Circana - Insight

The little big things

Rory looks at how innovation in the Collectibles category has boosted growth for sales and examines the top performers in the sector.

Collectibles is always a vitally important part of the toy industry, and the category has accounted for a sizeable share of the overall market for many years. In 2018, the share of toys volume taken up by Collectibles in the UK toy market hit 25%, a record high largely driven by the success of L.O.L Surprise! The share then dipped to 16% in 2020 when the pandemic hit, and consumers moved spend away from collectibles and into other categories. Since this time, the share for Collectibles has been steadily moving back up again and was back over 20% in 2023. This year, the latest data to July 2024 shows that the volume share for Collectibles has almost returned to the record high seen in 2018, making up 24% of all toy volume. Examining Circana toy data can help us understand why this has happened and what categories and product trends are driving the appetite for collectible toys in 2024 so far. We can evaluate whether trends have changed over this period or if the growth is coming from the same areas.

Looking back at 2021, the largest category in Collectibles was Action Figures Collectibles which made up over a fifth of all spend. This was followed by Playset Dolls, which was around the same amount, meaning that 40% of all Collectible spend was coming from these two categories. In 2023, these two categories accounted for 30% of spend, and in 2024 this had dropped to 27%. The categories that have moved into the top two spots in 2024 are Strategic Trading Cards and Traditional Plush, both having grown strongly since 2021. These two categories were also the two top performers in the total UK toy market in 2023. The growth in Traditional Plush has been particularly impressive within Collectibles: in 2021 this category accounted for only 12% of sales, while it has now risen to 21%. Strategic Trading Cards now represents nearly a quarter of all Collectibles spend – sales have undoubtedly been driven by a strong period of growth from Pokémon, but this property is not the only factor driving the recent TCG success.

Strategic Trading Cards has seen impressive growth over the last few years and has risen from being worth £44m in 2021 to just over £68m in 2023. The category has held up well in 2024 too and is currently showing an overall trend in line with the total toy market. The biggest change in Strategic Trading Cards is the strength of new players making up a larger share of the category. In 2021, Asmodee, which distributes Pokémon trading cards in the UK, represented just over 80% of all value in the category. In 2023 Asmodee had grown +12% in value, but its share had dropped to 68% because of increased competition in the category with Topps, Hasbro (Magic the Gathering) and Ravensburger (Disney Lorcana) taking up around 20% of share collectively. In 2024 there has been another shift with Topps introduction of Euro 2024 Match Attax cards; the latest data shows its share in the category has moved to 20%.

Traditional plush has been one of the standout categories of the last few years and was the category that added most value to the market in 2023. The category added over £16m last year and of that gain, just over half of it came from Collectibles. Squishmallows has been a standout property in UK toys in recent years, and this is also the case in Collectibles; the property was the top collectible plush property and has gone from having a £5m collectible value in 2021 to nearly £33m in 2023. In 2024, the property is still No.1 within the Plush Collectibles space, but new entrants such as Snackles, Aphmau and Adopt Me! are all taking significant share. It is also worth mentioning that Special Feature Plush has been increasing share within Collectibles too, with Pets Alive from Zuru leading the growth with several items featuring in the top spots within the category.

In 2018, when Collectibles hit the high share of 25%, this was driven by one standout property combined with growth from a handful of other properties. The picture in 2024 is markedly different with the steady rise in share being driven by established properties performing well and strong growth from new additions across several different categories. This has meant that we have more categories in the Collectibles area than ever before, which is helping volume trends within the market. As innovation in Collectibles continues in 2024 and into 2025, this should help get volume numbers back to flat in the UK.

Item Progression

The Uno Card Game Assortment has jumped 12 places in July versus its market position in June, moving the item into the top 10 for value for the month. The popular game has had a strong year so far, establishing itself as the No.1 item in the Card Games subclass, while the overall Uno brand is +19% compared to 2023. This growth for the brand has been helped not only by strong sales for the core item, but also the addition of sales from this year’s new launch - Uno Show Em No Mercy. This has added significant value to the range, which has also benefitted from the additions of Uno All Wild and Uno Flip, together with various licensed versions of Uno.

Fastest Growing Licences

Licensed sales are +3% so far in 2024, growing ahead of the market and increasing share to 33% of overall sales for YTD July 2024, up from 31% for the same period last year.

The top gaining licence in 2024 so far is UEFA National, which has been driven by the Euro 2024 football championships running in June and July this year. This growth was helped by strong sales in both Non-Strategic Trading Cards/Collectible Stickers and Strategic Trading Card Games. The stickers made up around 57% of sales for the licence, with Strategic Trading Cards making up just over 40%.

The licences at No.2 and No.4 are both vehicle based; Mercedes-Benz and McLaren being driven by The Lego Group. The top item for the McLaren licence is the Speed Champions McLaren F1 Race Car, and the top item for the Mercedes licence is the Technic Mercedes-Benz AMG F1 W14 E Performance. There is quite a difference is the average price of these items, with the Speed Champions item having an average price of £18.64 and the Technic item coming in much higher at £165.

Lilo & Stitch is the third best performing licence in 2024, continuing to add sales across a number of categories in toys. Building Sets, Action Figure Collectibles and Plush are the three largest categories in value size. In total the licence is now registering sales across 35 different subclasses in 2024, which is up significantly from 12 last year, demonstrating its growth in popularity this year. The Disney Classic Lilo & Stitch from Lego is the top item for the licence so far, with the Lilo And Stitch Plush Stitch 25 Cm from Simba at No. 2.