Short Takes
Staff -- Playthings, 8/1/2001
Toys R Us nets Imaginarium
Toysrus.com has launched a companion site to its online presence in conjunction with Amazon.com. Imaginarium.com will be the place to find the perfect gift, said Toysrus.com Vice President Jeanne Meyer. The e-tailer will leverage two facets of its brick-and-mortar locations to generate traffic. One is input from its specially trained "Toyologists." The other is a database enabling consumers to search for toys by age, categories and a combination of seven Learning Values, such as musical, linguistic and motor skills. "The vast majority of people know what they want when they go online," Meyer said. "This is for the other people."
Cultural games
Pressman has signed on to make and distribute Geebee Marketing's Black Heritage Series puzzles and games, which are inspired by positive African-American role models. The companies will join forces to create new products together in 2002. Current SKUs include Black Heritage Trivia Game and puzzles depicting Frederick Douglas and Harriet Tubman.
TGIF
The Toy and Game Inventor's Forum, scheduled for September 6-8 at Bally's Las Vegas, is a non-profit event to provide aspiring toy makers a chance to discuss their products with industry professionals and potentially license their concepts. More information is available at www.tgifhome.com.
Bids on bikes
Huffy will purchase the brands, trademarks and other selected assets of Schwinn/GT for $60 million. Schwinn/ GT has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and other companies will have an opportunity to submit bids for the bicycle manufacturer.
