Vivid buys global rights to Dragons’ Den i-Teddy toy

Vivid Imaginations has bought the global rights for i-Teddy, the musical teddy bear discovered by BBC2’s Dragons’ Den. The toy company is now planning a major marketing push behind the musical teddy bear.

The bear went into production last year after inventor Imran Hakim won backing from “Dragons” and entrepreneurs Peter Jones and Theo Paphitis.

A limited number of the bears went on sale in Argos over Christmas and it is thought they sold out.

Vivid has now acquired the production, distribution and marketing rights for i-Teddy, and is planning to launch the toy globally.

The company hopes to sell 130,000 i-Teddies in the UK this year and will launch a high-profile marketing campaign, including television.

Vivid is taking over production of the toy through its Hong Kong office and there will be some changes to the bear, the technology and the packaging.

The new-look teddy will be unveiled at the British Toy Fair later this month.

“Next-generation” i-Teddies are also being planned, which will be supported by high-profile licensed content that can be downloaded by i-Teddy owners.

Vivid chief executive Nick Austin says: “The international potential, over the next two years, could easily be over 1 million units.”

The i-Teddy, which is aimed at children aged three to six years, offers MP4 video play, audio story-telling capability, a music player and photo storage – all embedded in the tummy of the bear.

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