Digimon, short for "Digital Monsters", is a Japanese media franchise, which encompasses virtual pet toys, anime, manga, video games, films, and a trading card game. The franchise focuses on the eponymous creatures that inhabit a "Digital World", which is a parallel universe that originated from Earth's various communication networks.
Hello Kitty, also known by her real name Kitty White, is a fictional character created by Yuko Shimizu, currently designed by Yuko Yamaguchi, and owned by the Japanese company Sanrio. Sanrio depicts Hello Kitty as an anthropomorphized white cat with a red bow and no visible mouth. According to her backstory, she lives in a London suburb with her family, and is close to her twin sister Mimmy, who is depicted with a yellow bow.
The Tamagotchi is a handheld digital pet that was created in Japan by Akihiro Yokoi of WiZ and Aki Maita of Bandai. It was released by Bandai on November 23, 1996 in Japan and in the United States on May 1, 1997, quickly becoming one of the biggest toy fads of the late 1990s and the early 2000s. As of June 2023, over 91 million units have been sold worldwide. Most Tamagotchi are housed in a small egg-shaped handheld video game with an interface consisting of three buttons, with the Tamagotchi Pix adding a shutter on the top to activate the camera.
4Kids Entertainment, Inc. was an American licensing company. The company was previously also a film and television production company that produced English-dubbed Japanese anime through its subsidiary 4Kids Productions between 1992 and 2012; it specialized in the acquisition, production and licensing of children's entertainment around the United States. The first anime that 4Kids Productions dubbed was the first eight seasons of Pokémon that originally began airing in first run syndication, and then it later moved to exclusively air on Kids' WB! in the United States. The company is most well known for its range of television licenses, which has included the multibillion-dollar Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh! Japanese anime franchises. They also ran two program blocks: Toonzai on The CW, and 4Kids TV on Fox, both aimed at children. The 4KidsTV block ended on December 27, 2008, while its Toonzai block ended on August 18, 2012, which was replaced by Saban's Vortexx, which in itself was succeeded by the One Magnificent Morning block by Litton Entertainment in 2014.
Nintendogs is a real-time pet simulation video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo DS handheld video game console. It was released in Japan, and was later released in: North America, Australia, New Zealand, Europe and other regions. It was originally released in three different versions: Dachshund & Friends, Lab & Friends and Chihuahua & Friends. It has been re-released twice, first as a bundled release with a special edition Nintendo DS with a new version called Nintendogs: Best Friends and later as Nintendogs: Dalmatian & Friends.
Tama & Friends is a character franchise created by Sony Creative Products in 1983.
Poo-Chi, one of the first generations of robopet toys, is a robot dog designed by Samuel James Lloyd and Matt Lucas, manufactured by Sega Toys, and distributed by Tiger Toys. Poo-Chi was released in 2000 and discontinued in 2002.
The Dog: Happy Life is a pet simulator for the PlayStation Portable. The video game is based on The Dog and Friends franchise by Artlist.
Nintendo European Research & Development (NERD) is a French subsidiary for Nintendo, located in Paris, which develops software technologies and middleware for Nintendo platforms. This includes retro console emulators, patented video codecs, and DRM technology.
The Pokémon Company is a Japanese company responsible for brand management, production, publishing, marketing, and licensing of the Pokémon franchise, which consists of video games, a trading card game, anime television series, films, manga, home entertainment products, merchandise, and other ventures. It was established through a joint investment by the three companies holding the copyright and trademark of Pokémon—Nintendo, Game Freak, and Creatures—to focus in the multimedia franchise which became too big to be managed only by them. It was founded in April 1998 originally to operate the Pokémon Center stores in Japan before expanding to the entire franchise in October 2000 as it rebranded to its current name. The company is headquartered in the Roppongi Hills Mori Tower in Roppongi, Minato, Tokyo.
The Teenie Beanies are miniature Beanie Babies that were offered as McDonald's promotions in Happy Meals from 1997-2000.
Garfield merchadise is the merchandise based on the "Garfield" comic strip by Jim Davis. Garfield is one of the world's most prominent and widely syndicated comic strips, and was specifically designed to be marketable. Before the sale of Paws, Inc. in August 2019, all the profits from merchandise went to Paws, Inc., of which Jim Davis is the CEO and founder. The following is a compiled list of selected merchandise based on the franchise.
The Japanese multinational consumer electronics company Nintendo has developed seven home video game consoles and multiple portable consoles for use with external media, as well as dedicated consoles and other hardware for their consoles. As of September 30, 2021, in addition to Nintendo Switch, Nintendo has sold over 863.07 million hardware units.
Nintendogs + Cats is a real-time pet simulation video game for the Nintendo 3DS. It is a sequel to the Nintendogs games for the Nintendo DS systems. It was announced alongside the 3DS during Nintendo's E3 press conference and is a launch game, released February 26, 2011, in Japan, March 25, 2011, in Europe and March 27, 2011, in North America, launched earlier in Australia.
Outfit7 is a Slovenian video game developer, best known as the creator of the Talking Tom & Friends app and media franchise. The company was founded by Samo and Iza Login. The company operates in 7 studios worldwide and almost exclusively focuses on mobile games related to the Talking Tom & Friends franchise. In January 2017, the company was acquired by United Luck Consortium and then sold to Zhejiang Jinke for over $USD 1 billion. The company also owns HyperDot Studios.
Skylanders is a toys-to-life action-adventure video game franchise published by Activision. Skylanders games are played by placing a character's figure on the "Portal of Power", a device that reads its tag using NFC and "imports" them into the game as a playable character.
Yo-kai Watch is a Japanese media franchise created and developed by Level-5. The franchise's main work is the role-playing video game series of the same name, the first of which was released for the Nintendo 3DS in 2013. Three main sequels and several spinoffs, on both Nintendo and mobile platforms, have been released. In December 2019, the franchise expanded to PlayStation with the release of Yo-kai Watch 4++. An associated toy line is produced by Bandai for the Japanese market, while Hasbro formerly sold the toys under license in the Americas and Europe.
Disney Tsum Tsum,, is a range of Japanese collectible stuffed toys based upon Disney-owned characters. The name is derived from the Japanese verb tsumu meaning "to stack", because the rectangle-shaped toys are designed to stack on top of each other, forming a pyramid shape. There are also vinyl versions of them manufactured by Jakks Pacific.
Yo-kai Watch 2: Bony Spirits and Yo-kai Watch 2: Fleshy Souls are a pair of 2014 role-playing video games developed and published by Level-5 for the Nintendo 3DS. The games are a sequel to 2013's Yo-kai Watch, and were released in July 2014 in Japan, in North America and Australia in late 2016, and Europe in 2017. Much like their predecessor, the games put players in an open world, befriending and battling various Yo-kai, which are ghosts and apparitions originating in Japanese folklore, that cause mischief in daily life. In the beginning of the story, the memories of the protagonists Nathan "Nate" Adams and Katie Forester are erased when their Yo-kai Watch is stolen, leaving them with no recollection of their past adventures. However, they soon stumble across their Yo-kai butler Whisper once again, and their adventures resume.
