Toy Knights Kick Jedi Butt

Unlicensed Action Figures Prove a Hit at Specialty Stores

By Vanessa VanderZanden
June 2006

While licensed action figures come out clear winners at big box stores, unlicensed figures prove big fish in the small pond of specialty toy stores. Retailers say kids and parents in many cases prefer imaginative knights and pirates from companies such as Schleich and Papo to the small plastic miniatures of licensed super heroes and movie-based characters.

“Sales are about 50/50 for the licensed products vs. unlicensed,” Laura Brauer, general manager for Cloud Nine Toys in Sudbury, Mass., told TDmonthly Magazine.

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