The game is available now at Target. ✪ Source: Big Potato Games

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Non-fungible tokens have the potential to revolutionize pop culture.

by Madeleine Buckley, associate editor

N

FT. That acronym seemed to appear in our online vernacular almost overnight, and then suddenly it was everywhere. Maybe you first saw those three letters in a headline from a major newspaper, a tweet from your favorite collectibles company, or that SNL sketch from March in which Pete Davidson rapped, “Can you please explain what’s an NFT? I said, what the hell’s an NFT?” Especially for those in the fandom community, it may feel like every company is now offering exclusive, virtual items for fans, gamers, and collectors. However, NFTs (non-fungible tokens) didn’t actually arrive overnight. They have become more and more prevalent over the past few years and have the potential to permanently change fandom culture.

But to come back to the question that SNL so eloquently posed, what the hell is an NFT? If concepts like blockchain and bitcoin send your head spinning — as they did, and honestly still do, mine — you may be avoiding this new tech trend entirely. So, let’s start with the basics.

As Dan Crothers, COO and co-founder of virtual collectible company VeVe explains, every type of collectible you can own — from baseball cards and limited-edition sneakers to Funko Pop! figures and high-end cars — is non-fungible because each one is unique. “These collectibles derive their value by their utility or usefulness, the story behind the item (which often can be sentimental), and rarity,” Crothers says.

As with any collectible, owning an NFT is special because it’s yours, but the idea of actually owning a digital item is a fairly new concept. Over the past few decades, we have started to live in an increasingly digital world, which has spilled over into creativity, art, and design. May-

be, for example, you’ve bought a digital print from your favorite artist. However, unlike when you purchase a physical print (especially a numbered one), it can be hard to prove ownership of digital art.

There’s really nothing stopping someone from copying that image file and passing it on to others, explains Jules Urbach, CEO of OTOY, a cloud graphics company that is currently curating the work of legendary comic book artist Alex Ross into an NFT archive.

“Amidst this explosion of digital content, there have been few ways to monetize or own digital content, which has limited its potential,” Urbach says.

“NFTs are revolutionary because they provide the first way to own and monetize digital content, and this is profoundly empowering for creators and fans.”

And through a process called “minting,” which gives a digital item unique, trackable metadata, we are able to prove singular ownership of our virtual things.

A DIGITAL SHOWROOM Exactly what those virtual things are can vary greatly. Some companies, such as VeVe, offer digital collectibles inspired by popular shows, movies, or characters, which fans can curate within an app and display using augmented reality (AR).

VeVe has officially licensed digital collectibles, such as virtual versions of statues, 2D cover art, and more, from DC Comics, Ghostbusters, Cryptozoic’s Cryptkins, and more, which all have verifiable scarcity.

Once users own these digital items, they can create a showroom in the VeVe app, a process that Crothers says takes some fans hours to curate.

“Being able to display and show off your collectibles is an integral part of the

collecting experience. The VeVe virtual Showrooms take this idea and reimagine it for the new digital world,” he says.

“With our augmented reality integration, [fans] can drop their Showrooms into their real-world surroundings and literally walk through them. Once they have crafted the perfect digital space, users can also share them directly to the in-app social feed so that other collectors can enjoy them, too.”

Crothers’ personal favorite NFT is a virtual replica of the DeLorean Time Machine from Back to the Future, which collectors can place in their garage or driveway in 1:1 scale.

VeVe, which Crothers founded with David Yu in 2017, also specifically caters to fans who may not be well-versed in blockchain (which is, simply, a digital ledger of cryptocurrency transactions). The duo saw the complexities of blockchain as a barrier for many fans, and decided to keep those components in the background of the app.

VeVe isn’t alone as an entry point for consumers who can’t quite wrap their heads around blockchain or cryptocurrency. On Curio — another app-based digital collectibles platform in which fans can curate and display their digital collectibles inspired by American Gods, Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World, and more — users have the option to pay for NFTs with a credit card using U.S. dollars. Curio Co-Founder and Chief Risk Officer Ben Arnon recognizes that the cryptocurrency experience can be challenging or intimidating for new users.

“We don’t want the consumer to be concerned with what technology is powering this offering and this product,” he says. “We just want them to be delighted by the benefits and the experiences that THEPOPINSIDER.COM | #FuelYourFandom | 9

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FANDOM FEATURE they receive from engaging with NFTs.” He likens the experience to using your credit card to pay for groceries. “I put my credit card in, I took it out, and I was able to leave the store with my groceries,” he says. “I’m fulfilled, I have the benefits of purchasing those goods, and I don’t need to know all the technology that’s sort of undergirding that transaction.”

YOU GET AN NFT,

AND YOU GET AN NFT Earlier this year, Godzilla vs. Kong made headlines as one of the first major theatrical movie releases following more than a year of COVID-19-induced film delays and theater closures. However, it also made headlines for another first: It was the first major movie to promote its release with an NFT collection. Film studio Legendary partnered with artist BossLogic and the MakersPlace platform for art NFTs inspired by the movie and worked with Terra Virtua to offer digital animated figures and artifacts from the film.

Legendary’s Executive Vice President of Franchise Management James Ngo says that, in many ways, developing these NFTs was similar to developing any other licensed item for a movie, such as action figures or apparel, noting that pricing

strategy, launch timing, and marketing support were all familiar.

Overall, he considers the Godzilla Vs. Kong NFTs a success: “We were able to make a big splash with the program alongside the film’s marketing campaign and learned a lot along the way. Fans embraced the art and were excited to engage with the brand in a new and different way.”

While movie- and TV show-inspired items are a natural fit for developing digital collectibles, the NFT craze hasn’t been limited to entertainment brands. As part of the strategy for relaunching its popular ‘90s snack line, Dunkaroos, General Mills partnered with artists to develop 10 retro-inspired NFTs — animated art, jokingly called “New Frosting Tokens” — which it auctioned off on Rarible.

At first, this collaboration may seem like a less-obvious fit for NFTs, but Shannon Heine, brand experience manager at General Mills, explains how the nostalgia factor made it perfect for Dunkaroos’ target audience.

“NFTs are unique and built on scarcity and demand, just like Dunkaroos,” Heine says. “Our OG Dunkaroos audience is the ‘90s kid who has a knack for nostalgia and carefree times. We created our 10 digital Dunkaroos New Frosting Tokens to evoke

those ‘90s feelings that fans associate with the brand.”

NFTS GO IRL The most interesting detail from the Dunkaroos NFT drop, however, wasn’t the colorful, digital creations themselves.

In addition to a “New Frosting Token,” each of the 10 winning bidders got packages of new Chocolate Dunkaroos before they officially hit store shelves. This idea — a real-world bonus for owning a digital item — is another facet of NFTs that will certainly impact the fan community.

The Curio team is already laying the foundation for this idea, offering rewards within its app for collectors who complete challenges, such as collecting a full set of NFTs for a certain brand. Arnon expects this to expand over time, with fans getting exclusive access to different types of real-life content through purchasing NFTs. “By showing and having scanned my NFT on my phone, or three NFTs that I own, that unlocks an exclusive experience,” he explains. “Maybe it unlocks the experience for me to participate in a meet-and-greet with a creator I love.

Maybe that unlocks the ability for me to purchase a piece of physical merchandise at a concert that only people who have that NFT can gain access to purchasing.”

For popular collectibles company Funko, these real-world tie-ins are far from hypothetical. In early April, Funko acquired a majority stake in TokenWave (developer of the NFT app TokenHead) and announced plans to release its first NFTs this summer. Bianca Calingo, senior manager of franchise and new business development at Funko, says that some of the company’s 3D-rendered Pop! figure NFTs will correspond with physical Pop! figures. “By linking the rarest NFTs to an exclusive, physical Pop! that fans otherwise wouldn’t be able to purchase, it adds a thrilling chase element to NFTs that only Funko can offer,” she says.

UPPING THE VIRTUAL GAME While some companies prepare to expand the value of NFTs in the physical world, others see the potential that NFTs have to revolutionize online worlds, especially when it comes to gaming.

Screenshots of the VeVe app | Source: VeVe

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Uni Neue Regular 7pt font, 9pt leading

A collection of Blankos in Blankos Block Party Source: Mythical Games

Scott Kaufman, CEO of Wizard World, says he sees NFTs as a way for fans to “differentiate themselves within the metaverse.” In addition to hosting live fan events, Wizard World offers an extensive selection of fandom memorabilia through its Wizard World Vault website. In June, the site relaunched to offer 2D images of these items as NFTs (mostly autographed photos), with plans to launch 3D image NFTs later in the summer. While Kaufman knows that fans could choose to display these NFTs like they do their physical collectibles — or do nothing with them — he expects that technology will soon allow fans to incorporate these images into their online presence.

“I think it’s a different perspective of looking at NFTs … We hope in the future fans can play Call of Duty and wear Michael J. Fox’s sneakers from Back to the Future, or use Hellboy’s gun, or wear a face mask that Jason wore in Halloween.

Whatever they want to do, and everything in between,” he says. “We want to offer our fans the opportunity to have limitless capabilities with these images.”

This technology isn’t all that far off, either. Last year, gaming company Mythical Games published the open beta version of Blankos Block Party, a massively multiplayer online game in which players explore a virtual world as designer-art-toy-inspired characters called Blankos. There are many different Blanko designs to choose from, all designed by either the internal team or by artists from

the world of toy design, such as Tara Mcpherson, James Groman, JPK, Junko Misuno, and Michael Lau. But the most important factor? Every Blanko design is limited, and every Blanko is an NFT. At first, this may not seem all that different from any other in-game purchase that players make, using real money to customize their avatar or to add new, playable accessories to their virtual arsenal. However, as Mythical Games’ Co-Founder and Senior Vice President of Business Development Rudy Koch explains, the player doesn’t truly own those in-game items. “If you own something really rare or really valuable, there’s nothing you can do about it,” he explains. “Only the developer benefits because you’re locked into their economy.”

In fact, as Koch notes, players have been selling in-game items for decades, trading illegitimately in gray markets outside of the game ecosystem. (The 2018 Disney movie Ralph Breaks The Internet features an example of this when the main characters try to steal a valuable vehicle from a video game to sell it for real money.)

When the in-game items are NFTs, though, as they are in Blankos Block Party, players can increase their value by leveling them up, then legitimately reselling them.

“If you’ve been watching the NFT space, you might be asking why JPGs are selling for so much money when you can’t do anything with them. Game items have

always had value, even before blockchain and NFTs,” Koch says. “The reason these items have value is because they have utility and rarity in the games they belong to. We are combining the intrinsic value of game items with the value of NFTs and true ownership and bringing this concept to the mass market.”

When players are ready to part with a Blanko, they can sell it within the game’s newly launched marketplace.

And, as Mythical Games Chief Creative Officer and Co-Founder Jamie Jackson adds, players don’t need to understand blockchain or invest in cryptocurrency to participate in the marketplace.

“Our technology gives players the tools to legitimize behavior they’re already engaging in, and opens up that ecosystem to allow more people to earn money,” he says. “When you no longer want an item, it’s not a sunk cost — you can sell it on the marketplace and recoup your investment, potentially even making a profit.”

SELL, SELL, SELL That secondary market (and the potential to turn a profit by reselling) is another major element of NFTs. In fact, many of the major NFT platforms have some sort of marketplace built in, allowing fans to buy and sell from each other. As with any limited collectible, be it physical or digital, some collectors will pay more for something that is hard THEPOPINSIDER.COM | #FuelYourFandom | 11

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FANDOM FEATURE to find, or a certain NFT they may have missed when it first dropped.

Arnon believes that the majority of value in NFTs will come from this secondary market, not only because reselling is a big part of collecting and gives fans a chance to make money, but also because NFT resales bring more value to licensing partners. This is one of the most significant differences between traditional collectibles and NFTs: If a fan purchases a limited-edition Marvel action figure, for example, Marvel will get some money from that transaction. But if that fan sells the action figure on eBay for twice the original price, neither Marvel nor the action figure manufacturer will benefit from the resale. With NFTs and their smart contracts, which have the terms of the agreement written into lines of code, the owner of the IP that inspired that NFT and/or the artist who created it can continue to profit with each resale.

“I believe that the NFT space will look similar to the music publishing model, where a music publisher or a songwriter amasses hundreds, and then thousands, of copyrights of songs,” Arnon says. “I think major IP owners will have hundreds, and then thousands of NFTs in the marketplace, generating that same persistent royalty stream in perpetuity.”

BEING GREEN WHILE MAKING GREEN One major concern that fans may still have about investing in NFTs is the potential environmental impact. This spring, major publications, including MSNBC and The New Yorker, published pieces discussing the copious amount of energy use that every Bitcoin transaction requires. Many of the digital collectible companies catering to fans are quick to note that this environmental impact is specific to NFTs that are minted using the Ethereum blockchain technology, which is not the only minting option. VeVe utilizes technology called the Immutable X Layer-2 solution, which is more than 99% more efficient than Ethereum, to effectively create carbon-neutral NFTs. Mythical Markets uses EOSIO blockchain, which is another environmentally friendly “Proof of Authority” model and, as Koch notes, Blankos Block Party

doesn’t require any crypto mining.

Curio, too, has made specific strides to be environmentally conscious, inking a deal with financial services company Aspiration to ensure that all NFTs on the Curio platform will remove more carbon than they create.

" We do believe that the hype of NFTs has created somewhat of a gold rush mentality for some.

However, digital collectibles with true value in the hearts of collectors will last the test of time."

— Jules Urbach, OTOY CEO

SO, WHAT NOW? Perhaps the biggest question that remains in this conversation about NFTs — and the hardest to answer — is, what does the future hold? Along with the headlines about massive NFT sales came industry commentators beginning to speculate whether these are simply a fad. By April, reports showed declining NFT sales numbers, even as major brands continue to announce new NFT plans and partnerships almost daily.

While no one can definitively predict the future, there is a lot of hope, and the individuals and companies investing heavily in NFTs insist that these digital collectibles are not going anywhere, especially as their many potential uses become more mainstream.

“We do believe that the hype of NFTs has created somewhat of a gold rush mentality for some,” OTOY’s Urbach says. “However, digital collectibles with true value in the hearts of collectors will last the test of time.” OTOY is currently exploring that value with its Alex Ross archive, painstakingly recreating the artist’s works and adding extra digital information and features, such as behind-thescenes content and AR capabilities.

Right now, Curio’s Arnon says the NFT market is changing so rapidly that it’s hard to make any definitive predictions or assumptions, but instead, he encourages brands to explore the space. “I think we sort of have some assumptions about whether or not certain genres work better or certain genders are more likely to consume. I would throw all that out the window,” he says. “It’s so nascent, I think it’s just time to learn from various different brands experimenting and innovating.”

Arnon also says that he has seen major studios and entertainment brands getting on board, with most of them forming NFT teams throughout the first half of this year.

Legendary’s Ngo gives a more cautious response when asked about the future of NFTs, saying “I don’t think NFT is going away per se, but the question is, what is the sustainable size and scale that the business will eventually settle at? …

I would say that it is a rapidly changing space, and participants are constantly improving and iterating the business and technology. Although a wait-andsee approach may be right for more conservative organizations, I think to cautiously embrace is a better approach, since watching from the sidelines of a fast-moving game may leave the spectators in the dust.”

Ultimately, it’s unlikely that NFTs will continue to fetch six-figure payouts and make headlines every single day. Instead, NFTs may become another engrained element of the fan experience and our increasingly digital lives, providing verifiability and offering new ways to interact with both digital and real-world content.

“NFT’s are not that radical,” Jackson says. “In its simplest form, it is tech that proves and therefore allows for ownership. We all appreciate ownership IRL, so why not in the digital world? Most people do not realize they do not own most of the digital assets they have purchased.

They can’t do anything with them. NFTs open the door to true ownership.”

In a not-so-short way of putting it, that’s WTF an NFT is. As collectors, fans, and consumers, there are so many ways to interact with NFTs. It’s up to us (and our dollars) to determine the long-term impact of this latest technology trend. ✪

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MERCH MAKERS

WHO DOESN'T LOVE CAKE?

Meet the team behind some of the sweetest merch on the market: Cakeworthy.

G

ot a sweet tooth? Cakeworthy is a fashion label that designs unisex streetwear apparel and accessories for fans who want a little sprinkle of fun in their wardrobes. Founded in 2014, Cakeworthy caters to those who are looking for a statement apparel piece or accessory that will guarantee compliments on the street and likes on the feed.

Cakeworthy’s line boasts designs inspired by licenses fans love, like Friends, Disney, Harry Potter, and more, as well as bright colors, bold prints, and ‘80s and ‘90s nostalgia — in other words, they’ve got all the sweet stuff.

And as far as the name goes, the team says, “The bare bones of it is celebrating things that are worthy of cake. Our name is the perfect combination of ambiguity and celebration. Our name gives us the ability to not be tied to anything specific that will define us, but also allows us to celebrate the things we choose to be tied to. It’s a sweet celebration, and who doesn’t love cake?” ✪

team!

Meet the BRANDON SHEDDEN | FOUNDER & CEO - Favorite fandom: So hard! Would have to go with the most obvious for me: Disney!

- Favorite piece of Cakeworthy merch: Mickey Mouse Faux Fur Jacket

COLETTE VIGNOCCHI | GLOBAL PR & INFLUENCER RELATIONS MANAGER - Favorite fandom: anything and everything Jurassic Park - Favorite piece of Cakeworthy merch: Disney Princess Anniversary denim jacket

LESLIE KAY | BRAND MANAGER - Favorite fandom: The Muppets - Favorite piece of Cakeworthy merch: The Animal Crossing Celeste Acid Wash T-shirt

SARAH RUSSO | DIRECTOR OF MARKETING & COMMUNICATIONS - Favorite fandom: Harry Potter or Studio Ghibli - Favorite piece of Cakeworthy merch: Luna Lovegood flannel from our new Harry Potter collection

JORDAN | BUSINESS COORDINATOR - Favorite fandom: Horror - Favorite piece of Cakeworthy merch: The entire Halloween 2021 collection! Since that collection is still a secret and I cannot say a fave piece just yet, I will say my favorite Cakeworthy item to date are the Universal Monsters pajamas!

Source: Cakeworthy

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YEARS OF POKÉMON

THE REWIND

The quarter-century old franchise is still evolving.

by Nicole Savas, editorial assistant

I

t seems like a moot point now — 25 years after the first Pokémon game hit kids’ Nintendo Game Boys on Feb. 27, 1996 — that the whole franchise was sparked by one young kid’s childhood hobby. Now, Pokémon has become a hobby in its own right for millions of people across multiple mediums. Still, the fact remains that the idea for the universe began with a curious kid named Satoshi Tajiri, the founder of Pokémon, who spent his free time catching bugs and insects in Japan. It’s that childhood essence and joy that has kept the Pokémon franchise thriving for the past 25 years.

“Pokémon makes people happy and it's for everyone,” says Daniel Benkwitt, senior manager of communications and public relations at The Pokémon Co. “When Pokémon was first introduced in Japan, and shortly after around the world, it was a defining moment in pop culture.

It captured kids’ attention and it was everywhere. It was bright; it was fun; it had a story; it had adventure; and it had 151 unique collectible creatures.”

FROM GAME BOY TO EVERYWHERE After six years of development with Nintendo, Pokémon Red and Green were released in Japan in February 1996. By October, the 151 Pokémon featured in the video game found another home in the Pokémon Trading Card Game (TCG).

A manga starring a trainer named Red and his rude Clefairy was released around the same time, which led the way for an anime series to debut a year later. The show starred Satoshi, a character named after the franchise’s creator, and won over fans in Japan before its international release, in which the main character was known as Ash Ketchum. The newer, reworked versions of the video game

Pokémon Red and Blue and the anime series were in the U.S. by 1998, and the TCG was in almost every American kids’ hands by 1999.

“The very early days of Pokémon were zeitgeist defining moments, building a unique and ubiquitous brand platform that has allowed it to stay hyper-relevant,” says Benkwitt. “While it was the original Pokémon video games that started it all, the brand quickly expanded the ways in which it could be experienced. There were many ways that kids and fans could enter into the Pokémon world and that’s a tradition that continues to this day. It has expanded into competitive play, live-action movies, a licensing powerhouse, and so much more.”

Still frame from Pokémon Go Source: The Pokémon Co.

Today, Ash Ketchum and Pikachu are the most iconic mascots of the franchise.

The animated series is in its 24th season and the TCG remains at the top — so much so that major retailers are halting the sales of the cards because people are rushing in droves to buy them causing chaos in retail store aisles.

“The franchise never really dies,” says PokéRev (his real name is Nick), a Pokémon card collector and YouTuber with more than 250,000 subscribers. He clarifies, “More importantly it builds on itself. Every so often, a new generation of all-new Pokémon is released. [The creators] keep it exciting and always evolving — pun intended. New generations are constantly getting into it and older generations are coming back.”

In the summer of 2016, the fans who had grown up trading Pokémon cards were suddenly outside chasing the same characters with their smartphones. The augmented reality app, Pokémon Go, took the world by storm, and its popularity continues, earning $1 billion in the first 10 months of 2020, according to Sensor Tower. It gave Pokémon fans a unique experience that allowed them to explore the real world while making their Pokédex dreams come true.

In 2019, Pokémon was named the highest-grossing media franchise of all time, according to an infographic by TitleMax, a finance company. At the time, it had nearly $93 billion in sales, of which $61 billion came from merch.

No one can forget the first live-action film adaptation of the brand conquered silver screens in 2019: Detective Pikachu.

It broke records for a film based on a video game and took home $433 million globally, according to Box Office Mojo.

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A still from Pokémon Master Journeys: The Series Source: The Pokémon Co.

THE REWIND

THE POWER OF NOSTALGIA PokéRev started his YouTube channel to give Pokémon fans a comfortable place to enjoy the fandom and to show off some really cool Pokémon cards. He says when he opened his first box as an adult — the 1999 Base Set Unlimited Booster Box — in 2015, it was the definition of nostalgia and he was hooked. Now, he runs his YouTube channel to show off unique card sets and he has an eBay page with items on sale for up to $3 million. “Eventually, I think one day every generation will have grown up with Pokémon. An 80-year-old and an 8-year-old will be able to bond over something they both genuinely enjoy,” he predicts.

Gary Haase, otherwise known as the Pokémon King, recalls a particular memory of his then 8-year-old son’s love of Pokémon: His youngest son fell asleep with a freshly pulled Charizard card in his hand and still had a firm grasp on it in the morning when he woke up.

Another moment he isn’t soon to forget might just be the First-Edition, PSA 10, Shadowless Charizard card he sold to YouTube star Logan Paul. At $150,000, it is one of many cards sold in recent years for more than six figures. Experts predict that certain cards could be worth millions someday. (It’s at this point in the article that I would like to publicly shame my mom for not letting me spend hundreds of dollars on the TCG when I was 7.)

Haase is known as the Pokémon King because of his involvement in the community since the beginning of the franchise. He’s also known for his appear-

25th Anniversary Silver Plush Source: Jazwares

ances on the TV series Pawn Stars, in which he sold thousands of dollars worth of Pokémon Cards. He says that nostalgia is the main driver behind these pricey purchases, along with investment. And while the King himself loves the nostalgia of Pokémon, he says his favorite thing about the franchise is that, unlike most battle games, the characters never die.

They always live to see another day.

Pokémon began with a common childhood hobby and ended up becoming an investment strategy, a home for kids who wanted to experience fun adventures, a heart-warming memory for adults, and, yes, a major hobby in and of itself. Today, we’ve seen the franchise grow to include more than 728 species of Pokémon across eight regions, making their way to video games, toys, apparel, films, and so much more.

To celebrate its 25th year, The Pokémon Co. has big plans. In May, Katy Perry released "Electric," a single in a collaboration with The Pokémon Co. and Universal Music Group. It’s part of the multiartist album, Pokémon 25: The Album, which will be released this fall.

And of course, every anniversary party needs plenty of gifts, so the list of merch coming out this year is extensive.

“We knew that all eyes were going to be on Pokémon this year for the

25th anniversary and decided there was no better time to launch new items that fans of all ages would love,” says Gerhard Runken, the senior vice president of global sales at Jazwares, the master toy licensee of the Pokémon property. “Between plush and figures, we’re focusing on the absolute best, most demanded characters across the history of the franchise.”

Jazwares also has plans for some releases in 2022, which will keep the celebrations going well past the 25th anniversary. Other celebratory merch will come from Build-A-Bear Workshop, General Mills, Levi’s, McDonald’s, Scholastic, Mattel, Funko, PowerA, The Wand Co., and more.

Beyond merch, Ash Ketchum and Pikachu will continue their journey this summer in the 24th season of the anime, titled Pokémon Master Journeys: The Series. It’s a similar story to the original, but new friends will join in on the adventures while returning rivals await. Nintendo’s New Pokémon Snap debuted in April, giving fans a new way to explore the Lental region, and the reimagined Pokémon Shining Pearl and Brilliant Diamond are coming to the Nintendo Switch in November. In short, it’s all still evolving.

Pokémon, we choose you for the next 25 years and beyond. ✪

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GOTTA CATCH 'EM ALL

THE REWIND

POKÉMON BRILLIANT DIAMOND AND POKÉMON SHINING PEARL NINTENDO

COLLECTIBLES

This Year’s Must-Have Pokémon Merch

1.

2.

On Nov. 19, fans can bring home these two games on the Nintendo Switch, which were originally designed in 2006 for the Nintendo DS. MSRP: $119 Available: nintendo.com

3.

LEVI‘S X POKÉMON | LEVI'S This collection includes tops, bottoms, accessories, and a snazzy jacket (pictured). Pieces in the collection are ‘90s-inspired with patterns featuring characters from the first season of the original animated series.

1. BULBASAUR SILVER METALLIC FUNKO POP! FUNKO This is one of several new Pokémon-themed Funko Pop! figures dropping this fall. It stands about 3.5 inches tall.

MSRP: $19 Available: Entertainment Earth

MSRP: $19.50+ Available: LEVI‘S

2. POKÉMON CELEBRATION PIKACHU

SNORLAX POKÉMON SUMMER DAYS POOL FLOAT

MEGA CONSTRUX Twenty-five years deserves some confetti. The Electric-type Pokémon stands 4 inches tall when built and fans can pose it in a number of ways.

MSRP: $24.99 Available: Target

THE POKÉMON CO. Snooze away on the lap of a Snorlax with this oversized pool accessory.

It features four handles and holds up to 441 lbs.

MSRP: $59.99 Available: pokemoncenter.com

3. POKÉMON TCG: FIRST PARTNER PACKS THE POKÉMON CO. Fans can journey through each of the regions with eight different TCG packs. Each focuses on a different region.

MSRP: $9.99 Available: major retailers

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FAN FUEL

How to Make an Outlander-inspired French-Scottish Soup

T

here are a lot of reasons to love Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander novels and the Starz TV series that they inspired, from Claire and Jamie’s romance and the suspenseful plots to the sense of adventure as the couple travels across countries, continents, and centuries.

And while food might not be the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Outlander, the series is full of it, especially given the wide array of geographic locations and time periods that the characters explore. Theresa

Carle-Sanders first tapped into this wealth of culinary potential back in 2010, when she created a recipe for rolls filled with minced pigeon and truffles after thinking of a scene from Voyager, the third Outlander novel. This recipe would become the catalyst for a much larger project: a blog called Outlander Kitchen, and then Outlander Kitchen: The Official Outlander Companion Cookbook. The book debuted in 2016, followed by a second volume last year, both published

by Penguin Random House.

Below, we’ve featured her recipe for Leek and Potato Soup from her second Outlander cookbook, Outlander Kitchen: To the New World and Back Again.

This specific recipe is inspired by Lord John and the Haunted Soldier, one of Gabaldon’s novellas that follows Lord John Grey — a character familiar to fans of the Outlander books and the Starz series alike!

Fans can find more of Carle-Sanders’ recipes and additional information about her books at outlanderkitchen.com. ✪

Leek and Potato Soup (serves 6) There are two main classifications of soup in traditional French cuisine: clear soups, such as bouillon and consommé, and thick soups, including bisques and purees, like this one of leek and potato. When ready, a thick soup should coat the back of a spoon thoroughly, without stepping over the line into a thick paste.

Source: Penguin Random House

Ingredients • 3 medium leeks (1 pound, white and light green parts only) • 3 tablespoons butter • 1 garlic clove, minced or grated • 1 teaspoon kosher salt, plus additional • 2 medium yellow potatoes (1 pound), peeled and diced • ½ cup whipping cream • ½ teaspoon ground white pepper, plus additional • 2-3 teaspoons lemon juice • snipped fresh chives, for garnish Method • Thinly slice the leeks on a diagonal and rinse them thoroughly in a bowl of cold water. Scoop out the leeks with your hands or a slotted spoon, leaving the grit behind. Then shake dry in a clean dishcloth or salad spinner.

• In a large saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. When bubbling, add the leeks, garlic, and salt; sweat for 5 minutes. Decrease the heat to medium-low and cook until the leeks are tender, about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the potatoes and 1 quart water, increase the heat to medium-high, and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to low, cover, and gently simmer until the potatoes are soft, about 30 minutes.

• Turn off the heat and puree the mixture with an immersion blender until smooth. Stir in cream, white pepper, and lemon juice. Taste and adjust the seasonings if required.

• Sprinkle with chives and serve immediately.

• Store leftovers in the fridge for up to five days.

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FANDOM FEATURE

Innersloth aims to build the Among Us merch program around quality, fan-centric goods rather than revenue alone.

by James Zahn, senior editor

S

ometimes, the biggest hits seemingly come from out of nowhere, such as an indie game that peaks late and arrives in the mainstream absolutely devoid of any warning.

Three years ago, Innersloth quietly launched its second game for iOS and Android devices. Following the release of Dig2China in 2015, the tiny Washington-based studio had been working on a number of unreleased titles until deciding to unleash Among Us amid the usual monthly onslaught of independent video games in June 2018.

According to Innersloth, at its core, Among Us “is a party game of teamwork and betrayal in which Crewmates work together to complete tasks before one or more Impostors can kill everyone” aboard a spacecraft. But to a growing fandom, Among Us is much more.

ed game of 2020 with more than 264 million downloads worldwide — that’s nearly 40 million more than the No. 2 game, Subway Surfers, and more than 100 million more than Roblox.

The sudden interest in the game created an instantaneous hunger for ancillary merchandise that caught the developers off guard. By fall, Innersloth enlisted Dual Wield Studio to serve as the exclusive licensor for the Among Us brand, as the complexities of building a licensing program began to run concurrently alongside a growing number of fan creations and unlicensed merch.

EMPOWERING CREWMATES VS. THE IMPOSTORS

A SURPRISE HIT What began as a part-time gig became a full-time job for the seven-person Innersloth team as Among Us hit PC by the end of 2018. The game did solid business in its first two years, but what no one could’ve predicted is that last year, in the middle of a global pandemic, Among Us would be thrust in front of millions of people as Twitch streamers and TikTokers introduced the colorful crew to a captive audience. Eager to play along at home, millions of soon-to-be fans downloaded the game and entered the fight to see who among the Crewmates was an Impostor by looking for clues as to who may or may not be “sus” (suspect).

According to Apptopia, Among Us snagged the top spot as the most-download-

that could be used to ensure continuity between the bright, colorful game and any products it may inspire. Rowden says that the developers had to focus on cross-medium consistency.

“Matching colors and ensuring that we have a cohesive lineup that focuses on the most popular colors as well as designs that complement their base colors is an important factor,” Rowden says. “Updating the art so it’s cohesive across the game and then reflected in the merchandise took time as assets had to be hand-drawn and changed. Finalizing the colors for the game, and then finalizing merchandise based on pantones, CMYK, etc., takes time because it’s very rarely a 1:1 mix, especially when considering products and how those colors will display on different items.”

Among Us Crewmate Stampers Source: Toikido/PMI Ltd.

“Indie game development operates much differently than massive intellectual property (IP). Many games are created by groups of friends, not huge teams that have the next 10 years in mind for their franchise,” says Rowan K. Rowden, co-founder of Dual Wield Studio.

“A significant amount of time has been spent developing what Among Us is, in actuality, and what the team feels strongly about when it comes to the perception of their brand, their IP, and their characters.”

One of the biggest challenges came in putting together proper style guides

In January, UK-based Toikido was named global master toy partner for Among Us. Under the agreement, Toikido was granted rights to develop and market collectibles, figures, plush, playsets, R/C, and more. By March, PMI Ltd. and YuMe came on board to distribute Toikido’s product line, which expanded to include capsules, costumes, stampers, and additional items.

“In a little over six months we have gone from contract to shelf, something we should all be proud of given the external factors of COVID-19, Chinese New Year, and shipping challenges,” says Toikido Founder and CEO Darran Garnham, whose small crew has been aided by the teams at Innersloth and Dual Wield Studio in translating the 2D world of the video game into 3D toys.

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“We have worked closely together to create products, packaging, point-of-sale materials, and a TV commercial.”

While the first wave of licensed products was swiftly brought to shelves after inking the deals, some retailers have mixed views when it comes to fan demand and sales potential in different markets across the country.

“Among Us has a solid fanbase that we’ve seen steadily increasing since the end of last year,” says Richard Derr, owner of Learning Express Toys in Lake Zurich, Illinois. “We are waiting [for the new products] and will welcome newness to the category with plush, key clips, bottles, and perhaps figures.”

Lizzy Newsome, toy curator at Kappa Toys in Las Vegas, believes that Innersloth faces an uphill battle in bringing official products to market.

“They waited too long to officially license,” Newsome says. “In Las Vegas, the knock-off gear can be found at every mall kiosk. The market is saturated with unlicensed products, and it’s already halfway through its run. If you don’t think about licensing from the beginning you might lose out entirely in the end.”

To that extent, the approach for Among Us differs from the established norms. Rowden says that despite what some may think, the goal is not to push out as much product as soon as possible to generate maximum revenue.

“Our biggest concern with speed to market wasn’t revenue generation, but instead, giving fans options to purchase official products at storefronts so that they would stop purchasing from scam or poor quality websites,” Rowden says.

“The difficulty has been trying to balance our partners’ needs with the understanding that both the Innersloth and Dual Wield Studio teams are very small in comparison to other IPs out there, and our biggest focuses are on trying to scale appropriately and trying to manage team members’ sanity and well-being during an enormously stressful and complicated time of transition.”

FROM FANS TO LICENSEES The maker community that has embraced Among Us and helped to promote the game now finds itself in a

unique spot as Innersloth and its flagship title have become a big business. Rather than shut them out, the company developed a “fan creation policy” and has welcomed some makers into the fold to have their designs sold through the official Among Us webstore, which includes an Artist’s Alley.

“Admittedly, this is a diffiAmong Us action figures and plush | Source: Toikido/PMI Ltd./YuMe cult balance to walk,” Rowden colorful Crewmates will no doubt be says. “Any time you invite fans to be a found in cosplay and on tables in Artist’s part of a process you add time, comAlley at cons. plication, and levels of complexity that In the meantime, the game continues are difficult to plan for. Our mass-market to grow.

It launched on Nintendo Switch and retail partners know what needs to last year and will soon welcome new fans be done and how best to achieve it; for of many ages on Xbox and Playstation. our fandom creators, many of them have New fans will keep the franchise alive as never worked with an IP holder in an enterprising companies and individuals official capacity before, or if they have, sometimes they’ve been taken advantage will try to cash in. A McDonald’s Chicken McNugget shaped like a Crewmate of via predatory contracts, low wages, (or Impostor?) recently sold on eBay for or their work being used without credit $99,997. The InnerSloth team has even and no access to place that work in their grown with the addition of its ninth memportfolios due to aggressive NDAs.” ber, and new colors for Crewmates have Rowden says that the company is been coming at a steady pace. taking care to empower independent With so much activity swirling around creators, and working with them to a game that’s now entering its fourth year, understand the nuances of executing on it wouldn’t be sus to assume a timeline and the expectations of how that an Among Us 2 could be their work will be created, delivered, and lurking on the horizon. A seused in the marketplace. quel almost happened “It may seem counterintuitive to state once already. “All that we don't mind small, independent of the content creators creating unlicensed, unofficial we had planned items, but we genuinely don’t,” she for Among Us 2 will says. “The people we want to combat instead go into Among Us are the resellers and importers who are 1,” the Innersloth team trying to sell hundreds of thousands of said in a statement last units of unlicensed, often unsafe, or just fall. In a world where most bad merchandise. Even if it’s a revenue are chasing the next big thing, loss on our side, if a customer purchases the makers of Among Us are taking the something that a creator handmade, the rare approach of carefully building upon creator made it because they love the IP, the big thing that’s already here. ✪ and the customer purchased it because they felt it resonated with them more than an official item. Our goal is to bridge the gap between the IP holder and the fans that create items in a way that is nonpredatory, giving fans a chance to actually work with the creators of the IP they love so much.”

As the world begins to open up again and fan conventions return later this year, the Among Us community will finally be able to share its love for the game in public for the first time. That means that

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: James Zahn, best-known as The Rock Father, is a senior editor of the Pop Insider and the Toy Insider, and is deputy editor of the Toy Book. Frequently called upon for expert commentary on the toy industry, he has been featured in The New York Times, Forbes, and MarketWatch, and has appeared on Yahoo! Finance, NBC, ABC, FOX, CNN, GCTN, WGN, and more. Connect with him on LinkedIn or follow him @therockfather.

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F L E S R U O Y T A E TR

FLAUNT YOUR FANDOM

ndoms.

Get ready for

fa ired by your favorite sp in h es fr re e ob dr ar summer with a w cco, senior editor

compiled by Jackie Cu

FOLLOW THE YELLOW BRICK ROAD WIZARD OF OZ COLLECTION FROM CAKEWORTHY

There’s no place like home, but it’s time to put on some real clothes again. Make your grand entrance into the real world with any of the shirts or jackets from Cakeworthy’s Wizard of Oz collection. Get nostalgic with nods to the film’s iconic quotes and classic characters.

MSRP: $29.95-79.95 Available: cakeworthystore.com

WEAR WAKANDA, FOREVER

MARVEL BLACK PANTHER COLLECTOR REPLICA SET FROM SALESONE

Accessorize like a king with T’Challa’s necklace and a Kimoyo bead bracelet, both recreated as wearable prop replicas from Black Panther. They come as a set in a collector’s box with the Black Panther helmet printed on the front and the Infinity Saga logo printed on the inside. Holograms and vibranium suits are not included.

MSRP: $59.99 Available: us.zavvi.com

LIFE’S A BEACH

FORTNITE FLIP-FLOPS FROM HAVAIANAS

Grab your slurp juice and hit the beach with Havaianas’ collection of Fortnite flipflops. There are three styles to choose from, featuring designs of YOND3R, a Unicorn Llama Pickaxe, and a Battle Bus. Fortnite players can also venture to the flip-flop-shaped Havaianas Summer Island within the video game.

MSRP: $28 Available: havaianas.com

LIFE IN PLASTIC, IT’S FANTASTIC

MALIBU BARBIE COLLECTION FROM COLOURPOP Come on Barbie, let’s go ... buy Beach Party Highlighter! Get in a summer state of mind with Colourpop’s Malibu Barbie collection inspired

by California sunshine and Barbie’s retro vibe. Go glam with individual items or snag the full set, featuring an eyeshadow palette, lipstick, lip pencils, highlighter, false eyelashes, and a heart-shaped hand mirror.

MSRP: $7-79 Available: colourpop.com

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WE ALL LIVE IN A YELLOW SUBMARINE

THE BEATLES YELLOW SUBMARINE ZIP AROUND WALLET FROM LOUNGEFLY

Dream of skies of blue and seas of green with this sunny yellow wallet inspired by The Beatles’ Yellow Submarine album and animated film from the ‘60s. It’s made from vegan leather and features four portholes with John, Paul, George, and Ringo peeking out.

MSRP: $40 Available: loungefly.com

SPEAK OF THE DEVIL

CRUELLA FAUX LEATHER SKIRT AND JACKET FROM HER UNIVERSE No, the devil doesn’t wear Prada: She wears a wicked leather jacket. Channel Emma Stone’s chic look from Disney's live-action Cruella with a puff-shoulder jacket and a checkered skirt decked out with chains and a graffiti-print inset. Don’t worry, no dogs were harmed in the making of these faux-leather pieces.

MSRP: $44.99 (skirt); $69.99 (jacket) Available: shopdisney.com

NEVER LOOK BACK, DARLING

DISNEY & PIXAR EDNA MODE COLLECTION FROM CIATÉ LONDON Talented, brilliant, incredible, amazing, show stopping, spectacular. That’s Edna from The Incredibles, and the animated character is getting her own makeup collection from Ciaté London. The four-piece collection includes a combination eyeshadow and blush palette, two gel eyeliners, and a matte lip shadow.

MSRP: $19-39 Available: us.ciatelondon.com

TOTALLY BUGGIN’

HIPDOT X CLUELESS COLLECTION FROM HIPDOT Avoid being a total Monet at all costs with a Cher Horowitz-approved Clueless makeup line from Hipdot.

The collection includes an eyeshadow pallet, a blush palette, and a trio of lip oils. The best part is the ‘90s-inspired packaging designed to look like Cher’s locker; a fuzzy, pink notebook; an old-school cell phone; and the iconic yellow-and-black plaid skirt suit.

MSRP: $24-108 Available: hipdot.com, Ulta

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LEVEL UP

by Harry Wood, contributing editor

I

t was April of 2020, the world was reeling, and 12 million people gathered for a concert at a time when no one was allowed to gather at all. But the sheer disregard for CDC guidelines did not set off any alarms because the venue was virtual. Rapper Travis Scott’s Astronomical Tour launched for an audience of millions of fans — inside Fortnite: Battle Royale.

Travis Scott’s Astronomical Tour was not the first in-game concert. It wasn’t even the first Fortnite in-game concert — that honor went to DJ Marshmello, whose 2019 show had a paltry 11 million players in attendance a year earlier in 2019. It was, however, the launchpad for what quickly went from phenomenon to established genre: the in-game concert. From Minecraft to Pokémon to Club Penguin, artists excited by unencumbered creative freedom and fans hungry for interaction and entertainment came together in virtual spaces to celebrate in the one part of

the world that COVID-19 could not touch.

The forms the virtual concerts took varied widely. Some, like Post Malone’s event for Pokémon’s 25th anniversary, were fully produced theatrical experiences with motion-captured artists, animated special effects, and magical interactions with game characters in a preproduced movie that fans could tune in to watch premiere. Others, like Soccer Mommy’s Club Penguin Concert or 100 GECS’s concert in Minecraft, were in-game gatherings — a stage built in the middle of the world with character avatars gathering on a server to jam out together as music played. The Fortnite concerts were often both: a dedicated server for players to gather in real time to witness a prerecorded, animated concert event. Regardless of the format, the concerts served as momentary respites from a world much in need of them, even if that often wasn’t the intent in the first place.

“It was always, always intended to be virtual,” says JC Smith, senior director of marketing for The Pokémon Co. “The philosophy that we put in when we started planning back in 2019 was we wanted to create a way for people to celebrate together worldwide. COVID-19 made it even more essential. But the reality was that’s kind of what we always like to do before we launch all our games.”

Smith and his team have been busy this year. Pokémon has released a series of special performances and music videos in celebration of its 25th birthday with artists like J. Balvin and Katy Perry, plus the company released New Pokémon Snap on the Nintendo Switch, with three more games in the pipeline. But it was important for Pokémon’s lead-off event to be one that gave its fans worldwide a chance to celebrate together, and a virtual format was the solution. “We’d like all our fans to be able to enjoy experiences togeth-

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er at the same time around the world,” Smith adds, “so we went into this from the get-go saying what day, where, and let’s make a great experience for them.”

The fact that the answer to “what day” ended up being “in the middle of an unprecedented pandemic” was, improbably enough, a blessing in disguise.

It was one of those odd COVID-necessitated developments, like flu cases being at their lowest level in history or restaurants raising their wages because workers refused to return without higher standards of treatment, that make you go, “Wait a minute, should we just keep doing it like this forever?”

2020 and 2021 have undeniably changed the landscape of gaming and the gaming community, maybe permanently. More people are gaming than ever before, and for different reasons.

Facebook’s annual report of Games Marketing Insights found that there were 28 million new gamers in the U.S. in 2020.

Out of those new gamers, 50% said they made gaming with friends online a part of their weekly routine, and 41% said they went out of their way to attend limited-time events, compared to 36 and 33 percent, respectively, for existing gamers. This new COVID generation of gamers is hungry for interaction and excited by spectacle — a combination that would seemingly ensure that the virtual concert will not fade away even as in-person concerts begin to make their triumphant return.

“From the brand’s perspective, it’s nice to have a colorful, playful way to express your partnership,” says Smith, “so to do a sponsorship of a concert or a television commercial, it’s not the same level of immersion and fun, really. For us, it was an opportunity to say, ‘How could we have fun and make this an enjoyable experience for everyone?’ That’s something people haven’t done in this way.

Let’s do something fun and unique and get some stock value.”

The increase in eager gamers isn’t the only driving force behind this trend — it’s also being pushed by a growing generation of artists who grew up with video games, and are open to and excited by the idea of making their marks on those worlds. Travis Scott’s performance in Fortnite may have been prerecorded, but he was still in attendance as a fan,

Top: Kaskade performing as part of Fortnite’s Spotlight series.

Bottom: Opening outfits from Travis Scott’s Astronomical in Fortnite.

Source: Epic Games Uni Neue Regular 7pt font, 9pt leading

“This new COVID generation of gamers is hungry for interaction and excited by spectacle — a combination that would seemingly ensure that the virtual concert will not fade away.” watching in the audience with everyone else while streaming on Twitch. For Scott, who has always been a showman, the ability to transcend the real world — and real world physics — was a major selling point for his participation. “We can fly; we can do all of these things,” Scott said in an interview with Billboard Magazine. “That’s what gets me amped, you know what I’m saying?

The fantasies I would think of, to see it all come alive, so people can see and experience it, too.”

For Smith, who’s worked with Pokémon for 15 years, it was both surprising and heartening to see how much the artists they’ve brought in for in-game projects enjoyed the chance to

work with games they’d grown up playing. “We’re very, very blessed by the longevity of the brand and the fact that we’ve entertained people for as long as we have,” Smith says, “because it does make it easier to say, ‘Hey, would you like to partner with Pokémon?’ They don’t say, ‘What’s that?’

They say, ‘What? How??’ And then we’re off to the races.”

That obvious joy on the performer’s side is another facet of this still nascent genre of performance that makes it feel like it’s here to stay. If you watch any of these performances on YouTube, the fun that the artists are having — a giant Lil Nas X dancing along to “Old Town Road” in a saloon in Roblox, Travis Scott slowly sinking through the sea as players swim around him, Post Malone strutting across the stage as Pokémon swirl on all sides — there’s a distinct amount of, pardon the cliché, childlike wonder to the performance. It’s understandable! Few of us can say that we grew up dreaming of one day headlining Bonnaroo, but who didn’t have a moment when they wished they could be in a video game?

The virtual space and its unlimited capacity carries with it another important benefit that the real world can’t always match: improved accessibility. In-person concerts and music festivals are prized at times for their exclusivity — it’s cool to be able to pay thousands of dollars to spend a week in a tent in the desert, but it’s not THEPOPINSIDER.COM | #FuelYourFandom | 25

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LEVEL UP

Some events, like Post Malone’s concert for Pokémon’s 25th anniversary, were fully produced theatrical experiences with motion-captured artists, animated special effects, and magical interactions with game characters. | Source: The Pokémon Co.

feasible for many to do so. The virtual concert removes those barriers, giving anyone with a phone, computer, or gaming device access. There are still barriers to consider and overcome, like live-captioning for hard-of-hearing communities, but the idea of a star-studded concert that you can attend front-row-center from the comfort of your bedroom is one that turns the frequently ableist concert industry toward a much more promising future.

Of course, performing is a business, and it’s impossible to discuss the boom in virtual concerts without talking about the resulting boom in the hastily erected virtual concert industry. Video games give merchandisers and marketers access to a coveted demographic of young, brand-loyal fans, and the immediacy of a concert or performance further emphasizes that. While you may not feel particularly inclined to buy a Travis Scott T-shirt on any random day, who doesn’t love band merch after seeing a show? And what merch designer doesn’t love selling a band T-shirt to 45 million people?

For brands like Pokémon and Fortnite, these events provide unique opportunities to create merch based on special events outside of the typical parameters

or storylines of the games. “For us, if you create something that people want to express, they want to show off they were part of, it’s natural, right?” Smith opines.

“It’s like, you go to a concert, you want to have a concert tee to some degree. You may not wear it until it’s cool to do so — you don’t wear it the day after — but you still buy it and you want to wear it when it is the appropriate time because people want to say, ‘Hey, I was there.’”

The physical remnants of the shows are still findable: You can purchase an Astronomical Tour T-Shirt with Travis Scott’s Fortnite avatar on it, or a hoodie with Pikachu and Katy Perry emblazoned across the gray front. The results of millions of viewers being tuned into an artist’s music is tangible, too, and you can easily track where an artist’s virtual appearance in a game corresponds with a sudden push of their songs onto the Billboard charts.

But the real impact of these events — the creation of a global concert space that casts aside concerns about affordability, accessibility, and immediacy — is still just beginning to come into view. “This is something that crosses lots and lots of borders,” Smith says, “and we’re really enjoying the conversations that we’re

having with artists all over the world.”

As vaccine numbers continue to go up and the threat of COVID-19 begins to gradually recede, the world will slowly begin to return to its old habits and practices. But we are still far from out of the woods, and even when we do reach a point when we can truly feel safe again, there are some things created this past year that may long outlive the virus that spawned them. In-game concerts, it seems, could very well be one of them.

As the gaming community continues to grow and more virtual shows prove that the format is a success that brings millions of fans together, the virtual concert will only grow larger and more fantastic — and all fans have to do is plug in our headsets, add some friends, log onto our favorite server, sit back, and watch. ✪

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Harry Wood is a writer and performer currently living in Los Angeles, whose work can be found at CBS, Story Pirates, NPR, and America’s Test Kitchen.

His parents got him a Gameboy Color when he was 5 to help him stop biting his nails, and it’s been all downhill from there.

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®

MEET ME AT THE MALL

WE’VE GOT GAME THEN AND NOW ™

Courtney Moore™ totally loves hanging at the arcade and earning high scores. Her big win? Creating her own video game—one with a girl hero.

©/TM 2021 American Girl, LLC

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SO EXTRA A doll-sized Xbox Series X? This mini is major for girl gamers. Its authentic sounds and accessories are sure to unlock next-level fun with friends.

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SAVE THE CITY IN SUPER STYLE WITH DC SUPER HERO GIRLS: TEEN POWER FOR NINTENDO SWITCH

Source: Nickelodeon

complied by Jackie Cucco, senior editor

HELP SPONGEBOB AND FRIENDS RETURN TO BIKINI BOTTOM IN A NEW MOBILE GAME Mobile game developer Kongregate is partnering with Nickelodeon to create SpongeBob’s Idle Adventures, a free mobile game featuring the wacky characters of Bikini Bottom.

In the game, Sandy Cheeks is celebrating her birthday when Patrick accidentally breaks her vortex machine and sends everyone spiraling into a new dimension. Players can try to get SpongeBob, Squidward, Mr. Krabs, Plankton, and other characters out of the crazy new world and back to the real Bikini Bottom.

The game was developed by Kongregate’s San Diego-based studio, Ultrabit, and is available on iOS and Android devices worldwide. ✪

PEPPA PIG’S NEW ALBUM IS SURE TO GET A SNORT OUT OF KIDS Everyone’s favorite British pig is back with new music!

Peppa Pig sings 10 all-new songs in Peppa’s Adventures: The Album from Hasbro’s global entertainment studio Entertainment One (eOne).

The new album is the sequel to Peppa’s debut album, My First Album, which launched in 2019 and now has more than 136 million streams globally. Peppa’s Adventures: The Album is available in stores and on all digital streaming platforms, including Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music.

Hasbro will also release its first Peppa Pig toy line this fall and has plans to open the World’s First Peppa Pig Theme Park at the LEGOLAND Florida Resort next year with Merlin Entertainments. ✪

The DC Super Hero Girls are flying to the Nintendo Switch in a new video game: DC Super Hero Girls: Teen Power.

Based on the Cartoon Network animated series DC Super Hero Girls, the game follows famous DC heroines and supervillains on crime-fighting and high school adventures in Metropolis. Kids ages 10 and up can power up their squads with six playable characters: Wonder Woman, Batgirl, Supergirl, Harley Quinn, Catwoman, and Star Sapphire.

Players can show off their DC swagger with combos unique to each character, such as Wonder Woman’s lasso of truth and Batgirl’s inventive gadgets. The game also features side quests that involve rescuing fluffy hamsters, busting graffiti menaces, restoring the city after epic battles, and more.

DC Super Hero Girls: Teen Power is available at Amazon, Target, Walmart, and nintendo.com. ✪

Source: Nintendo

Source: eOne

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W

e’ve all heard the nursery rhyme “Old MacDonald” a thousand times, but kids all over the world have listened to the familiar tune while watching JJ and his grandpa enjoy a day at the farm on the CoComelon YouTube channel more than a billion times.

CoComelon is one of the most popular animated series for toddlers and preschoolers. The YouTube channel has an A++ ranking from Social Blade, boasting 114 million subscribers and more than 104 billion video views. And, kids can watch CoComelon on other platforms, too, including NBCUniversal’s streaming network, Peacock.

So who are the geniuses behind this mega hit? Moonbug Entertainment is a global entertainment company that launched in 2018. It produces and distributes incredibly popular kids’ shows including CoComelon, Blippi, Little Baby Bum, My Magic Pet Morphle, T-Rex Ranch, and more. To date, Moonbug has more than 550 hours of content in its library, according to a press release issued by the company. Its shows and content can be found on more than 100 streaming platforms on a global scale, including Netflix, Hulu, Apple TV, Roku, and Amazon Prime Video.

While kids are clearly obsessed with Moonbug’s shows, parents support the addiction, largely thanks to the educational nature of the content. Caitlyn Perez, mom of two from Festus, Missouri,

says her kids typically watch 2-3 hours of CoComelon per day, mostly during car rides on long country roads. “[The videos] are mostly about using manners and a new take on nursery rhymes. I like that they include children being sassy sometimes and don’t make everything picture perfect,” she says.

“Moonbug is a values-driven organization, and every decision is made through the lens of our core values of compassion, empathy, and resilience,” says Simon Philips, senior in-house advisor at Moonbug.

And it’s not just the shows that exhibit these values — it’s the toys and licensed products, too.

“We take into account the physical, emotional, and cognitive life skills at every stage in a child’s development and ensure that all of our products help to enhance and educate our fans around the world,” Simon says. Perez says she’s already purchased a few CoComelon toys for her daughter, including a doctor’s kit and a toy phone.

Toys based on CoComelon and Blippi launched last year from Jazwares, a major toy company that’s been making playthings since 1997. The toymaker led the holiday season with My Buddy Blippi, a soft doll that features Blippi-inspired sounds and phrases; and the CoComelon Musical Bedtime JJ Doll, which was the No. 1 most-Googled toy for kids during the fourth quarter last year, according to Google. This year, there’s even more

educational, interactive toys on the way.

“Our goal is to expand imagination through play,” says Jeremy Padawer, executive vice president and partner at Jazwares. “Some brands are ripe for educational toy extensions — young preschool properties that communicate colors, letters, [and] the basics of reading can be emulated through play, and when given that opportunity, we jump on it to both expand imaginations and educate — the best of both worlds!”

This fall, kids can roll into fun with Jazwares’ new Blippi Excavator Truck and Blippi Fire Truck, which each come with exclusive Blippi figures. Plus, Jazwares will expand its CoComelon offerings with the Interactive JJ Doll, the Deluxe Family House playset, and a Holiday Calendar that has nine unique CoComelon figures.

And it won’t be slim pickings when it comes to choosing toys based on Moonbug shows this holiday season: Kids will see toys from Just Play, eKids, MGA Entertainment, Wow! Stuff, and more.

While Blippi and CoComelon are perfect for preschoolers and toddlers, MGA’s line of Little Baby Bum toys under its Little Tikes brand skews even younger.

“We are expanding into infant/baby-aged products to address a younger audience,” says MGA Entertainment’s CEO and Founder Isaac Larian. “Little Baby Bum’s brand attributes — including music, bright colors, and fun characters — create moments for babies and toddlers around the world when they can learn

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and have fun at the same time!”

Moonbug has also signed multiple licensing partners in categories beyond toys, including Roshambo for a collection of Blippi sunglasses, Disguise for Blippi costumes, Simon & Schuster for CoComelon board books, Centric for CoComelon pajamas, and Sprout Organics for CoComelon snacks. This year, kids can practically eat, sleep, and breathe their favorite Moonbug shows.

In addition to more hours of entertainment and expanding licensed offerings for its well-established trio of shows including Blippi, CoComelon, and Little Baby Bum, there’s even more on the horizon for this new-age entertainment giant, thanks in large part to partnerships with more than 120 licensees. “We will be releasing licensed toy programs for other Moonbug shows, including Arpo, Morphle, and some other new exciting shows on the horizon that have yet to be announced — stay tuned for more,” Simon teases.

For Moonbug, it’s all about presenting kid-safe content in a fresh, innovative way. And from backpacks to vitamins, the fun and joy that Moonbug shows provide extends far off the screen and into every aspect of kids’ lives. ✪

COCOMELON MUSICAL LEARNING BUS (JUST PLAY) Kids can engage in their own early learning adventures with JJ. Begin the musical bus ride by pressing JJ to play educational songs and nursery rhymes, including “The Alphabet Song” and “The Wheels on the Bus.” The brightly colored shapes on the top of the bus even light up to the music.

Little learners can slide the melon on the side of the bus to select one of four educational modes: Letters, Sounds, Words, or Numbers. It even features a built-in handle, so kids can play and learn on the go.

Ages: 3+ MSRP: $24.99 Availability: Walmart, Amazon (October)

Ages: 6 MOS.+ MSRP: $14.99 Available: Amazon, Walmart

Inspired by a fan-favorite Blippi episode, this freewheeling Excavator features a working arm dig and playable sound effects, including “The Excavator Song.” With the free-wheeling feature, kids can really take the vehicle for a spin.

The Excavator includes six themed accessories such as traffic cones and an exclusive, 3-inch articulated Blippi figure that can hold an assortment of construction tools.

Ages: 3+ MSRP: $24.99 Available: Amazon, walmart.com, target.com (September)

BLIPPI TODDLER BOYS VELCRO STRAP SNEAKERS (GROUND UP)

LITTLE TIKES LITTLE BABY BUM TWINKLE PLUSH (MGA ENTERTAINMENT) The perfect nighttime buddy for your baby, Little Baby Bum Twinkle the Star Plush sings the song “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” while helping to create a soothing sleep routine.

This snuggly plush toy is great for quiet-time play and soothing nap time relaxation.

BLIPPI EXCAVATOR (JAZWARES)

COCOMELON: THE WHEELS ON THE BUS BOARD BOOK (SIMON & SCHUSTER) This school bus-shaped, interactive, novelty board book has wheels that really turn and will get readers giggling with its fun take on the classic song. Kids can pretend to ride on the bus and sing along with JJ and his pals as the driver opens and shuts the school bus door, the wipers swish, the lights blink, the horn beeps, and more.

These Blippi-inspired sneakers feature a pull-tab, velcro closure.

Kids can celebrate their Blippi fandom with these blue, orange, and heather grey shoes, complete with Blippi’s iconic glasses. They feature a cushioned footbed and a durable outsole, and come in sizes 5-10.

Ages: 2+ MSRP: $32.00 Available: groundupshop.com

Ages: 0-5 MSRP: $7.99 Available: Walmart (September)

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WOWWEE Dive into Baby Shark’s watery world with the Baby Shark’s Big Show! Shark House Playset with Lights & Sounds! Based on the new Nick Jr. animated series, this playset includes more than 25 pieces so kids can pretend to swim from room to room on the swimming swing or ride down the slide; turn on Baby Shark’s karaoke machine to sing along to the Baby Shark’s Big Show! theme song; and have a dance party with the light-up disco ball.

Plus, the removable chimney becomes a whistle. This playset comes with glow-in-the-dark stickers, closes for easy storage, and encourages imaginative play.

Ages: 3+ | MSRP: $29.99 Available: Amazon, Target, Walmart (August)

BRIO All aboard the BRIO Mickey Mouse Deluxe Set! Kids can build the tracks into the shape of Mickey’s head and then send Mickey, Minnie, Daisy, and Donald on a fun train ride. The set features 33 pieces, including the BRIO Mickey Mouse Record & Play Station, the BRIO Mickey Mouse Battery Train, four character figures, 23 wooden tracks, and more.

Ages: 3+ | MSRP: $179.99 | Available: Amazon (fall)

HORIZON GROUP USA With Hello Kitty Chalk Alive, kids can create sidewalk chalk art that comes to life through an augmented reality (AR) experience. The kit includes 12 colorful chalks, a mess-free chalk holder, and four 10-inch character stencils that kids can use to color the Sanrio character right onto the sidewalk. Kids can scan their chalk art into the free Chalk Alive mobile app to watch their drawings come alive in 4D as an AR version of Hello Kitty jumps around and dances. Users can blow heart-shaped bubbles and watch them burst with confetti, dance with unicorn kitties, and capture star-filled balloons with the app, which is compatible with Android and iPhone devices.

Ages: 5+ | MSRP: $9.97 | Available: Walmart

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TONIES HASBRO It’s snack time! The Star Wars Galactic Snackin’ Grogu animatronic toy will react when kids place any of the accessories to his hand. When they put an accessory to his mouth, he’ll make eating sounds and let kids know if he thinks it’s yummy or yucky. When Grogu wants to be held, he’ll reach up with both arms, and he can also perform a two-handed Force move, inspired by the second season of The Mandalorian.

Ages: 4+ | MSRP: $79.99 | Available: mass retailers (fall)

Tonies adds new Sesame Street characters to its line of interactive, storytelling figures. Kids can learn about music with the Elmo Tonie and his friends Abby and Cookie Monster. They can dance, play, laugh, and learn about different instruments and musical styles, as well as learn about mindfulness and friendship. With the Cookie Monster Tonie, kids can learn about healthy habits, eating in moderation, patience, and friendship along with help from Elmo and Abby.

Ages: 3+ | MSRP: $14.99 each Available: Amazon, target.com, tonies.com (September)

BBC Snuggle up and get comfy with Bluey and Bingo in the new Bluey Toddler 2-Piece Cotton Pajama set from American Marketing Enterprises.

These toddler pajamas are perfect for a sleepover with pals, and are available in sizes 2T-5T. MSRP: $7.88 Available: Walmart (in-store, August)

KIDKRAFT SKECHERS Oh, the places you’ll go in these new kicks! The Skechers x Dr. Seuss: Marley Jr. — Great Sights sneakers are colorful, whimsical, high-top kicks for kids’ next adventure. Part of the Skechers x Dr. Seuss Oh, the Places You’ll Go! collection, these sneakers are available in kids (11-4) and toddlers (5-10) sizes.

MSRP: $50 (kids); $48 (toddlers) Available: Skechers stores, skechers.com

What does Blue want for her snack? Find out with the Blue’s Clue's & You! CookingUp-Clues Play Kitchen. Parents can place the paw print stickers on items in the play kitchen; then when the item is discovered, kids can draw it in the Handy Dandy Notebook. Kids will also discover Blue’s household friends throughout the four-sided playset, which features a sink, a fridge, a snack table, a stove, and an oven.

Ages: 3+ | MSRP: $99.99 Available: Walmart exclusive

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VTECH With Blue’s Clues & You! Storytime with Blue, kids can sit down with the plush Blue and use the nonremovable Handy Dandy Notebook to choose from three of Blue’s favorite stories with a fun twist, each narrated

by Josh: GoldiBlue and the Three Bears, Little Red Riding Magenta, or Three Little Pigs. Each eight-page book features a variety of characters from the Nick Jr. series, including Magenta, Mailbox, Mr. Salt and Mrs. Pepper, Shovel and Pail, and Sidetable Drawer. The buttons on Blue’s paws trigger music, reading comprehension questions, or a game of Blue’s Clues, which kids can play to discover what story Blue wants to read next.

Ages: 2+ | MSRP: $34.99 Available: Target exclusive (Aug. 1)

CHRONICLE BOOKS Sithmas time is here! In the book Vader Family Sithmas, Vader is doing his best to raise his rebellious kids Luke and Leia, while running the galactic Empire and navigating holiday cheer — including the Imperial gift exchange, Force-wielding snowball fights, gingerbread Death Stars, sledding with Han Solo, and more.

MSRP: $14.95 | Available: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, chroniclebooks.com (Oct. 10)

SPIN MASTER You got your letter to Hogwarts and your brand-new wand — now, it’s time for the perfect pet! The Enchanting Hedwig Interactive Plush features realistic features, movements, and sounds. She moves her beak, flaps her wings, and turns her head 270 degrees. Hedwig also features intuitive ruffle detection, meaning she can distinguish the direction of petting — and if kids are doing it the wrong way. Hedwig also responds to the tone of your voice: Speak lovingly, and she’ll respond with happy coos. The interactive plush comes with a Hogwarts envelope she can hold in her beak.

Ages: 5+ MSRP: $39.99 Available: mass retailers (Aug. 1)

ISCREAM Sharing is caring! Iscream has a full line of Care Bears accessories hitting stores this fall, including kid-sized Care Bears onesies. These plush onesies prove kindness never goes out of style, whether you vibe with Cheer Bear, Bedtime Bear, or Share Bear. The full line also includes sleeping bags, blankets, luggage, tablet pillows, and more.

MSRP: $73 Available: iscream-shop.com (September)

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PLAYMONSTER Can you name three Disney dog characters under the pressure of a 5-second countdown? PlayMonster’s 5 Second Rule Disney Edition is a fast-paced, Disney-themed family trivia game in which players have to try to name three items listed on the card in under 5 seconds — and risk silly answers slipping out!

Ages: 6+ | MSRP: $24.99 | Available: mass retailers

MOOSE TOYS They’re all tuned up for a rematch. Space Jam: A New Legacy Super Shoot and Dunk LeBron James features a high-flying action figure that really jumps, dunks, and hangs-on-the-rim, and is specially designed with large hands that can palm the basketball. Load the LeBron James figure on the launcher and help him hit a threepointer or send him soaring for his signature slam dunk and rim hang. Moose’s Space Jam: A New Legacy line also features Ballers Action Figures, sold separately.

Ages: 5+ | MSRP: $19.99 Availability: Amazon, Target, Walmart

ADK EMOTIONS Launch into a highspeed, head-to-head battle in the official Beyblade Burst Speedstorm Motor Strike Beystadium from Hasbro — the first motorized Beystadium in the Beyblade Burst line. At the center of the battle arena is the inescapable spinning Motor Vortex, an energy zone designed to redirect the battle and give tops the ultimate energy boost.

Ages: 8+ | MSRP: $59.99 | Available: mass retailers

BUMKINS The Winnie the Pooh Sleeved Bib is the real hero when it comes to mealtime, saving outfits from unavoidable messes. With a handy crumb catcher/ catch-all pocket for containing spills, this sleeved bib is generously sized and made from Bumkins’ lightweight, waterproof, easy-wipe, stain-and-odor-resistant fabric. Parents can adjust the fit with a back-tie closure and elasticized cuffs. It’s wipeable and machine washable for easy cleaning. This sleeved bib is part of a larger Winnie the Pooh line featuring bibs, Chewtensils, and a Silicone Grip Dish.

Ages: 6-24 MOS. | MSRP: $13.95 Available: Amazon, shopDisney, Project Nursery, bumkins.com (September)

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Source: ViacomCBS/Spin Master

NO SCREEN IS TOO BIG, NO PUP IS TOO SMALL The PAW Patrol squad has its biggest adventure yet!

by Ali Mierzejewski, editor-in-chief

P

AW Patrol is — truly — on a roll.

This year, your favorite public service pups are turning 8 and expanding the wide, wide world of Adventure Bay to a brand-new frontier: the big screen.

PAW Patrol: The Movie will be available in theaters and on Paramount+ on Aug. 20. When their nemesis Humdinger becomes Mayor of Adventure City and starts wreaking havoc, Ryder and the canine crew kick into high gear with help from a new ally, Liberty. Members from the original series’ cast are featured in the film, along with special appearances from

Kim Kardashian West (as Delores), Randall Park (as Butch), Dax Shepard (as Ruben), and Tyler Perry (as Gus), among others.

For a brand that has been around for a long time — the series itself has eight seasons, with tons of additional specials included — it continues to grow, change, and become even more of a preschool phenomenon. But with a huge emphasis on themes such as problem-solving, self-esteem, inclusivity, community service, and teamwork, it’s no wonder that these pups have become a staple in any household with preschoolers.

“PAW Patrol’s universal themes of

teamwork, community service, and rescue paired with recognizable characters and — of course — puppies, resonate with preschoolers all around the world,” says Jennifer Dodge, president of Spin Master Entertainment. “Staying true to this foundation, the series content remains fresh with the introduction of new themes, new characters, and the ability to tell stories in new formats as we have done with our 42-minute specials and now, the first feature film. Each season, we bring fresh new themes that appeal to preschoolers from giving the pups superpowers to taking them into the world of dinosaurs.”

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UNO JUNIOR PAW PATROL | MATTEL Players race to get rid of all their cards by matching them to the card shown on top of the deck, either by color, number, or (especially handy for younger players) character. Three levels of play help to keep pace with kids’ development.

Ages: 3+ | MSRP: $4.99 Available: major retailers (fall)

MARSHALL’S CITY FIRE RESUCUE MEGA BLOKS This building set comes with poseable Marshall and Zuma figures, and 33 mini-building blocks, including special pieces. Little builders can build Marshall’s fire truck, equipped with a launcher, lights, and a moveable ladder, as well as Zuma’s hovercraft and a house fire for the pups to fight.

Ages: 3+ | MSRP: $19.99 Available: major retailers (fall)

As you may have guessed from the release date’s timing, PAW Patrol: The Movie was created almost entirely during stay-athome orders put in place due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“While preproduction was already underway for a few months, production and animation kicked off in March 2020,” Dodge says.

“Our team and studio partners jumped into action to adapt to remote work, shipping edit suites into homes and mics and sound equipment to the voice cast.

Everything was delivered virtually, which is a testament to the incredible teams behind the film.”

But behind eight seasons of TV, major 42-minute specials, and PAW Patrol: The Movie Ultimate City Tower a feature film is a licensing proSource: Spin Master gram that brings the on-screen world of themes not only keep the content fresh, Adventure Bay right into homes around but also provide our licensees with a the world. framework to help bring originality The hero item in Spin Master’s line to their offerings through new and for PAW Patrol: The Movie is the Ultimate exciting products that tie back to the City Tower. This tower is the biggest PAW season’s adventures.”

Patrol tower the company has ever made, The PAW Patrol brand has always standing at 36 inches tall. This vehibeen heavily screen-to-shelf, meaning cle-compatible toy features a transformwhat consumers see on shelves matches ing ramp, a vehicle launcher, a command what they’re seeing in the entertainment center, a suit-up station, uniform storage, content. Often times, the product design pup cubbies, a helipad, a pup elevator, and content teams work together to plan a vehicle elevator, a garage, lights and out what’s coming up — a new vehicle sounds, and more. There’s tons of imaginative play packed into this tower so PAW that’s central to the show’s plot will be central to the new SKUs lining the retail Patrol fans can go on their own advenshelves as well. tures. Like the rest of Spin Master’s line “We know that kids have an emofor the movie, this tower will be available tional connection to these characters, at mass retailers on Aug. 1, and available and they want products they can bring for presale on July 15. home to play out their own paw-some In addition to a huge variety of toy adventures,” Kaufman says. “The synergy offerings from Spin Master, the brand between the content and licensing teams also features home goods, apparel, car helps ensure we are creating a holistic seats, luggage, shoes, bedding — and universe for preschoolers and their famithat’s just to name a few. The Paw Patrol lies for a richer experience.” brand’s licensees produce pup-themed And that experience teaches kids products ranging from apparel and home lessons like teamwork and public service decor to books and more to immerse kids that they can take with them as they grow in the world of Adventure Bay. up. They teach kids that no matter how “Our creative team works alongside old they are, they can help others (“No Spin Master to engage audiences by job is too big, no pup is too small!”). coupling the core show with new content Yes, the pups are cute and adorable, but themes, storylines, and characters,” says they’re also helping to guide little ones to Pam Kaufman, president of global conbe better citizens of the world. ✪ sumer products at ViacomCBS. “The new

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COMING SOON FROM

SPIN MASTER

Available: mass retailers (Aug. 1; presale July 15)

MARSHALL’S TRANSFORMING FIRE TRUCK

PAW PATROL MOVIE-THEMED VEHICLES

This truck features two modes of transformation and lights and sounds. It has a tall ladder, a rescue slide, a net, and a water cannon with projectiles. It comes with a Marshall pup figure.

Ages: 3+ | MSRP: $54.99

These vehicles come with a rescue tool reveal that is unique to each pup and features their job in the movie.

There are six pup-and-vehicle combos to collect.

Ages: 3+ | MSRP: $12.99

TRUE METAL TOTAL CITY RESCUE SET

CHASE’S TRANSFORMING CITY CRUISER Fans will recognize this vehicle straight from the movie.

This two-in-one cruiser features armor-up transformation, a vehicle launcher, disc projectiles, lights and sounds, and a Chase pup figure.

Ages: 3+ | MSRP: $41.99

PAW PATROL: THE MOVIE LEARNING WATCHES VTECH Time flies when your kid is on a roll. The watches are available in three styles: Chase, Marshall, and Liberty. The voice of Ryder guides kids through games and activities that help them learn basic math skills, number sequences, matching, memory, and hand/eye coordination. Pick from 10 PAW Patrol digital clock face designs and three alarm tones, then use the stopwatch to time events with friends. Explore four learning games with the PAW Patrol pups.

Ages: 3+ | MSRP: $17.99 each Available: major retailers (August)

This storytelling and action playset features iconic city locations from the feature film. It includes an exclusive True Metal die-cast vehicle and more than five different action outcomes.

Ages: 3+ | MSRP: $41.99

PAW PATROL: THE MOVIE PLAY & SAY PUPPETS WOWWEE These interactive plush pups react with sounds and expressions when kids move their mouths, including catchphrases from the movie, pup sounds, a sniff or a sneeze, and more surprises. Collect all four available characters: Chase, Marshall, Skye, and Liberty.

Ages: 2+ MSRP: $19.99 each Available: Amazon, Kohl’s, Target (August)

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FANDOM FEATURE

Have You Checked On Your Neopets Lately?

Neopets is moving past Y2K with a modern-day revamp.

by Jackie Cucco, senior editor

T

he year is 2000. You change your away message to “Playing Neopets,” peel open some after-school Dunkaroos, and settle in for a long afternoon of Turmac Roll and Meerca Chase.

Your Neopian bank account is full and so is your belly. Life is good.

As virtual pets became all the rage in the late ‘90s — often in the form of pocket-sized, handheld devices — neopets.com became the destination to raise a pet on the World Wide Web. The website launched on Nov. 15, 1999, as a place to customize fantasy pets bursting with personality, earn a currency of Neopoints by playing dozens of mini-games, collect inventory from thousands of virtual items, embark on Faerie Quests, and explore the whimsical world of Neopia.

Neopets began as a standalone company, later getting purchased by Viacom in 2005, followed by an acquisition from JumpStart Games in 2014. JumpStart finally launched an open beta rollout last year to give the website a mobile-friendly update and make it easier for players to check in on their Neopets, play games, and earn Neopoints anywhere, anytime.

The website revamp will keep the same feel of the original brand, with the addition of new features that make it easier for users to play on their mobile devices. Neopets is also expanding with plans for a world-building, mobile game called Neopets: Island Builders; an animated TV series; a merchandising program; and even live events. The idea is to revive the brand while staying true to Neopets’ core values and catering to all players, whether they first discovered it 20 years ago or they’re discovering it now for the very first time.

“We want to make sure we have

something for everyone,” says Executive Vice President of Business Development and Marketing for JumpStart Games, Scott Nocas. “There’s the nostalgia factor for older fans who haven’t played since they were young and there’s the excitement from people who are now playing it.”

The Neopets team keeps a channel of communication open with players to provide updates of what they’re working on and what’s new. “We don’t want to lose those people that have been with Neopets since the beginning,” says Neopets Brand Manager Stephanie Lord. “We want to keep the pieces of the brand that people love, and we want to let fans know that we care about this community by engaging with them more.”

From website development to creating merch, the Neopets brand gives fans an opportunity to have a hand in designing for the company as part of the Fan Artist Partnership Program. “We have generations of artists who grew up around Neopets and who were inspired to create amazing fan art over the years,” Nocas says. “You’ll actually see art from some of our fans themselves who will get paid to create it for our merchandise. Why should we create it when oftentimes these fans actually have amazing ideas that are going to resonate within the community?”

Anthony Conley (@anthonyconleyart on Instagram) designed a lot of the original Neopets art and continues to create fan art today. He was hired as an illustrator for the company in 2000 and in his first week on the job, he designed the classic Neopets characters Blumaroo, Cybunny, and Techo.

“I shared these characters with the creators of the site, Adam Powell and Donna Williams, and they loved them,”

Conley says. “Soon I was drawing many character redesigns and creating many new species. A few redesigns that I got to do were Polypup, which became the Gelert, and the original Bruce, who was a human dressed in a tux until I made him into a penguin-like character.”

Conley was responsible for the birth of Scorchio, Yurble, Grundo, Meerca, Koi, Kougra, and many other popular Neopets species, taking inspiration from his love of ‘80s cartoons, such as Masters of the Universe, ThunderCats, The Smurfs, and Inspector Gadget. He also helped create concepts for major storylines, digital comics, mini-games, lands, and thousands of virtual items within the game.

In the early 2000s, Neopets was so popular that the art team would travel to shopping malls across the U.S. for promotional events. “We greeted fans who waited in line for hours to request sketches of their favorite Neopets characters,” Conley says. “The lines would wrap around the outside of the mall and we artists would draw for 8-10 hours just to make sure everyone received a sketch.”

Conley left Neopets in 2014, but was contacted by Lord last year to work on freelance art for the game, as well as some top-secret designs for the Fan Artist Partnership Program — a program that he thinks is a genius idea. “If you know about Neopets, then you know that the fanbase is amazingly talented and creative,” Conley says. “They are notorious for drawing, writing fan fiction, cosplaying, sculpting characters and site items, and sharing it all online. Opening up the channels for these creators to possibly have their work featured on Neopets merchandise is every fan’s dream.”

There are hundreds of thousands of

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wacky inventory items in the game — including colorful paint brushes to change the look of the Neopets, endless slushie flavors to feed them, and magical Codestones to train them — that provide fun merch opportunities, such as Geekify’s collectible pins. Geekify was one of the first licensees to start releasing Neopets products last fall, creating enamel pins in the shape of various Neopian items, as well as advent calendars, fleece blankets, and embroidered patches.

“We had to start somewhere and some of the more popular items, such as the Neggs, paint brushes, and Petpets, seemed a good fit to break down into manageable sets for collectors,” says Geekify CEO John Taylor. “Each Neopian gravitates toward something different about the site, so finding things that have more universal appeal for our initial sets made the most sense while we build up some steam and start hitting the more obscure or subtle references.” Taylor says that there are plans in place to create pins of the individual Neopets species at some point, too.

Longtime Neopets fans know that the in-game Advent Calendar is a big event each holiday season, doling out daily prizes of Neopoints, seasonal decor, and rare virtual items all December long.

Geekify created a real-life version of the Advent Calendar filled with 24 chocolate shapes inspired by the world of Neopia.

“We’re always looking for creative ways to help augment the feel of the game or celebrate it in the real world in ways that aren’t just standard fare for licensed merch,” Taylor says.

Most of the Neopets merchandise from the past 20 years focused on the pet species rather than alternative characters, such as Faeires. Geekify’s fleece

blankets put the Faeries front and center.

“The Faeries make for more consistent, standalone, iconic characters with a huge following and an easy way to work in known Neopet sidekicks,” Taylor says.

“Many of the standalone characters never got merch of their own, so we wanted to create something special for fans who had been waiting their whole lives to have their Faerie get some attention.”

Geekify is hard at work in the product lab with Negg squishies, Dubloons and Neopoint coins, keychains, a Tarot deck, a wallet, and more pin sets in the pipeline. Other new additions to Neopets’ licensing program include T-shirts and sweatshirts printed with character graphics from Hot Topic and a collection of jewelry and pins featuring different Neopets species in sterling silver and 14k gold from What’s Your Passion Jewelry. Some of the products, such as the Geekify pins and the What’s Your Passion Jewelry items, include in-game codes that players can use to redeem special items on their online accounts, tying the real life merch experience into the virtual gameplay.

“There will be different styles of merch and homages to what’s popular and new, but we do want to make sure we’re recognizing what people loved about Neopets over the years,” Nocas says.

Neopets recently launched its own e-commerce website for the first time on neopetsshop.com, featuring exclusive items from the Neopets brand, including apparel, face masks, stickers, and more.

The new store offers fans the opportunity to customize their merch with specific Neopets species and personalized text on T-shirts and mugs. Fans can also expect to see long-awaited plush Neopets and Petpet characters, Petpet keychains, and original designs created by artists

Neopets recently launched its own e-commerce website for the first time. | Source: Neopets

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Geekify’s Neopets Collectible Pins | Source: Geekify

from the Neopets community.

“We definitely have a unique audience since we’ve been around for 20 years,” Lord says. “You see a good amount of people who are growing up and they say ‘I want my kids to play Neopets so I can play with them.’ We want to create stuff that the whole family can enjoy together without targeting just one section of them.”

Nocas says that the brand also plans to scale up its efforts on social media, creating more content that celebrates Neopets and the quirky in-game culture that the community loves. For example, Nocas hints at videos that show fans how to make a real-life version of the iconic Neopets omelettes — funky-flavored egg portions, such as a Tangy Tigersquash Omelette or a Rotten Omelette, that players can feed their pets after grabbing a daily chunk from the Giant Omelette that sits atop the Tyrannian Plateau.

This is just the beginning of a new life for Neopets, but there’s no need to be afraid of change. “We don’t want to lose any part of Neopets that the fans do love — the characters, the games, the lore,” Lord says. “It’s making sure we keep that balance of keeping it fun and fresh with new content, but not forgetting the existing appeal of Neopets that we all love.”

Diehard Neopians of all ages can show their love for the game in new ways, whether that means wearing their Blumaroo on a T-shirt or logging on to feed their Chia some asparagus, which should cost 5,121,970 Neopoints per kilogram according to current market trends. And for those of you who haven’t logged in since the ‘90s, go figure out your password ASAP because your Neopet is starving. ✪ THEPOPINSIDER.COM | #FuelYourFandom | 49

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RETAIL RUNDOWN

FROM HALLOWEEN TREATS TO YEAR-ROUND FUN Fun.com has what fans want.

by Nicole Savas, editorial assistant

C

lick onto Fun.com and suddenly, you’re lost in a world of fandom-inspired merch (almost too much to choose from ... almost). The retail site has something for everyone, from the Wampa rug you never knew you needed to stylish Avatar: The Last Airbender sneakers.

And there’s only one way to curate such an incredible collection of fandom-fused products: be a fan yourself.

GROWING THE BRAND For Tom Fallenstein, the founder and CEO of Fun.com, the website was a natural next step to his already successful HalloweenCostumes.com. The business started as a family endeavor: His sister sold and rented Halloween costumes that his mom made from his family’s garage.

In 2001, Fallenstein started his first costume website, FlapperCostumes.com, which featured the same flapper costume in five different colors.

In 2005, he moved into his first warehouse and launched several websites dedicated to different types of costumes. Every three years, the company expanded so greatly that it grew out of its space until finally settling on the 200,000-square-foot facility in Minnesota it now inhabits. This giant infrastructure gave Fallenstein the capacity to expand his company into a year-round business, but Halloween costumes are usually bought solely in the spooky season. It was time for something new.

“Ultimately it was just: What’s the best website and what would we want to sell?” says Fallenstein. The team was already familiar with working with licensed brands through the Halloween business, and each member had a list of favorite fandoms a mile long, so moving into the fandom space was a natural next step

for the company. “The idea of Fun.com is the coolest website I could ever own,” Fallenstein says.

HalloweenCostumes.com and Fun. com now have a total of 220 full-time employees and thousands of seasonal workers across both teams. The Fun.com side of the business expanded rapidly, and was one of the main reasons the entire staff was able to stay on last year when suddenly, Halloween was essentially canceled due to the pandemic. HalloweenCostumes.com sales were at 10% of what they normally would be, but Fun. com sales jumped about 200-300%.

“Ultimately it was just: What’s the best website and what would we want to sell? The idea of Fun. com is the coolest website I could ever own.”

— Tom Fallenstein, Founder of Fun.com

The reason for this seems pretty simple: People needed some lighthearted fun during such a stressful time. And with the absence of in-person conventions, people turned to online retailers to fulfill their fandom merch needs.

“Fun.com really encourages working professional-age and young adults to still remember to have a little fun be-

cause our jobs can get a little stressful,” says Kristi Kelly, the company’s senior costume designer. It’s not uncommon for Fun.com team members to buy the apparel available on the site for themselves.

During Halloween season, the office is a sea of people wearing the brand’s knit Halloween sweaters — sometimes the favorites will even show up on the same day (the witch sweater, if you are curious).

These Halloween-themed sweaters — think Ugly Christmas Sweaters, but fandom-inspired and spooky — are a perfect example of how the team uses its expertise to create something fans will love. Lead Designer Kurt Anderson designed men’s luxury knitwear at his previous job and wanted to incorporate his past experience into his new work.

Beyond Christmas knitwear, Halloween was a natural choice because it’s their best-selling season.

And when it comes to nonseasonal apparel, there’s no shortage of variety.

Fun.com produces fandom-fused merchandise featuring more than 50 different licenses, including Care Bears, Friends, and Hocus Pocus.

Beetlejuice-inspired footwear | Source: Fun.com

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Top: Halloween sweaters; Bottom: A Harley Quinn blazer | Source: Fun.com

“We tend to have a lot of nostalgic licenses that I think people our age specifically really love,” says Kelly. “It’s almost a really nice conversation starter to have a blazer with just that small fandom on the inside, that cool print. Something you can wear to the office and embrace your fun side, but be professional as well.”

EXCLUSIVE FUN Fun.com sells items from well-known manufacturers, including Cakeworthy, Irregular Choice, and Funko, but it’s the brands’ exclusive products that make it stand out. Fun Wear is a line of apparel that has options for those who want their clothing to scream their favorite fandom, as well as those who want just a touch of nerdiness in their daily wear.

“We have a market for both, so when it comes to the sweaters and blazers, those typically can be worked around in a way that is office-appropriate with nicer, more subtle details. Whereas some of our shoes and backpacks are like in-your-face fandom,” says Anderson.

As an example of this juxtaposition, two Beetlejuice shoes come to mind.

Kelly explains that they made a shoe for both types of customers — one was more obvious with the recognizable bold stripes and colors, while the other was the opposite.

“The Recently Deceased Handbook Shoe was a little more subtle. It had a pop of stripes in it and it had character elements, but it was still for someone who wants to wear those with a normal, everyday outfit,” she says.

Currently, the Fun.com team is developing a lot of new products, including everything from Care Bears home decor to horror-inspired shoes. Fallenstein says the company plans to launch new products constantly throughout the next year.

“What makes our product special is that we do take the time to research what’s [trending] in not only geek culture branding, but also actual fashion trends so that we can combine them into one really cool product,” says Anderson, illustrating what inspires his designs.

Kelly says the main thing she thinks about when designing a product is who it’s for. Recently, she worked on a Scooby-Doo blazer and asked herself whether the person wearing the blazer would wear it to the office or to Coachella.“In this case, probably and hopefully both,” she says.

As fans themselves, the team often has to remember that they’re making products for other people to take home.

They also have to abide by licensor re-

strictions, which can vary from providing the exact color scheme they’re allowed to use to letting them run free with whatever their nerdy hearts may desire. “[We want our products to] bring that joy and happiness and maybe start a conversation with people who might have similar interests,” Fallenstein says. “We don’t want people to shy away from who they are at our company, so we think that way with customers, too. If we can help people embrace themselves, that’s what Fun.com is all about.” ✪ ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Nicole Savas is an Editorial Assistant at the Pop Insider. She gets all of her life advice from Michael Scott and there’s not a sitcom she hasn’t binged. A proud Hufflepuff, Nicole is dedicated to writing as fairly as she can about her favorite fandoms (and including puns wherever possible).

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CAKEWORTHY Whether you are a Phoebe, Monica, Chandler, Rachel, Joey, or Ross, Cakeworthy has a Friends flannel for you. Could this new collection of 100% cotton flannels BE any cuter? No. Each flannel features embroidered details and a quote on the back representative of one of the six iconic characters from the series, such as “PIVOT, PIVOT, PIVOT” for Ross and “Welcome to the real world, it sucks!” for Monica. They are a unisex fit, perfect for any Friends fanatic.

MSRP: $49.95 | Available: cakeworthystore.com

UNCANNY BRANDS Feel the Force during snack time with the Star Wars: The Mandalorian — Mandalorian Helmet Popcorn Maker. This popcorn maker looks just like Din Djarin’s helmet, as seen in the Disney+ series.

Culinary Jedis and Padawans alike can add kernels into the main chamber, turn on the unit, and enjoy air-popped popcorn in minutes. The top also doubles as a serving bowl.

MSRP: $69.99 Available: GameStop exclusive (Nov. 15)

BANDAI AMERICA Charaction CUBEs are the collectible, Rubik’s-style puzzles for both casual and hardcore fans. New to the Charaction CUBE lineup comes Tanjiro Kamado, Nezuko Kamado, and Zenitsu Agatsuma from the anime series Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba! Each CUBE captures each character’s iconic representation with chibi-style details and functions as a Rubik’s puzzle that you can mix up and solve.

MSRP: $14.99 Available: Amazon, Hot Topic (August)

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GOTHAM CITY ONLINE Fans can look forward to a new year in 2022 with licensed calendars featuring characters and brands from multiple genres of pop culture, including music, TV, movies, and more. Each fandom-focused calendar features unique artwork every month.

Choose from dozens of popular themes, including KISS, Schitt’s Creek, Miraculous, Terminator, Assassin’s Creed, Haikyu, Danganronpa, Street Fighter, Bob Ross, Melanie Martinez, Logic, and more.

MSRP: $14.99 Available: Amazon (July)

WWE Part pro wrestler, part YouTube gamer, 100% icon. Stepping out of the ring and into the Funko Pop! universe is Xavier Woods. The new, exclusive, metallic Xavier Woods (Up Up Down Down) Pop! Vinyl figure stands approximately 4.25 inches tall and is the spitting image of the WWE Superstar.

MSRP: $9.99 Availability: Target exclusive (July 25)

FUNKO GAMES Hey you guuuuuuys, wanna play a board game? In Goonies: Never Say Die, players embark on a perilous adventure full of dangerous booby traps and treacherous treasure-filled caverns. One player is the Goondocks Master, controlling fearsome foes from the outlaw family, the Fratellis, to the legendary pirate, One-Eyed Willie. The other players take on the role of the Goonies — Mikey, Mouth, Chunk, Data, and Sloth — overcoming cryptic puzzles and deadly challenges with teamwork, strategy, and Data’s clever contraptions. Will the Goonies discover the legendary riches that will save their homes, or will they follow the fate of Chester Copperpot and never see the light of day? The game is designed for 2-5 players ages 12 and up.

MSRP: $39.99 | Available: Target

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STEEL CITY Would you be mine? Could you be mine? This “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” Cropped Crewneck is made of super-soft fleece. The Mister Rogers-inspired piece combines fashion and function, perfect for when the temperature drops.

It features a whimsical, retro design that nostalgic fans are sure to love. Available in sizes XS-3XL. MSRP: $50 Available: shopsteelcity.com (September)

ROCKLOVE

IGLOO Gear up for your galactic adventures with the special-edition Star Wars Vintage Graphic Playmate Pal 7 Qt Cooler, featuring a retro graphic depicting the saga’s loyal allies Luke Skywalker, C-3PO, and R2D2, along with fearsome villains Darth Vader and Boba Fett. This versatile nine-can cooler keeps your food and drinks cold with style.

MSRP: $39.99 Available: igloocoolers.com

This new jewelry collab is legendary. Marvel X RockLove adds Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings to its roster of jewelry in anticipation of the upcoming film release.

Created from never-before-seen prop designs in collaboration with Marvel Studios, the new collection features pieces inspired by the iconography seen throughout the newest film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

The collection includes a unisex Ten Rings Insignia Ring and Necklace, both depicting the insignia of the Ten Rings organization engraved in solid sterling silver. The Green Pendant Necklace, worn by multiple main characters on screen, features a custom-cut, genuine aventurine gemstone.

MSRP: $130-150 | Available: rocklove.com (August)

YOUTOOZ Spend real dollars to add some infamous crypto to your collectibles shelf. Dogecoin Youtooz immortalizes the Shiba Inu-inspired, satire-based cryptocurrency that made waves earlier this year. The Dogecoin collectible figure stands 2 inches tall and 5 inches wide and features a pixelated Shiba Inu merged with a gold coin. It was designed in collaboration with Christopher Torres, the creator of NyanCat. MSRP: $29.99 | Available: Entertainment Earth, youtooz.com (preorder, shipping in October) THEPOPINSIDER.COM | #FuelYourFandom | 55

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WREBBIT 3D New from Wrebbit 3D comes the Friends — Central Perk Wrebbit 3D Jigsaw Puzzle. Friends fans ages 14 and up can relive the fun of the iconic sitcom while they build up a 3D version of Central Perk using 440 foam-backed pieces. The puzzle features high-quality illustrations of the famous coffee shop, Monica’s apartment, and the show’s six main characters. Fans can also discover numerous hidden references to some of the most iconic episodes of the ’90s TV series.

MSRP: $31.50 | Available: Amazon

DISGUISE Turn yourself into a Funko Pop! with new Funko Masks from Disguise. These one-size-fitsmost jumbo masks feature an adjustable elastic strap and foam at the forehead and chin for comfort. Fans can wear the masks for a Funko-inspired cosplay, or use the attached hangtag to display them on a wall. Characters include Batman, Harley Quinn, Jack Skellington, Stay Puft, Pennywise, and more.

MSRP: $19.99 | Available: Amazon (preorder, shipping in September)

SUPER7 Xena: Warrior Princess went from a syndicated TV drama in the ’90 to a sci-fi classic today. Now, fans can relive the epic girl power as seen on the show with Xena and Gabrielle ReAction Figures from Super7.

The nostalgic, 3.75-inch Xena action figures feature simple sculpting and stylization and come packaged on a blister card.

MSRP: $18 | Available: super7.com (late July)

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UNIQUE VINTAGE The Peanuts x Unique Vintage Halloween Gang Rachel Swing Dress is a thrilling homage to the whole Peanuts gang. The dress features a print of the iconic friends playing games in their cute halloween costumes over a dark purple backdrop. The sweet straps hold to a sweetheart neckline, and the seamed waistline and adjustable belt make for the perfect flattering fit. Available in sizes XS-5X. MSRP: $98 Available: Unique Vintage (Aug. 9)

YETI YOGA Channel your inner zen — and Cookie Monster — with a new, whimsical yoga mat. Sesame Street partnered with Yeti Yoga to create abstract and bohemian yoga mats in a light-hearted, expressive, and fun approach to an internationally practiced tradition. The lightweight mats are printed digitally with eco-friendly, UV cure inks, and are free of phthalates and latex.

MSRP: $59.50 | Available: yetiyogaco.com

LOVE YOUR MELON Heads up: Love Your Melon partnered with Disney Princess on a new collection of washed denim caps and scrunch headbands that are fit for ... well, a princess! The unisex fit caps feature an adjustable slider back.

Both the caps and the headbands come in six different colors and feature unique icons that represent Cinderella, Ariel, Belle, Jasmine, Rapunzel, or Aurora.

MSRP: $40 (caps); $25 (headbands) Available: loveyourmelon.com (July 8)

INSIGHT EDITIONS Whether you think The Nightmare Before Christmas is a Halloween movie or a Christmas movie, celebrate both special occasions with delectable delights from this new cookbook. The Nightmare Before Christmas: The Official Cookbook & Entertaining Guide features more than 50 recipes inspired by the classic Disney film, such as Sally Patchwork Layer Cake and Man-Eating Wreath Burritos. It also has detailed planning instructions for Nightmare-themed parties, including DIY decorations, activities, and favors.

MSRP: $29.99 Available: Amazon (Aug. 31)

STUNNED MIND Anime fans will stay hydrated in style with the Sailor Moon Crystal Water Bottle with Glitter Wall. The pretty in pink, double-wall insulated water bottle is 100% BPA free and can hold 18 ounces of any cold summer beverage, including water, juice, and smoothies. It features a flip-up sip top and a bold image of Sailor Moon herself.

MSRP: $29.99 Available: stunnedmind.com (Aug. 1) THEPOPINSIDER.COM | #FuelYourFandom | 57

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FANATTIK Limited to 1976 (the release year of the film) pieces, the Rocky 45th 24 Karat Gold Plated Bicentennial Superfight Ticket is embossed, individually numbered, and comes with a display stand within its presentation box.

Fans can celebrate the 45th anniversary of this iconic film with the ultimate Rocky collectible.

MSRP: $49.99 | Available: fanattik.co.uk

JAZWARES Calling all rubber duck enthusiasts (yes, that’s a real thing): Jazwares is expanding its collection of Duckz with a second wave. These officially licensed, collectible ducks are dressed up as fan-favorite characters from pop culture franchises like Disney, Pixar, DC Comics, and Looney Tunes.

Each duck is packed with personality and authentically detailed. New characters include Donald Duck, Elsa (Frozen), Sully (Monsters Inc.), Batman, and Wonder Woman.

MSRP: $1.00 each Available: Target, Dollar General, Dollar Tree

DIAMOND SELECT TOYS

Vamps, beware: The Slayer is back.

The Buffy the Vampire Slayer Gallery Buffy Summers PVC Diorama shows the Buffster dusting a vamp with a handy wooden stake. This approximately 9-inch diorama is made of high-quality PVC and features detailed sculpting and paint applications. Designed by Caesar and sculpted

by Jorge Santos Souza, it comes packaged in a fullcolor window box.

MSRP: $49.99 Available: Entertainment Earth (July 28)

JAKKS PACIFIC Extend the fun of Apex Legends IRL with the new Revenant — Assimilation Edition 6-inch-scale action figure. This highly detailed, poseable action figure features 25 points of articulation and thoughtful construction. It comes complete with detailed accessories and a figure stand. The deluxe fifth panel packaging provides collectors with multiple display options, including a closed box, open panel front view, or closed panel back view.

MSRP: $29.99 | Available: GameStop (July 19)

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FANDOM FEATURE

Music collectibles are hotter — and more important — than ever before.

by James Zahn, senior editor

S

ince the beginning of the rock ‘n roll era, music merch has been big business. From Elvis Presley and The Beatles to Led Zeppelin and KISS, the floodgates opened between the 1950s and ‘70s, creating a licensing industry that took off in the ‘80s and has been growing ever since.

While merchandising began as an additional revenue stream designed to support the release of an album during a tour cycle, ancillary products can now make up the bulk of an artist’s income in an era when releasing an album means practically giving it away for free. According to Business Insider, Spotify pays artists as little as $.0033 per track stream.

“With the demise of selling hard copies of music, we just don’t sell CDs the way we used to,” says Charlie Benante, drummer and one of the principal songwriters of the metal band Anthrax, which is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year. The band has long been a merchandising powerhouse, offering skate decks, T-shirts, hockey jerseys, and, recently, an Among the Living ReAction Figure by Super7. All of those things add up, but Benante says that streaming has created added pressure to increase revenues on the road.

“You have to do a meet-and-greet and a VIP package, which have become common for most bands … the days of going out and getting in trouble on tour have been replaced with more work … you have to be present,” he says.

THANKS, PANDEMIC — THE TOUR’S CANCELED! For the entire industry, the COVID-19 pandemic threw a new wrench in the machine: a complete void of concerts and touring opportunities for much of 2020 and 2021. For the merch makers, that meant new possibilities as new licensors

came calling.

“There is no question that the lack of touring has opened up new licensing opportunities for us,” says Bart Silberman, vice president of licensing at Super7, which is serving up new collectibles this year based on the likes of Run-DMC, Motörhead, and Notorious B.I.G. “The music licensors have had to step back and come up with new revenue sources and new ways to connect with their fans.

We have seen multiple new artist licenses come through that were off the table just a year ago.”

Anthrax 40th Anniversary VIP Pack

DANNY WIMMER PRESENTS

Celebrate 40 years of thrash with this bundle that includes T-shirts, an autographed poster, a virtual meet-and-greet, a live streamed concert, and more.

MSRP: $210.00 Available: anthraxlive.com

As artists switched to live-streamed performances, crowdfunding efforts, and limited products including face masks and PPE (see: Anthrax’s Spreading the Disease Hand Sanitizer) to refill the coffers, some of the biggest bands on the

planet began teaming up with energetic and enthusiastic new companies to offer products that fans can use to showcase their fandom with style.

BECOMING THE TREND Six years ago, Stephen Lease launched goodr with a Kickstarter campaign, a creative title (Chief Executive Octopus), and a mission to “sell fun, not eyewear.” Now, goodr is in business with Mick Jagger and Keith Richards for a collaborative collection of sunglasses that puts a fun spin on some classic albums — and it has cross-generational appeal.

“The Rolling Stones is my favorite band of all time because it is my dad’s favorite band of all time,” Lease says. “It was surreal for this partnership to happen. The most rewarding thing was being able to name a pair [Honky Tonk Donald] after my dad.”

Of course, style needs apparel, and in recent years, the Instagram and TikTok-fueled world of celebrity influencers has thrust several bands into the spotlight at unexpected times.

“Anthrax is a brand, and it’s been going for 40 years and it’s become cool at times,” Benante says. “I just recently saw one of the Kardashian girls wearing one of our shirts, and now it’s become trendy.

I don’t know if they really know any of our records or our songs, but style wise — it kinda looks cool and it’s what’s in, but you never know when it’s gonna be in.”

Benante points out that when rock fashion trends spike, companies like Urban Outfitters get in on the action and the $25 concert T-shirt becomes a musthave item with a much bigger price tag.

“It’s a strange thing, this market.

They’ll buy a bunch of designs and put them on certain types of shirts, and it just works. It’s overpriced,” Benante says with a chuckle, “but there’s something to

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FANDOM FEATURE

Pop! Rocks

FUNKO Collect Pop! Vinyl figures and Pop! Album sets from artists including Motörhead, TLC, Bret Michaels, Pearl Jam, and many more.

MSRP: $9.99-14.99

be said about that — that people will pay $100 for a T-shirt.”

Still, more products than ever before are accessible at prices that any fan can afford. “You could go to Walmart, Target, or JCPenney and you’ll find products from your favorite rock bands,” Benante says. “It’s so different than it was even 15 years ago.”

COLLECT ‘EM, DRINK ‘EM, SNACK ‘EM ALL The music business has long been interwoven with food and beverage.

Legendary — and oft-ridiculous — performance riders have put artists’ personal tastes on display, from recipe-specific guacamole for Jack White to special slushies for Kanye West and Van Halen’s “no brown M&Ms” request. But individual tastes have led the jump into legitimate businesses. Years ago, it was themed restaurants like Hard Rock Cafe, Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley’s Rock & Brews, or Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville.

Now it’s more accessible options such as coffee, beer, wine and spirits, and snacks that are diversifying income streams while connecting with fans in new — and delicious — ways.

Benante teamed up with Dark Matter Coffee for a full range of Benante’s Blend, while the full band has also explored whiskey and beer under the Anthrax

brand, as have peers such as Metallica, Megadeth, Iron Maiden,Clutch, AC/DC, and Foo Fighters.

“Coffee is a passion for me — I love coffee — but beer is something we did as a band,” Benante says. “We tested so many different types of beers to develop pairings so that we’d have the right beverage to enjoy with a hamburger or something. A lot goes into this.”

Players in the food space believe that thoughtful planning has to occur, and that when it comes to artist collaborations, it’s all about quality and marketing.

“The perfect collaboration starts with an artist that has a cult following,” says Rap Snacks Founder and CEO James Lindsay. “The right artist paired with the right product and the right team is an explosive combination.”

Rap Snacks first launched in 1994 and has gone through several iterations before its phased relaunches in 2017 and 2019, the latter of which saw the brand arrive in Walmart stores across the country with varieties including Cardi B Cheddar BBQ Chips, Lil Yachty’s Hot Cheese Fries, and Migos Sour Cream with a Dab of Ranch — which inspired a viral hit song, “Dab of Ranch.”

Lindsay says that part of the success is partnering with artists whose audiences are familiar with them selling things to authentically connect. He cites Meek Mill and Kanye West as prime examples of top artists who’ve successfully branched out into merchandising programs.

Rap Snacks is branching out as well.

Some Girls OG Sunglasses

goodr Rock your Rolling Stones fandom with these OG shades inspired by the band’s 1978 album, Some Girls.

MSRP: $25 Available: goodr.com

Blown Ups!

JABBERWOCKY TOYS These hard vinyl collectibles look inflatable and wobble and rock. Collect AC/DC, Ozzy Osbourne, and KISS. MSRP: $19.99 | Available: jabberwockytoys.com Following the success of its first cup noodles range in partnership with Master P, E-40, and Boosie last year, the company inked a deal with Rick Ross this year and just launched Lil Baby Oowee Lemonade.

Now, even the snacks are collectible.

“We have fans who collect our packaging all the time,” Lindsay says. “There are people out there who may have every bag we’ve made going back to the ‘90s.”

Silberman believes that the key factor that ties fandom together is passion.

“Music fans and pop culture fans are both super passionate about what they love, and expect a level of detail that transcends the more casual fan,” he says.

Benante agrees, and notes that every in-house product or licensing collaboration is done with care. “It’s very important that our fans know that we don’t just slap an Anthrax logo on anything,” he says.

As the world reopens and touring begins again later this year, audiences are expected to unleash their hunger for live music and return to concert venues in droves. Bands will be ready with new gear, as some — including Anthrax — ponder new opportunities for collectibles, including NFTs. No matter what the next trend may be, when it comes to both music and business, Lindsay has an outlook that sums it up perfectly: “When you’re hot, everyone loves you and wants to jump onboard.” ✪

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COSPLAY CORNER

STRONG IN COSTUME A family that cosplays together stays together.

by Maddie Michalik, senior editor

F

or Josh Strong, a love for superheroes runs in the family. Literally.

Josh’s great-grandfather, Harry Sahle, was an artist at Timely Comics (later known as Marvel) during the Golden Age of Comic Books in the ‘40s.

He worked on several iconic characters, such as Captain America, Bucky Barnes, and Human Torch. Naturally, growing up surrounded by comics books, Josh

became a fan of comics when he was a tiny tot looking at pictures and later, reading the stories.

Having a tie to characters that you have loved since childhood is pretty incredible, and it set the foundation for Josh to start building his own character-based costumes and props.

In 2005, Josh’s then-girlfriend Trish photographed his first cosplay as

Main photo: The Strong family shows off their Marvel cosplays.

Photo: @cosbotphotography Top right: Trish as Peggy Carter and Josh as Captain America.

Edit: @mateusgraf.photography Photo: @cosbotphotography Bottom right: Addie and Ayla as Bucky Barnes and Captain America.

Photo: @littlehootsphotography

Nightwing. A couple of years later, he put together his first Batsuit and created pieces for Captain America and Spider-Man costumes.

Today, high school sweethearts Josh and Trish are married with two daughters — and the whole family is involved in cosplay. The duo owns two photography studios, which are super helpful when it comes to capturing the

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whole family’s epic portrayals of Marvel, DC, Disney, and Star Wars characters.

“People said it’s very inspiring to see us with our kids and immersing them together as a family,” Josh says. “For me personally, having started by myself and now gaining my daughters and my wife doing it is awesome and humbling.”

Josh and Trish’s 6-year-old daughter Adeline (Addie) has been cosplaying since she was 2 years old. Josh took her to a Hudson Valley Comic-Con costume contest event that he was judging and created a last-minute Captain America costume for her. At the event, she completely immersed herself in the character and had the time of her life on stage in front of an audience of several thousand people.

Now, one of her favorites is a custom costume of Bucky Barnes as a partner-in-crime to her dad’s Captain America.

“What is Comic Cap without Bucky?

He’s his ride or die,” Josh says. “My daughter cosplaying as Bucky is probably the coolest thing she’s ever done. She is all about that character. Before any shoot, she’s always wanting to look on Google and pick out her poses.”

Scroll through the @strongincostume Instagram handle, and you’ll also find 4-year-old Ayla’s cosplays of Rey from Star Wars, Anna from Frozen, and her own Captain America costume.

One of the family’s most popular photos was a tribute to Stan Lee shortly after he passed away in 2018. Josh and

Na na na na na na na na ... Josh Strong! Josh in his latest costume, the Batman Tactical Suit.

Edit: @null.fotografia Photo: @cosbotphotography

CosplayCorner_Issue10.indd 67

Addie were both dressed as different versions of Captain America, Josh symbolically passing the shield to the next generation. The photo went viral and caught Marvel’s attention.

Josh and Trish thought they were getting pranked when a production team reached out to Josh on Instagram to be involved in Marvel 616, but it turned out to be a very real opportunity. The show, which is available on Disney+, is a documentary series that explores Marvel’s history and its impact on pop culture.

The Strong family is featured in the fifth episode “Suit Up,” which follows five cosplayers getting ready for New York Comic Con 2019.

The episode shows Josh creating a comic-book-accurate Captain America costume for the convention. It was a particularly special con for the duo because Trish went as Peggy Carter: her first cosplay ever. The crew filmed for a tiring two weeks and captured the Strongs’ everyday lives as genuinely and as realistically as possible, Trish says.

“Now, as a family, it’s been a lot of fun — more fun than it ever was,” Josh says. “I think being able to portray different characters like Cap and Peggy is just so awesome, as a couple who has been together for so long and has the kind of love that we have. I see a lot of us in them.”

Trish also cosplays as Wonder Woman, a character who she resonates with after going through a huge health journey of her own (you can follow her on Instagram at @tinier_trish_). She loves the superhero’s attitude that you can get through anything no matter how hard it is. “I’ve always been driven toward strong female characters who can also physically be strong,” she says. “I just feel like Wonder Woman stands for that, that you can overcome anything.”

One of Josh’s latest costumes is the Batman Tactical suit, one that he has been working on for a year. He uses 3D printers to create hard pieces of his costumes and combines them with fabrics and soft goods. Josh also runs an Etsy shop where he prints props, from Scarlet Witch’s headpiece to Batman’s emblem, for other cosplayers to purchase and complete their looks.

As more nationwide restrictions lighten and it becomes safer to visit hospitals

Trish cosplaying as Wonder Woman.

Edit: @null.fotografia Photo: Josh Strong

“The way my daughters look at her when she’s in full costume is amazing.”

—Josh Strong and children’s homes again, Josh and Trish hope to continue to give back to their community by interacting with kids while portraying iconic superheroes.

“I think that will be so fantastic for kids to see such a strong, iconic role model in Trish,” Josh says. “Because the way my daughters look at her when she’s in full costume is amazing, the gleam in their eyes. I think it’s a little different, seeing Dad do it versus Mom do it. Wonder Woman is such a strong, meaningful character.”

In the future, Josh and Trish hope to tackle cosplays like Iron Man and Venom and Catwoman and Wonder Woman in Asteria armor, respectively. Addie and Ayla also offer new ideas to their parents every day. It’s only a matter of time before the girls start running the show! ✪

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Maddie Michalik is a senior editor at the Pop Insider and the Toy Insider, where she fuels her geeky heart with the latest in pop culture, what show to binge-watch next, and the coolest products.

She is also the editor-in-chief of the Toy Book, making sure the toy industry is up-to-date on the latest toy and entertainment news.

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MINT CONDITION

Challenges and Changes in Collecting Convention and Retailer Exclusives

by Daniel Pickett, editor-in-chief, Action Figure Insider

F

ew words conjure up the feelings of delight and dread in the mind of a collector quite like “exclusive.”

Many of us have “war stories” of tracking down all of the Hasbro 12-inch Star Wars store exclusives in the late ‘90s, and some of us still have PTSD from trying to collect a complete set of DC Direct’s Comic-Con International: San Diego (SDCC) “Rainbow Hal Jordan figures” in 2009. Exclusive toys have been around for more than two decades — and while the companies that make them and the way they are distributed have changed over the years, what has not changed is the sense of dread a collector gets each time a new one is announced, followed by the sense of accomplishment they feel each time they acquire one.

We have all heard the stories of how difficult it can be to get exclusives, from them getting scooped up by scalpers or hoarded by dealers to the more modern problem of having them wiped out by web-bots. Obtaining exclusives can cause a collector a lot of anguish. It seems that every time a company tries to implement a new system to make it easier for true fans to get their hands on exclusive toys, the scalpers and speculators find a new way around it.

What are the benefits of having exclusives and why do companies insist on doing them? There are several reasons that we will discuss, but first you need to understand the two primary kinds of collectible exclusives: convention exclusives, which can be purchased by people attending a specific show, and retailer exclusives, which must be purchased at a certain store. They each have their pros and cons, they have both been around for more than 20 years, and — despite many collectors’ angry posts or online petitions — neither seem to be going away any time soon.

The whole idea of exclusives can be problematic and frustrating to collectors because, more often than not, they are made in lower, limited quantities.

Some are very low quantities, such as 500 or less, which means there’s a good chance that not everyone who wants said exclusive will be able to get one for their collection. For collectors, especially completionists, exclusives can bring out some strong emotions.

Toy companies put out convention exclusives to get people into their booths and to get fans hyped up and talking about their product lines, and also as a way to create figures based on more niche characters that might not be appropriate to put in mass retail or appeal to anyone outside of hardcore fandom.

Companies know their fans will be at these conventions, and most of those fans come ready to shop. In the past, some companies have described their convention exclusive offerings as a “reward” for those fans who make the effort and expense to attend a convention.

Meanwhile, retailer exclusives expand the main collectibles line by adding more SKUs per year. They draw collectors who are hunting the latest exclusives into the stores more often, which the retailers hope will lead them to buy other things.

While a good idea in theory, the reality is that collectors often leave the store empty-handed and frustrated.

Collectors have been helped somewhat with online retailer inventory search tools, such as BrickSeek and POPFinder, but

scalpers and speculators have access to those same tools. Retailers are also aware of these tools because of the number of fans who show up in their stores asking employees to “look in the back” because some website inventory aggregator shows that the store has some quantity of what they are hunting. Retailers are starting to find ways to combat these online tools by listing their products differently or not at all. There is always a low rumble throughout the community of fans wanting toy companies to do away with retailer exclusives, but as painful as they are to get, many collectors prefer more figures/characters in a toy line, so they will keep making those early-morning and late-night hunts for toy treasure.

CONVENTION EXCLUSIVES

When convention exclusives first started back in the late ‘90s, they were mostly repaints of existing sculpts that companies sold exclusively to attendees of said convention (or they were given away at trade shows). As time went on, exclusives grew into a much bigger industry, and we started to see unique tooling, more obscure characters, and splashier packaging for collectibles that were sold exclusively at conventions.

For example, there has been a shift the past few years with Hasbro’s 6-inch Star Wars: The Black Series exclusives, which come in deluxe packaging with exclusive accessories packed inside.

In addition to the convention version, Hasbro typically also releases

Hasbro's Star Wars: The Black Series Heroes of Endor set | Source: Hasbro

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a “regular” version of the figures into its main line, but with fewer accessories.

One of the company’s first Black Series convention exclusives was a deluxe Jabba the Hutt set that came with an exclusive Han Solo in Carbonite accessory. Earlier last year, that “exclusive” accessory was released on a card as part of Hasbro’s collection of Kenner-inspired action figures celebrating the 40th anniversary of The Empire Strikes Back.

Then, for one of Hasbro’s 2020 SDCC Star Wars exclusives, the Heroes of Endor set, the company took orders for additional units in excess of the initial run. To rectify the situation, Hasbro went back to do a second production run of the figures in that multipack. Some collectors who ordered the set in August got their shipment in August, while others were told their sets would arrive later this spring.

This has led some fans to ask, “How exclusive are these exclusives?”

Of course, even as these exclusives have become more involved and more competitive, fans are still primarily only racing against the other convention attendees. Depending on the event you are attending, that can range from manageable to nightmare fuel, especially if you find yourself at SDCC, competing with 100,000 other fans for one of 500 limited-run figures. But with the onset of COVID-19, and the decision of most companies to sell their convention exclusives online, fans were instead basically racing against every other collector on the planet — and that is a terrifying prospect that keeps many of us collectors up at night, plotting our strategies for when these orders go live.

RETAILER EXCLUSIVES

With the closing of Toys “R” Us in the U.S., toymakers lost a steady, reliable venue for exclusives. And while both Target and Walmart have publicly said they would like to be “America’s Toy Store,” neither has done much to satisfy the collector sector.

With so many industries shut down and so many people out of work due to COVID-19, we saw a resurgence of the speculator market sniffing around collectible toys as a way to make a quick buck.

With concerts and sporting events shut down, ticket scalpers moved into scooping up the hot, exclusive collectibles,

as well as couponing-mom Facebook groups telling members what to look for when they visit stores. Even when the retailers tried to help those sheltering at home by putting their exclusives up on their online stores, collectors watched inventory disappear in minutes (or seconds) due to bots.

Walmart gives the appearance of being “collector friendly” by offering many store exclusives to buy online as preorders. However, over the past two years, more often than not fans will find the items they preordered on store shelves before their order ships to them, or Walmart cancels their preorder outright with little to no explanation. Collectors complain to regional managers, Walmart corporate, and the toy manufacturers, but Walmart is the 800-pound gorilla in the industry, and the company does not seem to be willing to find another solution.

“This has led some fans to ask, ‘How exclusive are these exclusives?’”

Target is a mixed bag with its exclusives, sometimes ordering plenty to go around, and other times just missing the mark as far as getting enough quantities or getting those exclusives into the stores. Target has had some turnover with its primary toy buyer over the last handful of years, and it appears that they are still finding their feet. The latest exclusive horror story that collectors have encountered at Target is from the Hasbro 6-inch G.I. Joe line. It looks like both Hasbro and Target underestimated the current interest in G.I. Joe figures, which means fans have been losing a lot of sleep trying to track down Firefly and Cobra Viper figures in stores and online. It does not help matters that Hasbro made a troop builder figure like the Viper a store exclusive.

It is causing some awkward encounters between collectors and Target store staff, as there are countless reports of mobs of fans showing up at opening and hanging around the store for hours while employees unpack trucks when inventory sites show there might be some quantities at a certain store.

Hasbro took the idea of retailer exclusives to the extreme twice last year, with both the Star Wars: The Black Series The Mandalorian Credits Series and the Holiday Trooper figure series. There were five figures in the lineup for each of these waves, and every figure was available at a different retail outlet. If you wanted the whole set of either wave, you had to rush online or into a store for Target, Walmart, GameStop, Best Buy, and Amazon. That is a lot to ask of a die-hard fan who just wants a set for their collection.

NECA, meanwhile, already had its year-long schedule mapped out for the distribution of its Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles lines, which are available at Target and Walmart. But after the first few figures sold out in seconds, fans started bombarding the NECA social media accounts with angry messages. NECA heard the fans’ frustrations and looked into what could change. The company was able to rearrange some of the allotment of several retailer exclusives for Walmart and Target to make a quantity available online from the official NECA website. This move garnered NECA a lot of goodwill from fans. I am sure it was a complicated task behind the scenes, but it was nice to see a toymaker realize the problem, talk to the fans about it, and then take steps to change things.

The idea of exclusive collectibles is now part of the fabric of collecting — and is not going anywhere for the time being.

Collectors are going to have to continue working together to get the exclusives they want in their collection.

As evidenced by the steps companies like NECA, Funko, and Super7 have taken to ensure these exclusives get into the hands of fans, there are still changes that can ease some of the pain. You just need some forward thinkers at each of these companies to make it so. ✪ ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Daniel Pickett founded his toy and pop culture news and review site, Action Figure Insider, 15 years ago.

He built relationships with every major toy manufacturer and grew his hobby into a worldwide expertise that the industry has embraced.

He has hosted panels about the toy industry for conventions such as Comic-Con Interational: San Diego for more than 15 years, and even spent several years on the inside of the industry as the marketing manager for Gentle Giant Ltd. and Gentle Giant Toys.

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FANDOM FEATURE

Masterverse He-Man | Source: Mattel

The epic franchise continues to surprise collectors as a new chapter begins.

by James Zahn, senior editor

N

early 40 years ago, Mattel took a chance at launching a new toy brand that was steeped in science fiction and fantasy and consistently fed kids’ appetites for adventure with a steady stream of epic storytelling and new toys. Masters of the Universe (MOTU) was one of the first transmedia properties to become a franchise, and it helped to shape the entertainment and licensing businesses into the powerful forces they are today.

“Back then, we weren’t even using the word ‘franchise,’” says PlayMonster President Tim Kilpin, whose first job in the toy industry was naming MOTU characters and writing stories for the mini-comics that came with each action figure. “We were making it up as we went along a little bit back in the ‘80s. The brand exploded in popularity, and we raced to keep up. New characters, new mini-comic stories, and new episodes for the TV series — it was all happening in real-time, with very little advance

planning.” Eventually, Kilpin became the marketing manager for the entire MOTU line and led the brand through its first rise and fall.

According to a 1984 article from The New York Times, Mattel sold more than 70 million MOTU action figures in the first 2.5 years of the brand as kids scooped up He-Man, Skeletor, and every side character they could find. While it peaked with $400 million in sales in 1986, it crashed to just $7 million the following year. Although kids were starting to tune out, the company was still far ahead in development on some later toys that have since become some of the most legendary and sought-after collectibles on the secondary market. The most looming example: the Eternia Playset.

During his time at Mattel, Mike McKittrick designed and engineered numerous figures and vehicles for the MOTU brand, including Thunder Punch He-Man and Spydor. But, in terms of scale and sheer ambition, Eternia was something unheard of.

“The Eternia Playset was a huge project and I was assigned to it as the lead engineer,” McKittrick recalls.

“The project was so big in scope that my manager assigned two other engineers to assist me. At that time, MOTU had already An early engineering sketch for Mattel’s Eternia Playset representing a peaked and overall top-down view of all three towers. | Source: Mike McKittrick

Eternian wizard Orko in Masters of the Universe: Revelation | Source: Netflix

sales were starting to decline. Marketing wanted something big to keep the momentum and increase sales.”

Billed as “The Biggest Masters of the Universe Set Ever,” the Eternia set packed “Three Titanic Towers” into its gigantic box. The towers were connected by a monorail track on which mechanical vehicles could circle the play area. “Not only was this set meant to be enormous, but it was also meant to expand by having the existing Castle Grayskull and Snake Mountain playsets attach to its sides for an even larger footprint,” McKittrick says.

According to McKittrick, the initial cost estimate was “through the roof,” and the company made its way through a list of more than 20 intended features in favor of replacing them with only a handful of features that were better. Still, the playset was extraordinarily elaborate and ended up with the highest tooling bill that Mattel had ever seen.

“I recall the original estimated production quota in round numbers was 60,000 units and break even, I believe, was around 40,000,” McKittrick says.

“As we progressed with final engineering and started making tools, the quota dipped down to around 40,000. As we

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MOTU Retro Apparel HEROES & VILLAINS

Characters including Orko, Battle Cat, and Mer-Man join He-Man and Skeletor for this new collection of vintage-inspired threads based on the casual looks of the early ‘80s.

MSRP: $30-36 Available: heroesvillains.com

approached the start date for production, the quota dropped to 20,000 plus or minus. Ultimately we produced a little more than 4,000 units.”

Eternia hit retail with a price point of around $140. With so few units produced and the tendency for the old plastic to break easily, complete sets in their sealed boxes sell for nearly $4,000 today.

Following a short-lived reboot as “He-Man” in 1989 and some rights issues involving the He-Man and the Masters of the Universe animated series, the brand went dormant until collectors became a powerful force in the toy business just in time for MOTU’s 20th anniversary.

Ned Ward was the senior product manager of boys’ toys at Mattel, led the launch of a commemorative series of MOTU reissues, and worked on the team behind the “200x” brand relaunch.

According to Ward, MOTU opened the doors for Mattel to become a regular fixture at a then-developing new market for companies to peddle toys to the adult collector: Comic-Con International: San Diego (SDCC).

“Back then Mattel hadn’t done SDCC, and at that point was still not very serious about their collector fans,” Ward says. “But we knew that we had a chance to start excitement with the fans before the new product came out, and the show was a huge success! We sold out of the cold cast resin figures by The Four Horse-

men before the show, thus paying for it and starting Mattel’s involvement with SDCC and being connected to the fans.”

While the 200x reboot didn’t necessarily connect with kids as intended, it launched a collector market that has grown ever since.

Following a brief collaboration with NECA on a series of busts, Mattel launched MOTU Classics in 2008, selling direct-to-consumer via Matty Collector, before flipping the line to Super7, where it continued until last year, culminating with a playset that’s even bigger than Eternia: the MOTU Collector’s Choice Snake Mountain Playset.

Now, MOTU is back with Mattel where the company will relaunch it into the mainstream with its biggest presence at retail and on screens since the ‘80s, in an effort to bridge 40 years of fandom while planting the seeds for a new crop of Eternian enthuasiasts.

“MOTU’s universal themes and focus on self-empowerment are ones that are especially relevant to both adults and children today. That’s why we are launching two series tied to Masters of the Universe this year,” says Mattel Vice

Power Sword Limited Edition Prop Replica

FACTORY ENTERTAINMENT This 40-inch sword features a full-tang blade crafted from stainless steel with a mirror-chrome finish and a handle wrapped in brown leather.

MSRP: $599.99 Available: factoryentertainment.com

Pop! Town Snake Mountain with Skeletor

FUNKO The Evil Lord of Darkness gets the Pop! Treatment in this two-pack that pairs Skeletor with a pint-sized version of his iconic lair.

MSRP: $29.99 Available: Funko Shop

President Rob David, executive producer on both shows. “The first, for which Kevin Smith is serving as showrunner, is called Masters of the Universe: Revelation and picks up where the story in the ‘80s left off, speaking to the original fans of the franchise. The second is He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, a new kids’ series that will bring the world of He-Man, Teela, and Skeletor to a new generation of fans.”

Of course, the new series are backed with new toy lines, including 7-inch Masterverse action figures; the extensive range of retro-inspired MOTU Origins figures, vehicles, and playsets; and a ton of spin-off products and licensed merch and apparel from companies such as Chalk Line, Mondo, Factory Entertainment, Heroes & Villains, and many more. So, in the end, what’s the appeal?

“At its core, MOTU is all about becoming the best version of yourself,” David says. “The biggest opportunity we have is that we can take MOTU’s diverse universe of characters, with its signature mashup of science fiction and fantasy, and apply modern storytelling. Both shows tell an epic, serialized saga where every episode is a chapter in a larger story arc, where our characters can grow and discover the one thing they are born to be. Kids, parents, and adult fans will all have the chance to dive in and invest in these characters and their journeys — and together, we all have the power!” ✪ THEPOPINSIDER.COM | #FuelYourFandom | 71

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GEEK BOSS

A LITTLE BIT

Cathey with fans at Comic-Con International: San Diego in 2019 Source: The Loyal Subjects

Willy Wonka A LITTLE BIT ROCK ‘N ROLL

Jonathan Cathey talks founding, running, and expanding The Loyal Subjects.

by Madeleine Buckley, associate editor

J

onathan Cathey is a man of many metaphors, which explains why he included this slightly unorthodox — but ultimately accurate — statement when describing his company: “We’re a little bit Willy Wonka, dunked in a Koonsian ether, topped off with some Iggy Pop. Voilà! The Loyal Subjects in a nutshell.”

Cathey describes himself similarly, which makes sense because, in many ways, he and The Loyal Subjects — a collectibles and designer art toy company known for its articulated Action Vinyls figures — are one and the same.

“Being that I started The Loyal Subjects, a lot of it has my personality,” he says. “And I guess if you look at my personality, some of it’s wacky and delirious and head-in-the-clouds, like Willy Wonka, and anything’s possible. Most of it is rock and roll spirit, which is Iggy Pop. Some of it’s juvenile, which is Sesame Street.”

$500 AND A LIVING ROOM Back in 2009, Cathey launched the company as a one-man show. He had just

$500, the living room of his small, West Hollywood bungalow, and his girlfriend at the time, who helped him pack boxes.

He also came from a diverse creative background: a theater major, an artist, and a drummer with some experience in the toy industry. Flash forward more than a decade and Cathey still runs The Loyal Subjects, but now he does so from an office with a staff of 15 and more than $60 million in retail sales.

The road to finding that Willy-Wonka-meets-Iggy-Pop vibe wasn’t perfectly straight: Cathey started out making designer toys before shifting to become a counter-culture toy company.

Then, about seven years ago, The Loyal Subjects moved into licensed figures, starting with Transformers and G.I. Joe. “That helped bring in a new viewership,” Cathey says. “We weren’t just doing abstract designer toys or things where you only have editions of 200, 300, or 99 even. It kind of widened our audience … and we just started building

from there.”

Through it all, Cathey has had a hands-on role in nearly every part of the company. (Perhaps, he admits, he was too set on learning how to do everything for the business himself in the early days.)

While his day-to-day schedule at the office is as challenging as ever, over the years Cathey has carefully built a team to help him carry the workload.

He likens this team, and the importance of choosing the right team Ghostbusters Action Vinyl | Source: The Loyal Subjects

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A complete set of Marvel Superama collectibles | Source: The Loyal Subjects

members, to taking a band on tour.

“Once you’re on tour, you’ve got to like each other,” he explains. “If someone’s in the van and they’re not groovin’ with someone else, that’s going to be a really long tour.”

Phil Ivey, a managing partner with The Loyal Subjects who has known Cathey since 2016, considers the CEO’s hands-on approach to be an asset.

“He definitely tries to infuse — and does infuse — his personality on the brand as an entrepreneur,” Ivey says. “I think there is kind of that authenticity about the company and the products.

Truly, there is a blood-sweat-and-tears element to creating top-quality products.”

Ivey also notes that Cathey’s designer background mixed with his self-acquired business know-how bridges the departments of creativity, production, and manufacturing in a unique way.

“It’s one thing to have cool concepts and cool designs,” Ivey says. “But to be able to take that all the way through the sculpting phase, the manufacturing phase, and delivery to the markets? That is a pretty tall task. But he’s been able to do that.”

ACTION FIGURE ACTION The result of Cathey’s creative vision is, as he describes it, an action figure industry disruptor. The company’s signature Action Vinyls, which span a variety of licenses and characters, all feature the same scale, swappable accessories, and a distinct style, so that fans’ favorite characters can all exist in the same The Loyal Subjects universe. Why not have a Ghostbuster battle the Night King?

The Loyal Subjects also finds its identity in the licenses with which it works. Nostalgia — specifically for the ‘80s — is its main focus, filling its library with brands Cathey refers to as betweenthe-lines properties, such as Thundercats, Masters of the Universe, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

“We’re in the Mystery Machine; we’re in the nostalgia machine,” he says. “Most of our properties have a lot of warm, fuzzy feels and DNA to them. And when customers see it, it kind of harkens back to simpler times and fun times in their backyard in the sandpit playing soldiers and making up their own stories.”

Last year, despite a global pandemic, the company expanded beyond its Action Vinyl offerings. Now, The Loyal Subjects offers a variety of new product lines, including a brand of action figures called BST AXN; an empowering, kid-focused fashion doll line named For Keeps; and a series of scene-based collectibles called Superama.

BST AXN (pronounced “best action”) was the first new brand to launch, hitting shelves last October at retailers including Walmart and Hot Topic, followed by GameStop and Target. When creating the line, Cathey says the goal was to offer something for both dedicated and more passive collectors and pop culture fans, selecting a wide array of nostalgic and more obscure licenses, ranging from KISS and Fullmetal Alchemist to Lord of the Rings, Napoleon Dynamite, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Cathey calls moving from Action Vinyls to 8-inch action figures a natural progression, but stresses that maintaining quality — good paint detailing, significant articulation, etc. — at a reasonable price was key.

“For $20, you walk in Walmart and you get two slices of pizza and a BST AXN, which isn’t a bad day,” he says.

For Keeps was a completely new venture for the company, though. Not only were the characters original intellectual property, but The Loyal Subjects was also suddenly reaching a different, much younger audience.

However, Cathey says that he carries the same play-first approach for collectibles and toys alike. He thinks the first question to ask, no matter what product he is working on, is “Are we having fun?”

“This idea that you’re a grownup and playing is immature or you’ve outgrown that is ridiculous,” he says. “You really have to have fun with the products you develop. You have to play with them — you have to understand why they’re fun and why anyone would have a good time playing, posing, creating scenes and scenarios, and telling stories with them.”

THE WORK ISN’T DONE Even with more than a decade of business ownership under his belt, Cathey says he is still learning and facing challenges as a small business battling larger companies for space on store shelves. Reflecting on his experience running The Loyal Subjects, he says it is hard to find time to savor the success.

He always has new ideas on the horizon, which is why he named the company The Loyal Subjects, not The Loyal Subjects Toys. It leaves the door open to expand into TV and other media, a possiblity that’s always in the back of his mind.

“There aren’t a lot of smell-the-roses moments,” Cathey explains. “You get to one thing, you go for the next. You keep competing. I’ve been talking recently about taking some time to just reflect on some successes we’ve had versus next, next, next, next, next, which is sort of modus operandi for entrepreneurs. … But if we were to take stock at this level, it’s like well, we went into one of the hardest industries that is controlled mostly by publicly traded companies. It’s sort of a Draconian industry. It’s very hard to break through, and we’ve broken through. …

But there’s still more to go.” ✪ ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Madeleine Buckley is an associate editor at the Pop Insider, where she enjoys covering the latest trends in pop culture and the coolest new merch releases that come with them. She is a movie score enthusiast, a mediocre knitter, and an avid movie watcher.

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FANDOM FEATURE

A Conversation with Tracy Van Slyke from the Pop Culture Collab

by Madeleine Buckley, associate editor

M

any artists, entertainment industry influencers, and people in social movements have been working on projects focused on the intersection of pop culture and social change for decades. However, according to Tracy Van Slyke, chief strategy officer at the Pop Culture Collaboration, those projects have traditionally been under-resourced and segmented.

This lack of cohesion inspired philanthropic organizations the Nathan Cummings Foundation, Unbound Philanthropy, the Ford Foundation, and more to band together, forming and funding what would become the Pop Culture Collaboration, which was founded in 2016 and launched publicly in 2017.

As an organization, the Pop Culture Collaboration (often shortened to Pop Culture Collab) works to transform the narrative environment for and with people of color, Muslims, immigrants, refugees, and indigenous communities, with a particular focus on women, transgender, and disabled people.

We chatted with Van Slyke about the organization’s goals, the impact of last summer’s social justice movements on pop culture, and more.

The Pop Insider: For people who may not be familiar, can you give us an overview of what the Pop Culture Collab does, and how it works toward its stated goals?

Tracy Van Slyke: We [work toward our goals] in a couple different ways. We do a lot of grant-making to those who are working in the pop culture for social change fields, social justice organizations that are starting or building long-term culture-change campaigns, artists who are sort of reimagining and reinventing new kinds of infrastructure inside the entertainment industry itself, entertainment companies that are moving and distributing really powerful stories, and a lot of different kinds of cultural strategists and researchers. So we do a lot of grant-making in that space.

We also do a lot of partnership and relationship development between social movements, the entertainment industry, and the philanthropic community. And we also do a lot of learning. Helping people understand what’s happening, what’s changing, and what are powerful trends.

For example, we have spent a lot of time investing in the world of pop culture fandoms because we believe they’re incredibly powerful to not only how fandoms are changing pop culture storytelling — influencing the industry itself — but they are also actually models for communities that are being built online for social movements, both in very powerful ways, in wonderful ways, and sometimes in mildly toxic ways. So we have been doing a lot of investing through research and through our senior fellow of pop culture and fandom power, Shawn Taylor, who

wrote a manifesto called “We the Fans.”

We kind of do a lot of learning and then sharing those learnings back into the people we’re working with and helping them activate those insights through the work they’re doing.

PI: Can you give us additional examples of some of the work that the grant recipients are doing, especially in terms of fandoms?

TVS: Dr. Maytha Alhassen did a whole research project on stereotypical tropes around Muslims in Hollywood for the last 100 years, and she created this whole report around that. It is now being actively used by a lot of story creators, producers, and writers inside the industry.

We have a senior fellow, Zahra Noorbakhsh, who was working on what is broken in the pipelines for rising comedians — especially comedians of color, historically marginalized comedians — and what are innovative new pipelines and infrastructure that can lead to ascension and sustainability of all these fabulous comedians who are often pushed out of the traditional pipelines.

And, coupled with that, we have made grants to a new initiative called the Yes And Laughter Lab, which is a new kind of pipeline for comedians, mostly BIPOC comedians, who are telling stories that matter and partnering and pitching them with all sorts of entertainment industry partners and distributors. So we can

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create systems of grantmaking like that.

We’ve invested in a lot of fandom and experiential learning — early learning.

It’s been a passion of mine for the last four or five years that I really focused on the power of pop culture fandoms.

We brought Shawn on, who did a lot of work to really, actually think about, “What does it mean for fandoms to take all the powers, organizing, and creative skills they have beyond their pop culture passion and move it toward creating a just and pluralist world for social change at a systemic level?” And so, through his manifesto, he really lays out the “why” of it and what are these powers that can be activated for this kind of social change.

We funded groups like 13Exp, which has done a lot of work at the intersection of experiential immersive storytelling and fandom work to help gather experts — across fandoms, experiential storytelling, social movements, and entertainment — to actually get together and talk about what it would look like to work together more and share a language. And then we started to fund particular projects that have fandom at their core. Like, how do you start thinking about and creating fandoms from the very beginning versus producing content then trying to create community? Through our Becoming America fund, we have funded Nation X, which Shawn is a part of, and Starfish Accelerator, which is an incubator for BIPOC, mid-career artists inside the entertainment industry. They are working on how to help them launch early IP, a piece of content, then build fan community around it, and then try to sell it. They’re trying to build a community before they try and land a big deal or partner in Hollywood because they’re trying to show the power that these fan communities have and allow that artist to have more control over their content than if an industry or studio or network was funding it from the very beginning.

PI: You mentioned the Becoming America fund. Can you tell us more about that initiative and how last summer’s social justice movements impacted pop culture, and vice versa?

TVS: The Becoming American fund has actually been in development for the last couple years. My colleague, Bridget, has led a lot of the early thinking around the

strategic experience framework around it. We knew that 2020 was going to be a year like we’d never known before, but we didn’t know how much. And so, we launched the Becoming America Fund with the idea that America was at this inflection point: Were we going to go back into our white nationalist, patriarchal past, or are we going to step forward into a more just and pluralist future?

"We've often, in this country, been given this sort of scarcity mindset: There's not enough for us and I'm not enough.

So we try to help people unlock their belief in both their potential and human potential as a community."

— Tracy Van Slyke

Source: Pop Culture Collab

The fund was designed to support content and storytelling and mass audience experiences that could galvanize the public imagination about the country we could become. And so this is the first time that we’re actually funding content, where we’ve funded a lot of work around content preproduction, infrastructure, and distribution. And because of the COVID era, we funded a lot of powerful digital content and experiences that really try to help mass audiences do a couple things: start to unlock their imagination and start to really root in the idea around our abundance.

We’ve often, in this country, been given this sort of scarcity mindset: There’s not enough for us and I’m not enough.

So we try to help people unlock their belief in both their potential and human potential as a community through ideas of joy, dance, and love. What are the stories and experiences that could really

help people unlock that emotion and believe in our potential? … We funded content and distributions for projects that could help build the instinct in audiences to actually start to embrace our differences, to help cross literal and metaphorical borders, and start to bridge the divide and understand that our society cannot thrive when one homogeneous group is in charge of a community.

PI: Are there any 2021 initiatives, projects, or updates you can share?

TVS: This idea of joy, abundance, kindness, and healing is going to be a big part of what the Collaborative — and, I think, a whole sector of artists and social movements — are going to be building in 2021. So, how people commit to that content and move those ideas into the world is going to be really important because we’re crawling our way back from a deep pit. And there’s a need for that kind of joy, that kind of celebration, that chance of restoration, revival — for embracing each other in ways that we’ve been deeply divided before, but with an eye toward justice. We can’t discount systemic racism and sexism in our society.

We would encourage people to try to connect to the content that was created [in 2020] and to seek out what can be created [this] year and how they can be part of moving those ideas out into the world.

PI: How can people interact with the Pop Culture Collaborative, and what can they do to help move toward social justice in pop culture?

TVS: If there are people who have pop culture projects and ideas and deeply want to connect with social movements with social justice at its core, they should absolutely connect with us. We have a whole portal for people to submit ideas on the grantmaking page on the website, and we really use that to meet new people and to expand the scope of gamers, designers, manufacturers, and those who are really thinking about the content and the narratives that need to be moving to millions of people in the world and in the country. We encourage people to connect with us. ✪ For more information about The Pop Culture Collaboration, visit popcollab.org.

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ARTISTS’ ALLEY

I

t’s not easy to stand out in a sea of Instagram accounts packed square to square with never ending amounts of art, advertisements, and cosplayers tussling for attention.

All the whirls of color and clashing costumes can really start to mess with your head after a while. Just when you thought you’d seen every last Avengers interpretation on the planet, you notice that Iron Man has sprouted two pointy cat ears at the top of his maroon-andgold helmet. He also seems to have paws balled into fists and a long, armored tail hanging from his booty.

No, you’re not seeing things. Iron Man has turned into IronMeow — at least in illustrator Angie Hu’s nook of the internet.

Iron Man is not the only familiar face who Hu converted into a cat.

Captain America, Batman, and Wolverine are also among the superhero mainstays onto whom Hu imparts her signature feline makeover, transforming them into Captain AmeriCat, BatMeow, and Catverine. She doesn’t limit herself

to superkitties, either. Some of her recent Instagram posts on @hupaints are dedicated to whiskered, cat-eared versions of Dumbledore, Sailor Moon, Gordon Ramsay, and Bob Ross. For Hu, 76 | Issue No. 10 | THE POP INSIDER

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the paws-ibilities are endless.

It all started with Hu brainstorming ideas about how to turn heads with her art. “I knew that people love superhero fan art, so I was thinking about what I should do for superhero-related works. I am not a fan of doing other people’s character designs, so I wanted to recreate the characters in my own way,” Hu says. “Since I am a cat lover, I designed this cat fan art based on cats’ behaviors, starting from the superhero characters that I am more familiar with.”

Hu was shocked to receive her own booth at her first Artists’ Alley at WonderCon Anaheim in 2014 and found herself surrounded by professional artists. She didn’t let that intimidate her though, and she held true to what she loves: cats. While all of the comic book artists around her were showcasing more serious versions of Marvel and DC art, Hu’s work shined through because it was different. She caught the attention of the crowds with her postcards and prints featuring cat adaptations of famous characters in humorous scenarios.

In fact, the fan reactions are what keep her coming back. “It’s really fun to have a table at conventions because people often scream when they see my work,” Hu says. “I love seeing their expressions, Top to bottom: IronMeow, BatMeow, Catverine | Source: Angie Hu

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and it’s totally an artist ego boost for me. I often get people standing in front of my table confessing: ‘I am a cat lover and I love your work.’”

Hu is an animal lover at heart, with two cats of her own. Her first cat is a friendly and gentle tuxedo cat named Minnie, who she credits with converting her into a cat person years ago. Maru the tabby cat — who now lives with Hu in Taiwan — is a “mama’s boy,” who Hu’s friends say was her lover in a past life.

She’s not married to cats though: Hu also draws Game of Thrones characters in their human forms (Arya is her favorite character), animated and more realistic versions of fictional women, Halloween-themed sketches, and other animals. Hu says that her favorite types of designs are art nouveau, art deco, and steampunk. She also cites Disney artist and Netflix Art Director Joey Chou’s work (which adorned her office walls when she worked as a digital designer for Disney) and DreamWorks animator Nico Marlet’s character design (he drew the adorably bigeyed dragons in How to Train Your Dragon) as inspirations. She gives some credit to sifting through art books, Pinterest, and art pages on Facebook, too. Watercolor and ink are Hu’s preferred methods of creating. Now, she also uses the digital illustration app Procreate on an iPad Pro for her designs.

Growing up, Hu had dreams of becoming a manga artist.

She began drawing and painting when she was in kindergarten, and she attended a vocational art and design high school in Taiwan, where she was born. She lived in the U.S. for 20 years, then moved back to Taiwan in 2016, where she began her own artist agency and licensing company called Hu Creates Co. She now runs the popular Kitties Art Gallery Facebook page and reps Bu2ma, a comic artist and designer toy creator who is well-known in China for his 365 daily dinosaurs and Fat Tiger sketches.

Hu has not participated in any of the virtual conventions in the U.S. over the past year, but she represented Bu2ma at a designer toy convention at the Bob Ross Quarantine Cat | Source: Angie Hu Taipei Toy Festival last November to showcase designer toys based on his Fat Tiger artwork. Hu helped license his art to the manufacturer Mighty Jaxx to make collectible figures that were sold at the festival. She also helped Bu2ma launch digital stickers for the LINE mobile messenger app and is currently working with Taiwan Sanrio to create a sticker set featuring Fat Tiger and Hello Kitty interacting together.

One of her goals is to license her own art as well. Although the busy start-up lifestyle occupies most of Hu’s time now, there are more fur-miliar faces on the horizon.

She plans to create more Marvel kitty superheroes and Jedi cats this year, as well as a series of eye-rolling cats. “I used to have a lot of pressure doing art to please people and to find work,” Hu says. “Now, I just want to do what I enjoy doing.” ✪

Dumbledore Cat | Source: Angie Hu

Bu2ma’s Fat Tiger Collectibles | Source: Mighty Jaxx

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Jackie Cucco is a senior editor at Adventure Media & Events. She covers toy trends, reviews, and entertainment news for the Pop Insider, the Toy Book, and the Toy Insider. After her Tamagotchis finally go to sleep for the night, you can catch her binging horror movies in the dark. Visit her on Instagram @saucyjac and say hello to her pet bunny Peepers @thebigpeep.

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POP PICKS

FRIENDS MILESTONE BLANKET It’s never too early to introduce your little ones to all of your favorite things because if we’re being real, you want to be the one to teach them that it’s “LeviOsa,” not “LeviosA.” So, we found the most ridiculously adorable products for babies and toddlers that let you share your fandoms with your munchkins. From young wizards to budding superheroes, there’s something for everyone on this list. Remember: You’re not a regular mom, you’re a cool mom (or dad, or aunt, or uncle), so even though these items may be more for you — OK, they’re totally just for street cred — they’re well worth all the compliments you’re going to get.

BATZKIDS Could this milestone blanket BE any cuter? You’re allowed to be that parent on Instagram while documenting your baby’s growth with this personalized photography backdrop. This fleece blanket is supremely soft, warm, and cozy, and comes in three sizes.

MSRP: $44 | Available: Etsy, BATZkids

compiled by Maddie Michalik, senior editor

MILK SNOB TOY STORY COVER MILK SNOB To infinity … and a nap! The multifunctional cover’s fabric is adorned with the classic Toy Story clouds and character images, and is soft and cool to the touch. It can be used for nursing, shopping carts, high chairs, infant swings, and more.

MSRP: $39-45 Available: Amazon, BoxLunch, milksnob.com

THE CHILD CITY MOCC

NFL AND MLB 3-PIECE GIFT SETS BABY FANATIC Touchdown! Home run! Now your babies can help cheer on your favorite teams with this boxed gift set. It comes with a 100% cotton-front bib, a 9-ounce bottle, and a pacifier, all featuring logos from your home team.

MSRP: $34.99 | Available: babyfanatic.com, masterpiecesinc.com (Aug. 1)

FRESHLY PICKED Baby Yoda, but make it fashion. These tiny moccasins feature an adorable illustration of everyone’s favorite space alien chillin’ in its pod. The Child is printed on neutral leather, and the shoes have elastic at the opening to make them easy to take on and off.

MSRP: $59 | Available: freshlypicked.com

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ROCK ‘N ROLL STROLLERS

POKÉMON PRIMERS BOOK SERIES PIKACHU PRESS

DAPHYLS

A wild book approaches! This series will introduce young trainers to the world of Pokémon while learning about subjects like the alphabet, numbers, shapes, and colors. Each book features more than 100 flaps for kids to interact with, including pronunciation guides for each pocket monster featured.

Take your future rock stars from the cradle to the stage with these strollers inspired by legendary rock bands.

Available in Grateful Dead, Pink Floyd, and Pantera styles, the easy-fold umbrella strollers feature soft grip handles, an easy-carry shoulder strap, and swivel wheels.

MSRP: $12.99 each | Available: Amazon, Target, Barnes & Noble, Pokémon Center, Walmart

DC CHIBI CHARACTER INFANT SNAPUITS ARACA Empower your little superheroes with stylish snapsuits featuring the cutest versions of Wonder Woman, Superman, Batman, The Flash, and more characters from the DC universe. The short-sleeved infant bodysuits have printed phrases on them, including “Too fast for naps,” “Hold this. I have to save Gotham City,” and “Fearless and strong just like my mom.” They are available in youth sizes from newborn through 24 months.

MSRP: $19.95 each Available: wbshop.com

JIM HENSON’S LABYRINTH: STRAIGHT TO THE CASTLE

MSRP: $69.99 each | Available: Amazon, buybuybaby.com, daphyls.com

HARRY POTTER ENCHANTED NIGHT SKY BABY BEDDING POTTERY BARN KIDS Budding witches and wizards will sleep soundly among the stars with this baby bedding. The quilt is adorned with metallic, embroidered icons from the beloved books, with blue stripes on the reverse side. The fitted sheet is made of 100% cotton for ultimate breathability and features a Hedwig pattern to keep careful watch over wizards-in-training while they sleep.

INSIGHT EDITIONS This colorfully illustrated board book will transport kids to Jim Henson’s fantastical world of Thra and guide them to help Sarah, Hoggle, and their friends through the labyrinth. Every page will recount the story while guiding toddlers through solving the maze. Kids will also learn about directions, even when the evil Jareth turns the world upside down and sideways. They can follow the story as they pull and flip the tabs to reveal different elements.

MSRP: $9.99 | Available: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Target, Walmart

MSRP: $39-129 Available: potterybarnkids.com

SILICONE TEETHER: NES CONTROLLER BUMKINS Level up your baby’s teething game. This must-have, NES Controller-inspired teether is made from soft and flexible silicone. The texture provides relief to babies’ gums. Happy baby, happy life.

MSRP: $12.95 Available: bumkins.com

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Untitled-9 1

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