Amberwood, 4Kids Strike Deals for RollBots

NEW YORK/OTTAWA, July 30:
4Kids Entertainment has licensed the new animated TV series RollBots from Amberwood Entertainment to air in the U.S. on TheCW4Kids
Saturday morning block.

Additionally, Amberwood
has named 4Kids Entertainment as the worldwide merchandising and licensing
agent and brand manager for the property. 4Kids will manage global licensing
opportunities for RollBots,
working closely with all licensees of the brand, including the recently signed
master toy partner, Mattel.

Commissioned by YTV in
Canada, RollBots is a
computer-generated animation action-comedy series that follows perfectly round
robots who roll at extreme speeds on roller-coaster-like tracks. There are 26
episodes currently in production, set to premiere in the U.S. and Canada in
February 2009. A RollBots online
gaming experience will be introduced to consumers prior to the property’s TV
launch.

“Featuring a community of
hundreds of robots with their own unique language, grouped into specialized
tribes, we see many of the same promising elements in RollBots—collectibility, transformation and
racing—as we have in some of our most successful brands for this target
audience,” said Alfred R. Kahn, the chairman and CEO of 4Kids Entertainment.

“We are delighted to be
working with 4Kids on this exciting property,” added Jonathan Wiseman, the VP
of sales and acquisitions at Amberwood. “They have a proven track record with
this genre and will certainly help RollBots in reaching its full potential.”

—By Kristin
Brzoznowski