Toy Fair 2019: Pokemon & Detective Pikachu Presentation at Wicked Cool Toys

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: Thank you guys all on this. If there's anybody that feels uncomfortable being in an Associated Press photo, let us know. I don't think that that would be the case, but you never know. Some people are trying to avoid the cops. Not yet. Not yet. You really do know you're on it. Yeah, look. I'm still working the mic. I like you guys. I hear from here, so that's a good sign. Yeah. Now in Ryan Reynolds' voice. So, first off, welcome to New York Toy Fair and the wiki pool toys booth. This is a huge, huge one for us, because we're here to talk to you about a lot of things that are very relevant to the collector community, including the Pokemon movie, which is coming out May 10th, which is going to be a blockbuster. And Michael Rensler here, business partner, and we've slugged it out in this business. Not against each other. Not against each other. No, we've held each other closely as we've gotten through the challenging times. But we're at that point now, guys, where really the world is our oyster in terms of what we can do for the collector community. And you'll see at the end of the day, as we take you through, that you're going to feel very confident that we're going to live up to that. Okay. So, Detective Pikachu. Movie's coming out May 10th. It's going to be remarkably thin. You're going to take pictures and videos of that as we go through. But there's five or six key items, including a Pikachu that has Ryan Reynolds' voice. I can't describe why exactly that's the case, but I will tell you that the movie will explain all of these things. There are talking flush. There are figures. There are Bindi Flush, specifically Mr. Mime. And I will tell you, it's just a really fun, great little lineup for the movie that is going to be well received. Again, I'm not going to go around the room and pointing things out. You guys could use my voice and perhaps do some video over however you want to do it. Totally understand how you guys run. But I'd also be happy to stick around afterwards if you need some shots. When you walk through the Pokemon room, what you'll see is we are the global master toy partner for Pokemon outside of Asia, where Tomy does a phenomenal job and really they're a great company. We are thrilled to be their partner. You know, Pokemon made an investment in Wicked Cool Toys a little over a year ago. Became our business partner. And frankly speaking, I didn't know that you could have a business partner of that magnitude, of that scale, that supported. Good question. Yes? Do you share models or molds with Tony? No. We don't. Although, listen, I've got to tell you, in terms of openness, transparency, willingness to try things, there is nothing that's completely out of bounds for us. So who knows? Maybe you've just built a bridge between the two companies. Who knows? No, we're friends. We're friends. We're friends. Okay, so as you walk through this room, keep in mind a few things. Okay? Detective Pikachu is going to be a blockbuster. This movie, you know, I'm not going to quote numbers, but it should be one of the biggest movies of the year around the world. You've probably seen the trailer. If you've seen the trailer and you feel good about it, you might be holding a microphone or something right now, but I'm sure you'd like it. But let me tell you something. That thing, I will tell you what I've seen in the additional footage. It's funny. It's heartwarming. It's true to the brand. And it's just a lovely experience. And then as you go through this year, towards the end of the year, I know that you guys know there's a new game being released. And you know what's associated with that. And we are just at a wonderful time for Pokemon. I'll give you a stat that maybe you're not aware of. Okay, with Pokemon. Pokemon is the number one content brand at all time at mass retail. $59 billion in 22 years. Guess what's number two? Anyone? Star Wars. Star Wars. Star Wars is number two. Not me my friend. We are their very happy party. Pokemon brand. No, but Pokemon brand is number one in terms of retail sales. Star Wars is number two. They're in the 40s. Over 40 years. So these types of stats are mind-blowing. They're so humble to have achieved so much. And it takes a little schmuck like myself out here screaming these numbers because they would never do it themselves. So please, take a good look around the Pokemon room. I'm going to walk you guys around. So feel free to come back in here and take any pictures and videos that you'd like. Thank you very much. Woo! Thank you, Jeremy. Alright. So that's Pokemon. Awesomeness. And again, however you guys want to do it. How would you guys like to do this? Do you want to spend five minutes in here taking photos, doing what you need to do, and then we'll move on to the next? Or do you want to go through the entire showroom and then come back and pick and choose the things that you'd like to focus on? Chop us into groups. Chop you into groups? That might be a good idea. Whew! Too small of a booth for that. I guess. Too small of a booth. I agree with you. Why don't we do a walkthrough and then let us freelance? Alright, I'll do a walkthrough. Okay, guys. This is going to be fun. And forgive me. If I bounce into somebody, I want you to know that there's a lot of respect that goes into the bounce. It has nothing to do with you personally. And as much as I like bouncing into people on accident, I wouldn't want to be liable for it. Covering all the bases. So, let's start with Pokemon. Let's start with this and then we'll come back and we'll do the movies later. So, in the Pokemon brand, we do well over a hundred figures a year. And when you think about Pokemon, and this isn't using the right terminology, but for someone who doesn't know Pokemon necessarily that well, you have small, medium, large, and extra-large Pokemon, okay? There's over 800 Pokemon in the universe and they fall on a different scale. We embrace those scales, okay? Even though you can't do it perfectly scale because you have Pokemon that are hundreds of feet tall. You have Pokemon that are very small. But we embrace it. We throw them into various buckets of size. So, the small, you get two two-inch figures at $5.99 to $6.99 at retail. And those are assorted with a three-inch figure with articulation also at $5.99. So, together you get the small and medium Pokemon. The large Pokemon are $9.99 at retail. And they have some level of battle feature, okay? So, now you've got almost all the Pokemon covered until you get to legendary, extra-large, meaningful-sized Pokemon. A lot of power here. $14.99 to $19.99 retail. So, the entire Pokemon world of figures, which is very significant, the whole thing, everything. There's nothing over $20 in the entire line. We, and I hope that when you look at them, you see the sculpt, you see the attention to detail, and you recognize how much we actually absolutely care. Not just about the kids, but the collectors as well. Because, hey, Pokemon is a 20-something-year-old brand, and the people that love Pokemon are across multiple generations at this point. As we move over to Squishy Ditto. So, Ditto shapes, he's a shapeshifter, right? So, Ditto will form the shape of other Pokemon. And what you see with Squishy Ditto here, and this is just a mock-up package. But you see it's a compound inside. So, you're going to have a really fun feature with Squishy Ditto. Well, you know, Ditto at this price point isn't going to turn into every Pokemon, but you can squish Ditto around and have a lot of fun. Like a stressful material? Yeah, ish, ish. Okay. There's a secret formula inside that you would have to, you know, hire Iron Man to figure out. And if you drank it, you turned into the Hulk? If you drank it, you would turn into the Hulk. How did you know that? Alright, Pokemon Flush. You ready? So, one thing about our Pokemon Flush line that I hope that you guys recognize is the absolute A, price value. The attention to detail. The high piling. It's just a beautiful line of Flush. It looks like it belongs in specialty, but it's at mass. And, you know, one thing that we can do as a private company is it gives us the opportunity to go out there and we don't have to, we don't have to make the biggest margin in the business on every item. If we love an item, if we love something, we want to do the right thing, we want you guys, we want the collective community, we want the fans and kids to feel like they have something that they can cherish. And, uh, I believe our Pokemon Flush lives up to that all day long. Okay? So, 8 inch, 12 inch, there's seasonal Flush, et cetera, et cetera. Okay. Over here! Let's, uh, let's see. So, over here, Pokeballs. So, these Pokeballs, 4 inches, when you throw them, they always land the right way. Um, because they're weighted. It's kind of cool. They're weighted, not so much that they will knock your sister or brother over when you hit them. Little beans at the bottom. But they're weighted just enough to where, uh, we have zero, literally zero, viability. Just kidding. Just kidding. Please, everyone calm down. Um, next, uh, we're gonna go and do what I consider one of the absolute toys of the year. Um, and this is my partner Pikachu. Okay? And my partner Pikachu, let's see. I'm gonna turn it off and turn it on. And you're gonna forgive me on that. But this is, uh, this is the show. But my partner Pikachu, essentially, is a $20 item with lights and sounds and touch sensors all over its body. Okay? Right now, unfortunately, ambient noise in here is so much that we've had to tie a pretty significant speaker system to it. But in the end, what you have is you'll have light-up cheeks, you'll have light-up tail, you'll have moving arms and ears, and everything under $20 at retail, uh, to celebrate both Pikachu, Pokemon, and Detective Pikachu, which is the movie that's coming through. Alright. Alright. Everyone knows that the most powerful Pokemon isn't Magikarp. I'm sure you know that. Is that fair to say? Because Magikarp's amazing power is flopping. Now, we know flopping can be an extremely aggressive and powerful thing. But not, not really. And that's what it does. It flops. And again, $19.99, you can get a lot of flopping for $19.99. Okay? Best flopping. If you're looking for the best flopping, I'm going to, this is the best flopping in the world. No, I'm kidding. It's not here. It's going to be the quote for the show. There you go. How do you trigger it? Yes? How do you trigger it? You simply give it a light pat, and it will flop right off the shelf. I love that item. Yes. Michael Rensler loves that item. Yes. There's a lot of laughter and fun when it comes to flopping Magikarp. You know what? This basically sums up our career. It's a lot of flop per dollar. Yes. There's so much flop here. No, in all seriousness, you know what? This kind of gives you an idea of how we embrace collecting. Because honestly, you wouldn't necessarily take one of, not one of the most powerful characters, and put the time, the money, and the effort into making sure that it's celebrated in the right way. So that's Magikarp. It's going to be a lot of fun. Thank you. And it's flopping. And it's flopping. And luckily it's plush, so when it hits the ground, nothing breaks. All right. We'll let that flop all day. Next, Flame Action Charmander. You'll see light up tail. Charmander's screaming at the top of Charmander's lungs. And it's just a lot of fun. Great item at the price point. Under 30 bucks. No vibration motion on him. No vibration. Just, you know, when you touch the tail, I want you to be very careful because it's playing. I don't want to get my cigar off. I don't want you guys to get burned. So, be careful. All right. And next. We're walking into more roleplay now. So here, we have the Clip and Go. And the Clip and Go is a fun roleplay item where essentially what you have is a ball. And inside when you toss it, there's a little bungee cord on the end. And the plush character launches as if you're launching a Pokemon. And this has been a tried and true item year after year. It's one that we really very much like. New characters for this one this year? Yes, for sure. For sure. You'll see in wave three the various characters that are in this. All right. Next. All right. Two items that you can find primarily and some only in specialty. One are the two and three inch figures in this beautiful specially driven packaging. And I think that one thing that we like to do is we like to be relevant for kids and collectors alike. And a package like this certainly communicates that collectible value in that collector presentation. Do they stack? Very much like the old classic superstars if you ask me. And they do. They will stack on each other as well. Excellent. The whole shelf room together. Absolutely. We can stack it to the ceiling. Okay. And then next. And this is actually one of my favorite items in the showroom. Because it celebrates really the history of Pokemon as much as anything. It's Pokemon Quest. And Pokemon Quest, as you can see, it's more pixelated style of Pokemon. So what we've done is we've taken Pokemon and we've taken it back to its roots in a more pixelated style in a vinyl, fun, awesome pixelated style. So that's Pokemon Quest. And this is going to be launching late in 2019. Okay. [00:13:54] Speaker ?: Okay. [00:13:54] Speaker 1: And let's go over to the movie product, if you don't mind. Look at you guys. Alright. Let's do this. So. Eric Churney's here. So I'm in my background there. Eric's our head of design out of LA. Okay. You ready? So let's... Let's take our Pokemon. And you can see... Oh. Did I grab... Oh! Look! Aha! Aha! Toiled again, ladies and gentlemen. Now. Now we should get set. So this is the first time Pokemon has allowed for talking Pokemon. So Ludicolo is screaming Ludicolo. Ludicolo Ludicolo Ludicolo Ludicolo Ludicolo Ludicolo. If you missed that. Sounds like saying Ludicolo. He said Ludicolo Ludicolo Ludicolo Ludicolo Ludicolo Ludicolo Ludicolo. So not Ludicolo. I would not even... I can't even say that for a risk of potentially losing everything in my life. I didn't hear that at all. Okay. [00:14:59] Speaker ?: Um. [00:15:00] Speaker 1: Detected Pikachu. One of the... This is going to be one of the items of the year. In that you have... And again. Ambient noise. It sucks. In terms of the ambient noise coming in. Um. But. The sound. It's a great item. When you hear... When you play this item in real life. Um. Push the hand. Pikachu. Pikachu. Pikachu. But then push the tummy. And now push the hand again. Buckle up. Buckle up. Says Ryan Reynolds. [00:15:27] Speaker ?: It's Ryan Reynolds. [00:15:27] Speaker 1: It's Ryan Reynolds voice. Absolutely. Yeah. He was a pleasure to work with. He was very collector friendly. Very kid friendly. Totally gets it. And uh. Yeah. We're thrilled to have had the opportunity to work with Ryan Reynolds for this item. Um. And then. Figural. [00:15:40] Speaker ?: You'll see some figural form factors here for the movie. [00:15:40] Speaker 1: Uh. There are a few items that are not out. Because the characters have not been released yet. Um. But they will be. And uh. There's just a lot. There's just a lot. There's a lot. There's a lot. There's a lot. There's a lot of exciting things in the next few months. Uh. With this movie coming up. [00:15:54] Speaker ?: So that's. [00:15:54] Speaker 1: That's Pokemon for you guys in a nutshell. That's the movie. That's the figures. I hope you guys enjoyed it. I hope you guys enjoyed it. I hope you guys enjoyed it. Uh. Yeah. Uh. but they will be and there's just a lot there's a lot of exciting things in the next few months with this movie coming up so that's that's pokemon for you guys in a nutshell that's the movie that's the figures i hope you guys liked it you missed one thing though yeah let's hear it okay yes me with my hat collection all of a sudden i just saw detective pikachu hat so wait a minute rich can you hold that for one second sir oh no how did i miss this item this is a key role play item for us you can become detective pikachu i have to say i think this is the first time i've ever seen a toy company do a deer stalker like ever and i'm a huge sherlock holmes fan so well you know what it's a mash-up of sort i'll take it thank you very much so listen um yes ready shall we reach out all right guys may i keep those on uh okay so that was the spiel now we'll actually show you the toys sidehook nine all right we're gonna come back off the splice Thank you.