Local toy makers show little interest in Flintstones
DESPITE massive box office success for the Steven Spielberg film The Flintstones in the United States, Hong Kong's toy manufacturers remain doubtful the film's merchandise will achieve ''Jurassic'' proportions.
Interest in the film's toy licences from the territory's major manufacturers has been minimal and inconsistent, according to industry sources.
This is despite the success Playmates Toys and Herald Holdings have enjoyed in the past with merchandise from films such as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Jurassic Park.
Kader Holdings chairman Dennis Ting said Hong Kong toy makers showed no interest when merchandising licences for The Flintstones came on the market in New York last year.
''The companies that were most interested in the Flintstones' licences were mostly marketing companies,'' said Mr Ting.
He explained that the Flintstones characters had been in existence since the 1960s, the marketing of new toy lines for the characters would be very difficult.
An executive of another locally listed toy manufacturer suggested that the Flintstones characters did not have the same global appeal as did the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park last year.
''Everyone in the world became fascinated with dinosaurs and things prehistoric. But even though the Flintstones are a 'prehistoric family', only North Americans can really understand the characters and storyline, since they embody everything that is funny about living in 1960s American suburbia,'' he said.
Toy manufacturers were also wary that the Flintstones film, Amblin Entertainment's action version of the popular 1960s Hanna-Barbera cartoon, would be a repeat of the Batman debacle in 1989, which saw the movie hit big at box offices worldwide but which was a merchandising disappointment.
Also, the film and merchandise will have to contend with Walt Disney's The Lion King, an animated musical that Disney executives have promised will reign supreme at the box office this summer.
Toy giant Mattel, which holds the master toy licences for both films, said that although the company was supporting both films with a worldwide marketing presence, it would concentrate on The Lion King in Asia and, to a lesser extent, in Europe.
Asian marketing manager Scott Ray said that although the television series-based merchandise from The Flintstones was doing quite well in Europe, he agreed Europeans and Asians did not identify with the Flintstones as Americans would.
However, interest in The Lion King from Hong Kong toy manufacturers had also been light.
Mr Ray attributed the weak interest to the typically conservative stance that most local toy manufacturers take to new products.
''Hong Kong toy manufacturers are much more conservative than their American or European counterparts,'' he said.
