Cloudco licensed Care Bears to Basic Fun to relaunch the nostalgic brand

Care Bears launched in the early 1980s from American Greetings, with a classic Kenner toy line that became sought-after by collectors. It was reintroduced in the early 2000s by Play Along, co-founded by Basic Fun! CEO Jay Foreman.

In May 2019, Florida-based Basic Fun! signed a deal with Cloudco Entertainment to become master toy partner for Care Bears in North America and the UK. It promised a fresh take focused on interactivity, collectability and playability, with emphasis on sharing and caring.

The relaunch was timed to a new animated series, Care Bears: Unlock the Magic, airing on Boomerang and Cartoon Network in the US and Tiny Pop in the UK. New toys were set to hit retail in the second half of 2020.

Foreman noted the property was in the sweet spot between millennial parents and their children, and cited the collecting craze. During peak years of 1984-86 and 2003-05 Care Bears did over $1B in retail toy sales and more than $4B across all consumer products.

Basic Fun relaunched Care Bears at retail in late 2020 with a new TV series and full product line, targeting a property that once did over $1B in toy sales.

Care Bears had a proven collector market and a strong heritage name.

Jay Foreman had already relaunched it at Play Along in the early 2000s.

A new TV series, Unlock the Magic, gave the relaunch fresh content.

The brand's peak years had done over $1B in toy sales and $4B in consumer products.

The deal targeted the overlap between millennial parents and their kids.

A children's brand can skip the cost of building from scratch if the owner re-licenses it to a team that already revived it once; the same leadership brought Care Bears back in the early 2000s.

Care Bears got a full multi-brand relaunch on the back of the licensing deal, with a new interpretation of interactivity, collectability and playability. The 2020 product launch ran alongside the Care Bears: Unlock the Magic series and hit both the US and UK. Licensing let the property be refreshed without the owner rebuilding its own toy manufacturing.