In order to commemorate the 40th Anniversary of Gromit next year, Aardman has inked a partnership with Steiff to make a limited edition stuffed animals.
Gromit will be turning 40 years old in the Autumn of 2016 and that’s when the limited edition stuffed toy by Steiff is scheduled to be released. It will be available only in the United Kingdom and Ireland. The studio is planning other partnerships, too, but this is the first one to be secured, ToyNews reports.
“Aardman’s 40th anniversary makes a great platform to form partnerships based around shared values of fun, high quality and heritage. We think Steiff will do a great job with our characters and look forward to working with them,” says Rob Goodchild, head of licensing at Aardman.
This is not the first time Steiff has partnered with studios to make special toy versions of famous characters. The German company has already made limited editions of Paddington, Winnie the Pooh, The Snowman, Rupert and others. If you live outside the UK and Ireland, you may want to try the online shop where there will also be Gromit toys. It is yet unclear however whether the toys will be shipped to other countries.
“Steiff are thrilled to be interpreting some of the best-known and best-loved stars to come out of the UK. We are looking forward to this tremendously fun project and are proud and honoured to partner with Aardman in celebrating their Anniversary”, Ian Munro, International Sales Director at Steiff says.
So far there aren’t any images of the future toy as the work is still in its early stages. We can expect that the Gromit stuffed toy will be looking as close to the famous character as possible. Prices and sizes of the toy are also still unknown so stay tuned for more as time goes by and we get closer to the release date.
