Nuremberg's Best In Show
By Cliff Annicelli -- Playthings, 3/1/2008
Spielwarenmesse, the International Toy Fair in Nuremberg, Germany, has long been known as the place upscale toy store buyers go to to find the best in what European manufacturers have to offer—and the show's 2008 edition was no exception. The Nuremberg show, after all, remains the largest toy trade event in the world and its more than 2,600 exhibiting companies brought to this year's event several hundred thousand SKUs from which to choose.
For each of the past five years, show organizers have handed out their version of best-in-show awards. At last month's event, 193 companies entered 269 new products into contention for kudos in one of eight categories. Judging criteria for the winners included factors such as degree of innovation, product concept, quality of workmanship, material properties, suitability for playing, ease of use and comprehensiblity of the product. The judges were toy industry experts and buyers from major European retailers. The awards were announced at the show's opening ceremony.
All of the products, according to Spielwarenmesse CEO Ernst Kick, “demonstrate the variety of good products developed for the International Toy Fair every year, and the industry's achievements.”
Among the the 2008 ToyAward winners were three products released in the U.S. market in 2007: Hasbro's Cosmic Catch in the Fun + Sport category, Mattel's UB Funkeys in the Emotion + Experience category and Jakks Pacific's Eye Clops—The TV Microscope in the Knowledge + Learning category.
The remaining winners are pictured at right.
