Companies see dollars in Osbourne merchandise

By Ann Oldenburg
USA Today

With no new episodes of the hit MTV show airing right now, and the next season of "The Osbournes" not slated to start until fall, the timing is right for something else.

Osbourne stuff.

Shipments are on the way now from Hong Kong and elsewhere carrying tons of Osbourne merchandise — banks, bendable figures, talking dolls, stuffed animals, snow globes, key chains, backpacks, shoelaces, gel pens, candles, baseball caps, sleepwear, air fresheners, bowling shirts, trivia games, bath towels, bobble heads, trading cards, dog tags, clocks, shot glasses, dartboards, afghans and mints. Just to name a few of the items. Prices will range from under $1 for a magnet to $60 for a molded statue of the whole family.

The first wave is coming from the FUN 4 All Co., one of about 30 licensees hoping to cash in. Its key chains, banks and dolls are slated to be in stores at the end of this month.

Although Ozzy T-shirts and posters aimed at his loyal heavy-metal fans have been around for years, more than 300 new products will land in stores in September, October and November based on Ozzy and the family — wife Sharon, son Jack and daughter Kelly. Music-Land, Tower Records and Spencer Gifts are three of the chains making shelf space, but distributors say there's interest from Wal-Mart and Kmart.

"The Osbournes are phenomenally hot," says Scott Bachrach, founder and CEO of FUN 4 All. His company, started in 1995, has manufactured collectibles for "South Park" ("still a multimillion-dollar business for us"), produced plush toys of the Taco Bell Chihuahua and created Teletubbies key chains.

In April, he obtained the license for his products from Signatures Network, which has represented Ozzy and Ozzfest for two decades.

One concern in creating talking dolls was how to depict the crude talk every member of the Osbourne family uses.

Says Bachrach: "We follow the show. Where the show does bleeping, we do bleeping. We had to select phrases that would not offend anybody but would not take away from the humor of the show."