Kids and family entertainment venture Toon2Tango, a LEONINE Animation Studios company, has signed an agreement with the globally successful toy manufacturer and leading international brand of authentic play figurines Schleich GmbH to develop and produce a 52 x 11’-part CGI animated entertainment content based on Schleich’s famous toy line ELDRADOR® CREATURES.

The entertainment content will be part of a wider franchise-building programme, through which Schleich and Toon2Tango plan to build a whole multimedia world around ELDRADOR® CREATURES. Entering into an extensive development and production agreement for the CGI series format, a variety of short-form content is already in development. Further formats, such as apps, a YouTube presence, video games, film and live-action adaptations are now at the planning stage.

2019 saw the launch of ELDRADOR® CREATURES, a fantasy brand about fierce and cool creatures of five distinct worlds. Each world possesses its own World Crystal. The ELDRADOR© CREATURES face each other in battles, with each world striving to capture all the World Crystals and combine them into the Super Crystal. The world that holds the Super Crystal gains dominion over the entire realm of Eldrador. In combat, the creatures from the Lava, Ice, Stone, Jungle, or Shadow worlds are ruthless.

Battle, conflict, competition, role playing, promotion of narrative skills and creativity as well as fun, cool characters and a love of collecting have been behind the extraordinary success of ELDRADOR© CREATURES. The product line is part of the enormously popular Schleich portfolio of figurines and accessories that reflect and enhance the natural curiosity and creativity of children and have enjoyed success in over 60 countries worldwide.

The ELDRADOR® CREATURES figurines and playsets enjoy a strong appeal with a core target group of boys aged six to ten. Since the launch in 2019 Schleich has recorded rapid and consistent growth. The product line’s sales increased by 14 percentage points between 2023 and 2024. Brand awareness: 58% of the target group are familiar with the products and worlds, an increase of 15% on the previous year. Boys between the ages of seven and nine in particular are fans. In 2024, the Lava BattleCave was awarded the German Top 10 Toy Prize.

Plans are already well advanced for the battle for the Super Crystal to intensify in 2025. ELDRADOR® CREATURES expands with four new BattleCaves, including the epic Mastercave Smashrador, packed with exciting action features that bring battles to life. A tailored play concept, delivering an innovative play experience with huge market potential. And Schleich is looking even further ahead: expect new worlds, exciting new playset concepts, new figurines, new collectables and new anchor characters in the coming years.

This combination of engaging and cool content with an innovative play concept are key not only to ELDRADOR® CREATURES’ relevance to its target market but to its long-lasting franchise growth. All of these concepts are also perfect for TV and streaming – and will be built into the new entertainment content co-produced by Toon2Tango and Schleich. The aim of the collaboration is to further build up and expand the ELDRADOR© CREATURES fan base.

ELDRADOR® CREATURES will join a growing list of Toon2Tango hits including Agent 203 and Monster Loving Maniacs, along with productions arriving on screens around the world in the coming months and years such as The Wee Littles, Hey Fuzzy Yellow, Showtime and Dinomite & Lucy, all underlining the strength of the Toon2Tango offering among pre-schoolers, children, tweens and teens.

As Stefan De Loecker, CEO Schleich, says “The entertainment content is an important next step to make the ELDRADOR® CREATURES characters and worlds even more recognizable, to allow children to experience their play fantasy in narrative films. We have found the perfect partner in Toon2Tango, a leading children’s and family entertainment company that will take ELDRADOR® CREATURES to whole new worlds of fun and excitement”.

Toon2Tango co-founder Ulli Stoef says: “We are thrilled that the Schleich Group has put its trust in us to further develop its high-quality and rapidly growing toy line, which already has millions of fans, and to create entertainment content for children and the whole family. The concept and storylines are perfect for all sorts of serialized content and the wide distribution of the Schleich toys and their loyal fan base are perfect to drive viewers to platforms and broadcasters around the world. We are confident that this strong partnership will build a franchise that will be hugely successful worldwide.”