Ex-Marvelites Jemas and Brown come full-circle

Bill Jemas and Russ Brown, consumer products veterans and former Marvel colleagues, are working together again under a brand-new shingle. 360ep is a full-service entertainment property management company based in New York that will work with both licensees and IP owners on brokering deals, managing the approval process and overseeing royalty disbursements. Company president Brown says the pair is also looking to represent branded/trademarked properties – as agents initially, and then taking on in-house property development down the road. On the development side, Brown is particularly interested in video game properties. ‘There are hundreds of games without background stories that could be turned into full entertainment properties,’ he says, adding that he would start many of them out on the publishing side.

Toyco Wild Planet switches sides with Aquapets

San Francisco, California-based Wild Planet Toys has launched a licensing program for its imported line of chirpy interactive Aquapets. A line of girls T-shirts from New York-based Sutton Creations will kick off the merch range in December, with New York’s SkyHigh International following up with novelty items including pens, pencils, erasers and stamps in spring 2005. Aquapets senior brand manager Melissa Torok is overseeing the program and negotiating deals for candy, puzzles, games, sleepwear and watches. After these categories are locked down, she’ll be looking for partners in consumer electronics, apparel, accessories, publishing and stationery. Wild Planet is also rolling out a special SpongeBob SquarePants Aquapet (its first licensed SKU) in the U.S. this March to coincide with the release of Nick’s SpongeBob feature film on DVD.