Toronto, Canada’s Decode Entertainment isn’t going to become an outpost for Santa’s workshop anytime soon, but the prodco is delving into toy making and retail distribution for the upcoming holiday season.

The company launched Dudson – a series of 90 x 15-second shorts based on cult artist Nathan Jurevicius’s Mini Treehouse collectible vinyl figures – this past September on Toronto subway-platform screens. Since then, it’s been tinkering with ways to drive awareness for the property, which has no TV distribution. As Jurevicius’s creations already had a presence in the collector market, senior VP Anne Loi and communications manager Polly Beel looked to consumer products as the next natural step.

After locating a suitable toy manufacturer in China, it took approximately four months to get four, 2.5-inch vinyl figures based on the 3-D animation models rolling off the assembly line. The figures will retail for approximately US$8.79 and come in a blind box to further drive collectibility. Gateway newsstands located within Toronto subway stations, will serve as the chief retail outlet, and specialty toy and comic book stores throughout the city will stock the product as well. LC