Coolabi to Unveil New Clangers

International media organization and IP owner Coolabi Group will showcase its robust roster of brands at BLE this week, and unveil new "Clangers" characters.

April 6, 2018

Among the brands Coolabi will feature this year include Clangers, Beast Quest, Poppy Cat, Purple Ronnie, Scream Street, Domo and Bagpuss.

The rebooted 52x11 "Clangers" series is set to launch next year on CBeebies in the U.K. and on Sprout in the U.S. The preschool series will feature stop-motion animation, and two the series character, Small and Tiny, will make their first public appearance on the first day of the show at 10 a.m.

A number of licensees are already on board for the reboot including Character Options (master toy), Penguin (books), Immediate Media (magazines), C&M Licensing (apparel), MV Sports & Leisure (wheeled toys), Gemma International (greeting cards and gift wrap), Trade Mark Collections (children's bags) and Rainbow Productions (costume characters).

Fantasy franchise, Beast Quest, which is published

in the U.K. by Orchard Books and owned by Working Partners, will come to life in the digital world through a joint venture with Miniclip and Coolabi, with mobile games launching in December. SkyJack Publishing and Pedigree Books will both be printing

Beast Quest

-themed publications, including three magazines and an annual, respectively. In the games space, Winning Moves UK has come on board and will launch a collection of Top Trumps cards in November. New books are in the works from Orchard Books for later this year and throughout 2015.

With a second season of popular animated series "Poppy Cat" recently aired on Nick Jr., Coolabi has signed two new licensing agents for the brand–Firefly Brand Management in the U.S. and El Ocho in Spain. Cosmic Forces is developing an educational game app for the property, and StoryToys is launched a gaming story app in September.

The Purple Ronnie brand, which has been refreshed with a brand-new look primarily targeting 15- to 30-year-olds, is getting a new product range from Gemma International featuring greetings cards, gift wrap, party products and print-on-demand cards. Coolabi’s partnership with online producer and broadcaster Little Dot Studios has seen the launch of a brand new Purple Ronnie You Tube Channel featuring animated shorts, and a charity deal with Teenage Cancer Trust, dedicated to improving the lives of young people with cancer, has initiatives in the pipeline for the charity to use Purple Ronnie's humor and redesigned artwork.

A 52 x 11 stop-motion series is currently in production with CBBC the horror-comedy-adventure aimed at 7- to 10-year-olds.

Viral Internet meme Domo launched a global H&M collaboration this spring with more lines to be added this fall.

And finally, Bagpuss celebrated his 40th anniversary, with a number of partners coming on board to help him mark the milestone. Those partners include Intelex (plush), PMS International (gifting and leisure plush), Digital Giving (personalized charity t-shirts), Blues Clothing (apparel), Heroes for Kids (personalized cake toppers, cards and tablecloths), Hype Associates (greetings cards), IndigoBlu (rubber stamps), Serif (digital card kits) and Immediate Media (compilation magazine,

Blossom

). HD, digitally re-mastered episodes of the original series will soon be available on DVD.