Thunderbird Brands is Taking Off in a Big Way

Thunderbird Entertainment Group is a global award-winning, full-service multiplatform production, distribution and rights management company. Thunderbird creates award-winning scripted, unscripted and animated programming for the world’s leading digital platforms and Canadian and international broadcasters. The company develops, produces and distributes animated, factual and scripted content through its various content arms, which include Thunderbird Kids and Family (Atomic Cartoons), Thunderbird Unscripted (Great Pacific Media) and Thunderbird Scripted. Productions under the Thunderbird umbrella include “The Last Kids on Earth,” “Molly of Denali,” “Highway Thru Hell,” “Kim’s Convenience,” “Reginald the Vampire” and “Boot Camp.”

The company formalized its consumer products operations in June under the new Thunderbird Brands banner. Richard Goldsmith, president, global distribution and consumer products, Thunderbird Brands, spoke with License Global about the announcement of the new division at Licensing Expo in June and shared some of the latest news on two of its kids’ properties, “Mermicorno: Starfall” and “Mittens and Pants.”

Goldsmith noticed at Licensing Expo how positive the response was to the new division. 

“The Last Kids on Earth” DVD Cover.

“We were very excited to announce this new division,” says Goldsmith. “Licensing Expo was a great place to kick it off. We were a bit overwhelmed by the response and about how many meetings we had because Thunderbird is new to this business.”

At Licensing Expo, the company focused on four of its brands. Three are kids’ properties, and one is an adult brand. Although it’s not set to debut until January 2025, the response to “Mermicorno: Starfall” was particularly positive. The series, based on the Mermicorno collectibles line created by Tokidoki, is an original animated adventure-comedy for kids ages 6-9. Created and produced by Atomic Cartoons in partnership with global design tastemaker, Tokidoki, the show will debut exclusively in the U.S. on Warner Bros. Discovery’s Max. The series takes place in a magical undersea world where eight Mermicornos (unicorn/mermaid creatures) have banded together to save the ocean.

“‘Mermicorno’ is in production now for Warner Media and other platforms worldwide,” explains Goldsmith. The show targets girls six to nine, and Goldsmith credits some of the reaction to Mermicorno to what he calls a huge hole in the consumer products market for a girls’ brand, particularly for that demographic. 

“Publishers love ‘Mermicorno’ because not only is it a big production, with 30-minute episodes, it’s sophisticated storytelling, which naturally could be novels or chapter books,” he says. Goldsmith explains that at Licensing Expo, Thunderbirds’ focus was on the foundation licensees for retail, which he says is toys and publishing, or more long-lead licensees, like video games. 

“And we had a great reaction on all three fronts,” says Goldsmith, who teased an announcement around “Mermicorno” at some point soon. “Our newest show, which debuted in February, is ‘Mittens and Pants.’ It targets preschoolers, so they are two very different series.”

In the live-action series, Mittens, the kitten, and Pants, the puppy, have adventures in their town of Kibble Corners where the houses and vehicles are all their size. Goldsmith says that during Licensing Expo, a head of a major toy company said, “This is the most toyic brand that I have seen at Licensing Expo this week.” 

For “Mittens and Pants,” Goldsmith says that the publishers were blown away by the production and how beautiful their town was. “We believe that initially we’ll be doing books and just taking images from the series,” says Goldsmith. The second season of “Mittens and Pants” has already launched in Canada, and the season features more play patterns introduced and additional vehicles. Those decisions stemmed from recommendations from toy consultants about what was missing. “Even though we’re making a TV show, we’re very strategic in choosing what to add,” explains Goldsmith. 

Big News to Come

And while Thunderbird has surefire hits on its hands with its new properties, there’s more in its portfolio, says Goldsmith.

“With both ‘Mermicorno’ and ‘Mittens and Pants,’ we’re having multiple discussions with the top publishers and I imagine that before the end of the year, we’ll be able to announce publishing partners for both properties,” he says. “While ‘Mermicorno’ and ‘Mittens and Pants’ are the two biggest opportunities, Thunderbird also saw a lot of interest in ‘The Last Kids On Earth,’ which is one of the top-selling book series in North America, and it has a Netflix show. We do believe that we will have a nice licensing program for that in North America announced by the end of 2023 or the beginning of 2024.“

"Mermicorn" Scene.

Recognizing Video Trends

Goldsmith noted that the media business became incredibly challenging last year as they were all looking at subscription video on demand as a huge investment, and questioning what their business model should be moving forward.

“Most of the major media companies are still sorting through what their plans are for kids’ content and what their commitment is,” he says. “Since we are one of the world’s largest suppliers of kids’ content, particularly animation, we’re in constant dialogue with these companies. And the most immediate impact is that we believe that there will be less content commissioned. We believe that where media companies were experimenting, they’re going to be cutting back.”

As an example, he points to young adult content, targeting 14 to 17, which was an area that most of the platforms were interested in getting into.

Now they’re reevaluating their budgets and their focus, so there’s less enthusiasm. But Goldsmith says that he sees that in animation, there is a strong market still for preschool content and for bridge content.

“In the animation business, there’s still a huge amount of interest for ages three to nine,” explains Goldsmith. “From a trend perspective, we still believe that there’s nothing better for a licensed brand for kids than to have television content. And that definition has changed; now television YouTube, short-form content on demand – including subscription, video on demand – all different platforms. It’s all under the label of television. 

“Every discussion that we’ve had with retailers and with manufacturers or licensees, they’re very interested in what our television plan is,” he says. “We also believe that every series that we have that is going to be merchandisable for kids must also have short-form content attached to it. When we design a series, we have multiple phases of short-form content that we roll out, and that is specifically for YouTube and TikTok to target kids, and social media platforms to target their parents.”