Spin Master and Mind Candy Partner to Offer Moshi Monsters Toys Exclusively at Toys"R"Us Stores Nationwide and Online at Toysrus.com

NEW YORK, June 14, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Mind Candy, one of the world's fastest growing social online gaming companies, today announced the upcoming U.S. launch of an official toy line based on its safe online social networking platform for children, Moshi Monsters. The product assortment, which will be available exclusively at Toys"R"Us stores nationwide and online at Toysrus.com in late July, will feature six adorable plush Moshi Monsters characters, as well as 32 Moshling minifigures manufactured by Spin Master Ltd.

"We know that web-savvy kids want to enjoy tangible experiences with their favorite virtual properties, and the Moshi Monsters toy line delivers these experiences in a big way," said Richard Barry, Vice President, General Merchandise Manager, Toys"R"Us, U.S. "We are thrilled to be the only U.S. retailer to provide kids the opportunity to bring Moshi Monsters into the physical world."

Moshi Monsters is a new form of children's entertainment. The website (www.moshimonsters.com), which forms the heart of the experience, combines adoptable pet monsters, safe social networking, stories, games, missions, virtual interaction and educational puzzles. The site has become hugely successful over the last year, growing at the rate of one new registration every second - with the fastest growth across North America. Recently, Moshi Monsters welcomed its 50 millionth registered user worldwide.

To offer young fans and customers a fully integrated experience, the toys will include secret codes that can be used to retrieve virtual items for adopted Moshi Monsters, as well as special trial memberships. Additional categories will include trading cards produced by Topps and books from Scholastic, Inc.

"With the amazing success that the brand has seen globally thus far, we're excited to generate further awareness of this engaging virtual world in North America by delivering this new, exciting toy line," said Dave Colebrook, VP Marketing at Spin Master. "We designed the product assortment to serve as a natural extension of the Moshi Monsters brand and to help bring the fun of Monstro City, its Monsters and its Moshlings to life with plush, minifigures and more."

Players choose from one of six virtual pet monsters – Furi, Poppet, Diavlo, Zommer, Luvli and Katsuma – that they can create, name and nurture. Once their pet has been customized, players can navigate their way around Monstro City, taking the daily puzzle challenge to earn 'Rox' (virtual currency), playing games, solving Super Moshi Missions, personalizing their room, showing off their artwork, reading stories and communicating with friends in a safe environment. Additionally, the monsters' pets, called 'Moshlings', are proving to be highly collectible both on and off the screen. 

"Moshi Monsters is doing phenomenally well on a global basis, but we are seeing our fastest growth right now in North America with over 15 million registered users," said Michael Acton Smith, CEO and founder of Mind Candy. "We're hugely excited to bring Moshi Monsters toys to North America, and Toys"R"Us is the perfect home for the brand – we can't wait to see the reaction from our fans."

The U.K. licensing program launched successfully in January with sell-out ranges of toys from Vivid and books from Penguin Publishing. The official Moshi Monsters magazine, launched in February 2011, is now the largest selling U.K. kids title. Mind Candy is currently in discussions regarding TV, music, live tours and a Moshi movie.

About Mind Candy

Online gaming and entertainment company, Mind Candy was founded by internet entrepreneur Michael Acton Smith (CEO) in 2004. The company created Moshi Monsters, which has over 50m players around the world and is now expanding rapidly offline into books, toys, trading cards, TV and film.  Mind Candy's first project was the Transmedia game Perplex City that played out across different media including websites, text messages, magazines, live events, skywriting and multiple helicopters.  Prior to Mind Candy, Michael co-founded Firebox.com (online retailer of gadgets, games and gifts), Berwickstock (boutique music festival) and Second Chance Tuesday (events to connect technology investors with entrepreneurs).

About Moshi Monsters™

Designed for kids aged 6-12yrs, Moshi Monsters is a free-to-play, fun-filled world of adoptable pet monsters, combining safe social interaction with games, missions and educational puzzles.

Over 50 million monsters have been created to date and over two million new players are joining each month making Moshi Monsters one of the world's fastest growing children's sites in the world! To date, more than 380m educational puzzles have been played and over one million virtual items are sold each day! For more information visit www.moshimonsters.com

About Spin Master Ltd.

A multi-category children's entertainment company since 1994, Spin Master has been designing, developing, manufacturing and marketing consumer products for children around the world and is recognized as a global growth leader within the toy industry. Spin Master is best known for such popular brands as boy's action phenomena and 2010 Boys Toy of the Year winner Bakugan Battle Brawlers™, and award-winning brands Air Hogs®, Aquadoodle™, Tech Deck™, Moon Sand™, Liv™, and Zoobles™. The company has also marked an entry into children's media with the launch of Spin Master Entertainment, a subsidiary focusing on the design, development and production of television and other media properties. Spin Master employs over 900 people with offices in Toronto, Los Angeles, London, Paris, Hong Kong, Mexico, Munich, and central Europe. For additional information please visit: www.spinmaster.com

SOURCE Mind Candy