COLUMN
Stories from GG’s Toy Box
By Grahame Grassby
Story 20 — 12-inch Talking Fred Gaffney Doll
Fred Gaffney pretty much brought the licensing business to Australia through his management of brands like Sesame Street, The Smurfs, Marvel, Garfield, Peanuts, Mr. Men, Star Wars, Thomas and many more.
Fred also represented Australian properties like Phar Lap and The Man From Snowy River and was responsible for launching the licensing programs of Australian properties Bananas in Pyjamas and The Wiggles around the world.
In 2003, recognising his achievements in the global licensing business, Fred was the first inductee into the International Licensing Hall of Fame.
But for Fred this was not enough – he needed more – and in 2005, Fred being Fred, he decided to have a 12-inch Talking Fred Gaffney Doll produced to celebrate his 60th birthday.
The Fred Gaffney doll came about through his relationship with Hugo Stevenson, the owner of the Stevenson Entertainment Group, which was the company that produced, under licence from The Trump Organization, the 12-inch Talking Donald Trump Doll, based on The Apprentice and featuring Donald Trump mainly saying different versions of “You’re fired!”.
Fred said to Hugo “get rid of Trump’s head, stick my head on the body instead, print me a nice new box to stand in, make 1000 copies and send me the invoice.”
So Hugo had Fred’s head scanned and sculpted and recorded the following often heard Fred Gaffney sayings:
“I’m Fred Gaffney and we’re about to do a deal.”
“Fred Gaffney’s the name and licensing’s my game.”
“I tell you – this will be one hundred million dollars at retail.”
“Let me tell you – this is a miracle.”
The 1000 Fred dolls were produced and paid for and every guest to Fred’s 60th birthday party received a Fred doll.
Unfortunately that’s where the party ended for both Fred’s and Hugo’s companies, with their companies both entering liquidation the following year.
Sad but true.
Skip forward 20 years to today, and Hugo Stevenson is the CEO of CUTESY, the company behind the Little Corgi Cuties property being presented at this year’s Australian Toy Fair and Fred Gaffney is a (still-to-be-paid) consultant to Hugo Stevenson responsible for recommending to him licensing agents to represent Corgi Cuties around the world.
Apples, both bad and good, don’t fall far from the tree.
This article also appeared in Edition 20 of The Toy Universe Magazine
