And, of course, I encountered them right here at Ty’s Toy Box, because Cookie Jar was becoming a household name on account of a little property know as The Doodlebops. Remember them? (Oh, I’m so funny.) And then, of course, they also own Caillou.

So it’s not that Cookie Jar wasn’t a real player, before now. Merely that they were… smallish. Maybe medium. But that’s all about to change. Not only is Cookie Jar merging with DIC Entertainment, now they’re acquiring some American Greetings properties as well:

[T]he children’s entertainment company will acquire AG’s evergreen properties Strawberry Shortcake, Care Bears and Sushi Pack for $195 million.

As someone close to this decision might say, that’s a berry exciting piece of news.

(Okay, I’ll stop with the Strawberry Shortcake jokes. They’re just so easy!)

The transaction establishes Cookie Jar as one of the world’s largest independent children’s entertainment and education companies with ownership and licensing rights to some of the world’s most recognizable character brands, an animation library totaling nearly 6,000 half-hours of family programming, and strong capabilities in global merchandising and licensing.

Congratulations to Cookie Jar on the merger, the acquisitions, and on generally making expanding and thriving in licensing children’s entertainment properties look good!

Well, except for the baldness. Most four-year-olds aren’t bald. But Caillou might just be very fashion forward.

Anyway, you’ve likely already been all over the PBS Kids Caillou site, but did you know that Caillou has his own official site, too? You can keep tabs on the live tour, play Caillou games, and sign up for his fan club.

Of course, there’s all sorts of goodies to be had at the Ty’s Toy Box Caillou Store, too. It’s been a few years since I had a preschooler, but it seems to me from what I remember of that time that something like a favorite character on a personalized shirt is pretty much preschooler Nirvana. I mean, come on, both your very own name alongside your favorite four-year-old? The only way that could get better would be if the shirt came with a bag of Goldfish crackers, right?

Come to think of it, that’s a pretty good idea. I need to suggest that to Ty….