Vivid to launch One Direction dolls

Global Merchandising Services signs firm as licensee for the X-Factor finalists.

Following their appearance at the sell-out X-Factor arena tour around the UK this spring, Vivid is planning to immortalise the five teenagers as collector dolls in time for Christmas.

The Vivid team is working towards a Q4 retail launch and is already projecting sales in excess of 250,000 units in the first year.

The One Direction dolls add to Vivid's catalogue of licensed dolls, which include Justin Bieber, JLS and Take That.

“We know that One Direction are without doubt the next big thing on the UK boy-band scene and we know their audience is young enough to convert to strong doll sales,” commented Emma Weber, licensing and marketing director at Vivid.

"Our belief is that the band could scale the dizzy heights of success enjoyed by Take That over 20 years ago and we’ll be doing everything in our power to secure stock availability for the upcoming Christmas season as this represents a fantastic opportunity for our retailers to claw-back tween sales revenue that is often lost to other categories.”

Vicky Kostura from RMI, which manages Global’s licensing campaigns, added: "We are delighted to have Vivid on board as our doll and accessories licensee for One Direction as they have such a strong track record of success in this area.

"We believe the band will reach a wide audience with the dolls this Christmas and plan to extend with a full merchandise plan in 2012."