Spin Master has singed a 3 year licensing agreement with Warner Bros. Consumer Products for DC comics properties. The agreement covers games, puzzles, action toys, remote control and robotic vehicles, and water toys beginning in spring 2020.

PlayMonster (5 Second Rule, Yeti in My Spaghetti) is partnering with Audax Private Equity to finance additional expansion through “organic growth and add-on acquisitions.”

Goliath continues to grow, acquiring U.K. based Vivid Toy Group and moving in to the Italian market through a partnership with distributor MacDue. With the acquisition of Vivid, Goliath plans to launch 20 new games in the U.K. market next year.

Drumond Park has signed on with Tomy UK as exclusive distributor for all the former’s games in the U.K. and Ireland.

NSKN Games (Dice Settlers, Teotihuacan) and Board & Dice Games (Beet Empire, Dice Brewing) are merging. The combined company will continue operations under the Board & Dice name.

With the passing of designer Greg Stafford and earlier Stewart Wieck, of the games’ latest publisher, Nocturnal Media, the RPGs King Arthur Pendragon and Prince Valliant have been transferred again to Chaosium.

After a couple of messy PR situations involving insensitive or extremist material in game books, Paradox Interactive is stepping back from the publishing business but not abandoning the World of Darkness altogether. Instead, Paradox is moving to a licensing model and integrating White Wolf’s operations in to the parent company. Modiphius Entertainment, which was already handling distribution, is taking over development and publication for Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition. This will include production of various supplements (such as The Fall of London Chronicle and Players Guide), as well as oversight of other licensees (Onyx Path Publishing, Elderwood Academy, Dogmight Games, and others).

Impressions Game Distribution Services is being acquired by Flat River Group. The latter is a toy and game distribution company with business in e-commerce and crowdfunding fulfillment. Impressions founder Aldo Ghiozzi will continue with the combined company.

Scientific Games and Hasbro have extended their license agreement through 2025. The agreement covers the use of Hasbro properties, including Monopoly, Battleship, Clue, Yahtzee, and others for lotteries, slot machines, online gaming, and now also table games.

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Toy Fair 2018—Playmonster

Party games were the focus at Playmonster this year, along with some cute spin-offs of earlier kids games.

Relative Insanity ($25 retail, available now) is a party game written by comedian Jeff Foxworthy. It applies the now-familiar structure of one-player-the-judge and applies it to joke writing with 100 Setup cards and 400 Punch Line cards.

In Dictitious ($25, now) everyone votes on player-submitted definitions for fake words.

Utter Nonsense ($25, now), available in Family and Naughty editions, is a game of accents and special voices in the one-player-the-judge, party-game category. These were previously independently published and Target exclusives but were recently acquired by Playmonster [interesting, considering the company also sells Accentuate].

Chrono Bomb! Night Vision ($30, fall) takes the company’s previously released spy-themed activity game of dodging laser security systems (actually strings tied to timers) and adds UV goggles so kids can play in the dark.

Pass the Pup is a combination of hot-potato and action game. Press the dog’s paw to start the music. Whomever is holding the pup when the music stops must do what it says on the next action card.

Already in-print but now getting a refresh is Don’t Rock the Boat ($22, now), a balancing challenge with pirate penguins. In this new version, the individual penguin figures will represent distinct characters and have different weights.

As a follow-up to the absolutely fantastic Yeti in My Spaghetti, this year Playmonster has Yeti, Set, Go! ($22, summer). Each player gets a yeti and by bopping them on the head, kicks meatballs up the mountain. Points are totaled depending on where the meatballs land. Though not a licensed product, expect some cross-promotion with the movie, Smallfoot, scheduled for September.

And finally, not games but still very cool, Playmonster is adding two more machines to the Marbleocity line, Chaos Mountain and Archimedes Screw ($25 each, spring). They can be hand-cranked or motorized and linked to other elements of the series.

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Toy Fair 2017—Playmonster

My favorite game for kids at Toy Fair was Ultra Dash (June, $25), Playmonster’s version of an earlier game, Hyper Dash. It has a set of targets in different colors and a wand (which they call a “tagger”) that flashes the same colors in varying patterns. Kids, or energetic adults, are supposed to run from room to room, plugging the wand in to the matching targets. Settings allow for most targets in a fixed time, quickest time for a fixed number of targets, or for play as a team relay game.

On the silly end of things, Playmonster had Belching Mikey (June, $10), a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles version of its hot-potato game, Stinky Pig.

This year, Playmonster is also bringing back two fast-play card games previously with other publishers, 7 Ate 9 and Qwitch (available shortly, $10 each). A player’s goal in both is to get rid of their cards by discarding in series. In 7 Ate 9, the next card follows the numbers on the previous one. So for example, the 4 ± 3 card can be followed by either 1 or 7. In Qwitch, cards have numbers and letters, and the direction for the following card is set by a separate deck with + and – symbols.

For adults, Playmonster is launching two party games. Accentuate (June, $25) has players reading movie quotes in various accents. Teammates able to guess the accent or movie earn points. Go Bleep Yourself (June, $25) is about filling in the blank (or bleep) with either something funny or something that turn’s reader would likely have said.

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Celebrity Name Game

celebrity-name-gameCelebrity Name Game from PlayMonster (until recently known as Patch Products) recreates the television show for players at home. The game is played in teams with each team having one player give clues while the others try to guess the names of matching celebrities. Another name for this could be, “Guaranteed to Beat David”.

However, don’t let me hold you back! Included in the box ($25 suggested retail) are an electronic timer, score chips, and 150 double-sided cards filled with the names of people probably a lot more familiar to you.

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Paper Money

MattelMattel’s fourth quarter gross sales were 3 percent higher in 2015, absent the impact of currency exchange rates, compared to the same period in the previous year. Full-year gross sales were up 1 percent in constant-currency terms, buoyed by 7 percent growth in Fisher-Price and a 22 percent rise from Hot Wheels. Mattel’s entertainment business, which includes both the digital and tabletop games categories, grew 16 percent.

A recently announced “strategic partnership” will see Stronghold Games handling all English-language games of eggerspiele in North America.

The two Toys “R” Us stores in Ireland are shutting down just 6 months after opening.

Queen Games has begun providing its games direct to distributors in North America, ending its distribution arrangement with Asmodee NA. Queen Games will use Ship Naked for fulfillment, with Hit Point Sales also providing an alternate sales vehicle.

For its part, Asmodee has acquired Nordic and Dutch distributor Bersgala Enigma and is renaming the company to just “Enigma”.

Patch Products of Beloit, Wisconsin has acquired STEM and construction toy company, Roominate. Patch also changed its name to Playmonster.

Spin Master has acquired the Etch A Sketch and Doodle Sketch brands, including all related patents, trademarks, tooling, and inventory, from The Ohio Art Company.

Bay Tek Games has purchased Skee Ball.

Playmore Games of Finland announced the closing of an Angel round of funding with €250,000 from Nolwenture Ltd. and Davigia Ltd. The investment will be used to expand the company’s distribution network for tabletop games, as well as to develop its Dized application for enhancing tabletop games with digital content.

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