Buzz Report: 2007 Toy Fair Final Edition
By Karyn M. Peterson, Tina Benitez and Cliff Annicelli -- Playthings, 2/16/2007 10:05:00 AM
February 16, 2007—The 2007 American International Toy Fair can be summed up in the sentence we heard most often during its four official days: “It’s been a good show.”
And whether Toy Fair remains in New York once its current contract with the Javits Center expires after the 2010 event or moves someplace warmer—one Pennsylvania-based infant and juvenile exhibitor said that overall the show was great, but he wouldn’t mind it moving someplace warmer as soon as possible—business was still good at this year’s exhibition, according to manufacturers who spoke to Playthings. A night of wet snow and sleet made the final morning’s commute messy, but buyers were still arriving as Wednesday afternoon wore on to get one more peek at 2007 product.
“I heard someone on the news this morning say Toy Fair has been lackluster for the past five years,” Don McNeill, chairman of McNeil Designs for Brighter Minds told Playthings. “But now it's back. It's good to hear other people saying this.”
Next month, McNeill Designs for Brighter Minds, maker of card games You’ve Been Sentenced and Twisted Fish, will launch an online version of You’ve Been Sentenced at Games Expo, something McNeill says will be "huge" for the company. McNeill says several partnerships have come out of Toy Fair this year, and Playthings will be the first to know. Stay tuned!
Terri Brown, manager of consumer marketing and communications for Elmer's, was too excited about entering the toy business following the acquisitions of Giddy Up and ColorLoco last year to be concerned about the weather. She was more concerned about acceptance of the company's new products, potential copycats and remembering to have fun in the business. Brown knows that toys is a tough market to be in but says that since the company has just joined the show, feedback has been positive from other exhibitors and attendees for their expanded line of arts and crafts kits.
“It's just an entertaining business, and it's so exciting to see all the different toys,” she said. And according to Brown, the acquisition has changed very little in terms of Giddy Up's and ColorLoco's products. “We're just going to let them do what they do best, which is what they've been doing. In the grand scheme of things, what really matters is, are [the toys] doing any good for the kids.”
Elsewhere in the arts and crafts category, Alex showcased additions to its Little Hands line, including more lacing and stacking puzzles; a Build A Buddy craft set; four new dough model kits like E-I-E-I Dough and My Collage Farm, which include 10 different colors of dough for sculpting; Bead and Belt kits and a Flip ’em Flop, flip-flop kits with ribbons in the Fashion Fun line; the Chunky Funky scarf kit and Knot-A-Scarf and Knot-A-Poncho; and a Happy Camper Chair, which includes canvas that can be colored in by kids; cotton clay kitsand a Color & Carry Messenger Bag are some of the new products in the line.
Things were definitely hopping at both Melissa & Doug booths for the duration of the show. The company’s new products span the plush, games, chunky puzzles and other categories. “Sometimes the more products you have, the more doors open,” said Rick Davis, director of marketing, of the company’s wide assortment for 2007. “We’re not trying to get into every store, but we’re finding little niches.”
The company was nice enough to supply hungry and parched attendees with breakfast, lunch or beverages throughout the day, leading to regularly timed scenes of worn-out buyers camped out each afternoon against the walls of M&D’s main booth. Davis told Playthings that the company makes special effort to take care of its specialty retail customers at the show. “We take care of our stores because they are the ones taking care of us,” he said.
“The show has been really good,” Becky Hickel, director of sales and product development for Magnetic Poetry, told Playthings. “We’ve had both gift and toy buyers. There’s definitely more crossover in the past few years.” The company is introducing four new magnetic travel games this year: sudoku, parcheesi, travel bingo and chinese checkers, which will be available in April.
“We’ve had so much foot traffic,” said ImagAbility’s Rori McKinley. The company’s Wedgits building toys line is expanding this year to include travel-friendly kid sets like the Junior Tote, which was "hugely popular" this year due to its portability, she said.
Ceaco/Gamewright also had a great show, according to Jason Schneider, manager of product development and marketing. The company’s new Pieceless Puzzle got “a phenomenal response” at Toy Fair, he said. “Toy stores [were] loving it.” Schneider also noted buyer interest in the dual-sided puzzles from gift stores and even supermarket chains like Wegmans. “Finally, there’s a new play pattern in puzzles. How many jigsaw puzzles can you take to the beach?” The company’s new lineup of games was also well received this year, making this show one of the best ever for them, he told Playthings. “Buyers have been really ecstatic about our latest and greatest,” he said.
Over at Pretty Ugly, hot movers included a new character, Ugly Worm; plus new licensed products like fold-and-mail stationery and soft-covered Uglydoll journals in Ox and Icebat themes from Chronicle Books, and a deluxe How-to-Draw kit from Walter Foster.
North American Bear has found a way to play off the rise of quirky plush with its own My Own Monsters line of monster designs created by kids themselves and by its new Make My Own Monsters program at FAO Schwarz where kids can send in their own monster plush designs and receive a finished piece in six weeks directly from the company. In its first few weeks, the program’s done “10 times better than what we expected,” Barbara Isenberg, N.A. Bear president, told Playthings. The line is finding favor with the “new, younger customer who wants something different than traditional plush,” Isenberg said.
Personalized products manufacturer John Hinde had a rush of customers nearly every day of Toy Fair lining up to order the latest offerings in its kid products line: appealing, brightly-colored piggy banks and drink bottles, which will follow the company’s popular name mugs and keychains into a large number of specialty toy stores this spring. “We call these ‘grandma bait,’” creative director Lou Ann Thompson told Playthings.
Kapla also had success at Toy Fair this year with its line of wooden plank building kits finding a number of new buyers, primarily specialty toy stores. “We’re growing and it’s great,” said Marjorie Israel Chayette, general partner in the company.
“It was so much better than last year,” said Steve Lim, operations manager for Amos Marketing, of the show. “It snowed on the last day instead of the first, which helped a lot.” For 2007, the company offers a wide range of arts and crafts products as well as toys. This year, buyers were clamoring for Amos’ line of R/C cars that feature speakers and a jack (so kids can hook up an MP3 player) as well as the Smart Track playset, which features a create-your-own track and two electric/magnetic cars, Lim said, noting, “We’ve had a lot of good feedback on the track.”
At Thames & Kosmos, buyers continued to be interested in the Microcontroller kit, which launched late last year, according to company president Ted McGuire. “This is the first time we’ve had a working demo on display,” he noted. The company’s biggest draw at this Toy Fair, however, was its new Little Labs series of science kits, seven kits for kids ages 5 to 7 that are bilingual in English and Spanish “to aid in language learning and to increase accessibility,” McGuire said. “For 90 percent of orders at the show, they take the full POP display, so people are really excited about it,” he noted. Expansions to the company’s popular physics and chemistry kit lines are also due this year, along with Fuel Cell X7, a simplified version of the popular car experiment kit that offers new packaging, a lower price point, and a new instruction manual focused solely on the car building.
Hasbro set up shop a half-block from Javits instead of at its traditional toy district showroom for the first time. Once inside, buyers, representatives from major licensors and onlookers like us got a glimpse at some of its eagerly anticipated licensed toys. For Spider-Man 3, the company charmed many with its Spider-Man Spud, a Mr. Potato Head dressed in either Spidey gear or as Peter Parker (or since we're talking Mr. Potato Head, a little bit of both); a My First Spider-Man preschool-targeted action figure; new role-play items, often of the web-blasting variety, including a fabric Spidey mask and a blaster that shoots spinning webs; Nerf footballs, iDogs, puzzles and various degrees of collector and play-oriented action figures, among other product types. The company’s Star Wars lines will grow with 60 new figures featuring characters from all six movies, and a Death Star that transforms into Darth Vader, while its home-grown Transformers movie line is highlighted by an Optimus Prime voice-changing helmet, Arm Blasters that go from trucks to Nerf dart-firing blasters; a 14-inch-tall Ultimate Bumblebee action figure based on the Chevrolet Camaro Concept Car that includes lights and sound, including Devo’s “Whip It”; and a version of the board game Risk. Among the notables among its non-licensed products are the Power Tour Electric Guitar, another of the popular Guitar Hero-inspired six strings on the market this year, Playskool-branded MP3 players developed in partnership with computer audio products maker Creative, a pink interactive pony tied into the 25th anniversary of the My Little Pony brand and an animatronic parrot, Squakers, that’s this year’s version of 2006’s award-winning Buttercup life-sized plush horse; an updated version of Operation packaged in a first aid box; 20-minute, travel-friendly Express Games versions of favorites like Sorry! and Monopoly; and the iList Music Party, a name-that-tune game using players’ iPods.
Schylling is moving further from its roots as a maker of tin toy replicas with an exclusive distribution deal for Hit Entertainment’s new toy division, Hit Toys. This year’s line includes plastic, battery-operated Thomas the Tank Engine trains formerly produced by Tomy. In other licensing new, the toymaker will resume offering porcelain tea sets in wicker baskets featuring DIC Entertainment’s Madeline after a five year layoff. “We feel very strongly about Madeline,” said Schylling’s licensing director, Keri McRae, “It’s a special property.”
Zizzle will continue to ride the Pirates of the Caribbean wave this summer with two new playsets, an R/C Black Pearl pirate ship with hidden wheels for driving around on land but which rocks back and forth as if it's at sea, and several role-play products, including a belt that knows if you’re fighting using its sword, dagger or your own fists. The company also gets smart with a Hooked on Phonics line, a deal the company will tout via a school bus outfitted as a demo station of its Phonics products that will tour 10 markets during the back-to-school sales season. “It’ll be a big, expensive promotion but the return on investment to get in front of moms will be worth it,” Zizzle’s Scott Goldberg told Playthings.
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