Signed with Kids Preferred

w00t! We signed a new plush licensing deal! New Squaredy Cats for 2012 will be made by Kids Preferred! We're already working on the spring series, and they look amazing!

See LicenseMag.com.

Squaredy Cats on WPIX 11 Morning News

 We were waiting as patiently as we could since we did this interview with Francesca Maxime around a month ago. It was finally produced, and aired on October 13 on the WPIX channel morning news Dunkin Donuts Studio On The Run segment.

Francesca and her production team made us feel very comfortable on the set, and Elaine did an amazing job explaining what Squaredy Cats are all about. We couldn't have been happier with how it turned out :)
They even flashed our Squaredy Cats Facebook page across the screen.

Francesca Maxime with Elaine de la Mata and Kurt Marquart, the inventors and designers of Squaredy Cats.

It seems everyone there had fun with the new plush line that's out now, and available at Toys R Us. Linda Church held, Tiger Lily, and Frances Rivera and Sukanya Krishnan really had a ball with a few others. Below you'll find a link to the broadcast piece, but directly below that check out what else we found. Someone posted a YouTube link of the team goofing off with the cats on the set, but we think it was terrific! How great that they had so much fun with our fun-loving toys.

Thank you to everyone at the WPIX Channel 11 Morning News in New York!

Here's a link to the embedded video below.

 

And here's the YouTube video of the fun banter.

Frances Rivera and Sukanya Krishnan a few of the Squaredy Cats.

Sukanya Krishnan holding Sandy (not squared to make waves) from series 2.

Sukanya Krishnan holding Honey (not squared to BEE smart) from series 1.

We're going to be on TV :)

Last week we were interviewed by Francesca Maximé of WPIX in their Dunkin' Donuts Studio On The Run. The focus was Squaredy Cats. We're really excited, and can't wait to post a link when it comes up! We're thinking some time this week. The new line of Squaredy Cats plush should be hitting the shelves at any moment.

Here's a sneak peak of one we were able to do by popular demand...

Pirates aren't the only ones who say "®!"

The monkeys at Monkey Doodle Dandy are saying it now, too! As of yesterday, we got confirmation that our application has completed the long process with the USPTO. We now own two trademarks - Squaredy Cats® and Squarey Monsters®.

It's another milestone for us as licensors, and we're proud to be where we are.

"Doing Their Own Thing"

We're on page 6 in the Art of Licensing supplement to License Global! They even used a picture of Giggles on the Table of Contents page :)

We're thrilled because we couldn't make it to Licensing Expo this year, but this magazine circulates through the show and will supplement two issues. We hope to make some new connections and find new deals. People are buzzing about Squaredy Cats!

Link to article.

Squaredy Cats at Toy Fair 2011

I think we forgot to post this. We found it on parrygamepreserve.com. See their post on Gund showing Squaredy Cats at Toy Fair 2011 or check the direct link on YouTube :)

They introduce Squaredy Cats just after 5:55...

Squaredy Cats on NY1 News

We were so happy with the report that Jeanine Ramirez of NY1 News did on Monkey Doodle Dandy and Squaredy Cats! In case you missed it, we were on New York Tonight on NYC Time Warner Cable station NY1.

Here's a link to the video and article.

And here's the best way we can think of to show our appreciation :)

Interview on Ideas Uploaded

Elaine and Kurt were recently interviewed by Tara of the Ideas Uploaded blog. The blog is a valuable source for creative types. You'll find out what inspires designers, inventors, licensors, and anyone else in the toy industry.

Follow the Ideas Uploaded blog or on Facebook, and subscribe to the podcast.

We were both a bit nervous about being interviewed via Skype, not knowing what to expect. We were given an outline of the questions we'd be asked; but between not being fully prepared despite that fact (because we're always working), and both of us being somewhat "camera shy" we were somewhat nervous. Elaine did a fine job of speaking for both of us as I stumbled through confused thoughts, irrelevant tangents and unfinished run-on sentences ;)

Listen to the podcast interview or take a look at the blog post if you're interested in hearing more about how Squaredy Cats came about and our experiences making it happen.

ShakyGlobe is Shaking it up

Found this article from aNb Media (Royalties, Toys & Family Entertainment, Time to Play Magazine) on ShakyPlanet today. We have a few ShakyGlobe collections in their store. If you have an iPhone check out the app, and start collecting!

The article mentions "...Monkey Doodle Dandy (soon to be a product line from Gund) are just a few of the licensed versions available,"  but it should be noted Monkey Doodle Dandy is the company, and Squaredy Cats is the property GUND is licensing for plush.

UPDATED:
The good folks at aNb Media made a change to the paragraph at our request (YAY! Thanks :)

It now reads:
"The licensing possibilities are endless. Licensing will play a large and immediate role in the snow globe concept. Speed Racer, ComicCon 2010, and Squaredy Cats (soon to be a licensed product line from Gund created by Monkey Doodle Dandy) are just a few of the licensed versions available."


Check their store for:

Squaredy Cats
Squarey Monsters
GirlMonsters

Here's the ShakyPlanet Facebook page.

Squaredy Cats featured in AM New York

Check AM New York's PDF archives. They did a story on Monkey Doodle Dandy and our Squaredy Cats on September 27, 2010. Article by Rachel Stern, photo by Michael Kirby Smith

You might be able to click the image above to read it.

aNb knows the Real Deal!

Four from the first series of Squaredy Cats.

Our best press yet in the trades. aNn Media who publishes Royalties and Toys & Family Entertainment mentioned Squaredy Cats on the Real Deal page of their online version (hoping it makes a printed issue as well).
They were the first to use one of the photos we included with our press release about the deal with GUND. We need people to see these fuzzy creatures, so please pass it along :)

Link to article.

It's officially published. GUND is making Squaredy Cats

We got our first alert since the press release went out. Gift Shop Magazine has published the news on their website. GUND is making Squaredy Cats plush :)
We couldn't be more excited! It's real ;)

Here's the link.

The first series will be nine Squaredy Cats. Below is an image of 4 samples of the plush Squaredy Cats in the first series GUND is making.

Squaredy Cats mention

License Global mentioned our recent licensing deals for Squaredy Cats in their online daily news :)

Sketchatoy Interview

We were interviewed on the Sketchatoy blog. Check it out here

Toy Fair 2010

As usual, we've been so busy, I haven't had a chance to comment on the recent Toy Fair. We have to be careful about what we say since everything there is pretty much somebody's top secret. If we were "press" I'm sure we would be allowed to divulge some of the secrets we saw, but since we share a place in the industry as toy designers and licensors we must respect the wishes of who we talked to about what we witnessed.

This may have been our most important Toy Fair yet because we are working on designing Squaredy Cats with [undisclosed plush company], and we had a meeting with our agents and [undisclosed plush company] to view the most recent samples they've made. We were thrilled with how they look, and we can't wait to show you images of the actual products once they're made. We should have plush Squaredy Cats in stores this October along with some other fun items.

It's also always exciting to see products we had a hand in designing that show up at Toy Fair or in the stores. Typically it can take up to two years to see a final product on something we designed or helped design. Usually, by the time something shows up in public we hold back on announcing it because we feel we've grown so much artistically since the initial work was done. That might just be normal artist self-doubt.

One client that we work with was willing to allow us to photograph their booth. INI, Inc produces the game, I've Never… along with a few other titles and merchandise based on the I've Never brand. We've done quite a bit of work for them. Check out their games, and if you buy one of their items, tell'em we sent ya.

The INI Toy Fair booth with some of their titles, the I've Never…Game,

I've Never…Beer Pong, I've Never…Party Dice, the I've Never…Game for Kids.

Squaredy Cats style guide covers

This post is a bit late, but I saved the link to archive here.

These are pictures Karen posted of the Squaredy Cats style guide covers she did for us.

.

not squared to blog it

 From the Squaredy Cats™ blog.

 From the Squaredy Cats™ Facebook page. 

We finally started a blog and a Facebook fan page for the Squaredy Cats. There's tons of content to be added, so watch for it. The news for Squaredy Cats should be picking up too, so watch for that to increase as well.

We'll be posting cats on the blog along with anecdotes about what we were thinking when they were individually designed.

Check out the Squaredy Cats Blog

Check out the Squaredy Cats Facebook fan page

We'll keep the fan feed in the sidebar to the right as well.

Another one!

Our first license went to A&A Global who distributes to vending machine companies. Please comment on their blog, and let them know how much you LOVE Squaredy Cats :)

GO HERE!

:)

Squaredy Cats stickers for sale

Elaine just found this link for gumball machine vendors offering Squaredy Cats stickers for sale in bulk at Gumballs.com. If you know someone who owns vending machines or works at a vending machine company, please forward it to them.

Squaredy Cats style guide

It's finally finished. The Squaredy Cats Style Guide has been through a lot to get to this point. Despite already having signed a licensing agreement, we still hadn't sent out the teaser guides to anyone yet. We have 5 full guides and 15 teaser guides that we had Karen's Monsters make plush covers for.
We finished printing and binding all the books, and added CDs, postcards and pins. We're sending the guides to our agents at Redasign Studio, and are hoping for the best.

The pages are to be kept secret at this point. There are several never-before-seen cats that will probably debut as stickers in December.

PS:
Yesterday I was wearing a Squaredy Cats t-shirt, and I saw at least one girl craning her neck to see it :)