Here are ICv2's Top Five Toy/Model/Statue Stories of 2001.  These rankings are based on the response of our users and our own assessment of the business impact of these events on pop culture retailers. 

 

1.Funimation and Irwin team up for DBZ Toys.  With Dragon Ball/Dragon Ball Z the hottest anime property on U.S. television right now, the market cried out for higher-end action figures than Irwin was producing.  The result was a new company formed by Irwin and FUNimation, the U.S. master licensee.  IF Labs will be producing figures based on Dragon Ball and the DBZ movies, as well as other properties such as Yu Yu Hakusho.  See 'FUNimation and Irwin Team Up for DBZ Toys.'

 

2.Diamond Select gets Marvel figure license.  Bowen Designs routinely takes several of the Top 10 Cool Toys spots every month with its Marvel products.  Now that is to be no more, as Diamond Select takes over the Marvel license for resins (see 'Diamond Select To Do Ultimate Statues').  This will have a major top-line impact on both companies, with Diamond Select taking on one of the most successful lines in pop culture stores, and Bowen losing it.  It will also represent a further consolidation of distribution in the resin segment, as retailers accustomed to purchasing Bowen products direct or from other distributors will now need to purchase the Diamond Select Marvel products from Diamond (as they do DC Direct products).  Yet to be seen is whether or not Diamond Select can maintain the high quality and sales that Bowen has achieved.

 

3.Toy Biz restructures.  Marvel's Toy Biz division has made major changes in the way it does business this year, exiting the toy manufacturing business and becoming a master licensee of toy properties.  It first stopped doing business with any retailers that did not purchase FOB Hong Kong and licensed toy manufacturing to a Hong Kong company (see 'Marvel Cash Flow Positive in Q2').  Later, it announced that the company to which it was handing off manufacturing would now be handling the sales to retailers as well (see ...Marvel's Third Quarter').   

 

 

4.Toys for adults.  This is really a continuation of a trend that's been going on for a number of years.  It was begun by McFarlane Toys, with its detailed figures designed to appeal to collectors.  In 2001, both McFarlane and new companies continued to expand the range of toy products of interest to adult customers (see 'Toys for Adults').

 

5.Bionicles.  Lego's latest import from Europe was designed for toy stores and mass merchants, but pop culture retailers have also caught the wave with the Bionicles CCG and limited distribution of the toys (see 'Bionicles:  Lego's Integrated Approach to Creating a Toy Boom').  There's a great back-story in CDs packaged with the figures, in the CCG, and in the comic, and an integrated approach that appears to be having success in the U.S. (see 'Bionicles Biggest for the Holidays?').