On a sad note, I found an obituary for David Cardwell of CPL (Copyright Promotions Licensing Group) who passed away in October 2019.
CPL is a European company and, according to one of David’s friends, the company--and David--helped pick up the slack when Hasbro couldn’t keep up with the production of popular My Little Pony toys back in the 80s.
“It’s difficult to dissociate David from the industry and my career – he gave me my first break in the business, as he did to so many. He had a strategic business mind and was a visionary – he was perhaps the first to see the opportunity for toy driven licensing/brand extensions. Knickerbocker Toy – which quickly became Hasbro Europe – was a client, with My Little Pony being one of the first of those properties to launch in the UK when I joined CPL in 1984. David quickly saw the opportunity as MLP became a craze and Hasbro could not keep up demand for toy products so licensed merchandise from CPL met that demand. Toy buyers were taken by surprise… one I remember calling it ‘My Little Warthog’ and refusing to stock it… oops!” - Charles Day
