Underground Toys’ U.S. division has renamed itself Seven 20 Brands, separating from its former UK parent with a sharp focus on entertainment brand housewares products and plans to expand in toys, Seven 20’s Matthew Wozniak told us.

The move follows the sale of Underground Toys’ UK operations to Funko earlier this year, but was in the works since last April, company executives said. The UK division had handled distribution of Funko products in Europe.

While the UK division had previously handled product design and development, the U.S. division began setting up its own San Diego-based operation to handle those functions last April, capping it with the hiring of design staff including former TaylorMade-Adidas Golf executive Ryan Ostertag as art director in July. The first fruits of that venture were unveiled at the New York Toy Fair last week. The new company will sell off existing inventory of collectibles; the first of the internally developed products are expected to arrive starting in July, says Ostertag. The company will handle its own distribution and sourcing and has added a new office in Garden City, NY headed by Chief Marketing Officer George Vorkas (formerly of Colorforms).

Seven 20 Brands will continue carrying the Underground Toys brand for part of this year before switching to its new name.

The new line will spread licensed brands – Disney, Star Wars, Marvel, Dr. Who, Ghostbusters, Game of Thrones, Harry Potter and others – across outdoor grills and utensils, popcorn poppers, kitchenware, mugs and other items. Seven 20 also will have a premium Panache line that applies Star Wars and other licenses to cutting and cheese boards, travel and coffee mugs, knife blocks and other items. About 80% of Seven 20 revenue is currently from housewares and 20% from toy, says Wozniak. But with the hiring of Vorkas, who previously was president of Li & Fung’s Toy Island and Character Direct divisions, Seven 20 will seek to expand its toy business.

“All product development was being done out of the UK so we were at their mercy and we wanted our own design team so we could have a faster turnaround and be more involved,” says Ostertag. “The way it had been set up didn’t make sense because the UK operation was handling U.S. retailers and they didn’t always understand the market here. [For example], smaller coffee cups are popular in the UK, but in the U.S. there is more demand for 20-ounce mugs so we needed to make a change.”