Special Feature - Natural History Museum

A day at the museum

Under the experienced eye of senior licensing manager Emma Russell, the Natural History Museum – one of Britain’s most beloved institutions – is digging deep into the past (and its vast archives) to sign new licensing deals across multiple categories including Toys & Games that will provide today’s kids with fun, educational and sustainable new products with tangible heritage and brand awareness. Rachael Simpson-Jones, Toy World’s resident natural history geek and lover of all things taxidermy, was invited for a behind-the-scenes tour of the museum to find out more.

Our day starts with monkeys. Carved stone monkeys to be exact, the ones that adorn the pillars of the stunning Hintze Hall, the largest public gallery in the museum and a Romanesque architectural wonder designed by Alfred Waterhouse. According to Emma Russell, the museum’s senior licensing manager, urban legend has it that some of the monkeys sport long beards, supposedly a dig at naturalist Charles Darwin: the Museum’s first ever superintendent, Sir Richard Owen, is known to have had a strong opposition to Darwin's theory of natural selection. “People think grudges are bad nowadays, but even back in the 17th century, these men had serious beef,” Emma laughs.

Bearded or not, these carvings are central to the museum’s DNA and to a rich, storied history going back hundreds of years. Nowadays, the museum welcomes some five million visitors every year from across the globe, hosts a raft of events (from sleepovers and film premieres to the Wildlife Photographer of the Year Awards and Dawnosaurs, an accessible morning for neurodiverse children), is home to some of the world's foremost scientists and of more than 80m objects spanning billions of years of our planet’s history. There’s a lot to see and do –and a lot of licensing possibilities to boot.

For Emma, who prior to joining NHM’s team in the summer of 2022 was Hardlines manager at Entertainment One and Hasbro, it’s this breadth and depth of heritage and history that offers unparalleled opportunities for licensees to tap into. While we peer into tanks and jars of all manner of preserved creatures in the museum’s subterranean wet specimen vaults (a giant squid, a python, Darwin’s octopus, oh my!), she tells me her remit is very much focused on the Toys & Games category, a hitherto untapped area for NHM. The museum has previously seen great success amongst the adult and heritage licensing markets, but feels the time is right to prioritise the Toys & Games category. Emma has therefore devised a licensing strategy that a) will introduce a raft of new deals aimed at younger audiences and b) introduce science and STEM to kids in the form of NHM-backed product.

“Most science and STEM toys and games are aimed at kids aged 6-8 years and older, due to the necessary safety and small parts testing,” she notes. “What that means is that there’s a big gap from pre-school to that six-year mark. It may only be a few years, but they are pivotal years. Kids learn through play, especially when they’re that young, but there’s a real shortage of products that actively encourage and nurture kids’ interest in the natural world. We have a vast amount of knowledge we can pour into NHM licensed early learning product, and our brand heritage will always win over the consumer – they know they can trust the product on the shelf when they see it’s got our stamp on it.”

Armed with her industry knowledge and a target demographic to go after, Emma’s first major Toys & Games licensing deal was announced in October 2023. The agreement has seen James Galt & Co. (Galt Toys), part of Jumbo Group, produce the Let’s Learn range of STEM kits, which combine fun activities with hands-on learning. Officially launched in February this year, the Galt x Natural History Museum Let’s Learn collection features Dinosaurs, Tiny Creatures and Animals and has gone down a storm at recent trade shows. Galt and NHM have much in common: they are both respected and trusted by families, they have a vested interest in kids’ development, they’re progressive and forward looking. The brands align perfectly, Emma enthuses, and this promises that the partnership will only go from strength to strength over the years. International wholesalers as well as John Lewis and Waterstones have already listed the Let’s Learn range, and Toy Fair has only increased retail interest, especially among the UK’s indies and smaller toy specialists where NHM is keen to establish a strong foothold going forward.

While we ponder a glass display cabinet filled with geodes and crystals, Emma uses an appropriately geologically themed explainer to outline the museum’s wider approach to licensing, now the first deals in the Toys & Games industry are off the ground. She says: “Think of it like boulders, rocks and sand. So, the boulders are your established partners, such as Galt. The rocks are your secondary partners and categories - they fit into the bigger gaps around your boulders - and then the sand is your tertiary business, which fully fills your licensing silo.”

Core to NHM’s strategy will be the fact that all its products will reflect what the museum’s scientists do day-to-day. Grow your own crystals and make your own wind turbine kits are out; footprint tunnel kits, camera traps, nature journals and sweep nets are in. A mother herself, Emma is truly passionate about ensuring kids really are learning as they play, even if it’s by stealth. The nature of the products she wants to see created also means they’d sit just as much in the Role-Play category as they would in STEM, so the door is open to approaches from partners that believe they can seamlessly merge the two.

Licensees who sign up to work with NHM will benefit from one of the UK’s, if not the world’s, most recognisable and trusted brand names, Emma tells me, when asked what partners can expect from any relationship. They’ll also gain expertise from the museum’s licensing team, which has a direct line to the museum’s 300 scientists, from moth experts to palaeontologists and rare book conservators to marine biologists. Any toy company wanting to produce STEM products would be advised to consult a real-life scientist anyway, Emma rightly points out: so why not work with NHM and use theirs? Then there’s the museum’s remarkable archives and scientific collections (its content, if you will), which one could spend days, if not weeks, poring through (and trust me, I could have). As far as back-catalogues go, NHM’s must surely be up there with the very biggest and best – in the rare book library, we were presented with the museum’s oldest natural history book, Pliny the Elder’s Historia Naturalis. First published in 1469, about 1,400 years after it was compiled, the illuminated first edition is one of only 100 surviving today and is a testament to the museum’s commitment to the preservation and dissemination of truly rare and remarkable objects.

“Parents and families love us,” Emma adds. “Teachers too: we welcome 2,600 school groups every year and we’re already flying the flag for education. Partnering with NHM isn’t a gamble whatsoever, it’s a seriously safe bet.”

Sustainability is fundamental to Emma’s efforts to expand NHM’s licensing programme. The museum is prioritising potential partners who are committed to progressive and sustainable manufacturing and consider a product’s complete lifecycle; whether it be eco-friendly, sustainably-made or recyclable product, or better yet, passed down from generation to generation. It’s a bold stance to take in a fast-moving industry dominated by virgin plastic, but one that is completely in tune with the NHM’s mission and ethos. After all, the blue whale skeleton (AKA: ‘Hope’) that replaced Hintze Hall’s ‘Dippy’ the diplodocus in 2017 was intended to shine a light on our collective responsibility to look after the natural world.

“I’m looking at wooden toys manufactured from FSCcertified wood from sustainably managed forests as well as what I call ‘heirloom’ toys, the ones you want to hold onto and pass on to future family members or friends for their children to enjoy,” Emma says. “Within that, I’m exploring play sets and role-play options that move beyond the very traditional ‘domestic’ role-play which sometimes doesn’t leave much scope for exploring outside of stereotypical gender roles, something we are really keen to tackle here at NHM. I’d love to find a partner that would produce a largescale wooden NHM museum set. The kids could head outdoors with their adult caregivers and return home as scientists-in-training, with their ‘specimens’ and samples.

They could then examine them under the microscope, display them in the cases, and present back their findings to peers and caregivers. Can you imagine how lovely that would be?”

Away from early learners entirely, Emma is also exploring licensing opportunities within the Kidult market. As I witnessed first-hand when exploring the eerily quiet Dinosaurs gallery prior to the museum opening to the public, NHM has a stunning array of fossil skulls, jaws, skeletons, shells, skin and feathers, many of which are just begging to be turned into high-quality replica collectors’ pieces suitable for display. Emma tells me that while there’s a market for these items, appealing to adults whose first and lasting obsession was dinosaurs, there’s a surprising lack of companies actually catering to this type of kidult.

“Sure, you can get a replica Batman mask or a Jurassic Park chess set, but outside of that core Entertainment sector there’s a huge amount of untapped potential,” she muses. “And there are an awful lot of people out there who would really like a 1:16th scale Tyrannosaurus rex skull on their desk at work. What’s more, we can help companies both make these products and tell the story behind them. We have the capacity and tools to scan these specimens, convert them into OBG files, and create the finished sculpture from there. Then, we can help create on-pack messaging that shows consumers the whole process from start to finish and really, fully engage them.”

Over well-earned coffee and cake towards the end of the tour, Emma explains how her licensing strategy also hinges upon producing items that will surprise and delight consumers, while at the same time completely aligning with the museum’s mission statement. For example, other licensing agreements recently announced include Playpress Toys, which will be producing a charming range of FSC-certified paper play sets designed to teach kids about dinosaurs and life at the museum in innovative, sustainable and creative new ways. Tonies is also on board, having signed a new deal with NHM that will see it develop audio content ‘like never before’, in collaboration with the museum’s scientists, that offers a completely holistic approach to learning. Seed Pantry, meanwhile, one of NHM’s newer licensees, will be making grow-your-own seed kits that attract different species of bees or nocturnal creatures as well as a range of windowsill-gardener sets for kids that may not have access to a private outdoor space. The added learning benefits will be introduced via the growing itself, with kids encouraged to experiment with their composts, lighting and more and observe under which conditions their seedlings grow best – and why.

On the subject of growth, Emma is keen to emphasise that the licensing team wants to expand NHM’s licensing programme slowly and thoughtfully. As she puts it, throwing loads of stuff at the wall and seeing what sticks only puts retail buyers off and ultimately damages the relationship between all parties involved. All future NHM collaborations will, she promises, will make total sense, and be the result of strategic consultation with key retailers and best in class licensees; the result of focused and careful curation – much like the museum’s exhibits themselves.

“There are so many stories to discover here at the Natural History Museum, whether written or unwritten, and they’re accessible 362-days a year, for free, to anyone who wishes to visit,” Emma enthuses as we head back towards the exit, through now-bustling halls of taxidermy animals, oil paintings, fossils and bones - and excited schoolkids. “Now what we want to do is bring those stories to life through new licensing collaborations that will turn our planet’s incredible natural history into the educational toys of tomorrow. I’m excited to make that happen.”