Christian Braun: What’s better than our favorite collectible brands? Collabs!

by The Bloom Report | 13 Jun 2024

Industry Commentary, Op-Ed

 

A few weeks I wrote about The Top 7 Mistakes Collectible Brands Make (and how you can avoid them), this goes into more depth on one of those, possibly the most fun one – Collabs!

What’s better than our favorite collectible brands? How about when our favorite collectible brands partner up for some mind-blowing collaborations? Here is taking a look at a handful of cool and quirky collabs. 

 

Adidas x Lego

Terrex x Lego Adidas Originals Superstar

 

Stepping on a Lego can be a painful experience. Stepping on a Lego while wearing a pair of Terrex x Lego Flow Trail Running Shoes can help avoid that dreaded pain. The fabled brick and apparel companies have partnered for several collaborations of which you can either build, wear and/or definitely collect, such as a re-creation of the iconic 1979 Originals Superstars.

 

 

Lego x Adidas Originals Superstars

 

 

Pokemon x Van Gogh Museum

 

 

Pikachu tips his cap to the legendary Vincent Van Gogh by donning the Grey Felt Hat in this trading card collaboration between Pokemon and the Van Gogh Museum.

 

Lancôme x Be@rbrick

Be@rbrick’s familiar mascot gets gussied up, courtesy of this elegant collaboration with the French perfume and cosmetics brand Lancôme. This collab trio featured an 11-inch Bearbrick figure which was accompanied with lipstick and a concentrative.

Feeling brave? Rhianna wants to see if you’ll roll the dice on this collaboration between the pop star’s cosmetics brand Fenty and Heinz.

 

 

 

Hot Wheels x Aquafresh

What’s the fastest way to get fresh breath? According to this 1994 collaboration between Aquafresh and Hot Wheels, the quickest way is via a Thunderstreak race car.

 

Transformers x Hot Wheels / G.I. Joe

As a kid, many of us wanted all of our toys to be able to transform the way Optimus Prime and the rest of the Transformers could. Hasbro is finally making that dream a reality with collaborations between G.I. Joe and Transformers, such as Bumblebee AWE Striker & Lonzo “Stalker” Wilkinson.

In other Transformers collab news, Optimus Prime himself also recently made his Hot Wheels debut to the glee of many collectors.

 

Casio x UNO

 

Deep from within 1970s pop culture returns an iconic pairing of Casio watches and Mattel’s popular card game UNO. Now you can count the seconds until your next game with an UNO-based collaboration based on Casio’s A168 watch design.

 

American Girl x Barbie 

Two renowned doll makers team up with a collaboration between Barbie and American Girl. The Original 1959 version of Barbie gets an American Girl makeover with a doll that’s covered in 455 Swarovski crystals. 

 

Squishmallows x McDonald’s Happy Meal

When you think of McDonald’s toys, you think of handheld collectibles just big enough to fit inside a Happy Meal box alongside four McNuggets and some apples. When you think of Squishmallows, you think of oversized cuddly snuggleness. Somehow the two brands made it fit with this limited edition line of a dozen mini-Squishmallow plush figures, including Grimace.

 

Turtles of Grayskull

 

 

I have the power…for pizza! Did anyone foresee the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles rising up from the sewers of Eternia in a tubular collaboration with Masters of the Universe? DonatelloLeonardo, Michelangelo and Raphael don the MOTU armor in this Turtles of Grayskull collab we didn’t know we needed in our collections until now.

collectible brands collaborations
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