In late 2007 Character Options, a trading name of the UK listed Character Group plc, became the master toy licencee for the Postman Pat brand.
Everything was set to change in Greendale! From the first quarter of 2009 Character began to roll out new Postman Pat products in the toys, playsets, plush and collectables categories. This was to coincide with the screening on BBC 2 and CBeebies of 26 fifteen minute episodes of the updated, enlarged and ‘contemporised’ Postman Pat Special Delivery Service. Entertainment Rights exclusively licensed the show to the BBC.
No longer would Pat toil under the watchful eye of Mrs Goggins delivering mail around sleepy Greendale – he’d been promoted to Head of the Special Delivery Service in Pencaster run by new Sorting Office uber-boss Ben Taylor.
Pat was joined by an expanded, diverse cast of characters and a fleet of shiny new SDS vehicles. Eccentric local handiman Ted Glen now had a wonderful new forecourt for maintaining the SDS fleet.
Even Ajay had received a makeover with a high speed train now running between sleepy Greendale and the bustling Pencaster.
The diverse cast and new fleet of vehicles were quite naturally “an excellent basis from which to develop innovative new toy products” (Claire Shaw, Director of Consumer Products, Entertainment Rights in Toy News 26/09/09).
The future of Postman Pat looks extremely bright. We can look forward to many new Postman Pat toys, figures and vehicles. The brand continues to grow in many territories around the world. When original writer John Cunliffe delivered the first 13 episodes he could only have dreamed at the runaway success of his lovable creation Postman Pat.