Worth Noting   

There's a lot of build up, but Toy Fair doesn't really start for me until I step into the Javits Center for the first time. So with that, Toy Fair 2010 kicked off for me this morning with back-to-back press events at Mattel's showroom-sized "booth" in the Galleria. The first event was to unveil its debut line of WWE licensed action figures; the second was to tout Barbie's 125th "career." 

Unusual for me, I got there early. The universe's punishment for being early: a dead battery in my blackberry (so no convenient email checking and or BrickBreaker to pass the time) and a camera I left on the counter of my apartment (damn you haste and your making of waste!) so I was left with not much to do but wait around as an army of PR folks mingled with the TV crews. ...Read More

So, it’s been about 48 hours since returning from St. Paul, Minnesota, for this year’s American Specialty Toy Retailing Association Marketplace & Academy. My take on the show two days removed is simple: It was good.

According to ASTRA, more than 80 manufacturers made their debut as exhibitors this week, boosting the event’s exhibitor tally by nearly 30 percent over last year. What ASTRA hasn’t yet said its how many retailers were on hand, but it looks to have been about 350, something I’m basing solely on the event’s official list of registered store owners/buyers. It could have been higher or lower, but regardless of the official figure, I’m pretty confident those who were there would tell you it was a worth the trip.

In fact—or probably more accurately “in perception”—this might have been the ...Read More

There aren’t many publicly traded toy companies. Most are giant manufacturers—Mattel, Hasbro, Jakks Pacific—that offer up juicy bits of data about themselves only when mandated by SEC regulations. They typically issue press releases when they’ve got something specific to promote, like a new product or a fresh licensing deal, but it’s rare they announce anything truly surprising, except for the odd acquisition now and then, and even rarer do they offer anything of real financial depth.

Then there’s Action Products, one of the few publicly traded toymakers that’s still a relatively small company. It offers up all sorts of unexpected press releases—usually, it seems, in an effort to give its stock price a boost in a much more overt way than its bigger competition. ...Read More

A small toymaker posed a simple enough question to me today: "I'm looking for a safe factory in China. Can you help me?" 

I'll always be the first to admit that the sourcing end of the business is not one we here at Playthings spend time looking at. The rationale for that being our primary audience is retailers and that the overseas factories American "manufacturers" use to make the toys that our retail readers eventually buy from aren't much — or any — of a concern to the average merchant. Were I a retailer, I'd generally envision myself being trusting enough...Read More

The U.S. Census Bureau today announced bad news from the nation’s retailers: advance estimates of U.S. retail and food services sales for October were down a record 2.8 percent from September to $363.7 billion and off 4 percent from October 2007.

It was the overall retail industry’s worst monthly drop since falling 2.65 percent in November 2001, a stall attributed to anxieties after that year’s terrorist attacks.

Removing food service figures from the tallied showed that retail trade sales were even worse—down 3.1 percent in October from September 2008, and off 5 percent versus October 2007. Particularly hard hit were motor vehicle and auto parts dealers, with combined sales down 23.4 percent from October 2007, and furniture and home furnishings stores, where sales slipped 13.5 percent.

There’s a sil...Read More

Thought I’d point out an interesting story from Variety columnist Anne Thompson about Summit Entertainment’s efforts to turn Stephenia Meyer’s best-selling young adult romance series about (seemingly) teenage vampires into a Harry Potter-level movie franchise.

The movie adaptation of Meyer’s first vampire book, Twilight, hits theaters on Nov. 21, and NECA, apparently, has the license for action figures. [I say “apparently” because, despite there being a photo of an Edward Cullen action figure floating around the Web, you’d be hard pressed to prove NECA’s actually doing a...Read More

Stricter toy safety regulations are on the docket in Europe.

The Brussels-based European Parliament’s Committee on Internal Market and Consumer Protection has adopted a report that outlines new toy safety directives—scheduled to be voted upon next month—that were predicated on the belief that “the existing directive has given good service but needs replacing” nearly 20 years after its initial enactment.
 
“New types of toy have appeared on the market, with new materials and technologies being used for their manufacture,” said the EP in a press release ...Read More

Toys “R” Us last night commented on the passage of H.R. 4040, the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008.

Jerry Storch, TRU’s chairman and CEO, said, “We thank Congress for working so diligently to pass this landmark legislation. Toys ‘R’ Us Inc. is proud to have lent its support to this bill. We look forward to remaining an active contributor, together with legislators, manufacturers, regulators and consumer groups, in our shared mission to protect our nation’s children.”

The U.S. Senate yesterday approved the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act in an 89 to 3 vote, an overwhelming enough majority to pretty much ensure its passage into law by President Bush sometime soon. The House of Respresentatives passed the act earlier this week.

In the wake of last year’s recalls,...Read More

The U.S. House of Representatives yesterday passed the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 in a 424-1 vote. (The one dissenting vote was cast by Rep. Ron Paul, the presidential candidate.) The legislation now heads to the Senate, where it’s expected to be approved before Congress adjourns for its traditional August break later this week.

In a statement released on July 29, the Toy Industry Association weighed in on the Act:

“TIA is in the process of thoroughly reviewing and analyzing the text, but a preliminary scan reveals it to be mostly fair and balanced legislation that will help ensure that the industry continues to be regulated by uniform national standards based on sound science. Our principle concern – that th...Read More