SHOW GUIDE
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SCHLEICH
TOY FAIR 2009
225
SJ60 Just one of many ranges to be extended this year is the Wild Life collection featuring zebras, giraffes, racoons and other wild animals. As with every Schleich piece, each figure represents the actual animal in its natural habitat, offering educational value. Farm Life is another range with many new faces joining the line-up this year. There are Swabian pigs and a Simmental bull, cow and calf, together with new additions to Schleich’s already extensive horses range. But farms also need farm hands and a Stable Girl and Riding Instructor will be available complete with tools, together with a new modern-day Farmer and Farmer’s Wife. One of Schleich’s most popular ranges, the World of Elves, has a number of new figures joining the line-up in the form three Sun Elves – Nimsay, Vialis and Surah. Each figure has striking wings and ornate clothing symbolic of its people. Each Elf comes with its own extra, such as a horse for Surah and a pink lilly pad for Vialis to float on. Finally, a host of new figures has been added to other collections, too. These include the World of Knights with two fantasy knights on horseback and two foot soldiers dressed and ready to join the battle.
ART MEETS MATTER
Bookchase is the world’s first board game about books – according to the firm – which comes with a bookshelf, library card, bookshop and a set of tiny books to collect. The first player to fill up their tiny bookshelf with six different books and head for home wins the game. Bookchase is a family game designed for anyone from six years upwards. You can get your books in lots of ways, with players having to answer a question on anything
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from Homer to Horowitz, Proust to Pilkey, Dahl to Dickens. Easy to play, and lasting anything from 20 minutes to two hours, it’s a game of chance and skill. Each question card is accompanied by a piece of literary trivia, so you are guaranteed to learn something along the way.
MELISSA AND DOUG
US traditional toy specialist Melissa & Doug is launching its own UK operation at Toy Fair. Having established itself as one of the most popular and best selling ranges of traditional toys in the US during the past 20 years, Melissa & Doug is looking to overseas markets to follow its rapid US domestic growth. The UK was Melissa & Doug’s first entry into an overseas market through a distributor relationship with Flair, five years ago. Brian Bernstein, vice president of international sales,
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confirmed that Melissa & Doug feels that now is the right time to build the Melissa & Doug range through its own dedicated team, details of which will be announced shortly. “We thank the Flair team for the successful launch of the Melissa & Doug brand and we look forward to the continued rapid growth of our business as a result of our own dedicated Melissa & Doug team working with a solid customer base established by Flair,” Bernstein commented.
FEBRUARY 2009