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Published on December 3, 2007

Dream Express, the local franchisee of the Masked Rider television series as well as VCDs and DVDs, will next year expand its local rights to other media formats, including movies and magazines.

Marketing director Panida Dheva-aksorn said the company's sales of VCDs and DVDs of the Masked Rider series had enjoyed strong growth of between 15 and 20 per cent every year on average.

"The expansion of our Masked Rider content into other kinds of media next year, particularly movies and magazines, will increase its accessibility for children and other potential customers who can enjoy Masked Rider in many different media formats," said Panida.

She added that the company would open its new publishing unit by the middle of next year and the unit would be in charge of producing and distributing Masked Rider magazines in Thailand with content imported from Japan.

Vichien Vangveravongsa, general manager of Dream Express, said that the company expected to achieve total sales of between Bt110 million and Bt120 million this year, of which about 70 per cent would come from home-entertainment products and 30 per cent from television series and merchandise, including apparel, footwear, bags, swimwear and stationery products.

Dream Express has also started negotiations with Japanese-based Toei, producer of several super-hero characters, with the possibility of hosting an exhibition in Bangkok.

The exhibition would publicise the launch of the Masked Rider Kabuto television series in Thailand next year.

"We've started talking with Toei, and I think we have a great chance. We have already put the hosting of the exhibition in our business plan for next year," said Vichien, adding that Dream Express had owned the licence for the Masked Rider television series and merchandise in Thailand for almost five years.

He said with an investment of more than Bt1 million, the Masked Rider exhibition in Bangkok would combine both model displays and a live show.

Founded eight years ago by Krit Sakulpanich, ex-general manager of Bandai's operation in Thailand, Dream Express was created from Krit's idea to encourage local distributors for Masked Rider products to have closer cooperation both in areas of marketing and matching schedules when launching new Masked Rider television series and other related products such as toys and merchandise.

Kwanchai Rungfapaisarn

The Nation