Tomorrow's Toys Make an Early Appearance at the 'Licensing Show'
LAURIN SYDNEY, CNN ANCHOR: You may never find a Hannibal Lecter toy on the market, but lots of other movie characters jump from the big screen to the store shelf. Bill Tush reports from a trade show where tomorrow's toys make an early appearance.</s>BILL TUSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Where else in the world would you find grown people proudly sporting Teletubby name tags? It's the licensing show.</s>CHARLES RHOTTO, PRESIDENT, LIMA: Licensing is taking all these great characters and logos and trademarks and sayings that we know and we see all over and that have been with us for years, and the new ones, and putting them on products</s>TUSH: And while walking the floors at New York's Javits Center, the convention's home, might look like a lot of fun -- after all, who wouldn't want their picture taken with the Taco Bell dog? -- to the suits here, it's all business.</s>DIANE STONE, ADVANCESTAR.COM: As of this year, this show is one of the 200 largest trade shows in the United States, so...</s>TUSH (on camera): And it just keeps getting bigger?</s>STONE: Just keeps getting bigger.</s>TUSH (voice-over): Think about it. In its four years in America, "Pokemon" is a billion-dollar industry, and here comes the next Japanese invasion.</s>AL KAHN, CEO, 4KIDS ENTERTAINMENT: Yugioh is a concept that again comes from Japan...</s>TUSH (on camera): OK.</s>KAHN: ... and it was introduced about three years after "Pokemon" in Japan, and it became and has become the No. 1 program, the No. 1 property for kids 10 to 14 in Japan.</s>TUSH (voice-over): And if he catches on, Yugioh will be everywhere.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Put him on a beach ball, on children's bedding, you know, even on wallpaper.</s>TUSH: It goes on and on. How many places have you seen this little green guy? (on camera): And of course, you've been coming to this show for years, when it was a little tiny licensing show.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE (as Kermit the Frog): Well, you know, it's the darndest thing, Bill. This is actually, believe it or not, the very first time I've ever been to the licensing show.</s>TUSH: Just your image comes.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE (as Kermit the Frog): Yeah, you see my picture a lot.</s>TUSH (voice-over): The Jim Henson Company brings out Kermit to draw attention. Universal creates an Egyptian bazaar to promote "The Mummy," complete with... (on camera): ... an Egyptian belly dancer. Where are you from?</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Brooklyn.</s>TUSH (voice-over): Talk about bellies. All 700 pounds of this guy came to promote the Super-Duper Sumos, a new television show. It seems everyone has something to sell.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We license Jordache, Nick & Nora and Dollhouse, and then we launch under the proprietary brand-name Fad.</s>WALLY "FAMOUS" AMOS: Aunt Della is very resourceful.</s>TUSH (on camera): So what does she do?</s>FAMOUS AMOS: She said, "I can't make chocolate chip cookies, but I can make chocolate chip cookie dolls," and so Aunt Della made Chip and Cookie.</s>TUSH (voice-over): Even Famous Amos knows the licensing show is a place to make some "dough." Bill Tush, CNN Entertainment News, New York.</s>SYDNEY: You just knew Bill had to say that. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com