The static, one-size-fits-all toy of the past won’t do; today’s toys need to be dynamic, adaptable, and suitable for creative play. Accordingly, user engagement, smart play and interactivity were the primary themes of the new products on display at this year’s New York Toy Fair, including licensed toys. There were 3 variations on these themes.
1. Build-Your-Own
Like last year, this year’s Toy Fair was rich in build-your-own (BYO) toys. Also known as “the maker movement,” the BYO engages kids by letting them build and fashion unique playthings suiting their own preferences. The BYO trend was everywhere and evidenced in a number of ways:
Exhibit A: The rising popularity of construction and building toys. According to the NPD Group, overall building sets sales, licensed and unlicensed, increased 13% in 2014. Announcements made just before or during the Toy Fair included:
- LEGO’s new (or extended) licensing agreements with Scooby-Doo, DC Comics, Doctor Who and Star Wars, among others;
- MGA Entertainment’s partnering with Build-A-Bear Workshop on a range of customizable Lalaloopsy 5th anniversary dolls;
- McFarlane Toys’ new Walking Dead building sets; and
- K’nex’s additions to its Super Mario and Plants vs. Zombies building sets.
Licensed arts and crafts toys sales also increased but by a more modest rate and remain largely a girl’s market.
Exhibit B: The expansion of the building and customization trend to other kinds of toys that you don’t think of as being BYO, like action figures. Thus, for example, Mattel announced that its recently acquired Mega Bloks brand, which currently includes build-your-own “SpongeBob” and “Halo” characters, was planning new licensed lines for Power Rangers (Saban), Terminator (Skydance Productions), Star Trek (CBS Consumer Products) and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Nickelodeon).
2. Brand Mashups
Another form of engaging users is to produce toys that enable kids to combine bits and pieces of characters or products previously sold separately into new and unique toys. Hasbro’s Marvel Super Hero Mashers and new Jurassic World and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Mash ’ems are examples of mashups within a brand. More surprising were the large number of mashup toys crossing brand lines, especially products pairing Disney’s jealously guarded Star Wars brand with non-Disney toy properties like:
- Mattel’s Hot Wheels for Darth Vadermobiles and other Star Wars-inspired vehicles; and
- Hasbro’s Ferby for “Furbacca,” a plush toy with an embedded app that plays Star Wars songs.
3. Techno Toys
Checking out the cool new gadgets and gizmos is one of the most fun parts of any Toy Fair. But while nothing stood out as mind-blowing or worthy of a sci-fi novel, the technology displayed by this year’s products did do a number of things to enhance user engagement and interactivity. Examples:
Apps and Augmented Reality: Licensors continue to search out ways of using apps to involve kids in more meaningful and connected play. Although we didn’t observe anything at Toy Fair that struck us as a dramatic breakthrough, we did see some notable efforts like appconnected coloring books allowing kids to view and interact with their creations in augmented reality and Uncle Milton’s new app-driven Star Wars holographic projection set, which includes a beta wave-reading headset.
Virtual Reality: A number of toys featured VR technology, including the Google/Mattel 21st century View-Master that uses an Android app and digital content enabling the classic toy to provide kids a VR experience.
Interactivity: Talking dolls are nothing new. But Mattel’s new “Hello Barbie,” developed in partnership with tech company Toy Talk, which uses speech recognition technology and Wi-Fi connectivity to enable Barbie to have two-way conversations with kids. Elemental Path’s new CogniToy uses IBM’s Watson technology to achieve the same effect. Another notable interactive toy was Dynepic’s DynePod, which uses a Bluetooth app to enable kids to create programming using if/then commands on a 5 x 5 LED wearable “screen.”
DINOSAURS RULE THE TOY DOMINION
A perennial favorite, dinosaurs were everywhere this year at the New York Toy Fair. Of course, licensed dinosaurs have historically been a tough sell, as demonstrated by the first “Jurassic” movie. After all, to parents and kids, a dinosaur is a dinosaur.
Even so, many of the new dino toys on display were “Jurassic World” licensed products in anticipation of the Universal film expected to be released in June. Major licensees include LEGO and Hasbro, which will feature, you guessed it, build-yourown sets letting users combine parts of different creatures to make their own, unique dinosaurs. Appropriately enough for this Year of the Dinosaur (as proclaimed by the International Toy Association), Zoomer Dino—a robotic T-rex on wheels from Spin Master—was named Toy of the Year at the Fair (after winning the School Kid Toy of the Year at Nuremberg in January).
Wearable Tech: The wearable technology that stole the spotlight at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show was much less in evidence at Toy Fair. Examples of kids’ smart fitness products on display were the DynePod mentioned above and the Moff Band motion-based wrist watch that interacts with smartphones or tablets to produce real-time sound effects for pretend play.
The Licensing Perspective
Licensing-wise, the big story was the continued domination of the big companies. The dominant properties were Disney’s “Frozen,” which to nobody’s surprise, won Property of the Year, and Minions (Illumination/Universal), which one veteran professional described as “a license to print money.” Many of the big movie and TV properties were concentrated at the big toy companies like Hasbro and Mattel, rather than dispersed across the show floor as in past years.
Co-branding remains robust in the toy market, especially with regard to techno toys like the Google collaboration with Mattel on View-Master mentioned above.
And the Toy of the Year award goes to…
Not surprisingly, Disney’s Frozen was named the Licensed Property of the Year. But licensed toys weren’t well represented in the winners’ circle at the 2015 Toy Fair awards ceremony. Here are the toys that did take home the TOTY trophies:
AWARD CATEGORY | PRODUCT | MANUFACTURER |
---|---|---|
Toy of the Year and Boy Toy of the Year | Zoomer Dino | Spin Master |
Game of the Year | Simon Swipe | Hasbro |
Specialty Toy of the Year | Gravity Maze | ThinkFun |
Girl Toy of the Year | Shopkins Small Mart play set | Moose Toys |
Preschool Toy of the Year | LEGO Juniors | LEGO Systems |
Infant/Toddler Toy of the Year | Go! Go! Smart Animals Zoo Explorers play set | VTech |
Activity Toy of the Year | Crayola Paint Maker | Crayola |
e-Connected Toy of the Year | LEGO Fusion | LEGO Systems |
Educational Toy of the Year | LEGO Technic | LEGO Systems |
Innovative Toy of the Year | MiPO | WowWee |
Outdoor Toy of the Year | Nerf Rebelle Dolphina Bow | Hasbro |