Why do you think they have achieved greater success in the rest of Europe compared to the UK?
Because Gormiti are weird and so are Europeans
But seriously...
I think the continentals are more open to new toylines. The UK is part of Europe, of course, but I think our market tends to be similar to the US market in that it is dominated by big licences.
For instance, I was in Toys R Us today and it's Star Wars this and Superman that and Lego everything. It's more difficult for a new property like Gormiti to get a foothold in that market.
They still get the movie tie-ins on the continent, but they don't dominate to the same extent. Presumably the language barrier is partly to do with that - Hollywood films are English language, so they translate more successfully to English speakers like us.
The result is that the UK misses out on a lot of cool stuff from continental Europe, predominantly Italy. We never got stuff like Gormiti Neorganic, Dinofroz World, Monster Connectors or Virus Attack when they were originally released, although they all showed up on clearance eventually, which was pretty awesome.
It does make the current global success of Trash Pack all the more remarkable, albeit this is Moose's umpteenth attempt at creating a blockbuster franchise. Of course, Trash Pack is distributed by Giochi Preziosi, creators of Gormiti, in Europe, so perhaps both firms have learnt from their earlier mistakes.
Edited by Strontium Dog, 28 June 2013 - 10:57 AM.