Toy Fair USA takes place in the Javits convention center, which is similar to the one the Tokyo Game Show is in, or the one ComicCon is in: i.e. HUGE. London's Toy Fair was a pitiful thing in comparison to its NYC cousin, and unlike London where there was very little to see beyond an enormous amount of licensed stuff on umbrellas and tents, NYC covers the gamut.
Top floor is the Big Name stuff. Melissa & Doug is like a virus, taking over a whole ton of areas; they've branched well past their original wooden toy stuff, into anything you can imagine, including buying up Trunki, and producing some (fairly bleh) baby dolls. (I used to think M&D were okay, until I realised all their stuff is made in China and the quality is rapidly going downhill. We got the M&D piano for xmas, and it had fallen apart in its packaging: we took it apart and the insides were shockingly badly smushed together. Sad.) Hasbro are there, Lego, Ty, that kind of thing. Mattel keeps its stuff hidden, although they had Barbie pets on display (50 years, and now she gets a pet??).
The ground floor is where you find the indies, the small guys, the otaku, the board game people. Usually my favourite floor - felt really big this year, which is nice! Or maybe I missed a chunk last year. I suspect not, I suspect it really is innovating again: product of a downturn, and changing manufacturing ability, plus new fashions for the not-so-mass-produced. Hand made is cool again?
Generally, there was too much variety down there for anything like themes to stick out, but I did notice a lot of "cute food" stuff - pancake puppies, cupcake stuffies, that kind of thing. I think that's a Japan influence.
Vamplets stood out for me because of its ultra strong styling, and the huge advert at the bottom of the escalator.
But I was a goth once upon a time, so maybe I'm biased ;-)
I was impressed with this lady: this is her hand...
...and here are her plushie toys, that she used to make by hand and sold at $80 a pop, then "years later", here's her now manufactured toy, selling at $25 ea to toy stores.
I liked these huggable, do-gooding robots. Each has a cause and each gives a percentage of its purchase price to that cause. And they're gorgeous. Big love for them.
I retired to the media lounge for a coffee and to rest aching feet after plodding the whole space, when I overheard...
"It's really taking boardgames to a new, social, level..."
I wish I knew what the speaker was referring to.
Back out again. I spotted a robot bear. It was cool - plays peekaboo with a blanket, when it hears your voice. It wasn't really working above the hubbub of the show floor, but it was still pretty adorable as it randomly waved its blanket around when a noise hit a frequency it recognised.
Just the sort of thing that Sherry Turkle isn't happy about, mind. And I suspect Matt Webb and pals would have some opinions on this, too: there's not much they don't know about robots.
Lastly, here's the Top Ten toys roundup from TD Monthly: Moshimonsters made it to the list, which is completely fantastic. What they've achieved these 3 years is superb.
That bear, desperate for attention, fruitlessly trying to play peekaboo with any passer-by, might be the saddest/ most adorable thing i have ever seen. I want to rescue him. And play peekaboo forever.
Posted by: Kelsey | February 27, 2011 at 16:47
Yes. See? They saw us coming. :)
Posted by: Alice | February 27, 2011 at 17:32
I forgot to ask you when I saw you at GDC: How many of these were affiliated with/connected to an online world or experience of some kind. A la Webkiz, Barbiegirls, Build-a-bear...
Posted by: Kim | March 07, 2011 at 06:35