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Los Angeles - Those ubiquitous Angry Birds flew from the mobile screen to the toy store, hooked up with Hollywood and are headed back to the digital world thanks to the telepod.
That is toymaker Hasbro's answer to merging the physical and digital worlds of children's play in what the industry calls "toys-to-life." And like another leading toy company, Walt Disney, they're finding fans among the fervent audiences for action and superhero films.
Hasbro's Angry Bird telepods were recently a big attraction at San Diego's Comic-Con, an annual gathering of 130 000 comic and entertainment enthusiasts, with fans lining up to preview new Transformers-themed bird figurines containing miniscule codes that can be read by tablets.
Princess line
The Angry Birds Transformers telepods, featuring Autobirds and Deceptihogs, is due out on October 15, spinning off the success of Paramount Pictures' June box office hit, Transformers: Age of Extinction.
Licenced toys have become a key to extending the entertainment content revenue stream, with US retail sales in 2013 of $5.3bn, according to research company The NPD Group.
In the first quarter of 2014, the top licensed toys included Disney's princess lines and Frozen toys, which helped Disney bring in more than $885m in consumer products revenue, about 8% of the company's overall revenue during that time.
The new "toys-to-life" category grew 47% in a 12-month period ending June 2014 to $437m in sales in the United States, according to NPD's gaming analyst Liam Callahan.
Retail analyst Stephanie Wissink at Piper Jaffray estimates that by 2018, 25% of toys will incorporate a digital component or integration with electronic devices.
Using the bird and pig characters from Rovio Entertainment's Angry Birds mobile game app, consumers can place the physical figurine onto a plastic block and put it on a tablet's reader, which then recognises the character via its magnetic code and imports it into the digital game.
Hasbro's 2015 line of Transformers robot toys will incorporate a digital element. The company is also likely to partner with Disney on toys tied to next year's anticipated Star Wars film, and Star Wars is already a top seller in the licenced toys market.
Disney made a loud entrance into the toys-to-life market with Disney Infinity, an interactive master game to which new characters and adventures are added.
With Marvel's Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Guardians of the Galaxy making a big splash at the box office this year, Disney is catering to the feverish demand for all things superhero by incorporating Marvel characters into Disney Infinity from September 23.
