What's Selling

As the holiday season approaches, kids often turn toward thoughts of dressing up. That's why two toy retailers at the California Gift Show indicated they had already ordered dress-up costumes for fall. One, from Danville, ordered a variety of costumes from A Wish Come True. The other, an owner from Folsom, chose Learning Curve's Small Miracles, a comprehensive line of costumes. "Dress up in general is a year-round category for us," noted one retailer.

The Danville storeowner was also considering an elegant wooden rocking horse from Hennessy Horse ($1,000 plus) at the show.

While dress-up sold well in her store, the Folsom storeowner also spoke of such current top sellers as magnetic, five-year calendars from Lights, Camera, Interaction!, the Klutz book line, Swingset Press' My Ultra Secret Journal and Gund's plush bears and baby toys.

Elsewhere, a Simi Valley storeowner at the L.A. Convention Center, ordered Lego's Bionicle series. At the L.A. Mart, a Santa Barbara retailer had her eye on Gemmy Industries' Talking Parrot. A buyer for a store at Claremont Bontanic Garden stressed that her focus was on education. For October, she bought Educational Insights' GeoSafari science and nature line along with Instant Products' line of tiny, encapsulated insects, dinosaurs and animals that come alive in water. "What's nice," she added, "is that information about these creatures is included in the packaging."

Meanwhile, an L.A.-area toy/collectibles storeowner placed Todd McFarlane's Movie Maniacs Series 3 on his store's ordering list.

Another retailer similarly reported Lego construction sets, the entire Playmobil line, D & L's Stomp Rockets and Darda's boxed sets of racing cars as lead sellers. Madame Alexander dolls, Corolle dolls, Brio train sets and Mattel's newest Barbies such as its trendy School Cool Barbie also made the list.

For the toy/collectibles dealer, Playmates' Simpson's figures were also jumping, and calling Hasbro's newest Star Wars figures robust, the storeowner asserted he was looking forward to receiving figures from the next Star Wars film in December. Beyond this, he said, August movers included Mattel's Hot Wheels, McFarlane's Spawn figures, Jakks Pacific's newest WWF characters and Hasbro's Transformers (yes, they're back).

By contrast, a unique manufacturer/retailer—his store is on one of L.A.'s trendiest streets—produces only wind-up toys. Of the over 2,000 units that his company manufactures and sells, the founder/retailer named some of the best: a mouse, a rugby ball, a chicken, a duck, French fries and a ladybug. The wind-ups retail for $2.50 and up.

Otherwise, a Castro Valley retailer had a brief lineup of current sellers: Pamela Drake's Woodkins ($10 to $20), Learning Curve's Thomas the Tank Engine ensemble, Lego's Mars and Alpha Team systems ($100 and up), X-Concepts' skateboards ($5), the magnetic Magz construction sets and Breyer horses.

Meanwhile, although scooter sales in 2001 have been disappointing, at least two toy retailers believe they have discovered a worthy successor: Runts. "They're small yet extremely strong tricycles and scooters ($99.99) from a company called Just Go," explained a store spokesperson. An L.A.-area owner confirmed he has been selling about one Just Go a week, a rate he considers satisfactory.

Electric scooters from Street Jammer ($149.99) were being promoted by another retailer. So what has happened to Razor USA? Recently, it introduced adjustable, air-powered pogo sticks called Airgos ($79.99).

Turning to video games, a spy thriller, Konami's Metal Gear Solid 2 for Sony's PlayStation 2 made August's ordering list for one video game store. Current sellers? Sony's Gran Turismo 3 and Electronic Arts' (EA) NBA Street, both for PlayStation 2, and EA's John Madden Football 2002 for all consoles, a spokesperson said. Agreeing that Gran Turismo 3 was a leader, a second video game store spokesperson said other August selling games for the PS2 were Sony's Twisted Metal Black, THQ's Red Faction and Capcom's Onimusha, a combat game.

Similarly, a Burbank model train store put starter sets from LBG, Lionel and MTH on its fall ordering list. Another model train dealer mentioned Learning Curve's Thomas the Tank Engine ensemble—above all, its figure-8 track ($39.98), Atlas' new HO freight cars ($26.96) and Bachmann's High Speed Acela train sets ($310) as late summer movers. Also listed were Intermountain's F-7A locomotive ($129.98), Lionel's New York Central Flyer ($299), which makes memorable railroad sounds, and slot cars from Scalextric, a U.K. company.

Back to school goodies from backpacks to Blo-pens are flying out of Chicago area stores, but it's the Groovy Girls by Manhattan Toy, and their various sassy clones such as Ty's Beanie Boppers, that are the hottest thing right now.

The owner of a downtown store says, "They're a sneak attack, like Beanie Babies when they first started out." A Winnetka toy store manager agrees. "The clothes are a really hot line," the manager declares. "Sales figures aside, I think that anything that Ty knocks off has got to be huge."

"They're trendy and collectible. It takes the doll concept to a slightly older market," explains the district manager of a specialty chain that has developed its own range of Just Girls dolls based on the same concept.

Lego's Bionicle line is causing quite the buzz, too. One storeowner who had completely sold out of the item said, "Part of it is the marketing, but it's also that it's so unique and different. But we get that with everything new Lego does. It's such a wonderful company."

Another best seller at both specialty stores and major chains is the Game Boy Advance. For one small shop that just got into the video gaming market, it's been a surprise. "It's doing amazingly well. Whenever we get it in, it's gone within 24 hours." The large retailers are faring no better, according to one store manager. "We can't keep enough of them. We get 600 in, and they're gone by the end of the week!"

Heroes, robots and dinosaurs are big right now, so Lego's new Jack Stone and Fisher-Price's Rescue Heroes are doing well and Jurassic Park is the only movie license moving. That Pokémon "is pretty much dead," according to one retail giant, may come as no surprise, but other TV licenses are doing rather well, especially WWF wrestling action figures from Jakks Pacific and Bandai's new series of Digimon and robot Gundam toys. The recent launch of an all-new Transformers TV series has seen Hasbro's latest range of robots in disguise taking off nicely too.

Harry Potter is on the up, albeit gradually. At least one store owner thinks the price point is a little high, but, she says, "The moderate sales right now are probably a good indicator that it will really pick-up for Christmas." While most stores believe the boy wizard and his friends are going to be the biggest thing for the holiday season, some expressed disappointment with the range of products available.

And it's not just Harry Potter. Many retailers say that nothing has really stood out for 2001. "It's been a very strange year. We usually have Beanie Baby years, where something is really big, but I'm finding it's very scattered. There are no real hot tickets," says the owner of a store in Lincoln Park.

For some retailers, this means falling back on proven brands like Thomas the Tank Engine or the new and best-selling Bob the Builder, or getting back to basics for the holidays with puzzles and board games—especially if there's a twist on a classic like The Simpsons' Clue, or the Chicago Monopoly set. Still others are buying unique and different toys like the singing Rocking Cow from Somersault, Raindear's fun rain gear, marble runs from companies like Tomy or the Language Littles foreign phrase dolls specially imported by Zany Brainy.

Others are more optimistic, predicting that pogo sticks could be the scooters of 2001, while one major chain believes that Trendmasters' Rumble Robots could be the must-have for the holidays. Still more Chicago items highlighting retailers lists are Infantino's On-the-Go Mobile, Mezco's Living Dead Dolls and Classic Popeye, Brio Friends for toddlers and Hello Kitty merchandise from Sanrio.

In the end, however, it always comes down to the kids. As the owner of an Oak Park hobby shop says, "It will be interesting to see what happens when school starts, when kids start talking and things start happening. Before you know it, the rush will be on!"

Dog days aptly described summer's end with an ex- tended heat wave that sent scores to the shore and cooled down toy sales. Fatigued by high humidity and a ho-hum marketplace, toy retailers also remained uncommitted to holiday buying as they tried to clean out inventory.

The trendy East End enjoyed its annual influx of vacationers but sales were modest in these resort communities, where the occasional rainy day wiped out Scrabble, backgammon and Mets and Yankees Monopoly sets, noted one East Hamp- ton storeowner. Pick-up water items like Swim Ways' Toypedo Pop-Ring Target game, Maui Toys' Water Waffle Pool Float and Little Kids' Bubble Faces and Bubble Stroobs became fast favorites.

Lego Systems' Mindstorm sets moved at one Hamptons shop thanks to daily workshops. Lego Bob the Builder sets ($19.99 to $59.99) posted good numbers and Learning Curve's venerable Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends train sets and accessories ($9.99 to over $300) chugged along at a healthy clip.

Specialty stores still love Mattel's Barbie dolls with FAO Schwarz showcasing the line at one of the largest U.S. malls. But one competing mass toy chain store across the concourse was deeply discounting its Barbie stock from $9.99 to $6.99. Fisher-Price's Rescue Hero toys still commanded the preschool market while The Simpsons Puzzle by Rose Art ($14.99) appealed to an older crowd.

As Planet of the Apes and Jurassic Park III fizzled at the box office so did their action figure counterparts, lamented toy stores, with sharp price reductions seen at the mass chain level. Also sinking fast was Mattel's line based on Disney's Atlantis: The Lost Empire. Retailers were hoping the super-hyped Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone film would work some sales wizardry on languishing related toy sales.

The tween set scooped up Charm-It bracelets by High Intensity Corp. Beam-Os Frisbee toys were literally flying out the door at $25 but were close to impossible to restock. Ty Beanie Boppers were heating up at $9.99 with one Long Island toy store selling 14 the first day. But "as is the Ty way," said one retailer, "they only ship what they want, so it's hard to get all six varieties." Beanie Boppers were taking away some of Manhattan Toy's Groovy Girls sales, she added, but helped offset sagging Crazy Bones sales, noted another store manager. Trendmasters' Rumble Robots at $34.99 and Jakks Pacific's WWF figures and accessories, starting at $10.99, piqued boys' interests.

Sony's Gran Turismo 3 and EA Sports' NBA Street, both $49.99 games for PlayStation 2, were keeping kids happy while they waited for Nintendo's GameCube and Microsoft's Xbox to debut in November. GameCube's $199.99 price is more palatable versus the $300 Xbox, according to one video chain store manager, but Microsoft's claim that Xbox will operate at over three times the speed of other game systems may make it the frontrunner.

Nintendo's Pokémon Crystal Version ($29.99) for Game Boy Color was selling through, said one video maven. For the interactive crowd, updated electronic versions of Hasbro's Scattergories and Taboo are expected to be a must-see at holiday time.