Jazwares Discontinues Roblox Toy Line
After over 6 years of production, toy company Jazwares has seemingly stopped making official Roblox toys after the Stars program sunset in 2022.
Back in January of 2017, Roblox announced their major rebrand, introducing a new wordmark, logo, and brand identity. In this Blog post, they go over the history of the Roblox logo and what’s next for the platform. Just a few weeks later, Roblox announced a new way to discover Roblox in the real world — Roblox Toys. In partnership with toy company Jazwares, the Roblox toy line would help bring the world of Roblox into the real world. The first series of toys brought forty recognizable Roblox characters to life, such as Builderman, Stickmasterluke, Mr. Bling Bling, Circuit Breaker, and more.
In July of 2018, Roblox would announce the Stars Licensing program, a new way for developers who wish to have their intellectual property (IP) turned into real life merchandise, including Toys. Developers who signed up for the program would receive 30% of the money received by Roblox from all content released using their game’s property. Other merchandise was also made and published to Roblox’s Amazon page, such as shirts and hoodies. Over the course of the next 5 years, Jazwares would make toys in partnership with Roblox developers and creators through the Stars Licensing program.
However, in 2022, Roblox announced that they would be sunsetting the Stars Licensing program in efforts to “give creators more freedom with their IP so that they can freely build their brand however they like.” This meant that creators no longer had a direct line with Roblox to make Toys in partnership with Jazwares. The same day this was announced, Roblox seemingly removed all references to merchandise created in partnership with creators.
Within the past few days of writing this Blog post, the official Roblox toys landing page has been taken offline, and Roblox has been removed from the ‘Brands’ list on the official Jazwares website. Although there is no official confirmation, it is safe to assume that production of official Roblox toys has sadly come to an end.
Although Jazwares is no longer working with Roblox directly, earlier this year they partnered with top Creators on the platform to make the DevSeries toy line based on some of your favorite experiences. In an interview with License Global, Jazwares VP Judd Karofsky stated that “This year we’re leveling up, collaborating directly with the world’s biggest developers to launch DevSeries, a collection of the next generation of game-based toys and consumer products that, until now, have only existed behind your screen.” He goes on to state “This truly is a unique program, and the potential is big. We have already signed dozens of inbound licensing deals with the top game developers. We continue to add even more titles, creating an even bigger opportunity for the outbound licensing program. The titles in our roster alone have a combined 93 billion total gameplays and a collective 100 million active monthly users. With this huge audience, we believe the scope and scale will translate to dozens of key partnerships and thousands of products globally.” You can read more information on this partnership in the Blog post below:
