Out of the Toy Box   

I am just back in New York after spending a week in Nuremberg and as always, I am amazed by its sheer scale. It is hard to believe that there is any show of any kind in the world that is as big as this one.   There are over a million unique toys on displays and it looks like it. Each hall is huge and there are 17 of them. It takes me anywhere from 20 minutes to a half an hour to walk from one side of the show to the other depending upon whether I take short cuts (always a tough decision as you have to go outside and its cold).  

It is truly an adventure to be in the midst of so many people (75,000) from so many countries (115). It is also a bit eye ope...Read More

Call them “Millenials”, “Generation Y”, “Generation Next”, “Generation Net” and even “Echo Boomers” but whatever you call them make sure you call them our newest generation of parents.   Born between 1975 and 2000, these are largely the children of the Baby Boom generation and they are very different in how they see the world.

This generation, particularly its younger members, is seen as more frugal and less consumerist then their parents. They like products that carry values in which they believe.

I thought about these shoppers when I considered the flat sales of ...Read More

Just when I got my body clock set back to east coast time, it’s time to get back on a plane and head to Nuremberg, Germany for the 2010 Spielwarrenmesse (Toy Fair). It’s okay because I love this trade show. It truly pulls the entire toy world together in one spot at one time and regales them with over 1 million unique toys.

While there, I am going to be very busy with my Building Our Future Conference Nuremberg as well as a talk I am delivering to the Toy Business Forum on the topic “Quo Vadis Toy Marketing.” I am going to come in contact with lots of interesting people and spend time on the trade show floor so here ...Read More

Most any toy department or toy store merchandises girls and boys toys in different sections. In fact, the notion of gender in toys is so ingrained in our thinking that we never stop to think that maybe it’s not a fact of nature but rather a cultural outlook that we impose. 

That was the thought that I had when coming upon an underwear department in a Chinese department store. To my surprise, the women’s and men’s underwear were merchandised in one department: The underwear department.

Obviously, in this culture (or certainly that department store) the western notion of merchandising by gender did not prevail. ...Read More

I know, I know; Toy Fair is not as important as it used to be and Hong Kong is more important than New York and Dallas is where it all starts but I love Toy Fair. There is literally no other exhibition for the North American toy industry that pulls together EVERYBODY at one place at one time.

It is the toy industry’s giant brain. Each of those people an atom of knowledge, each booth a synapse and each party an adrenaline charge. To be at Toy Fair is to know more things and people; to be a fully functioning part of the toy industry and to become one very smart person. 

This year we have the added excitement of the Engage Conference...Read More

China is big and its toy industry is even bigger; at least in the impact it has on the rest of the world’s toy businesses. Toy companies and retailers all over the world depend upon China to produce more than 85% of the globe’s toys. 

So what happens to the world’s toy industries if China catches a cold? That was the question I asked myself as I read these headlines in one day’s (January 12, 2010) South China Daily:

·         “Beijing warned over inflation”

·      ...Read More

Lest you think that dangerous toys were just something kids randomly came up with, let me assure you that our parents and institutions encouraged us to hurt or kill ourselves with toys. The city government of my progressive Virginia town built us a cement playground that was ergonomically designed so that if you flew out of the swing you knocked out your all of your teeth AND all of your brains. 

Our parents conspired to do us in as well. They gave us real bows and arrows with sharp points which we shot at each other with an accuracy that could have gotten us into some medieval army. Oddly, no one was killed or even maimed, although we tried.

...Read More

I just read a great article in The New Yorker* that spoke about the dangerous toys of our youth. As the writer put it: “Most of the toys that I used to covet were things that, nowadays, are considered … potential causes of injury or blindness: cheap slingshots… BBs…Greenie Stik-M-Caps… Shootin’ Shells…red roll caps (for hitting with hammers)…and model cars and their intoxicating glue.”  It brought back so many wonderfully scary memories that I thought I would share some of my scary toy stories with you in hopes that you could share your scary stories as well.

Let me start with guns. I...Read More

I saw some pretty wild stuff in Hong Kong. There was a toy named “Squeezy, Squeezy Clam,” (dumb toy, great name); there were enough toy helicopters to win the war in Afghanistan and there were RC cars that were so big that you could just about fit inside.

What really struck me, however, was a quiet revolution going on in the very materials from which toys are made. I saw any number of new forms of wood, plastic, vinyl and foam. Bamboo is definitely the material du jour. 

It’s all happening because manufacturers are actually responding to the desire for materials that are environmentally friendly o...Read More

Some women see the color pink as a stultifying color for girls. They feel that it is part of a ubiquitous toy industry play pattern that suggests that being a female is only about nurturance and dress up. They want to see toys that challenge girls to be scientists, doctors and anything else they choose. 

They are starting to get angry. They are also starting to get organized.

Hence, the “PinkStinks” movement. Have you heard about it? I hadn’t either.

 Founded by a pair of twins, Abi and Emma Moore, the organization seeks to broaden play choices for girls. Here is how Abi Moore puts it in a Guardian article entitled "The Power of Pink:"

Pink in girls’ toys has become so standard a concept that it is hard to believe that it is a recent phenomenon. That is what you will learn, among some other valuable things, in an outstanding piece entitled “The Power of Pink.” It was published by the British newspaper, The Guardian and it contains some mind breaking information on the color pink and its association with girls.

It seems that pink has only recently been a girl’s color. In fact, earlier in the 20^th century it was the color of choice for boys. Here ...Read More