Worth Noting

April 23, 2008 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

So much for voting Republican... 

According to Bloomberg, Senator John McCain was talking tough to an audience in Youngstown, Ohio, last night about what he’d do were there another Chinese toy recall.

"I have to tell you, if I were president of the United States, the next toy that came into this country from China that endangered the lives of our children, it would be the last toy that came into the United States," McCain was quoted as saying.

Of course, it’s an election year—amidst a recession, no less—so it’s not entirely surprising to hear politicians demonize business, but when it comes from the traditionally pro-business side of the political spectrum, get ready for a rough...Read More

March 6, 2008 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

The Consumer Product Safety Commission Reform Act (S.2663) is expected to come to a vote this week—possibly as early as today—in the U.S. Senate after being introduced in that body of Congress on Feb. 25.

The original House of Representatives version (H.R. 4040) passed by a unanimous vote in mid-December. Watching the legislation morph over the past week will have been an eye-opener for anyone whose primary knowledge of government’s inner workings started and ended with one Schoolhouse Rock episode about how a bill becomes a law—like me. There have been all sorts of amendments tacked on that, despite the wider media’s continued linking of the Reform Act to toy safety, show how little the Act as it now exists has to do with toys since its began its journey to possible law-of-the-land status back in November, followi...Read More

February 10, 2008 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

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 c...Read More

February 9, 2008 | Link This | Email this | Comments (1)

Finding trends at a show with more than 2,500 exhibiting companies is never easy and this year's Nuremberg Toy Fair is no exception. Yet, that's the task I set myself today and here's what I've found.

1. Remote-control birds (techically "ornithopters") are this year's R/C micro helicopter. Several Asian companies have been showing off their flutter-winged R/C to approving oohs and aahs of fairgoers for their incredibly realistic looking mechanics. All of those inventors who tried to mimic birds' wings before the Wright Brothers figured out a better way to get people aloft would be proud. Silverlit garnered most of the early-show buzz—look for their booth in New York next week or see their products at Spin Master—but Germany's Sablon was making as much of an impression with its own an assortment of WowWee-created flying...Read More

February 8, 2008 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

Greetings from the Spielwarenmesse, the Nuremberg International Toy Fair. It's my third consecutive year here at the Western world's largest toy show, with its more than 80,000 visitors, 2,750 exhibitors and other impressively large stats. The highlight for me so far, it being only my first day here, is that the show is now 95 percent nicotine free thanks to Germany having joined the ranks of nations banning indoor smoking at the turn of the New Year. Not only can I see the rafters of Hall 11.1 for the first time—turns out they are a lovely pastel hue—but food tastes better cigarette-free after all. Apparently, those doctors were right ... 

Got a late start today. Flew into Munich yesterday afternoon and spent the night in that fair city. Typically excellent people watching last night along the apparently mandat...Read More