NPD recently released figures which confirmed that licensing makes up nearly 29% of the overall UK toy market value so far this year – nearly +6% higher than in 2019. While licensed sales are only up by +2%, it is worth bearing in mind that the UK toy market is currently tracking -5%. Now that we’ve hit September, the retail market should hopefully kick up a gear or two as we head towards the festive season. We know there are challenges ahead – for starters, there isn’t exactly a shortage of websites for the licensing market. But there wasn’t a shortage of toy magazines when we launched Toy World eleven years ago, and that turned out OK.