There are few children’s brands that have remained part of growing up quite like Sesame Street.
For generations, Big Bird, Elmo, Cookie Monster and the rest of the neighborhood have helped introduce young viewers to everything from letters and numbers to friendship, emotions and the world around them. But that legacy has never existed on the screen alone.
Toys have long been another major part of how children experience Sesame Street.
And as the iconic children’s brand continues expanding its reach for another generation, its toy and consumer products world is growing right alongside it.
Bulldog Licensing, which represents Sesame Street in the U.K. on behalf of Sesame Workshop, has secured two new partnerships with ToyTopic and PS International Group that will bring an expansive new assortment of toys, plush, games, stationery and lifestyle products to fans beginning this fall.
ToyTopic will bring some of the most recognizable residents of Sesame Street into a collection spanning seasonal plush, plush backpacks, keychains, snap bracelets, pillows and blanket sets. Rather than focusing solely on preschoolers, the collection is being developed for everyone from younger children discovering the neighborhood today to kidult fans who have carried their love for the characters into adulthood.
PS International Group is similarly expanding the brand into play and everyday life with coloring books, crayon sets, magic water art, memory games, stacking cups, plush notebooks and other stationery and accessories. The assortment will even stretch into the home with products including fleece blankets and night lights.
Together, the new collections represent another extension of a toy legacy that has followed Sesame Street through generations.
While the characters and products surrounding them have continued evolving, toys have given children another way to make the lessons, friendships and personalities they discover on screen part of their own world. Plush Elmos, Cookie Monsters and Big Birds can become childhood companions just as easily as the characters themselves become familiar faces on television.
And that connection is now becoming increasingly multigenerational.
The new partnerships join Just Play’s larger master toy program and a growing range of preschool products already reaching major retailers, while Sesame Street itself continues expanding where audiences can discover its programming. The series and its extensive catalog are reaching families through Netflix, Amazon Kids+, FAST programming and YouTube, creating numerous entry points for both longtime viewers and children meeting these characters for the first time.
That combination of new distribution and an expanding consumer products presence helps keep a more than half-century-old children’s institution firmly planted in the lives of modern families.
Because while the ways children watch, learn and play may continue to change, Sesame Street has proven remarkably capable of changing alongside them.
More than 55 years after audiences first learned how to get to Sesame Street, its characters aren’t leaving the toy box anytime soon.