B because they bought conservatively, retailers actually finished the year with less than what they started with. So they cleaned out inventory, and are now more open to buying products that are new and exciting—and boy, do we have them for next year.
THI: Are there any new trends in the home décor category emerging this year? HB: We are seeing the air-blown outdoor decorations become more important as people start to decorate their homes again. We’re definitely seeing outdoor decorations starting to increase. We’re seeing more of the type of decoration people save, like the animatronics. The slightly better quality decorations people pack away each year and unpack each year, there seems to be an increase in that. THI: Does licensing continue to become more important to costume sales? HB: I think that licensing is the single most important element in kids’ costume sales. Children are greatly influenced by what they see on TV and in the movies. All of the children’s best sellers are basically connected to either a TV show or a movie. For adults, licensing is a little bit less of a factor. People are just as influenced by current events, what they see happening in the news. One of the big costumes last year was Miley Cyrus’ performance at the Video Music Awards (VMAs) with her twerking. That wasn’t a license that was available from anybody, but it certainly became important to Halloween. THI: What do you predict will be your hottest costumes and hottest licenses for 2014? HB: This is the first year in more than 20 years that Rubie’s has the license for all of the Marvel characters. The last time we had the license was in 1993. We have the entire library of Marvel characters and all of the new movies that are coming out. Spider-Man and Captain America will be very big for us, and there is another new film from Marvel called
Winter 2014
Guardians of the Galaxy that we have. For children, Monster High will continue to be very big and so will the new Mattel property Ever After High. And, this is a very big year for Wizard of Oz because it’s the 75th anniversary of the original film, which came out in 1939. There’s also a brand new Batman: Arkham Origins game that just came out, which means all-new costumes for 2014. And, there’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, because of the movie that comes out in August.
THI: What are some of your best sellers every year? HB: Batman in all of its different forms. Whether it’s Batman from the Dark Knight movies, Batman from the TV shows, the animated cartoons, Batman from the comic books, it’s Batman and all of the related characters. Every single year, the property is one of the perennial favorites. And when I say Batman, I’m talking about all of the associated characters, whether it be Catwoman, Robin, The Joker, The Riddler, all of these characters. That is probably the biggest licensing program out there because of all of the different characters that everybody’s aware of. And then the horror properties are always great, things like A Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th.
Adult A Nightmare on Elm Street Freddy Victim
THI: How important are pet costumes and acces-
The Halloween Insider
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