collectables and nostalgia brands, and they say it's good for their mental health. i'm going to be discussing that and more with my guests — the boss of build—a—bear, the stores where you can create a bespoke teddy bear, and the chief executive of the world's biggest toy company and arguably one of its most iconic brands, lego. i'll also be catching up with the president of the company behind leading toy brands barbie, hot wheels, fisher—price and more — that's mattel — to find out how tv and movie tie—ups are reviving his compa ny�*s fortunes. wherever you'rejoining me from around the world, once again, a big hello and a warm welcome to the programme. it's a billion—dollar industry driven by creativity and innovation, with a global reach and a diverse market. the toy industry is forecast to reach $302 billion in sales

by 2030, and that estimate is at the conservative end of the scale. but falling birth rates and some of the highest inflation rates we've seen in decades have created challenging conditions for manufacturers and retailers, and signal more tough times to come. while the covid pandemic boosted sales of toys and games temporarily, big—name companies report that sales have started to slip back once again. let's have a look at some of those numbers. global toy sales reached $108] billion in 2023, a 2% drop compared to 2022, with toy companies calling it a normalisation process after that exceptional growth linked to the pandemic. but across the 612 countries, including the uk, france, germany, and spain, sales declined by 7% in 2023 compared with the previous year, but they were still 17% higher when compared to 2019,

before the pandemic. i caught up with the boss of build—a—bear, a much—loved company which allows shoppers to customise their own teddies. she's also the head of the global organisation that represents the toy industry. sharon pricejohn, president and chief executive of build—a—bear and chair of the toy association. thank you forjoining us on talking business. build—a—bear is such an interesting business model. it was born in shopping malls, a place where kids can go and design, customise their own teddy bears. the company has been doing really well in recent years, but there's been a downturn in real—world shopping. and i wonder, did that affect you when it first started to bite? i would say for build—a—bear, we've had a very successful run. in fact, we've had three consecutive years of record results. um, now, some of that was considered and in some cases driven by what is known

as the post—covid bump, but that has consistently, um, continued for us. and, um, we believe that a lot of that is associated with individuals and people and families really seeking out memory—making experiences and coming back together, celebrations, the joyfulness of life. and that... build—a—bear retailtainment provides that. so, have you steered the business in new directions in recent years? yes, that's a very interesting question and it also is reflective of a big trend that's happening in the toy industry right now. um, some years ago, even prior to 2020, we had started to put an entirely new digital transformation infrastructure in place so that we could participate fairly in the digital economy. we're over 25 years old now, if you will, and in that

quarter—century of experience, we've sold almost, at this point, 250 million furry friends to people. but that online experience was driven more by the insight we were now in a situation where we could target and communicate and sell products directly to the older consumer, something that's now known as kidults. wow. fascinating stuff. and what kind of bears and characters are kidults interested in? how does that contrast with your more traditional, younger customers? a lot of the business for adults comes from what we call trend animals. those trend animals, great examples of that have been our spring green frog, or very recently we launched our... relaunched from our vault, our pumpkin kitty, um, or the highland cow. the adult side as you get older, over 18, a lot

of that is licensing. um, again, sports licensing we have in the united states, the nfl is a powerhouse licence. that's an important piece of business for us, but it's also film licences. looking more broadly now at the toy industry, sharon, in your role as the chair of the toy association, many of the statistics we're seeing today suggest children are less a part of the toy sector. is that perhaps because there's more competition for their attention? i believe that you have to think about it as... in terms of how, obviously, how children tend to spend their time, and that physical interaction with games and toys and plush, that's still a really important part of the development of children. but there are other options now. and when we speak about things like video games or, um, in some cases also other... you know, cellphones or other

situations where children have more audio—visual options, and when we speak about this from a toy industry perspective, we try to consider the broader realm — toys, youth entertainment, kids of all ages. and, in fact, the membership of the toy association is inclusive of entertainment company entities. could the emergence of the kidult make the industry less dependent on christmas or the golden quarter, as adults have their own money to spend all year round? well, at build—a—bear we have seen a bit of a flattening of that what has typically been a very steep curve in the fourth quarter. part of that has to do with affinity toward build—a—bear for birthdays. about a third of our business is from birthdays. and the kidulting piece has been growing, and that's true in both europe and the united states. in fact, it's the

fastest—growing segment of the toy industry right now. that's also a post—covid phenomenon of people wanting to get back to more simple things and enjoy and remember their childhood, and some of those big categories, inclusive of plush, which is where we participate, is in nostalgia and games and puzzles and, again, that licensing area. sharon pricejohn, thank you forjoining us on talking business. thank you so much. the toy industry is, of course, a fickle business and predicting just which types of toy are going to be popular with consumers is a fine art. let's take a look at some of the most popular toys right now. building sets such as lego are currently claiming the top spot, with sales of these growing by 4%, followed by plush toys which are growing at 3%. experts say it's notjust children snapping up these two key products. as you heard earlier, one of the surprising

new trends in the toy industry is the rise in over—18s buying toys. so—called kidults have become the fastest—growing age group of consumers over the last two years, overtaking preschoolers in the us as the industry's most important demographic for the first time ever. in europe, kidult consumers were responsible for $4.8 billion worth of toy purchases last year and 28.5% of the region's annual toy market revenue. the teen and adult toy—buying demographic has grown by 2.5% since 2022. it's now a key driver in the uk, spain, italy, germany, and france. meanwhile, the number of toy buyers under the age of 12 in the region has declined by 3% over the last decade. brands like star wars and pokemon continue to be popular with teens and adults, but one company capturing the trend for older consumers is lego, with its lego icon sets, one of which can set

you back more than $500. i talked about that trend and more with the chief executive of lego. niels b christiansen, chief executive of lego, great to have you on the show. my pleasure. you're outperforming the wider toy market. what is it that's setting your products or maybe your retailing strategy apart from others in the sector? i think there's probably not one silver bullet. it is the combination of a very, very strong lego brand right now, combined with a broad portfolio of products that really caters for different ages and different interests. and then, of course, as you say on the retail side, we are still opening stores. we are investing heavily behind also online sales. so i think the combination of that really has worked really well for us. you mentioned creating toys for all ages, and some of your biggest growth has been in those sets for more advanced builders, perhaps even older builders. the icon series i'm thinking of in particular. for you, is the toy business no

longerjust about children? we serve everybody that really would like to get into the universe of lego bricks. and it does cater for both kids and adults. very often, of course, adults and kids are building together. the family is building together. so it may actually say 18—plus, and it may be quite complicated to build, but you would be amazed how good kids are even at ten, 11, 12 or into the teens, how capable they are of building. so it's fantastic the way it caters for everybody and it brings also families together. so we're super happy with this development. but some of your icon series sets are very expensive. who is it that's buying them? that's not the way we think about it, that they should be exclusive to any consumer group but i think to the point we've had the opportunity now to enlarge the product portfolio. that means we can actually cater for more interest and more things and that also allows, of course, us to cater for new interests that also would be of interest to adults.

so in that sense we just have more breadth. we have also, uh, channel—wise, more opportunity to get to both kids and adults. so, in that sense, there are just something out there for everybody within the lego brand and that's fantastic. many of your biggest recent successes have involved brand collaborations with the video game fortnite, for example. you've recently announced a branding arrangement with nike. how important is that when it comes to getting consumers excited about your products? i think there is... if you look at kits... i've often said that we are actually... i mean, we're in the business of competing for kids' time. so it's super important that the lego brand is very relevant to kids and adults, but particularly in this case, kids, that we are seen as cool and we are actually onto some of the passions they have and those passions right now, of course, kids spending more and more time on tablets, on digital, playing games, and we are uniquely positioned as a brand to bridge that gap

between digital and physical and lego fortnite is a good example of that. similarly with sport, that's one of the other more creative or outgoing things that kids do, and the combination of the lego brand and sports also we know from history resonates really, really well. so it's about being where... it's being where consumers are, where kids are and being relevant to them. you mentioned kids being distracted by video games, by their tablets. is that your competition now, rather than other toy makers? it's not really a competition because we're also there. i mean, the lego brand is present where kids are. we are on lego fortnite. we have computer games. we have a lot of also digital experiences, but in our case it's very often tied to the physical world. we are the ones that bridge this hybrid play, as we call it, and also allow kids to, whatever they imagine and see or experience digitally, they can also live out physically, and kids like it, parents like it, and it's super good for kids' development. you are the biggest toy

maker in the world. are you ever concerned that the industry produces too many toys, that we should be enjoying our toys for longer, rather than getting new ones? it's a fantastic question. i'm actually very happy when you ask that question, i'm very happy with the fact that we know that lego bricks, they stay in play for a long, long time. i mean, you have families with bricks that have been there in decades, they've been given on to grandchildren or children or neighbours orfamily. so i don't think you find many products that stay in play or stay in use for as long as the lego brick, and in that sense i think that is probably a natural balance that makes sure we wouldn't oversell. and we don't see lego bricks in, uh, in waste. we don't see a lot of appetite for consumers to give back their bricks. and that tells me that they're in play and they're being valued. so i have less of concern from that point of view.

i think as a company we have a very special role in the strength of the lego band. 2296 22% renewable material in it, more than one fifth of their lego brick is already renewable, sustainable as we speak. that also means that we have a half year that we've grown the company by 13% but we have pumped less oil out of the ground to make plastics. that is an important milestone and really kind of proves that we are starting to see the benefit

of some of the significant investments we are doing in this area. so what new products are you excited about and what do what do you think will be your big seller this holiday season? we haven't announced them yet, so i'm not going to announce them here either. but there are some super interesting things coming, i would say, as always. the holiday season is an important one, of course. we have many occasions throughout the year. i mean, we have the 11th of may with star wars. we have all kinds of different occasions in different countries. but the single most important one globally is, of course, the christmas season. and, as always, we are... we are very focused on also making sure that we are on kids' wish list there, and we are on that with some really exciting things. and the same will be true this year. niels b christiansen, chief executive of lego, thank you forjoining us on talking business. thank you very much. take a walk down the aisle of any toy store, and you'll be hard pressed to find a toy that doesn't have a movie

or a tv tie—in. licensed toys, those tied to big brands like pokemon, star wars, and marvel continue to play a vital part in the overall health of the toy industry, accounting for around a third of the total toy market in 2023. 0ne toy company that even has its own film division is mattel. it owns brands like hot wheels, thomas and friends, matchbox, polly pocket, masters of the universe and, of course, barbie. hi, barbie. the film barbie, produced by warner brothers, broke records. to date, it's made more than $1.1; billion and became the highest—grossing film in warner brothers' 100 year history. and a masters of the universe film is scheduled for release in 2026. there are other films currently in the works, too. so, in a challenging market, are licensed brands and movie tie—ins a critical part of a toy company's portfolio? i spoke to the president and chief commercial 0fficer of one of the world's biggest toy companies, mattel.

steve totzke, welcome to talking business. you've been on quite a roller—coaster over the last, you know, five to six years or so, serious losses in and moon around 2018 and a subsequent restructuring to focus on your money—maker brands. and then that big push into the movie industry and the blockbuster result that was barbie. when you look back, what mistakes were made and are you confident you're on the right track now? well, first of all, thank you, it's great to be with you. and you're right, it's been a fantastic ride the last five or six years. as we started our turnaround, we moved into transition and now we are back into growth mode. you know, if i look back five or six years ago when ynon kreiz, our ceo, came in, he really focused the organisation. we started to organise by category versus brand to spread our expertise. we got our sg&a in line. we looked at our global supply chain to make sure we optimise our global footprint.

and, really, we looked at accelerating our commercial organisation and focused on all—channel growth strategy. it's been quite a ride. clearly there's lots to talk about on the entertainment front, but when it comes to the toys, what you're famous for, you have some of the biggest toy brands in the world in your stable. i'm thinking of barbie, hot wheels, fisher—price. how have they, the toys themselves, evolved to match the demands of children, or indeed of their parents, who'll have been buying them in recent years? well, you're right, we have one of the most iconic portfolio of children's brands and entertainment in the industry. you know, these toys, they create emotional connections that last a lifetime. and it's notjust toys, it's making sure that the toys are surrounded by content, entertainment, youtube, netflix, feature films, in some cases. but it comes down to the toys must be innovative, they must be new and they must be fun to play with. and that's really the key

to long—term success in this industry. 0k, well, let's talk about the big moments of the past year or so for you. the barbie movie. it was a huge success. i have to say, i personally, i did not expect to like it, but i did. what has that done for the dolls? has it breathed new life? has it brought new fans into the barbie universe? absolutely. well, first of all, i'm glad you enjoyed it. i personally loved it. and i was at london on the sound stage during some of the filming and it was a blast, and it was a blast for everyone. it absolutely has brought new fans and audiences to the barbie franchise. we had over 165 brand—new consumer products partnerships, and it was from young girls to adults, across the gamut, so it definitely expanded barbie's audience and the excitement came into this year. barbie continues to gain market share, as she does most years, as the number one fashion doll in the world. barbie retains the number one

spot on youtube for dolls. so, yes, barbie truly is cemented in the zeitgeist of the world. this movie wasn't really meant to sell toys per se. we looked to make a great movie and create a cultural moment. we knew if we did that, toy sales and consumer product sales would take care of themselves, and that's a good recipe for us as we move forward. you know, we have 16 other movies in development. um, he—man and masters of the universe is next out. that will be june 2026. we have movies based on rock'em sock�*em robots and american girl and monster high. and, of course, hot wheels is set up with jj abrams. so i can say the mattel cinematic universe is off to a great start with barbie.

lots of crossover between the movie into a world, these days they need to occupy both of those worlds, to be a success. in the toy business i will say the evolution of toy demand creation is elevated. grading demand for your product is getting a little bit more complex in the fragmentation of the media world. part of the ways to address that is content. part of the ways to address that is content. with a short form content on youtube or tiktok or instagram, longerform content on netflix or feature films, but a lot of the franchises you see today that are successful in sustaining that content as a key component in addition to the great toys and the play patterns that you mentioned earlier. is that because the competition, your competition, your toys' competition these days is coming from the media? kids are playing computer games are going on tiktok these days instead of playing with dolls or toy cars.

traditional toys with video games, the one thing is true that traditional toy play is always part of a child's daily routine. you know, we see sometimes a little bit of a backlash when there is too much screen time. parents like to get into additional toy so many benefits. it creates imaginative play, cognitive and development. we did a doll study a few years ago. it creates empathy traditional toy play is incredibly important for kids and families. what about some of your other brands that haven't been performing so well? fisher—price is a brand i played with as a child, american girl, i've seen your shops in the united states. those are two product lines which have been underperforming. could some movie magic help to revive them? well, first of all, fisher—price is 94 years. you played with it. i played with it.

it truly is an iconic brand. we've been adjusting the range. i feel very confident that we're on the right track. we expect to have a good holiday season with fisher price and for years to come. and when it comes to american girl, we're on a bit of a roll. we grew in 01. we grew again in q2. we have new renewed partnerships with disney and american girl, and it is on our film slates. and for the toys themselves, what does the future of them look like to you? i know you've been looking at embedding technology into some of your old favourites. what's in the pipeline there? well, look, toys, there's one thing that's true — newness, innovation and creativity works, whether that's at mattel or our competition. we do use technology sometimes to advance the toy play. sometimes it's just good old—fashioned play value. i mentioned fisher—price wood earlier — it's off to a great start. you know, for this holiday season, it's a great example — the fisher—price record player, which i played with in the �*70s, i don't mean to date

myself, vinyl is hot again, and so we're relaunching the record player. we have a partnership withjohn legend. he's doing an entire album behind it. um, so there's just fun like that, that you put a new twist on an old favourite, that seems to resonate very well with today's consumer. fascinating stuff. steve totzke, thank you for talking business with us today. it's been a great pleasure, and enjoy your holiday season. and i wish you a happy holiday season ahead as well, even if it is three or four months away. 118 days. well, that's it for this week. i hope you enjoyed the show. don't forget you can keep up with the latest on our global economy on the bbc website or the smartphone app. you can also follow me on social media... thank you for watching. see you again soon. bye— bye.

hello. according to meteorologists, saturday, 31st of august was the last day of summer. how did we get on? well, across most of the country, we had these lovely sunny skies and it felt quite nice in the sunshine, however, across southern areas of england and to a degree given light winds. however, across southern areas of england and to a degree the far south of wales, we had a lot of cloud. and talking about cloud, tatest satellite picture shows a complex of thunderstorms forming across west france. low pressure is forming here, and that's ultimately going to drag in some increasingly humid air from belgium, netherlands, luxembourg, move it into the uk and that will set the scene for some thundery downpours, i think later on sunday and into sunday night. for the time being, though, it's relatively quiet out and about. you could see an odd spit of rain falling from the cloud as it advances across northern areas of england. it will turn a bit cloudy across parts of scotland and northern ireland through the day, but still bright or sunny spells here. the cloud thinning and breaking across england and wales, and as that increasingly humid

air gets drawn in, that sets the scene for one or two thunderstorms to pop up into the afternoon. and, to be honest, they could be just about anywhere. i'm sure most places in england i'm sure most places in england and wales will stay dry, and wales will stay dry, but where those storms happen but where those storms happen could bring heavy enough rain could bring heavy enough rain to cause some localised to cause some localised surface water flooding. surface water flooding. and the same sort of and the same sort of thing goes on through thing goes on through sunday night as well. sunday night as well. a few random storms popping up, a few random storms popping up, with outbreaks of rain with outbreaks of rain moving into western areas. moving into western areas. 0n into monday's forecast, 0n into monday's forecast, well, we still got that humid well, we still got that humid air down at the earth's air down at the earth's surface, but at higher surface, but at higher elevations in the atmosphere, elevations in the atmosphere, the air is starting to cool the air is starting to cool down, so that makes the air down, so that makes the air increasingly unstable. increasingly unstable. in other words, monday you're in other words, monday you're of course not, there will be much more likely to see heavy, much more likely to see heavy, thundery showers or even some thundery showers or even some lengthy outbreaks of lengthy outbreaks of rain around on monday. rain around on monday. some of it could be some of it could be heavy enough to cause heavy enough to cause one or two problems. one or two problems. still humid air around, still humid air around, particularly across the eastern particularly across the eastern half of england with half of england with temperatures up to 26. temperatures up to 26. the fresher air across western the fresher air across western portions of the uk. portions of the uk. 0n into tuesday, it's 0n into tuesday, it's another rather showery day. another rather showery day. again, some of those again, some of those showers could be quite showers could be quite heavy, maybe thundery heavy, maybe thundery and potentially slow moving. and potentially slow moving. so again, one or two issues so again, one or two issues

possible, but it won't be possible, but it won't be raining all day everywhere, raining all day everywhere, of course not, there will be some pleasant spells of sunshine breaking through the clouds at times. temperatures for most 18 to 23, and then later into the week we may well see rain or thundery showers tend to become confined to southern areas of england, with the weather tending to become drier with more sunshine across northern portions of the uk. bye for now.

underground in the gaza strip. the idf has not confirmed whether they are the remains of israeli hostages held by hamas. israel says the bodies were discovered during combat and its military is working to extract and identify them, which will take several hours. us presidentjoe biden addressed the media in the state of delaware just a short while ago. my my stuff is billing contact with the israelis and discovered bodies in gaza. not sure the exact number. they are not taken them out yet. they wanted to identify the bodies. a lot of speculation as to who they are and i am not at liberty to do that at the moment. it is time this war ended, we should and this war. we are on the verge of having an agreement. it is time to end it. palestinian health workers in gaza have started