Let it show!
By Cliff Annicelli, Tina Benitez & Colleen Bohen -- Playthings, 2/17/2006 9:00:00 AM
NEW YORK--What a week! The American International Toy Fair may "officially" run for the better part of four days, but when you're covering the show on behalf of the toy industry's oldest trade magazine, it starts as soon as we can possibly cajole people to open their showrooms to us. This year, Day 1 was Thursday, Feb. 9, with a Playskool event and a trip to the Hasbro showroom getting things off to a fast start, followed in quick succession by a typically furious few days at the International Toy Center.
The difference at the ITC this year was, of course, the status of the ITC itself. The "grand dame of the toy business," as one recipient of a Women In Toys Wonder Women of Toys award on Sunday night called the 200 Fifth Ave. building and its co-joined twin, was a marked contrast from its former glory. For the companies who still showed there this year, the building continued to be an essential stop, but making the rounds was a considerably quieter experience than normal—general consensus was that no more than 40 percent of the showroom space was actually in operation. Some darkened showrooms still had eviction notices taped to their glass doors, their insides still dotted with remnants of cast-off packaging abandoned by former owners in a seeming rush to get out. The elevators rumbled and shook in a way half-empty elevators shouldn't. The benevolent ghosts of the toy industry's past were no longer hanging in the ninth floor bridge. And everywhere you went, people whispered their uncertainty about what to do next.
Yet despite all of that, you still couldn't find a seat in the L.A. Café.
And just as things were about to brighten with the start of Toy Fair's Javits Center stay, there was snow—lots of it. Technically, a record amount of it for New York City, nearly 27 inches, but by late afternoon on Sunday as the white stuff began to slowly subside, those who overcame the challenge of a Manhattan seemingly devoid of taxi cabs found it was business as usual except for a larger than normal number of booths manned by lower-level staff; top executives with plans to arrive just in time for the show were stuck in airports elsewhere.
There were plenty of buyers at the Javits, though. And buy they did, according to most manufacturers.
"It was a very good show—very successful, even with the snow," said Heather McGlothlin, sales assistant at ride-on toy maker Kettler International, Virginia Beach, Va. "It was steady [at our booth] the whole entire time. We even had a lot of new dealers come through. It's been hectic—buyers have had less time to see everything because of the weather—but very productive."
"The snow didn't matter, it was a really good show," said Yu Oen, president of arts & craft kit creator Balitono, Princeton Junction, N.J., adding that "the retailers [at Toy Fair] were much more diverse" than at the recent gift market shows.
For those who didn't make it through the snow, here are just a few of the products people previewed.
Take a ride
Secrets remain secrets, unless kids have the new Spy Video Car from Wild Planet. The San Francisco-based company is launching a new line of Spy Gear including the Spy Video Car. The R/C car lets kids view the car’s movement through a pair of shades as they direct it around corners, into rooms or wherever else it may fit. The shades also have night vision.
The Digital Spy Camera is a pair of sunglasses with a pull-out camera. Kids can take up to 20 pictures, upload them, and take 20 more with a picture resolution of 640 x 480. An alarm kit attaches to doors and records up to four visitors, or snoopers. The kit comes with two spy cards that allow two people of choice to visit.
Revell, Northbrook, Ill., will launch a new line of 1:24 cars designed by graffiti artist Swank 1. Lowriders in 1:24 scale will also be ready to ship in a line created by car designer Roberto Espinioza.
The Drifters line will include 22 models with real smoking wheels, just like the real thing. The Drifters line is based on the growing "drifting" craze brought over from Japan.When rear wheels are slipping at a greater angle than the front wheels, the car is drifting, or over-steering. The rear end of the car appears to chase the front end around a turn, while the front tires control the actual direction of the car. Drifter RJ DeVera will help launch the initial line with Revell.
“The sport is about skill,” says Revell’s Anthony Long, senior vice president marketing for Revell. ”It shows that finesse can go with any fast engine.”
Also from Revell this year is the Switch Back Course, a race course for slot cars with two controls. Players can change the course of the cars as they move around 32 feet of track. The set will retail for $59.99.
Moving iPods
An iPod accessory from a die-cast company? Yes, Corgi, Chicago, will launch the iCar this fall. Like Revell's line, Corgi's iCar is designed after drifter cars, like the Nissan 240SX. The cars connect to iPods or 
MP3 players, move and play music. Each car has two speakers and retails for approximately $35.
More iPod accessories are coming from Commonwealth Toys, New York, led by iPals, plush dolls that connect to iPods. The dolls come in Sherbert, Slick and Shaggy designs. Also planning iPod-ish plush is Sakar International, Edison, N.J., with its new Sound Pal (SRP $29.99) teddy bears. This plush bear has a hidden pouch in its tummy designed to hold an MP3 or portable CD player. To listen, users just connect the music unit using the audio cable inside the compartment, and the music plays through speakers hidden inside the bear. The Sound Pal also features an AM/FM tuner for radio lovers, as well as removable straps so that the bear can be worn as a backpack. Spin Master, Toronto, showed an entire "Freeplay" line of consumer electronics products, including the iDrum and iMix for manipulating digital music files. There were many other iPod-inspired lines coming to market, too many to list here.
Fundhouse, a division of Toy Play, New York, takes furniture to a new level with the Ozone line. The inflatable chairs feature two speakers with Eardrum technology located on the exterior of the chair. Kids can plug in iPods or MP3 or CD players and listen to music while they lounge. The chairs come in three styles: Bubble Lounger, Space Rocker and Capsule Chair. Chairs will be available this May and retail for $34.99 to $39.99. Pillow Pods, inflatable pillows with built-in speakers, will also be available in the Ozone line. 
Baby smarts
New product from VTech, Arlington Heights, Ill., will help baby learn numbers, shapes, letters and script. The Smartville line for ages 12 months and older includes: Alphabet train with 28 play pieces; Treehouse with 14 pieces that are identified when placed on the set. For kids 6 months and older, there’s the Grow Go Rider and Touch and Teach Busy Book that lets baby hear sounds when they touch different parts of the book. A Soft Explorer Mat for ages birth and up is a soft mat with touch and sound play parts.
V.Smile Baby will be out this fall. A younger version of the original V.Smile, the Baby version gives kids activities in-screen. Jammin’ Gym Class adds a pad to the V. Smile system for more active play on screen. For kids 3 to 5 years old is the Art Studio where kids learn to mix colors and free draw. For kids ages 6 to 10, The V.Flash System will retail for $99.99 and feature creative activities like making short films and designing a car.
Girls wanna have fun
Totally Spies infiltrates retail this year with video games and more toys beginning in summer. A new apparel line this spring as well as books from Simon & Schuster, a new manga series from TokyoPop and six comics from Papercuts are on the way as well.
Patricia de Wilde, director of animated licenses, Marathon, Paris, tells Playthings that they are looking at some new retailers this year, especially with the videogame releases. De Wilde adds that most girls do not shop in the Electronic Boutiques and Game Stops, so they have to attract them to game play elsewhere. "Atari is used to working with game stores," she says. "But that’s not really where girls go. We’re also talking with developers to find out what works for games. You cannot have the same game for girls as you do for boys. People think it’s a licensed game [Totally Spies], but it’s not. A lot of work is put into making it something different. It’s the opposite of some other girl properties, because it has the action element. Also, it shows girls how to take charge of their life, have goals and succeed.”
De Wilde says that she expects the Totally Spies brand to expand in the U.S. this year because of the wide array of product offerings, including downloadable mobile games. “When kids like something, they want everything about it.”
A new series, Team Galaxy, featuring Totally Spies-esque characters in space, will air this fall, targeting boys. Product will follow early 2007.
On the animated trail, Toy Biz, New York will also launch product around the Cartoon Network’s Code Lyoko, about 2-D students in a 3-D world. A video game from Game Factory is in production for an end-of-year release as well as a line of apparel in the fall, role-play sets and various-sized action figures.
That’s novel
New product comes out of the shadows from Toy Vault this year. The cult-classic Monty Python and the Holy Grail comes to life in all forms: slippers, figures, play helmets, plush, dolls—you name it—based on characters like Mini Rabbit with Big Pointy Teeth, Black Knight and Grim Reaper. The Black Knight also comes in a talking plush version that says phrases like "'Tis but a scratch" and "Flesh wound."
A new license for Toy Vault is Kiss. The rock 'n' roll plush dolls will be available in two sizes and ship this April.
The Swear Bears do exactly that—swear—while the H.P. Lovecraft creature Cthulu expands with more plush dolls this year. Carole Piccirillo, Toy Vault's Northeast marketing manager, says that the line has been one of the most popular this year. The company even works with some retailers to provide new dolls each month. “It’s so entrenched in specialty,” she tells Playthings. “There are upwards of 20 new dolls a month. It’s a huge line.”
Toy Vault will also release a new line of children’s furniture based on the Cabbage Patch Kids. “Every theme has features,” Piccirillo. “It’s a country feel. The colors [for the CPK line] are what the trends are dictating.”
B.I.G., Quagmire and Miami Vice
In the figures line, Mezco Toyz, New York, will launch South Park Series 2 figures featuring Ang, Token, Kyle, Mr. Hanky and Tooth Fairy. Also this fall will be two deluxe Carl and Hanky figures. A Series 3 assortment will be out early fourth quarter featuring Jesus and Timmy figures with Series 4 following in early 2007.
Still in development are 8- to 9-inch figures of rap group Public Enemy, due by end of third quarter, as well as an 18-inch King Kong and the late rapper Notorious B.I.G. The '80s police drama Miami Vice comes to figure form in early fall with Crocket and Tubbs figures. Other highlights are 5-inch The World is Yours Scarface figures out in November as well a 9-inch talking Scarface. The Family Guy Series 6 is out this fall as well as the 6- to 9-inch figures based on popular series character, Quagmire, plus 2-inch figures. Four 6-inch Stewie fashion dolls will be out in November as well.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer will have new regular and deluxe sets, including Summer’s family, a library playset as well as a line of Zander and Cordelia figures, from Diamond Select Toys, Timonium, Md. Spike and Angel figures will be available in both vampire and normal versions. Also on the horizon are figures, including a diorama, for Stargate. Diamond also helps celebrate the 40th anniversary of Star Trek with Kirk and Pike figures in chair, plus an Enterprise "E" figure with voice of Picard.
Something to Marvel
New figures from Toy Biz include a Masterworks series due out this fall of "the best comic covers of all time," picked by the artists themselves. The first, of four for the year, will be released in October. Gift packs of the Young Avengers, House of M and Monsters will also be out this September.
Speaking of comics, Diamond Select plans a Marvel-licensed Sinister Six figure line that includes Electro, Sandman and Mysterio. Juggernaut, Wolverine, Beast, Storm and Jean Grey will come in bust and Minimates form this fall. Gentle Giant Studios, Burbank, Calif., scanned the actors for the film as well as the figures. The X-men line will include busts, based on the film as well as jewelry like pendants and Wolverine-like collar pins. Diamond Select will also release the Ultimate Hulk, Green Goblin and Thanos in the Marvel Selects assortment. Two new Hawkeye figures will be in the new Marvel Milestones line. The Icons line will bring the Green Goblin and Thor.
Have horse, will…
In an aread of the collectibles world that tends to appeal more to girls, Breyer, Pequannock, N.J, announced a promotion to entice fans of the company's horse models. The “Equine Treasure Hunt,” running from January to June 2006, is designed to get collectors to “hunt” for four individual stock horses—an Appalossa, a Flea-
Bitten Grey, a Chestnut and Palomino Pinto (SRP $36 each)—at retail locations across the country. Participating retailers will be sent random shipments of the horses and they will not get to choose which ones they receive. It is up to the collector to track down all four for their collection. Once the collector has all four of the horses, they can send in a claim card and proofs of purchase to receive their free prize, the fifth Treasure Hunt Horse, a Wedgewood Blue horse which will only be available to participating, successful collectors.
It adds up
Sudoku, the popular 9x9 square daily newspaper numbers game, was suddenly everywhere you looked at Toy Fair. Two of the many companies with interpretations of the game were Mattel, El Segundo, Calif., with a DVD game, and ThinkFun, Alexandra, Va., with a magnetic travel version that scales the game down to 5x5 squares. The company also plans a Junior version, which was not yet available for preview at the show.
"It's extremely addictive," said Ralph Cuomo, ThinkFun's president and COO, of the power of Sudoku's game play. "I can't tell you why, but there's just something about it that makes you think you can solve [the puzzles]. There are just enough clues to empower you to try."
On the horizon
Pirates continued to be the most popular villains around for 2006, with continuing product from Montreal's MegaBloks, both from its proprietary Pyrates line and its licensed Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Man's Chest assortment; Action Products, Orlando, Fla., with Pirate Greeting Carrrrrds, for sending messages in a bottle, complete with sand, treasure maps and plastic scorpions; and even Playmobil with a pirate figure as part of its March/September specials series.
Of course there will be many more playthings scheduled to sail into toy stores in 2006. Watch for ongoing new product coverage from Toy Fair and beyond, all year long, at Playthings.com and in our monthly magazine.
