International News Briefs
By Staff -- Playthings, 7/1/2006
It's Christmas at the zoo! The inaugural Christmas in July showcase, which will give journalists a chance to preview holiday product in the U.K., will take place at the London Zoo's Prince Albert Suite this month. AllAboutFootball, Bandai, Coiled Spring and Vtech are some of the companies that have signed on to attend. A complete list of companies is available at www.christmasinjuly.co.uk...This year there may be some more additions to the Christmas list as Vivid Imaginations has won the master U.K. toy licence for Chapman Entertainment's Roary the Racing Car. The series has also secured TV slots on Five and Nick Jr. for next spring. The toy line will include play sets, puzzles and die-cast, which will be in stores next summer…Data from Nielsen BookScan shows sales of graphic novels and manga in Britain shot up to 600,000 units, or $10.3 million, in 2005 from the approximately 100,000 units, or $2.8 million, the segment tallied back in 2001…Tamagotchi and Power Rangers toy maker Bandai GmbH, Frankfurt, Germany, the German unit of Japan's Namco Bandai Holdings Inc, has made a public offer to buy German doll maker Zapf Creation AG…On the Pacific toy front, the focus of this year's fifth annual Shanghai Toy Expo, which will take place at the new International Expo Centre in Pudong, October 18-20, will include a focus on children's and juvenile books as a new product group for retail...The Asia-Pacific region has more people who consider themselves “recreational shoppers” (84 percent of people), than in the U.S., where only 68 percent of respondents to a recent survey by AC Nielsen, said they used shopping as a leisure time activity. The survey, which polled 42 markets, found that in Hong Kong and Indonesia 93 percent of consumers admit that they shop just for fun…Things just got more entertaining for little jet setters. Taffy Entertainment, Los Angeles, has signed a deal with portable in-flight entertainment provider digEcor to make animated series Pet Alien, ToddWorld and Jakers! The Adventures of Piggley Winks available on digEcor's digEplayer, a 7-inch, portable device that plays music, movies, TV shows and music videos in-flight or on-train. Alaska Airlines adds the package this month and Amtrak follows suit in August. Sixteen international airlines may also pick up the package, Taffy says.
