Electric Buzz at Toy Fair 2007
The buzz up and down the aisles at the Javitz Center was nearly electric. The aisles were crowded, and vendors nearly all uniformly said that orders for toys and dolls were up. Most retailers had had a good holiday selling season which has given them renewed confidence for 2007. The great buzz and excitement of Toy Fair 2007, however, was not the only story of the Fair. I noticed some interesting common threads and themes among the dolls and toys presented at Toy Fair this year.
Technology And Toys Merge
Technology and toys have been dancing together for years. However, the dance has often had them stepping on each other’s toes, with awkward dolls and toys using technology for gimmicky features that quickly get stale with repeated play. This year was the first year that technology and toys danced beautifully together. I saw many toys at Toy Fair that integrated technology in ways that enhanced play.
Chat Divas Barbie and Mino The Bear Technology Winners
My favorites were toys like Chat Divas Barbie dolls and Mino the Robotic Bear. I liked the fact that after you got bored with Chat Divas’ pre-recorded songs, that Barbie could lip synch to anything on your iPod, and that her “stereo” accessory doubled as iPod speakers! I also liked that she could completely be removed from the karaoke/sing/chat unit and be played with separately like any other doll. I liked that Mino didn’t lose his cuteness when he was acting, well, robotically. He stayed adorable, and once you were bored with his pre-packaged interactivity and games, you could download more from the Internet directly to Mino with a simple USB connector.
Toys and Internet Play
Among the dolls and plush that didn’t have an integrated technology feature there were many that were portals to entire online worlds. The first plush to widely do this was Webkinz by Ganz. The first doll to widely do this is the Ty Girlz (from Ty, the makers of Beanie Babies). Other dolls and toys seem to be following this lead after seeing the success of the Webkinz, including Shining Star from Russ and the Bella Sara horse-oriented playing card game from Hidden City Games. Of course, these toys need to have a terrific interactive web site to back them up. The toy has to be great, and the web site has to be great in order to sustain the interest of children and collectors over time.
Dolls Morph Into Character Figures
With the flight of so many collector and collectible play dolls to the dolls-only IDEX show in January, there seems to be fewer and fewer traditional play and collector dolls at Toy Fair. Larger companies such as Madame Alexander, Mattel, Tonner Dolls, Play Along Toys and others, of course, continue to show at Toy Fair. But you even see a nod toward this trend within some of these companies. For instance, Tonner Dolls ran a fantastic trade add that highlighted their line of “Character Figures.” This is the first time I’ve seen this term used, and it aptly describes the type of doll Tonner Dolls has been producing lately. The ad (and Tonner Doll’s Toy Fair booth) emphasized the Harry Potter, DC Stars and Wizard of Oz lines. These dolls are very character-driven and true to life, like action figures of popular cultural icons, yet they have removable clothing and rooted hair, like dolls. I like the Character Figures term, and hope to see more of it.
The Disney Channel Takes Over Mass Market Dolls
The final Toy Fair trend that I’d like to note is the take over of The Disney Channel of mass market dolls. Well…maybe not just the Disney Channel, but also pop culture shows and movies with a similar tween-market connection. For instance, HighSchool Musical dolls and toys were everyhere, including at Mattel, all coinciding with the release this June of High School Musical II. PlayAlong Toys (a division of JAAKS Pacific) is releasing Hannah Montana and Cheetah Girls dolls this year. MGA (the makers of Bratz dolls) are releasing Shrek princesses dolls (they can karate-chop you as they dazzle you with their Princessly beauty). MGA is even coming out with their own live-action Bratz movie this year.
The Trends of Toy Fair 2007
Those were some of the major trends for Toy Fair 2007, especially as they were reflected by the dolls I saw there. Keep tuned for much more about the 2007 dolls in the next few weeks, including extensive photo galleries and additional articles.
