Children’s play patterns have always involved a mash-up of brands. Toycos such as Lego are also brilliant at layering brands, with their top-selling products supporting other brands. The movie Toy Story pivots around this play pattern and The Lego Movie reflects this play pattern with external brands mixed with its own.
However, this is a relatively recent evolution in the digital space with Disney Infinity’s Toybox allowing children to play with various Disney IP, Club Penguin integrating characters from Marvel, and Star Wars and Minecraft’s various mods such as Tate World for example.