Intriguingly Different...
By Cliff Annicelli, Editor -- Playthings, 8/1/2007
The magazine you're holding in your hands is something new—new to everyone involved, including us here at Playthings. If you're a long time subscriber to this publication, you've come to expect something very specific from us: business and product news, interviews and opinions specifically about the toy and children's entertainment industries. It's those topics that we've covered in these pages every month since 1903, when a small publishing company saw an opportunity to chronicle the then-fledgling U.S. toy business that had coalesced in one New York City neighborhood. Month after month, that opportunity grew into a 104-year-old legacy that we're understandably proud of. But this month, we're diverting from that legacy for an experiment.
This month we've narrowed our focus to just one thing: product, particularly the most noteworthy toys, games and other “playthings” on the market in 2007. As a “toy magazine,” we have, of course, always been about toys—how they're made, who makes them, and how to sell them more effectively if you happen to be a toy store owner. That we'd write about toys is nothing new, but we've never had an issue that purely showcases the toys themselves. That is, until now. It wasn't a tough decision, frankly. The thinking went something like this: let's see if we can produce something to interest the many parents—mostly mothers—who email or call us up out of the blue every day asking where and how to find the toys their kids are clamoring for.
The result of that idea is this issue, and because of it, there's a good chance that you, the reader, aren't in the toy business at all. Chances are you've discovered us in the waiting room of your child's pediatrician's office. If that's you, welcome to Playthings!
We hope you'll find this issue a useful guide to the many toys you'll either be hearing about from your kids throughout the holiday season, or the toys that we would wish your children would ask for if they had the access to the all-encompassing overview of what's currently available in the toy world like we do. (Trust us, they'd like that—they really would!)
And to our toy business friends, rest assured we'll be back next month with all the toy business insight we can once again muster. See you then.
