J.J. Abrams and Bad Robot Team Up With Mattel For THE BEASTLIES
J.J. Abrams and Bad Robot have been working on a property for a while now called The Beastlies. These are family friendly cartoon-like creatures that were created by Los Angeles-based sculptor Leslie Levings. They ended up pitching The Beastlies to Mattel and now the toy company is teaming up with them to help bring these things to life.
This has been in the works for a couple years, since Abrams was working on Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Today, Mattel president/CEO Richard Dickson unveiled The Beastlies in Mattel’s presentation to Wall Street analysts.
There aren't a lot of details regarding these colorful bug-eyed creatures, but there will be a multi-platform rollout. You can expect to see toys, a movie, games, and possibly an animated series. There are definitely big plans for these things.
It's would be hilarious if the whole thing ended up being connected to the Cloverfield universe! Abrams had this to say in a statement:
"The Beastlies is a passion project we have been working on at Bad Robot for years with the creator of these extraordinary creatures, Leslie Levings. To finally bring The Beastlies to the world, in collaboration with the brilliant minds at Mattel, is an absolute dream."
Dickson went on to talk about his first meeting with Abrams on the set of Star Wars:
"He presented this character concept he believed is aesthetically inspiring and creative, and then we got together the character drawings and creative conversations and that brought us to the point where we could reveal the partnership and concept. The combination of JJ and Bad Robot’s content creator powerhouse abilities and Mattel’s global marketing and branding abilities seemed a strong match for an amazing collaborative effort."
It's not hard to imagine these things being extremely popular. People love collecting these kinds of things. The concept reminds me of the old-school toy line, "Monster in My Pocket", which I loved collecting as a kid. These are a lot cuter, though.
The creator of The Beastlies explains that they are "an ongoing line of small but expressive monsters collected by fans around the world."
Do you think this collectible line of toys is going to explode with success?