Turns out Sony’s PlayStation 5 isn’t the only coveted item on people’s Christmas wish lists.
Irvine-based Treasure Studio LLC—creator of the CoComelon 3D animated YouTube series that’s uber popular among the toddler set—is seeing its golden touch extend to merchandise.
More specifically, its musical plush JJ doll —one of the characters in the series—is flying off store shelves.
JJ was in the No. 1 spot for kids in Google’s annual shopping gift guide, which is based on what’s trending in searches. The doll beat out Barbie Dreamhouse (No. 5), the Hot Wheels City Ultimate Garage (No. 9) and an animatronic Star Wars Mandalorian The Child (No. 13).
Target and Walmart both showed the doll as sold out in their online shops and, as of last week, it wasn’t available on any physical Target store shelves within a 50-mile radius of Treasure Studio’s corporate office.
Enter the resellers. Google’s showing the doll can be bought for as little as $48 on eBay or as high as $84 through a third-party seller on Walmart.com. Keep in mind, the original price for JJ is $19.99. That’s a mark up in the range of 140% to 320% among resellers.
Moves to capitalize on the momentum around the animated series has come quick since Treasure Studio’s summer acquisition by London digital media firm Moonbug Entertainment Ltd. for an undisclosed sum.
CoComelon now has a small selection of merchandise—DVDs ($12.99) and T-shirts ($19.99) among a few other items—for purchase through its new online shop and retailers.
The series also continues to gain steam. CoComelon entered Netflix’s top 10 in late August and has remained in the streaming service’s top 10 ever since, holding its own alongside shows such as “Tiger King,” “The Queen’s Gambit” and “Selena.” It also more recently expanded into South Korea.
The show counts 100 million YouTube subscribers, which is another 3 million added since the show was last mentioned in this column, about a month ago. It’s also racked up over 86 billion views since starting its channel on the video platform in 2006, which is up about 6 billion views over the past month.
