This year's New York International Toy Fair, February 20—23, featured an emphasis on technology, much interest in educational workbooks and a trend toward extra content—from books and DVDs to comics—packaged along with many toy products.
There was also a hint of uncertainty about the future of the Toy Fair. The new mass-market toy show held in October has been one of the factors leading to reduced traffic at the February fair, and the venerable Toy Building at 23rd Street and Fifth Avenue, where most of the temporary and permanent showrooms are located, is being converted to condos. Attendees speculate the February fair may move to another city or be phased out altogether at some future date.
This year's fair also marked the debut of a new exhibit area called Reading, Writing and Rhythm, which gathered 42 of the 57 publishers exhibiting at the show, along with music labels, sidelines manufacturers such as Merrymakers and Yottoy, and booths for the BEA and Bologna fairs. While there were a few complaints about the section's location (in the back corner of the Javits Center) and the lack of clear boundaries (it merged with the collectible dolls in several places), most exhibitors approved of the section as a way for publishers to make a strong statement to the toy trade.
Literary licenses were integrated into many of the tech toys throughout the fair. Scholastic's Clifford was the basis of a new electronic learning line from Mattel's Fisher-Price division, while Fisher-Price and Scholastic's joint venture, the Read with Me DVD! learning system, integrates several titles adapted from the Scholastic Classic Video Collection, including Where the Wild Things Are and The Little Engine That Could.
Technology had a high profile at the fair, as has been true in the last few years, with examples ranging from electronic sound effects and infrared communications between toys to child-friendly portable music and video players. The trend extended into books as well, with many publishers showing titles that included CDs, DVDs or software. Firms like Silver Dolphin Press, School Specialties and School Zone were showing off a variety of CD and DVD products packaged along with activity and workbooks. Paradise Press, a publisher of coloring and board books for mass channels, launched a new division, Sounds Great! Publishing, for its new electronic book lines, which will include eight talking read-along books and 12 interactive learn-to-read books.
Licensing, Cross-Promotions
Licensing took a back seat at this Toy Fair, with most of the major movie licenses being concentrated at Hasbro, Mattel and other large toy companies exhibiting in showrooms in New York's toy district and very little at the smaller companies exhibiting at Javits. Some key licensed toy lines were book-based, including Toy Biz's Curious George, finally being filmed for a February 2006 Universal Studios release—the movie will be followed by an animated TV series on PBS's Ready to Learn service—and Hasbro's The Chronicles of Narnia, from Disney.
More toys are including content, such as books or DVDs, to enhance play. Playmates' Disney Princesses Read-Along Friend dolls come with a 25-page mini-book developed and produced by Reader's Digest Children's Books, another Disney licensee. Japanese multimedia entertainment developer Bandai has a series of action figures, each containing an exclusive mini-comic page produced by DC Comics. Similarly, in the Marvel Megamorphs series of figures, each box contains a mini-comic that gives the backstory of the character, and fans can buy the complete set of figures to complete the story.
Educational titles were in demand among the mass-market retailers, special markets buyers and independent toy stores that shop Toy Fair, several publishers said. Bendon Publishing, which saw sales grow 330% last year, reported its educational workbooks, tablemats and flash cards, including licensed Disney, Barbie, Barney, Bob the Builder, Thomas the Tank Engine and Wiggles titles, had the best response at its showroom.
