Crayola Adds Barbie & Hot Wheels
Crayola and Mattel Announce Colorful New Multi-Year Worldwide Licensing Partnership
Crayola Brings the Magic of Barbie® and Hot Wheels® to Life Through New Line of Creative Activities and Digital Coloring App
EL SEGUNDO, Calif. -- April 11, 2012 -- Mattel, Inc., the world's largest toy company, and Crayola, the largest children's art supply maker, announced today a global licensing partnership. The two companies join forces, giving children creative experiences that bring popular Barbie and Hot Wheels properties to life with Crayola colors.
Mattel and Crayola, both dedicated to providing children with meaningful play experiences that enable children to build lifelong skills while having fun, have launched two new Crayola-branded Barbie and Hot Wheels themed-product lines for children around the world. Children can now experience Barbie and Hot Wheels with Crayola products including Mess Free Color Wonder - art activities featuring markers and paints that only appear on Color Wonder paper - along with a line of Giant Coloring Pages. Both lines are in stores now and a third product, the Crayola ColorStudio HD and iMarker — a Crayola app plus "appsessorie" that turn the iPad into an interactive coloring book - will launch later this year.
"Both Crayola and Mattel have a rich history and expertise in providing kids with products that inspire and encourage creativity through open-ended play," says Rosa Zeegers, Senior Vice President Global Consumer Products Licensing for Mattel. "Together, we are offering children a way to deepen the play experience - inspiring creativity and storytelling by combining the power of Crayola with beloved toy brands - Barbie and Hot Wheels."
"Our partnership with Mattel brings together the foremost toy brands that inspire play in virtually every child with Crayola colors that inspire everything imaginable in children," said Crayola Vice President, Licensing, Warren Schorr. "We are very excited to bring Crayola color and innovation to the way kids experience Barbie and Hot Wheels and we think kids will be, too."
Promising to be a bright partnership, the new products in stores now range in price from $4.99 - $14.99. Additional products will continue to launch throughout the year, giving parents more ways to spark their children's creativity with the toy properties kids love. Global distribution on the Crayola's Mattel licensed items will include the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Italy, Mexico, Latin America, Asia and Australia.
About Crayola
Crayola inspires creativity in children with colorful, innovative art tools that transform their original ideas into visible form. Whether it's providing colors to put a purple octopus on the moon, or enabling teachers to bring arts-infused learning into the classroom, Crayola is passionate about helping parents and educators raise creatively alive children. For more than 100 years, the company carried the name of its founders, Binney & Smith, until 2007 when the company changed its name to Crayola, LLC. A Hallmark subsidiary, Crayola has called Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania, its home since 1903. For more, visit http://www.Crayola.com or http://www.facebook.com/Crayola.
About Mattel
Mattel, Inc. (NASDAQ:MAT) (http://www.mattel.com) is the worldwide leader in the design, manufacture and marketing of toys and family products. The Mattel family is comprised of such best-selling brands as Barbie®, the most popular fashion doll ever introduced, Hot Wheels®, Matchbox®, American Girl®, and Radica® as well as Fisher-Price® brands, including Thomas & Friends®, Little People®, Power Wheels® and a wide array of entertainment-inspired toy lines. In 2012, Mattel was named as one of FORTUNE Magazine's "100 Best Companies to Work For" for the fifth year in a row. Mattel also is ranked among Corporate Responsibility Magazine's "100 Best Corporate Citizens." With worldwide headquarters in El Segundo, Calif., Mattel employs approximately 28,000 people in 43 countries and territories and sells products in more than 150 nations. At Mattel, we are Creating the Future of Play™. Follow Mattel on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/mattel