A Gormiti in My Pocket!

It took me a while to get my bearings on what Gormiti are: now that my daughter is a teenager her allowance is being spent on other stuff, which means my buying-interests for here have changed as well. I'm no longer keyed in on the current equivalent of Pokémon or whatever else was popular 14 years ago.

But that doesn't matter, because plenty of kids have come along to plug the gap.

In case you've never seen one, Gormiti are little creatures that are...I don't know...part dragon...part rock man...part bad acid trip. In Europe they are sold in small pre-sealed plastic bags and come with a trading card. And they are big, big business in Italy and abroad. Which is good, because excluding fashion trends, wine and olive oil, when it comes to merchandising - Italy is not exactly the leader of the pack. Yet they seem to have struck gold - or at least Euro Dollars - with the action-figure phenomenon of the Gormiti.

The story of Gormiti reads like something out of a lost chapter of Lord of the Rings. According to the Gormiti.com website, "...

The magnificent island of Gorm was once inhabited by peaceful, nature loving people until Magmion, the Lord of Magma destroyed everything they knew. By awakening the sleeping volcano Fire Mountain, Magmion destroyed the entire island and all of its inhabitants. Only the wise Old Sage survived and using his extraordinary powers he gave life to new creatures to rebuild their once great island. From the natural elements the Old Sage created the Gormiti tribes ..."

The Gormiti mythos revolves around a sort of role-playing game that gets more and more complicated with each passing year. But it's this battle of good versus evil that draws in adults as well and plenty of them. Sure, the action figures are for kids - but it's grown-ups who are making the purchase.

Created by 35-year old Leonardo Consumi for Giochi Preziosi -- the world's fourth largest toymaker and distributor - more than 100 million of the action figures have sold since their debut in 2005 and generating along the way more mega millions than I've probably got space on this page to mark down. (But as long as you asked I'll spill the beans: in 2008 worldwide sales were 771 million euro. Quite a jump from 1.5 million in sales back in 2005. That's a lot of darn action-figures).

Since their inception, Gormiti figures have been licensed on everything from lunch boxes to beach towels to comic books and the fan-following has far out-grew the original target group of 4-8 year olds. An animated cartoon series debuted to stellar ratings on October 2008 and is airing throughout Europe and the Pacific Rim. The cartoon show in turn spawned a stage show and now rumor has it a Gormiti movie is in the works as well.

Apparently though, the success of the Gormiti in Europe hasn't translated into US dollars. According to littlerubberguys.com, a product test-run in the US in May 2008 (with action-figures imported from the U.K.) was limited only to the San Diego area and lasted about 6 weeks before the product was pulled.

You never know what's gonna be a hit on American shores. But I'd wager if the TV show gets picked up by the Cartoon Network and becomes a hit, then chances are the action-figure line - which now numbers in the dozens - will probably find a home in Wal-Mart or similar department stores.

Gormiti.

Each generation is different. When I was a kid it was GI Joe and now it's this. If it's true that marketing success rides a 5-year cycle, than the Gormiti will peter out in 2010.

But by that time another action-figure craze will have taken its place!