UPDATE 2-Mega Brands stock soars on Thomas Tank Engine deal

* Mega Brands to build toys based on "Thomas & Friends"

* Financial details not disclosed

* Shares jump 45 pct to 56 Canadian cents (Updates share price. Adds company and analyst comments)

TORONTO, June 3 (Reuters) - Canadian toymaker Mega Brands (MB.TO) said on Wednesday it has struck a global licensing deal with HIT Entertainment to develop construction toys based on the popular play figure Thomas the Tank Engine, sending its shares up about 45 percent.

The multi-year, global agreement, gives Montreal-based Mega Brands the rights to develop all-new construction toy sets based on the characters of "Thomas & Friends" books and television productions.

Financial details were not announced, but Mega Brands Vice-President of Marketing Harold Chizick said "the impact to the business will be millions of dollars".

"It is a global deal and it's the No. 1 preschool property," he said. "The Thomas franchise sells billions of dollars in product around the world."

The company's shares, which have fallen about 90 percent in the past 11 months on disappointing results and the lingering effects of a costly toy recall, were up 45.5 percent at 56 Canadian cents on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

But Lutz Muller, a toy industry analyst at Vermont-based Klosters Trading Corp, said the stock price jump was a knee-jerk reaction to the announcement.

Muller said because Thomas the Tank Engine items are available only at the Toys R Us chain in the United States -- which holds about 16 percent of the toy market -- and other smaller stores, the deal will not mean that much to overall market share. Target Corp (TGT.N) has about 15 percent and Wal-Mart (WMT.N) has a much bigger 30 percent of the market share.

"It is not the sort of license which is a game changer," he said. "A game changer would be the "Harry Potter" license, or the "Star Wars" license or "Transformers" or any one of those backed by a strong movie and that Thomas the Tank is not."

Mega Brands will launch the licensed product offerings worldwide in the spring of 2010, the 65th anniversary of the publication of the first "Thomas & Friends" book.

"Thomas and Friends" is a British children's television series based on a collection of books that deal with the adventures of a group of trains and road vehicles that live on the fictional Island of Sodor.

($1=$1.11 Canadian) (Reporting by Scott Anderson; editing by Peter Galloway)