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Nuremberg Toy Fair Day 3
February 10, 2008

With the crowds thinning out at the tail end of the weekend, I managed to make my way into some previously dismissive European power players today for a look around. By Sunday afternoon only Simba (home to Eichhorn, two iterations of Dickie and Nicotoys) still had a noticable throng in front of its booth (not counting the too-cool-for-school European divisions of Hasbro and Mattel). Today's highlight was Famosa, the so-called Mattel of Spain (so-called at least by me...I have a feeling Mattel is actually the Mattel of Spain, but it's just a feeling.)

As expected, there were lots of baby dolls. I tend to cringe in horror at baby dolls but these weren't as nightmare inducing as one would expect. And there was a definite logic to the company's assortment of ages-and-stages based designs that essentially sees the company offer dolls of newborns, with newborn concerns, then dolls reflecting the challenges and milestones of a 6 month old, then a 1 year old, etc. It made me glad I wasn't the parent of a young daughter in Spain—that's a lot of baby dolls to buy in order to truly experience the full range of infant/toddler development they were trying to present. Also interesting was the massive amount of ride-ons offered, both licensed and generic, and the company's growing business in outdoor and indoor play spaces, some now with Disney licenses...

Also made the rounds through Haba, which continues to grow in leaps and bounds, especially with infant products and all sorts of decor items that once again show how successful some companies have been at building a niche in the child side of the gift business. The booth looked deceptively placid from the outside but inside it was dog eat dog to get a glimpse of the company's ever-expanding lines of preschool/early childhood games, books-plus, play environments and outdoor toys. As always, it'll be interesting to see which products make it across the Atlantic to the company's North American assortment...

Speaking of baby, Brio showed off a new line called My Very First that included lots of soft and fuzzy product (including what I believe is Brio's first ever infant gym), all in new red and white packaging. In a nice bit of detailing, the line's window boxes come with lids so they can be made to look like gift boxes...

Today's primary goal was to find U.S. buyers to quiz about the question of "why aren't there more of you here?" but I could't find any to ask. Seemed like most foreign buyers were already on their way home...lots of Germany ones still on hand, though. I'll be heading back shortly myself. Nuremberg's defeated even my most confortable pair of quasi-dress shoes so I think it's time to jam them under the seat of one of Lufthansa's torturously narrow seats for oh, 9 to 10 hours or so, to give them the rest they deserve.

See you in New York this time next week.

Posted by Cliff Annicelli on February 10, 2008 | Comments (0)