To those of you who like me are in Bright Things hoping for the Bubble to be a great Christmas success. I thought my thoughts would be of interest. Due to the drop in the share price I went into Hamleys in Regent St yesterday and discovered that they had never heard of the game. This made me phone the company to complain that their product was not available in the world's best known toy shop. Executives were in a meeting so I thought what a waste of a phone call. Two hours later the MD phoned me back and assured that they now had a Hamleys order and their toy would be in within aweek. He did not pass on any unknown information but assured me they were flat out to make it a sucessful launch. I was much encouraged by his attitude and his interest in small shareholders.
Hope this helps.
Colin

Sorry I forgot Best Investment now owns 5% and they do not gamble.

Thanks LL and Colin. I wonder if there are parents of pre-school children who have seen or experienced the bubble or seen any promotion. The fall to the current level seems odd and probably explained by a fair amount of hot money wanting out: about 25% of the shares were sold in three days in September and January without any resulting demand. If those close to the company interpreted this as an opportunity, where were they? Suggests that key players are still some what worried about the take-up of the product. The January lease was probably interpreted as a profit warning. We may not have long to wait for an end-of-year trading statement.

Eric

I took profits on these after the pre-launch hype ran out of steam (learnt my lesson from SEO to bank profits rather than be stubborn). Also, my own research of going into local shops (i.e. ELC) and asking questions about the imminent launch only to get blank expressions from the staff didn't inspire my confidence. I do still keep an eye out when I'm shopping for the kids but have only ever seen them (eventually) in ELC, not Woolworths or John Lewis, and then that was because they were on a prominent January sale stand with a significant discount.

The problem is always going to be getting the advertising right. It's aimed at the pre-school market and characters which are predominantly on CBeebies - a station which doesn't carry advertising. Leap Frog, although not an identical product, seems to have a strong market leading position in this area and is certainly more prominent on the shelves.

I've also heard comment on other boards that the games themselves are a bit slow in their response to optons selected via the remote console but don't have first hand experience of this.

At the moment I wouldn't be optimistic about their success but I will keep an eye on them as the potential may still be there.

Thanks, Seamus: looks as if it is a 'wait and see' situation.

I pinched this from another thread on ADVFN discussing the Bubble. This was posted originally on 19th March:

"was in toyworld (national toyshop chain in UK - even small market towns have them) today with my son spending his birthday money. behind the counter on top shelf was "bubble". i asked how it was selling and she said they sell several a week,and she was aware of repeat deliveries which she regarded as good. sales have dropped off slightly as it was competing with a product (by v-tech), which was 33% dearer, but they have cut their price to be the same as bubble. bubble has the better known brands associated by a long way, so if some marketing is applied with disney etc support i would imagine it would do quite well. i was quite surprised as it looked quite expensive to me, but it would appear to be quite normal for people to spend 60 on a toy like this. "

arp: that was a very helpful post. On my watchlist so do post anything else you pick up, please. I take it you are in a small market town so therefore one of 100s of similar shops. If they could get through the initial 100,000 then the last report indicates that margins will improve significantly in the next year. It would be good to know if anyone has seen trade press comment.

Eric

Any idea when results are due? I assume that we will get a trading update then

The preliminary results for the year ending 31st March 2005 did not appear until 29th June. I think it is reasonable to expect a trading statement in April.

whats happening here.

.

What goes up must come down.

Bright things........................Huh!

BGT seems to be losing a fair bit of altitude at the mo.

Anyone following?

Yes ST, only a very small holding (2k) left now but content to let it sit there; Xmas Trade may well bring a shine back to the sp.
kim

Kim, that's more or less my thinking; am not holding at present, but have the idea that it might not take much to make this sparkle.

however, am trying to free up cash for risky plays on SUB and SUBW as well as possibly increasing my AAU holding, so BGT may have to remain on the back burner.

ST, you like playing with fire! I can see the attraction with Ariana but SubSea brings me out in a sweat just looking at it!
kim

The board of Bright Things is pleased to announce that at the Company's
Extraordinary General Meeting held today the resolution put to the meeting was
duly passed.

Accordingly, the Company has allotted the 10,000,000 new ordinary shares which
were placed al 11p per ordinary share, and dealings in the new ordinary shares
are expected to commence on AIM on 14 November 2006.

Dominic Wheatley, Chief Executive of the Company, commented:

'I am pleased to announce the successful completion of the fundraising, which
has been supported by the majority of our institutional shareholders. Lara Croft
Tomb Raider - The Action Adventure, is now on sale in most major retail outlets
in the UK, will be rolling out across major European territories shortly, and
will be on sale in the U.S. towards the beginning of December. We hope that
sales this Christmas will demonstrate that there is a market place for the new
genre of interactive DVD Games and look forward to updating the market towards
the end of January.'

For further information please contact:

Dominic Wheatley / Ady Moores, Bright Things Plc: 0870 351 7770

David Seal, Corporate Synergy Plc: 020 7448 4400

That should help!
kim

The chart is suggesting not other than a CUP & Handle on progress, and is seven weeks doing the handle so is time for the turn UP


Definition of Cup and Handle
A pattern on bar charts resembling a cup with a handle. The cup is in the shape of a "U" and the handle has a slight downward drift. The right-hand side of the pattern has low trading volume. It can be as short as seven weeks and as long as 65 weeks.

As the stock comes up to test the old highs, the stock will incur selling pressure by the people who bought at or near the old high. This selling pressure will make the stock price trade sideways with a tendency towards a downtrend for four days to four weeks... then it takes off. Below is an example of a cup and handle chart pattern:

A couple points on trying to detect cup and handles: Length - Generally, cups with longer and more "U" shaped bottoms, the stronger the signal. Avoid cups with a sharp "V" bottoms. Depth - Ideally, the cup should not be too deep. Also, avoid handles which are too deep since the handles should form in the top half of the cup pattern.
Volume - Volume should dry up on the decline and remain lower than average in the base of the bowl. It should then increase when the stock finally starts to make its move back up to test the old high. Retest (of old high) - doesn't have touch or come within a few ticks of old high. However, the further the top of the handle is away from the highs, the more significant the breakout needs to be.

Good volume today, but there is still a few sells that is keeping the price low

Master RSI - I really like your cup and handle but suspect it depends on what is inside! Been doing a quick update and see the following as positive: (a) Wheatley has put up 100K of his own money; (b) Four significant shareholders with about a quarter of the capital; (c) dvd strategy plus capitalising on chip investment looks a better strategy than trying to sell hardware (d) creative expertise of management. Looking back you can see that the argument for Bubble rather than standard dvd was somewhat weak (kids are pretty adroit on computers/dvd compared with their grandparents!

What is not clear is the potential revenue from something like Tomb Raider. It looks like they are testing the water so that the end of January trading report will be significant. It would be helpful to have feedback from the retail end.

Eric