ToyNews issue 116 April 2011

Issue 116

The toy industry’s highest circulation trade title Exclusive media partner

INSIDE…

THAT TOMY/RC2 DEAL The big money bid for the pre-school specialist examined

TITLE CHALLENGERS Media buying guide to the children’s magazine market

BOYS MARKET SPECIAL All the lines the lads are going to love throughout the year

THE HOME OF NO.1 TOYS

WEDDING PLANNER Yep, even in here you can’t get away from it. Cash in. Now. ™ & © 2011 WWE. All Rights Reserved.

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April 2011

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Ronnie Dungan Managing Editor

Contents

Ronnie.Dungan@intentmedia.co.uk

Samantha Loveday Associate Editor

REGULARS

Samantha.loveday@intentmedia.co.uk

4

News

8

Appointments

10

Exclusive NPD analysis

12

Media Tracker

16

TV ratings

Lewis Tyler Staff Writer

18

Campaign of the Month

Lewis.Tyler@intentmedia.co.uk

Katie Roberts Deputy Editor Katie.Roberts@intentmedia.co.uk

LICENSING

Emily Briggs Sales Manager Emily.Briggs@intentmedia.co.uk

22

News

24

The Royal Wedding

26

Kids’ Print Media focus

Dan Bennett Design Dan.Bennett@intentmedia.co.uk

FEATURES 28

Jumbo’s Wasgij plans

31

Esdevium

32

Kids Global: Boys brand stats

35

Boys

63

Games and Puzzles

Jon Salisbury Contributor jon@wotkidzwant.com

Stuart Dinsey Publisher Stuart.Dinsey@intentmedia.co.uk

Editorial: 01992 535646 Advertising: 01992 535647

RETAIL 77

News

78

Counter Insurgent

78

Price Check

79

Retail Charts

80

New Products

81

Hero Product

82

Marketplace

88

Toy Talk

Intent Media is a member of the Periodical Publishers Associations

AUDITED CIRCULATION: Average Net Circulation: 6,043 July 1st 2009 to June 30th 2010. www.toynews-online.biz ■ ToyNews circulation is 15.9% higher than its closest competitor.

■ ToyNews requested or paid for circulation is 23.4% higher than its closest competitor.

■ ToyNews has 100% named circulation and 0% duplication.

The Leader of the Pack! view our complete range at

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COMMENT BARGAIN HUNT

THREE MONTHS into 2011 and we had news of the first major acquisition of the year, courtesy of Tomy and RC2.

It certainly seems like a good deal for Tomy and, as CEO Robert Mann explained to us, is a truly global opportunity.

Both companies are strong in different territories, and product lines are complementary, so it seems like a win-win situation.

However, the price of $27.90 per share – which values RC2 at around $640 million – has raised a few eyebrows with US analysts.

According to Playthings magazine, there’s even talk of investigations into whether RC2 failed to shop the company around and that Tomy may be underpaying.

Ron’s hardly out the door and we’re already working on improving the ToyNews offer even more.

It’s not a situation that I claim to be an expert in, and these kind of acquisitions are often subject to a degree of over-examination, especially when there are shareholders involved who want to make sure that they’re getting the best deal.

Meanwhile, much closer to home, this issue is Ronnie’s last. We’ve shed many a tear over his departure, but we’ve had to pick ourselves up and move on. Indeed, he’s hardly out the door and we’re already producing new content and improving the ToyNews ‘offer’ – check out our new iPhone app in the iTunes store, sponsored by Littlest Pet Shop, which means we can now deliver all the latest news straight to the palm of your hand.

Samantha Loveday samantha.loveday@intentmedia.co.uk

4

NEWS

Hexbug continues marketing push TV, sponsorship and PR to drive new property on ● Activity with London Zoo will also raise awareness...

by Ronnie Dungan AMBITIOUS ELECTRONIC insect company Hexbug is continuing its heavyweight promotion of the brand with a number of new initiatives planned including TV, sponsorship and PR activity.

The property made an impact at Toy Fair recently with its highly visible sponsorship and promotions in and around the event, and the marketing activity will continue as it looks to firmly establish the brand.

Hexbug marketing manager, Heather Rowson, said: “Following our headline sponsorship of the London Toy Fair in January, this year has already proved to be a very exciting one for Hexbug in the UK with lots more to come.

“From our stand at The Gadget Show this month to our heavyweight advertising strategy targeting children directly, we really want to make a huge impact this year and continue to generate even more enthusiasm among target audiences in 2011.

“We’re particularly excited about our sponsorship of London Zoo’s BedBUGS sleepovers. Not only is the partnership with the charitable organisation part of our CSR activity, but the BedBUGS programme also seeks to educate children about science and nature in a fun and

interactive way, and this is exactly what Hexbug is all about.”

A heavyweight Hexbug advertising campaign will include TV programme sponsorship of CITV’s four to nine year olds strand, plus Generator Rex on Cartoon Network.

The CITV sponsorship will run from April to September between 3pm and 6pm weekdays and 9.25am until 6pm at weekends, delivering over 2500 TVRs. Boys will also be specifically targeted through TV sponsorship of Generator Rex on Cartoon Network between May and June. Turner Broadcasting is also doing web drive TV spots between April and June, pushing young viewers to a dedicated micro site where they can play Hexbug games and win prizes.

TV advertising will also run across Cartoon Network, CN TOO, Boom, CITV, Nickelodoen, Nick toons, Pop and Kix in a three-week burst from Monday April 11th through until Monday May 2nd.

We really want to make a huge impact this year and generate enthusiasm.

Heather Rowson, Hexbug PR activity will include a year-long programme of competitions and features across key kids press throughout peak holiday periods.

Social media activity is also at the forefront of the marketing campaign

Toy firms back Gadget Show Live

by Ronnie Dungan LEAPFROG, WOW Stuff, Re:Creation and VTech are among the toy brands attending the ToyNews-backed Gadget Show Live Professional trade event.

ToyNews has been signed up as the exclusive trade media partner for the event which is an extension of the popular Gadget Show Live consumer exhibition, and will see over 250 tech companies exhibiting their latest products to industry buyers and execs.

APRIL 2011

The trade day takes place on Tuesday April 12th.

The organisers are particularly keen to attract toy companies up to Birmingham, as more toys than ever before include some kind of technology element.

Several exhibitors at the event will be showcasing future technology, giving toy firms the chance to see what is likely to be making it onto the High Street in the future.

ToyNews’ exclusive partnership with GSL Professional will see us offer extensive coverage of the new

event, with the magazine boasting increased circulation and distribution of the April issue at the exhibition.

“We are very excited to have been chosen as exclusive trade media partner for Gadget Show Live. This underpins our strength in the sector and we wish them well with their efforts to widen out the appeal of their event,” said ToyNews publisher, Stuart Dinsey. “We look forward to covering the event and having extra circulation at the NEC on the trade day.” www.gadgetshowlive.net

with the ongoing expansion of the Hexbug Facebook page and Twitter feed plus the continued development of relationships with parenting sites.

The company will have a stand at The Gadget Show Live between April 13th and 17th, showcasing the new Hexbug Nano Habitat sets and other Hexbug collections to the trade and the public.

Hexbug is teaming up with ZSL London Zoo to sponsor the venue’s series of BedBUGS sleepovers throughout 2011.

These give eight to 14 year olds the chance to spend the night at London Zoo, check out the resident bugs and take part in animal talks, tours, games and a night time tour of the venue.

Innovation First: 01925 454093

NEWS

www.toynews-online.biz

Tomy moves in for RC2

5

Play-Room show returns

Shock swoop for pre-school specialist will see Tomy significantly grow US and European business, but is the $640 million price tag too cheap…?

by Samantha Loveday THE PROPOSED acquisition of RC2

by Tomy will significantly expand the firm’s worldwide aspirations, CEO Robert Mann told ToyNews, with the strengths both companies possess in different territories making it a truly global opportunity.

The deal, which has been valued at around $640 million, will see Tomy’s US subsidiary make an offer to purchase all outstanding shares of RC2 common stock for $27.90 per share. The offer is expected to close during the second quarter of 2011 and is subject to certain customary conditions.

“This is clearly a major event in the industry and will expand Tomy’s worldwide aspirations,” Mann said.

“Our respective product lines are complementary, so there will be little cannibalisation of business. Both companies have strengths in different

geographic locations which makes this a truly global opportunity. Both have great staff and talents and I am sure all are eager to build on this.”

This is a major event and will expand Tomy’s worldwide aspirations.

Robert Mann, CEO, Tomy For the moment though, it is “business as usual” for both Tomy and RC2, with the latter’s European MD, Clive Wooster telling ToyNews that “it’s early days and over the next six to

12 months we will be working with our colleagues at Tomy to develop our go forward plan”.

However, questions have been raised over the price of the acquisition, with one toy industry analyst suggesting that the $640 million price tag for RC2 is too cheap and it’s even possible another company could come in and make a bid. “In my view it’s too cheap; this price [$27.90] is well below where RC2 was trading in 2007 and the company is in better shape now,” Sean McGowan from Needham and Co in New York explained to ToyNews.

For a full analysis of the deal and what it means, turn to page six.

PLAY-ROOM AT The Park will be held on April 27th and 28th at Cranmore Park Exhibition Centre.

More than 70 UK toy suppliers will be exhibiting and most will have special show offers available for visitors. All independent toy retailers are welcome to attend the event and as usual, entry, parking, refreshments and lunch are all complementary for visiting buyers.

The Play-room buying group continues to grow steadily and currently retails from 168 outlets including department stores, garden centres, independent toy retailers and Intersport sports shops.

Register to attend at: www.cranmorepark.co.uk/events.php

Download the ToyNews app now All the latest toy trade news delivered into the palm of your hand, sponsored by Littlest Pet Shop

by Ronnie Dungan OWN AN iPhone? You can now download a free application that puts must-read content from the ToyNews website in the palm of your hand.

The app, sponsored by Littlest Pet Shop, offers up-to-the-minute news direct from www.toynews-online.biz.

You can also use it to search the ToyNews web archive and share stories via Twitter, Facebook, email and more.

More good stuff from

It’s all part of our goal to make ToyNews content available across as many channels as possible, delivering maximum convenience to readers and extra value to advertisers.

Hasbro’s PR and communications manager, Henry Foulds, said: “We’re delighted that Littlest Pet Shop is the sponsor of the new ToyNews iPhone app. Bringing news and information to the market in so many accessible formats increases the effectiveness of

our marketing messages, putting them in front of our audience wherever they are.”

Visit the iTunes App Store to download the free app.

Keep up with industry news on the move with the Toynews app

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6

NEWS ANALYSIS

What’s the deal?

ToyNews’ US correspondent Lutz Muller analyses the proposed Tomy RC2 acquisition…

TAKARA TOMY is buying RC2 and challenging the leading US and European toy manufacturers on their own turf.

With this move the company is transforming itself from a local giant into one with a decent presence in all major markets and a viable competitor to Mattel, Spin Master and Jakks. I have omitted Hasbro from that statement because there are ties between the two companies effectively ruling out competition between them.

Tomy has manufacturing operations in Japan, Hong Kong, China and Thailand and owns subsidiaries in the US, France, UK, Korea and Japan with about 83 per cent of its sales there – the world’s second largest toy market with an estimated retail sales value of $6bn.

In fact, its market share in Japan is more than double that of Mattel’s or Hasbro’s in the US. Interestingly, Tomy developed Transformers in the seventies and licensed it to Hasbro in 1984, which now has worldwide rights outside Japan. The company also entered into a strategic relationship with Hasbro for whom it develops and manufactures the Transformers line.

Beyblades, too, are a Takara Tomy invention and licensed to Hasbro worldwide outside Japan.

Tomy’s product line is divided into traditional toys which account for about two-thirds of the total and video games accounting for pretty much the balance. Yearly sales in the year ending March 2011 are

Territory North America Europe Latin America Asia Australia Japan Worldwide

Tomy

Fisher-Price

Playskool

$443m $208m 0 $117m $52m $1.7bn $2.6bn

$1.35bn $450m $125m $140m $50m $100m $2.21bn

$300m $125m $75m $75m $25m 0 $600m

estimated at 178.7 billion Yen or about US$ 2.2 billion.

Annual sales are $130 million for both the US and Canada. The majority of this is in video games. In toys, its presence is restricted to the Tomico range of play sets.

Thomas Friends licence to Mattel.

Speculation has been rife that Mattel will also get the remainder when RC2’s license expires at the end of 2012. RC2 did pick up the Disney Chuggington license in 2010 and is selling the products fairly successfully.

I predict that they will use the connections which both companies have with Hit Entertainment to stop the remainder of the Thomas franchise going over to Mattel.

RC2 has, over the years changed its business model several times. It started out as a toy vehicle manufacturer, hence its name, but then broadened its toy range significantly on the strength of the Learning Curve acquisition.

It continues to be mainly a domestic company with 63 per cent of total sales coming from North America. However, international business has grown much faster than domestic, from 22 per cent of the total in 2007 to 37 per cent in 2010.

It had another setback in 2010 when it lost the non-wood part of the

However, at least at this point in time, Chuggington sales are a small fraction of what it lost in Thomas.

Hasbro’s pre-school segment was massively strengthened when it took the Sesame Street licence away from Mattel and there is little question that this will make Hasbro a much more formidable competitor in the future. Equally, Mattel’s acquisition of the non-wood part of the Thomas Friends range in 2010, and then the broadening of their Dream Works licence suggests increased competition for RC2’s toy business.

In short, it found itself outclassed

in terms of size, promotional clout, licences and movie backing.

The integration of RC2 will give Takara Tomy a much better presence in North America and Europe. To the left are the combined sales on a geographical basis with what I estimate the Fisher-Price and Hasbro pre-school sales to be.

While this gives it a reasonable platform to operate from, the real question is whether Takara Tomy will be able to fashion a competitive advantage from this.

I predict that they will use the connections which both companies have with Hit Entertainment to stop the remainder of the Thomas franchise going over to Mattel. It is equally likely to use its tremendous base in Japan to attack the preschool market with the newlyacquired Learning Curve products.

Expect it to also materially strengthen RC2’s product development team so as to ensure a much stepped-up flow of new products for the US and European markets and to begin seeking worldwide licenses where existing relationships with Disney and Hit Entertainment will undoubtedly be very useful.

Whatever steps the Takara Tomy/RC2 Group takes, the national buyers at the large retailers will be watching it closely and not with unfriendly eyes. They think that RC2, with the backing it is now going to get, has considerable potential and buyers, for one, do not think that this is a bad thing at all.

Up-to-the minute news direct to your iPhone Search for Toy News on the App Store or use your QR scanner >

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8

APPOINTMENTS

INDUSTRY MOVES ToyNews boosts editorial team, Leapfrog names new CEO, Hasbro Studios increases output, Sambro promotes Cook, Wilks joins Applebarn, Plum appoints two regional sales managers…

FROM LEFT: Lewis Tyler, Kate Bunning, Ian Rice and Paul Cook.

TOYNEWS has added to its editorial team, bringing on board Lewis Tyler as staff writer. Tyler has experience in both print and online journalism, having enjoyed spells at publications including Esquire, Mail Online and regional press.

The new recruit will support new editor, Samantha Loveday and deputy editor, Katie Roberts, on the day to day running of the print magazine, as well as boosting the news and feature content on ToyNews Online and sister website, Licensing.biz.

US industry veteran John Barbour has joined Leapfrog as its new chief executive. Incumbent CEO Bill Chiasson will move up to become chairman of the company.

“We are very excited that John is joining LeapFrog as CEO. He has a 25-year track record of building global consumer and internet businesses” said Chiasson.

Great Gizmos has promoted Kate Bunning to the position of creative

APRIL 2011

director. In her new role, Bunning will be instrumental in maintaining a strong company identity and will be responsible for all photography, catalogues, advertising, website and exhibition stand designs. In addition, for 2011 she will be designing the packaging for the Science Museum and Natural History Museum ranges.

Hasbro Studios, the production and distribution division of Hasbro, has split its boys/action and girls/preschool creative teams into separate series development and current programming groups to meet increased production output.

The former heads of both units, which have been in place since the studio’s inception in 2009, have taken on new roles leading the revamped teams.

Hasbro president Stephen Davis has promoted Mike Vogel from executive director of boys and action programming to vice president of development. Linda Steiner, who had served as senior VP of girls and

pre-school programming, has taken on a new role as senior VP of current programming.

Additionally, VP of production, Kathy Page, will lead an expanded team to support the restructured departments with production and post-production services, while continuing to assist in oversight of outside production service relationships.

Sambro has promoted Paul Cook to the position of UK sales director.

Cook will be heading up the sales team in the UK, enabling Thomas Duffy to concentrate on its growing European business. The firm is looking to act as a distributor for UK companies in Europe.

Ajom Khan has been appointed as product designer at John Crane, as part of a Government graduate programme.

Khan is a multi-discipline creative designer with a first class honours degree (and a Masters in design) in consumer product design from

Coventry University. The designer has several years of experience within a corporate environment and has also studied abroad in Hong Kong.

His specialisms cover brand identity, graphic and web design to illustration and industrial and product design. Khan has also won a number of design awards.

Plum Products has appointed two new regional sales managers. Richard Foulkes and Ian Rice join the firm to cover the South East and North England/Ireland areas. Their appointments now complete the team of three managers, with Barry Martin covering the South West.

Former IGT founder, Steve Wilks, has joined Applebarn to help the firm explore new opportunities abroad.

Wilks is joining Applebarn partners John Sherring and Dennis McMullen, to help the firm expand into the UK toy and gift markets. He believes Sherring’s knowledge of the Indian manufacturing marketplace will open new doors for the firm.

10

NPD RESEARCH

Retail Sales Trends

Properties

2011 growth kick started with price increases

Top 5 properties January 2011 1. TOY STORY 2. STAR WARS 3. ZHUZHU PETS 4. LEGO CITY 5. BEN 10

Best property progression TRADITIONALLY JANUARY is a slow month for toy sales with just four per cent of total value sold.

However, the first month of 2011 showed mixed performance for the toy market, with the first two weeks seeing strong growth versus 2010 and weeks three and four showing sales declining slightly (down one per cent in value each week).

Overall, January finished up eight per cent in value, driven more by price increase than volume, which only grew by two per cent. The price increase was helped by the VAT rise to 20 per cent, but also continues the trend seen in 2010 for higher priced items.

Both plush and building sets continued to grow in January following stellar 2010 performances across both categories.

In building sets, the third series of Lego’s Minifigures and the launch of Lego Ninjago helped generate additional sales, while ZhuZhu Pets remains a key driver of the special feature plush growth.

Outdoor and sports toys also had a good January with sales up 23 per cent on last year. Nerf, the biggest property within the super category, had a strong start to the year and reached tenth biggest property across the total toys market.

Sales

Average price

UK toy sales (value, year to date)

Jan 2010

Source: NPD

APRIL 2011

Jan 2011

8%

Friends, Beyblades, Fireman Sam and Doctor Who which all helped drive the market performance.

“While January may not be strong in absolute sales, it is interesting to see which new products and licences capture the market early in

While January may not be strong in absolute sales, it is interesting to see which new products and licences capture the market and what trends start to emerge.

February will give a better indication of the products to watch in 2011.

Throughout 2010, licensed sales grew much slower than the nonlicensed market, which lead to licences losing share. However, for January this trend reversed with licences growing by ten per cent – ahead of the total market growth.

Toy Story remained the top licence for January, but there was also strong growth from Hello Kitty &

Jan ‘10: £5.43

the year and what trends start to emerge post-Christmas,” said Jez Fraser-Hook, director of NPD Group’s toy business in the UK. “February will no doubt give a better indication of the products to watch through the first half of 2011, before the blockbuster films of the summer and related toy products hit the market.”

Jan ‘11: £5.75

January 2011

Lego Ninjago Lego’s latest IP shoots up the charts from number 295 to 23…

Best Item Progression January 2011

Ninjago Spinner Wave 1 (Lego) The product has moved from position 1,223, right up to five…

NPD RESEARCH

www.toynews-online.biz

Retail Sales Trends UK JANUARY 2011 (£ SALES - VALUE) 1

MINIFIGURES

2

ZHUZHU HAMSTER PACKS ASSORTMENT

3

KIDIZOOM DIGITAL CAMERA

4

BEN 10 ULTIMATE ALIEN 10CM ASSORTMENT

5 6 7

HERO FACTORY HEROES 2010 ASSORTMENT

8

MATCH ATTAX 2010/2011 PACKETS

9

HOT WHEELS BASIC CAR ASSORTMENT

10

STAR WARS 2010 TROOPER BATTLEPACK

UK JANUARY 2011 (UNIT SALES - VOLUME) LEGO

1

MATCH ATTAX 2010/2011 PACKETS

CHARACTER

2

MINIFIGURES

VTECH

3

HOT WHEELS BASIC CAR ASSORTMENT

BANDAI

4

MATCH ATTAX STARTER PACK

NINJAGO SPINNER WAVE 1 2011

LEGO

5

PLAY-DOH SINGLE TUB ASSORTMENT

TOY STORY DELUXE TALKING BUZZ

VIVID

6

BEN 10 ULTIMATE ALIEN 10CM ASSORTMENT

MINIFIGURES

2

ZHUZHU HAMSTER PACKS ASSORTMENT

3

KIDIZOOM DIGITAL CAMERA

4

BEN 10 ULTIMATE ALIEN 10 CM ASSORTMENT

5 6 7

HERO FACTORY HEROES

8

MATCH ATTAX 2010/2011 PACKETS

9

HOT WHEELS BASIC CAR ASSORTMENT

10

STAR WARS 2010 TROOPER BATTLEPACK

LEGO MATTEL TOPPS HASBRO BANDAI

LEGO

7

HALO WARS HERO ASSORTMENT

MEGA BRANDS

TOPPS

8

CARS CHARACTER ASSORTMENT

MATTEL

MATTEL CORP

9

PLASTICINE EIGHT PACK

FLAIR

10

CRAYOLA SUPER TIPS BRIGHT 12

VIVID

LEGO

UK YEAR TO DATE (£ SALES - VALUE) 1

TOPPS

UK YEAR TO DATE (UNIT SALES - VOLUME) LEGO

1

MATCH ATTAX 2010/2011 PACKETS

CHARACTER

2

MINIFIGURES

VTECH

3

HOT WHEELS BASIC CAR ASSORTMENT

BANDAI

4

MATCH ATTAX STARTER PACK

SPINNER WAVE 1 2011

LEGO

5

PLAY-DOH SINGLE TUB ASSORTMENT

TOY STORY DELUXE TALKING BUZZ

VIVID

6

BEN 10 ULTIMATE ALIEN 10 CM ASSORTMENT

TOPPS LEGO MATTEL TOPPS HASBRO BANDAI

LEGO

7

HALO WARS HERO ASSORTMENT

MEGA BRANDS

TOPPS

8

CARS CHARACTER ASSORTMENT

MATTEL

MATTEL

9

PLASTICINE EIGHT-PACK

FLAIR

10

CRAYOLA SUPER TIPS BRIGHT 12

VIVID

LEGO

NOTES: All participating NPD retail data suppliers provide weekly data via EPOS systems. NPD figures are not projected to represent non-participating retailers but provide 100 per cent of the sales from participating stores. EPoS sample includes the following retailers: Amazon, Argos, Asda, Boots, ELC, Firebox, Freemans, Grattan, Hamleys, HMV, Halfords Littlewoods, Mailorderexpress, Modelzone, Mothercare, M&S, Sainsbury’s, Shop Direct, Tesco, Toymaster, The Entertainer and WHSmith. The approximate coverage is of 60%

NPD Eurotoys is the Number 1 information provider for Market Research to the Toy Industry in Europe Contact: NPD Eurotoys UK, Rosemount House, Rosemount Avenue West Byfleet, Surrey, KT14 6LB. _ 01 932 355 580

11

12

STATS

Media tracker PURCHASES BY AGE GROUP (VALUE %)

Behind THE SCREEN

By Clive Crouch THE EVER changing world of television has been anticipating the arrival of Google TV and You View; but as yet the promised product has yet to arrive. Meanwhile, in the absence of Google TV and You View, the power and influence of the Sky EPG (Electronic Programme Guide) and a channels listing number remains crucial to a channel's development and commercial prospects. The repertories of channels competing for children's viewing changed dramatically 15 years ago with the arrival of Turner and Viacom. Not only did Viacom bring Nickelodeon to the UK, but also MTV. The latter cast their bait of music videos competing for children's attention and indeed capturing many of them. The changing media landscape inevitably has its casualties. Publishing together with television has had to deal with the expectations of a younger generation who are reluctant to pay for entertainment. Add to that a cultural shift with a huge appetite for celebrity news, neither the publisher or broadcaster can retain its viewers and readers with just music or a heritage of stories and agony aunts.

Sugar magazine came into the market positioning itself as a slightly edgy girls title ageing up from Girl Talk. Sugar soon became the market leader in teenage monthlies.

Last month with a circulation of 113,000 Sugar closed.

The music giant MTV has reinvented itself in the digital world of television to protect its future by being able to compete in a new genre. Having closed three of their four studios MTV has moved from music provider to entertainment provider.

APRIL 2011

Re-enter the Sky EPG. Following a reported one-off seven figure sum, a national outdoor advertising campaign announcing its move from channel 350 on the Music EPG to 126 on Entertainment, MTV's audience share grew by 80 per cent and its viewing figures almost doubled. Eight channels bid for these three EPG slots and MTV were one of the four successful applicants. By fortunate coincidence the other successful bidders were all commercially managed by Sky Media. The cost was rumoured to be £3.5 million over five years. MTV has put its business in a far stronger position ahead of those future delivery systems from Google TV and You View.

In the publishing sector Sugar magazine decided the title was no longer viable. The publisher had the foresight to move into the digital space with Sugarcape.com and has a thriving business with 430,000 unique users.

In the same week that those EPG uplifts took place for MTV another 'Sugar Daddy' is still as popular as ever 40 years on from its TV debut.

In the BARB recorded Top Ten Comedy programmes that same week Harry Hill was number one, Jason Manford Rocks at number five and there at number ten, just behind John Bishop, sits Dad's Army. The Platoon are still rocking to 1.7 million viewers, no sign of any digital repositioning in Warmington on Sea as the Home Guard hold their territory. Let the battle commence, bring on Google TV, bring on You View. The digital broadcast spectrum really is an exciting place to be.

www.clivecrouch.com info@clivecrouch.com 07831 670453

RECIPENT AGE GROUP

12m Dec 2009

12m Dec 2010

100.0%

100.0%

3.0%

1.8%

0-4 YRS

43.9%

42.9%

5 - 9 YRS

30.9%

33.8%

10- 14 YRS

10.8%

11.0%

15 + YRS

11.4%

10.5%

12m Dec 2009

12m Dec 2010

100.0%

100.0%

MALE

54.2%

53.1%

FEMALE

42.8%

45.1%

3.0%

1.8%

TOTAL TOYS MULTIPLE RECIPIENTS

RECIPENT GENDER TOTAL TOYS

MULTIPLE RECIPIENTS

SOURCE: NPD

MARKET VALUE YEAR TO DATE JANUARY 2011

2010

2011

£45M

£30M

£15M

£0

SOURCE: NPD

£42.8M £39.7M

STATS

www.toynews-online.biz

13

TV insight from former GMTV veteran, Clive Crouch; toy market value; top licensed toys and comparative market data on all manner of entertainment products….

REASONS FOR PURCHASING ITEM (VALUE %) The top reason for purchasing a toy is the request of the child, but there has been some increase in the infleunce of price on purchasing decision in the last year with price now ahead of Product Features.

19.3%

20.5%

2.5% 2.1%

5.9%

1.4% 2.2% 5.1%

5.7%

5.8%

6.4%

6.1%

8.3%

7.5%

15.3%

15.9%

15.3%

16.1%

19.4%

19.6%

12 Months to December 2009

12 Months to December 2010

KEY OTHER REPLACEMENT FOR BROKEN/OLD ITEM NO CHOICE AVAILABLE PRODUCT COLOUR/STYLE BRAND/MANUFACTURER OF CHOICE PRODUCT QUALITY/SAFETY RECOMMENDATION PRODUCT FEATURES PRICE ITEM REQUESTED BY CHILD/OTHER

SOURCE: NPD

TOP LICENSED TOYS JANUARY 2011 (VALUE) 1

BEN 10 UA 10CM ASST

2

TOY STORY DLX TALKING BUZZ

3

STAR WARS 2010 LPP

4

BEYBLADES BATTLE TOP ASST

5

CARS CHARACTER ASST

6

FIREMAN SAM VEHICLE/ACCESS.

7

WWE FIGURE ASST SERIES 1

8

BEYBLADE FACE OFF ASST

9

STAR WARS 2011 LPP

10 DR WHO SONIC SCREWDRIVER

SOURCE:NPD

TOP TEN IPHONE APPS (PAID) BANDAI

1

STREET FIGHTER

VIVID IMAGINATIONS

2

TINY WINGS

LEGO

3

WWTB A MILLIONAIRE

HASBRO

4

WHATSAPP MESSENGER

MATTEL

5

SONIC THE HEDGEHOG

CHARACTER GROUP

6

ANGRY BIRDS

MATTEL

7

TUNEIN RADIO

HASBRO

8

ANGRY BIRDS SEASONS

LEGO

9

CHARACTER GROUP

CAPCOM

59P

ANDREAS ILLIGER

59P

2WAY TRAFFIC

59P

WHATSAPP

59P

SEGA

£1.19

CLICKGAMER

59P

SYNSION

59P

ROVIO

59P

ISTUNT 2

MINICLIP

59P

10 CAMERA+

TAP TAP TAP

59P

SOURCE: APPLE APP STORE APRIL 2011

16

AIRTIME STATISTICS

Top programmes The top-performing children’s TV shows on terrestrial and multi-channel....

SHOWS ACROSS ALL TIMES FEB 11

SHOWS ACROSS ALL TIMES YTD FEB 11

TIME

TITLE/DESCRIPTION

CHANNEL

OOOs

%

1

CBBC

COP SCHOOL

2.90

12

250

2

CBBC

SCHOOL OF SILENCE

2.50

14

3

CBBC

SADIE J

2.30

11

4

CBBC

THE SPARTICLE MYSTERY

2.30

5

CBBC

THE SCOOBY DOO SHOW

6

CBBC

7

AIRINGS

TIME

TITLE/DESCRIPTION

CHANNEL

OOOs

% AIRINGS

COP SCHOOL

4

1

CBBC

2.90

12

250

4

208

5

2

DIS CH SUITE LIFE ON DECK: BREAK UP IN PARIS 2.80

12

237

3

195

7

3

CBBC

TRACY BEAKER'S THE MOVIE OF ME

2.50

16

211

1

9

199

9

4

CBBC

THE SPARTICLE MYSTERY

2.30

9

199

9

2.10

14

176

23

5

CBBC

SADIE J

2.20

11

183

13

TRACY BEAKER RETURNS

2.10

13

179

31

6

CBBC

SCHOOL OF SILENCE

2.20

11

184

8

CBBC

NEWSROUND SPECIAL

2.10

9

174

1

7

CBBC

TRACY BEAKER RETURNS

2.20

13

183

59

8

CBBC

TRADE YOUR WAY TO THE USA

2.00

11

166

10

8

CBBC

NEWSROUND SPECIAL

2.10

9

174

1

9

CBBC

PARADISE CAFE

2.00

8

173

4

9

CBBC

THE SCOOBY DOO SHOW

2.10

14

176

23

10 CBEEBIES GRANDPA IN MY POCKET

1.90

9

163

36

10 CBBC

DICK AND DOM'S FUNNY BUSINESS

2.00

12

169

8

COMMERCIAL MULTICHANNEL SHOWS (ALL TIMES) FEB 11 TIME

TITLE/DESCRIPTION

HORRID HENRY

COMMERCIAL MULTICHANNEL SHOWS (ALL TIMES) YTD FEB 11

CHANNEL

OOOs

% AIRINGS

TIME

0.90

8

73

8

1

TITLE/DESCRIPTION

CHANNEL

OOOs

%

AIRINGS

DIS CH. SUITE LIFE ON DECK: BREAK UP IN PARIS 2.80

12

237

3

1

CITV/ITV SIMULCAST

2

CITV

POKEMON: ZOROARK - MASTER OF ILLUSIONS 0.80

5

71

1

2

CITV/ITV SIMULCAST HANNAH MONTANA

1.60

11

134

8

3

CITV

WOLVES WITCHES AND GIANTS

0.80

5

65

55

3

CITV/ITV SIMULCAST SPONGEBOB SQRPANTS 1.40

12

124

7

4

CITV/ITV SIMULCAST SPONGEBOB SQRPANTS 0.80

8

69

7

4

CITV/ITV SIMULCAST HORRID HENRY

1.10

12

95

15

5

BRANG FILM:GARFIELD'S FUN FEST

0.70

4

57

2

5

CITV

0.90

6

76

293

6

CITV

POKEMON: BLACK AND WHITE

0.70

4

55

2

6

DIS CH. SUITE LIFE ON DECK: LOST AT SEA

0.90

6

79

2

7

CITV

TMNT FAST FORWAR

0.70

4

55

11

7

DIS CH+1 SUITE LIFE ON DECK: BREAK UP IN PARIS 0.90

3

76

3

8

CITV

MY PARENTS ARE ALIENS

0.70

3

57

32

8

CITV

POKEMON: ZOROARK - MASTER OF ILLUSIONS 0.80

5

71

1

9

CITV BRK POKEMON: DIAMOND & PEARL

0.70

6

57

11

9

CITV

WOLVES WITCHES AND GIANTS

0.80

5

69

97

0.70

5

56

24

10 CITV/ITV SIMULCAST THE COOL STUFF COLLECTIVE 0.80

6

66

10

10 CITV BRK DINOSAUR KING

SOURCE: INFOSYS/BARB.

APRIL 2011

HORRID HENRY

NOTE: THESE CHARTS ARE BASED ON AVERAGE PERFORMANCE

18

CAMPAIGN OF THE MONTH

LeapPad Explorer Leapfrog This summer, LeapFrog is launching its latest electronic learning platform – LeapPad Explorer, a multifunctional learning tablet device for children ages four and up. A sort of my first iPad, except you’re probably not allowed to call it that…

Product Building on the success of the Leapster Explorer, the LeapPad is designed to change the way children learn and play. Available in English-speaking markets at a price of £79.99, it comes complete with an accelerometer and five-inch colour touch-screen with HD-like graphics.

At launch it will boast a library of over 100 learning games, videos, eBooks, flash cards and more, featuring well-known characters – all fully compatible with the existing Leapster Explorer library. Software automatically adjusts the learning across over 100 experiences, so children can develop at their own pace.

It has a built-in camera, a video recorder, a microphone and an animation studio. The software covers school subjects like maths, science, geography, world languages and music, as well as life skills like teeth brushing. As children develop they can practice their hand writing with step-by-step instructions and a chunky child-friendly stylus.

The Creativity Suite allows for customisation, with kids able to add personal photos, drawings and wallpaper to their content.

On the LeapPad, e-Books add to the learning experience as characters come to life, and there are interactive activities which sound out words to help young readers.

As with all LeapFrog connected products, LeapPad Explorer will allow parents to track their child’s progress and achievements with the LeapFrog Learning Path. Parents receive regularly emailed updates so they can share in their child’s accomplishments and see where additional support may be needed. This system is designed to help parents find new ideas and approaches to their children’s development.

APRIL 2011

TV LeapFrog has over 3,000 TVRs and an extensive online campaign planned for the brand launch later this year. The firm will also be showcasing the device at the Gadget Show Live this April, generating further buzz and consumer interest ahead of the launch.

Chris Spalding, senior vice president for EMEA and Asia at LeapFrog, said: “LeapFrog created the first interactive learning experience with the iconic and original LeapPad learning system in 1998. After more than ten years of research into the most proficient ways for children to learn, we are doing it again with LeapPad Explorer, a multifunctional learning tablet that will ignite children’s imaginations and learning, whilst providing fantastic entertainment for all the family. We believe this will be the must-have gift for all little learners from 2011 and beyond.”

OFFER

Introduct o price onl ry y

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Contact The In Thing on

0845 3653030

Or visit www.TheInThing.com

The UK’s only dedicated monthly licensing coverage

News • Media • Opinion

Is print dead? Don’t Wedded bliss? News Pages 22-23 be silly... Pages 26-27 Page 24 In fact, it’s thriving in the children’s sector. We take a look at some of the major players and how they are working with toy companies...

Has Clarence House’s stance of no licence being required for Royal Wedding merchandise actually hampered our industry..?

Giochi Preziosi picks up Huntik, Nickelodeon Consumer Products ramps up international retail arm, BLCEE review...

22

LICENSINGNEWS

Nickelodeon and Moshi Monsters bolster children’s mag market Licensed titles put in good showing in latest ABCs

Significant marketing for new DC Thomson and Skyjack launches…

by Samantha Loveday THERE’S STILL life in the kids’ consumer magazine sector, with the latest round of ABCs showing some strong growth for key publishers – while two big name titles have also arrived to boost the market further.

Egmont, Redan and BBC Magazines all enjoyed success during the six-month period from July to December, with all reporting some solid ABC figures, despite a tough overall market.

Top performing titles included Ben 10 (71,104) and Toy Story (48,525), plus its Disney portfolio for Egmont; FTL Friends (69,331) and FTL Peppa Pig (65,141) for Redan; and Cbeebies Weekly (54,345), ZingZillas (52,037) and Doctor Who Adventures (56,648) for BBC Magazines.

Meanwhile, two new titles are looking likely to give the sector a further boost. Skyjack Publishing has rolled out a dedicated Moshi Monsters

magazine in the UK, with the first issue performing so well that the print run has been upped for the second edition.

Content of the 52-page title include comic strips, competitions, free gifts, puzzles, secret hints and tips, character fact files and user generated content.

The title is being backed with one of the largest consumer marketing campaigns to supper any recent kids’ mag launch. This includes global TV advertising, print, online, email marketing, outdoor, sampling and PR. “Much of the content and ideas for the magazine was generated by our players, so it should feel very

different to other kids magazines,” explained Michael Acton Smith, Mind Candy’s CEO. “Print definitely isn’t dead.”

Meanwhile, DC Thomson has teamed up with Nickelodeon Consumer Products to produce the first ever magazine devoted to the network. The title – aimed at tween/teen girls – will run every three weeks, with an initial launch circulation of approximately 40,000.

The launch is supported by exclusive on-air marketing on the Nickelodeon channel and each issue will feature a free gift.

“Magazines are part of growing up and a popular medium with our audiences, so this partnership presents a key opportunity as part of our multi-platform strategy,” said Trudi Hayward, VP, UK and Australia, NCP. For a full round up of the kids’ magazine sector, turn to pages 26-27.

Industry backs BLCEE return

Licensing Awards open for entries

Advanstar’s second annual show for the Central European region is hailed a success by the trade...

THE LICENSING Awards 2011 are now officially open for entries, with online entering also available for the first time this year.

Interested parties can now log on to the official awards website and enter the product categories, plus the Retail Awards, Best Marketing Communications Award, Honorary Achievement and the Property categories, which this year has been bolstered with the addition of Best Classic Licensed Property. Deadline for entries is May 20th.

This year’s Licensing Awards will be held on September 13th in The Great Room at The Grosvenor House Hotel, London.

“The Awards are the ultimate accolades to reward excellence in retail execution, product innovation, property development and marketing expertise,” said Jakki Brown, director of The Licensing Awards.

THE SECOND Brand Licensing Central and Eastern Europe show, held in Budapest last month, has been given the thumbs up.

Despite being a small show to start with, exhibitors were pleased with the quality of exhibitors.

Nicky Nuydens, business development manager, Studio 100, said: “We were very satisfied with the new contacts we made there and are confident that deals will come out of them. The quantity was low but the quality was high which proves it was a good decision to be there.”

Steve Chen of Jast Company commented: “CEE is a blooming market, so we took this chance to introduce some of our patented sound-product there. We met several potential customers and now we are APRIL 2011

trying hard to follow up and establish the new business relationships. There were many good quality visitors in the first day.”

All exhibitors agreed that the territory was a growing market.

Petra Sedlinger, brand manager, Plus Licens, said: “We are one of the biggest players in CEE and feel that we need to support this event. Also we hoped that we would get new contacts that would generate business.”

Ticket booking forms can also be downloaded – or book directly with Event Solutions by calling them on 01372 841001. www.thelicensingawards.co.uk

LICENSINGNEWS

www.licensing.biz

23

Rainbow SpA invests big in Huntik IN BRIEF Second TV series and toy deal with Giochi Preziosi boost firm’s boy property...

VIDEO GAMES BRAND WRIGGLES INTO LICENSING

by Samantha Loveday

The classic video games franchise, Worms is to become a licensed brand – with AT New Media on board to help move the Team 17owned property into various categories. First launched backed in 1995, the game has been released on over 20 gaming platforms, selling approximately 30 million retail copies to date. Notably, the Worms brand has sold more video games units, year on year, for the last three years than ever before. AT New Media will be looking at the toys, plush, figurines, accessories, apparel, book and greeting card categories initially.

AT New Media: 0845 363 7194

RAINBOW SPA is investing $10 million in the second series of its boys property Huntik, while it has also inked a multi-territory master toy deal with Giochi Preziosi to give it a further boost.

The toy deal covers Europe (including the UK) and Russia for action figures, role-play, play-sets and accessories. In addition, Giochi Preziosi will distribute several merchandise ranges in Italy, such as back to school and gifts.

The roll out of the toys will coincide with the launch of 26 new episodes of Huntik, which will be accompanied by significant investment from both Rainbow Spa and promotions by Giochi Preziosi.

On top of this, there will be a number of Huntik-themed attractions at the upcoming Magic

Rainbow Land Theme Park in Italy.

The first series of Huntik was sold in over 30 countries – including the UK and the US – and achieved some solid audience shares.

“We are delighted to enter yet another partnership with Giochi Preziosi for Huntik: Secrets and Seekers,” said

Iginio Straffi, founder and CEO of Rainbow Spa. “This series is an extremely important brand for Rainbow, with huge potential, and we are confident that Giochi Preziosi will, once again, help us to make our property an international success.”

Rainbow Spa: +39 (071) 7506 7563

At Disney, Kingston was most recently responsible for all aspects of the licensed business with Tesco, while managing a team of 15. He also worked at BBC Worldwide as senior national account manager.

Meanwhile, Jason Easy has been named as senior retail manager for NCP in the UK. He joins the firm from Konami Digital Entertainment, where he was senior national accounts manager, while he has also worked at Hornby and Copywrite Designs.

Hit Entertainment has expanded its relationship with Learning Curve in the German market. The firm, which already represents Thomas & Friends and Bob the Builder, has become the toy licensee for Fireman Sam in the territory after sealing a new multi-year deal.

Learning Curve: 01392 281900

HIT DECIDES ON MIKE THE KNIGHT MASTER TOY

NCP ramps up its international retail arm NICKELODEON CONSUMER Products has significantly bolstered its international retail division.

Former Walt Disney business unit director, Mark Kingston (pictured) has taken on the newly created role of VP, Europe licensing, retail sales and trade marketing.

He will be responsible for heading up regional licensing programmes with key partners, while he is also charged with building new business and developing over-arching regionspecific consumer products strategies.

LEARNING CURVE JOINS FIREMAN SAM LINE-UP

Hit Entertainment has appointed Character Options as the UK master toy licensee for its new property Mike the Knight, which is due to premiere on Cbeebies this autumn.

First products will be available in autumn/winter 2012, and will include plastic, plush, novelty, role play and games.

Hit: 020 7554 2566

TURNER HAS HIGH HOPES FOR NEW GUMBALL SHOW The two appointments follow on from Jeremy Poreca’s recent arrival as director of international retail development.

Nickelodeon Consumer Products: 020 7462 1000

Turner Broadcasting has greenlit a second series of The Amazing World of Gumball, before the first has even premiered. The show will debut in the UK on May 2nd on Cartoon Network, with two episodes: The Mystery and The Responsible. The US will show the full series first.

Turner: 020 7693 1000

24

LICENSINGTHE ROYAL WEDDING

The wedding crashers There are countless tie-in products available to celebrate the Royal Wedding on April 29th - some of higher quality than the others. But with no official licence required to create product, has it actually been a missed opportunity for the licensing business? Samantha Loveday reports...

WE LOVE a good wedding in the UK, the bigger and more over the top the better – as underlined by the success of Channel 4’s My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding. And, although we’re unlikely to see Kate Middleton walking down the aisle at Westminster Abbey on April 29th in a huge pink meringue dress (which lights up with hidden fluorescent butterflies), the global TV audience for her marriage to Prince William is predicted to exceed 2.5 billion.

Retail analyst Verdict has estimated that sales of weddingrelated merchandise could top £26 million in the UK, and this figure isn’t entirely surprising given the sheer amount of product which will be available.

A quick search on the internet brings up everything from handmade plates, cups, stationery, cushions, keyrings, baby bibs, decorations and teddies on the official Royal Collection website, through to mugs, t-shirts and the imitation engagement ring available from various sites. Then there’s the more novelty items such Kiss Me Kate beer and the Royal Wedding sick bag.

A number of toy and licensing companies are also getting in on the act, including Corgi which has an exclusive limited edition commemorative die-cast souvenir range. The firm has three items, presented in a ‘William & Kate’ gift box and with a numbered certificate: the Austin Mini, a 24 carat gold plated Ford Model T and a threepiece set (including Bullnose van, Bristol Lodekka double decker bus and 1:43 Austin Mini), of which there are only 5,000 available.

APRIL 2011

“The Royal Wedding will be great for the nation and, like any good occasion it is always nice to have something to remember it by,” comments Martyn Weaver, Corgi’s marketing manager.

set. William Balmoral and his bride to be Catherine have already been the subject of national press coverage, proving to be one of the stand out items for TV crews at London’s Toy Fair earlier this year.

Generally speaking, major events that capture the public’s imagination are good for consumer goods sales and, therefore, should be so for licensing.

Kelvyn Gardner, MD, LIMA UK While not officially commemorative merchandise, Flair has taken royal inspiration for the naming of the characters in its latest wedding themed Sylvanian Families

Danilo will be publishing a calendar in conjunction with Majesty, while Arklu has a Kate Middletonthemed fashion doll which wears clothing, accessories, jewellery and

make up by a number of leading British designers. A percentage of the profits will go to Help for Heroes.

However, despite all the product available, Kelvyn Gardner, LIMA UK’s MD, thinks that the Royal Wedding is actually going to be a missed opportunity.

“It should have been a great opportunity for licensed merchandise,” he tells ToyNews. “Members were calling our office from the day after the announcement asking about the route to official merchandise rights.

Unfortunately, Clarence House confirmed to us that no licence would be required – there are simply guidelines to be followed on the royal website for the use of royal insignia.

“I have no doubt that Clarence House believes this to be an inclusive and level playing field policy, designed to allow all British businesses to benefit without favour.

However, in practice it means that LIMA members like Danilo, GB eye and Arklu among others, who are marketing quality products and who have made their own efforts to stream revenue from their sales to appropriate charities, will not be able to differentiate themselves from all and sundry poor quality lines imported from all over the world.

“Sadly, the media also tends to seek out ‘tat’ and then tar the whole licensing industry with this entirely inappropriate brush. The ‘no licence required’ stance by Clarence House simply encourages this. Generally speaking, major events that capture the public’s imagination are good for consumer goods sales and, therefore, should be so for licensing. It’s a shame that will not apply this April.”

26

LICENSING KIDS PRINT MEDIA

Mag Men The latest round of ABCs have shown that the print magazine sector is still very much alive and kicking, with new titles coming through and licensed titles continuing to perform well. Still placing all your ad spend on TV? Samantha Loveday runs down the names you should know in the children’s publishing arena...

BBC MAGAZINES 020 8433 2000 www.bbcmagazines.com

EGMONT 020 7761 3500 www.egmont.co.uk

REDAN 01743 364433 www.redan.co.uk

The consumer publishing business of BBC Worldwide, BBC Magazines publishes over 30 regular magazines.

These range from adult titles such as Top Gear and Radio Times through to specialist titles and a solid children’s portfolio.

Egmont says it is the UK’s top specialist children’s publisher, selling almost 40 million magazines and books each year. The magazine division has a growing own brand portfolio, while it also publishes a wide range of licensed titles.

Redan Publishing was established in 1991 and claims to be the first publisher to have introduced magazines to pre-schoolers and their parents. It specialises in the preschool and primary girls areas.

Current portfolio

Current portfolio

The firm has a total of 15 titles in the Youth and Children’s portfolio, including ten aimed at preschoolers, seven of which were in the top ten pre-school titles in the latest round of ABCs (July to December). Strong performers include In the Night Garden (58,686), Cbeebies Weekly (54,345), ZingZillas (52,037) and Cbeebies Art (51,586).

It also has three pre-teen titles – All About Animals, Girl Talk Magazine and Doctor Who Adventures, which is the second biggest title in the children’s sector (in value) with a recent ABC of 56,648.

The firm publishes titles for Disney (Princess, Tinkerbell, Cars, Disney & Me, Toy Story), Nickelodeon (Dora the Explorer), Cartoon Network (Ben 10), Hit (Thomas the Tank Engine, Play and Learn Thomas, Fireman Sam) and Mattel (Barbie). Its own brand titles are Toxic and Go Girl (both of which also have a website), plus the one-off All About... magazines.

The firm has the top two places in the pre-school sector, with FTL Friends (average net circulation of 69,331) and FTL Peppa Pig (65,141). It also publishes FTL Favourites (38,126), FTL Bag-O-Fun (around 70,000), Peppa Pig Bag-O-Fun (around 80,000) and FTL Ben & Holly’s Little Kingdom (50,000). Its girls title, Sparkle World, has an average net circulation of 65,457.

Coming up

Coming up

Egmont has three new launches planned for 2011, although is revealing no further details at this stage.

Redan doesn’t have any firm plans at the moment for any new launches.

Coming up Something Special is a key focus going forward. The four-weekly title is aimed at three to five year olds and is based on the hit Cbeebies show, featuring Justin Fletcher and his comic character, Mr Tumble.

Advertising options available Display, advertorial, inserts, sponsored supplements, sponsored covermounts, posters, wall charts, height charts, competitions, stickers and reward charts, plus the likes of 3D posters, events and mini magazines for the older titles.

Since the beginning of 2009, BBC Magazines has worked with Mattel, Hasbro, Lego, Spin Master, Bandai, Learning Curve and Vivid. It has also worked with Nintendo, EA, Bandai and Character.

“Our pre-school titles provide a platform for adult and child to spend quality time together in a trusted media,” says Toni Round, MD of children’s titles at BBC Magazines. “This is not achieved by TV which is usually used by parents as a way of keeping children entertained whilst they are needed elsewhere. There are a limited amount of ads in pre-school titles providing excellent stand out. By creating advertorials which encourage more time spent on the page, we can ensure the brand messages are in front of the audience for longer.”

Why print magazines?

“Magazines are the second highest driver to purchase after TV,” Round continues. “Generally, magazines are much more engaging and interactive than other media and are kept and looked at several times. Strong brands and content are going to be key in the future for print media.”

APRIL 2011

Advertising options available “Increasingly, clients and agencies are asking us for more than just straight forward display pages because they want additional stand out,” says Alison David, commercial director at Egmont Magazines. The firm can tailor make a creative package whatever the budget with ideas including A5 mini magazines, sponsored sticker sheets, gatefolds, board game advertorials, sponsored columns and sealed sections, although display pages are available, too.

Egmont has worked with a wide range of toy companies including Mattel, Disney, Hasbro, Lego, Bandai, RC2, VTech, Playmobil, Spin Master, Flair and Corinthian, as well as video games firms such as Nintendo and Microsoft.

Why print magazines?

“We believe that children’s magazine are still sometimes under utilised in favour of TV,” David continues. “Our message is simple: advertising in children’s magazines can complement TV ad campaigns perfectly. We can offer creative engagement and cost effective ways to communicate to parents and kids. Research suggests that children still love the tangibility of print and use magazines to deepen relationships with their favourite characters (younger children) or to relax and feel part of a club (older children).”

Current portfolio

Advertising options available “We have all of the standard advertising options, such as full page ads and inserts, but we also offer advertisers the chance to design posters, perforated activities and to sponsor whole workbooks,” says publishing director Julie Jones. “With the success of www.mysparkleworld.com we can now offer advertising on here, too. We have previously worked with Mattel on Barbie by featuring additional workbooks and posters in Sparkle World, as well as Hasbro, where we had an exclusive code printed in the magazine which could be used on the Littlest Pet Shop website to open exclusive areas.”

Why print magazines?

“Magazines have the longest lifespan out of all the media outlets and offer a cost effective way for toy companies to communicate with their target audience,” Jones continues. “The advantage they have is that they can be read over and over again, and can be referred back to for recipes or craft ideas and even passed on to family or friends. Parents love them too as they are a positive alternative to TV, they are educational and fun, they act as a babysitter or provide the opportunity for parent and child to spend quality time together, they get children reading and are safe and trusted.

“Our biggest titles have more readers than some of the children’s TV stations have viewers, so firms would reach a much wider audience by working with us. Early learning skills such as learning to read and write are hugely important, so there will always be a place for the printed medium.”

LICENSING KIDS PRINT MEDIA

www.licensing.biz

DC THOMSON 01382 223131 www.dcthomson.co.uk

SIGNATURE PUBLISHING 01428 601020 www.signaturepl.co.uk

Headquartered in Dundee, but with offices in London, Glasgow and Edinburgh, DC Thomson’s business is split between newspapers and magazines, ranging from The Courier, The Sunday Post and The People’s Friend through to The Beano.

The independent UK-based publisher recently picked up four PPA (Periodical Publishers’ Association) Awards and was also voted the number one Independent Publishing Company of the Year 2010. Its magazines blend design and content with educational elements.

Current portfolio The Beano and The Dandy have published continuously since 1938 and 1937 respectively, with The Dandy recently relaunched as a weekly comic. DC also owns BeanoMax – a monthly title designed as an accompaniment to the weekly comic – fortnightly teen magazine Shout and Animals and You. Alongside its own IP, licensed titles include WWE Kids and The Official Jacqueline Wilson Magazine.

Coming up The company has recently added two titles to its licensed portfolio, Nickelodeon Magazine and Animal Planet Magazine.

Advertising options available Display advertising, inserts, front cover takeovers and integrations, bespoke comic strips, advertorial, competitions, branded cover mounts, posters, character interactions and multi-page integrations, plus custom styled background to pages.

Companies including Lego, Hasbro, Mattel, Namco Bandai, Nintendo, Microsoft, Mind Candy and Konami among others have all worked with DC.

Why print magazines?

“Read by over 75 per cent of children in the UK, magazines and comics are a well loved and popular medium,” comments John-Paul Murphy, brands marketing manager, consumer entertainment. “One in three children read a magazine or comic at least once a week, proving that the print medium remains a key part of the leisure time of UK children.

“Magazines provide a targeted audience for toy companies, limiting wastage.

“Adverts can be created to fit into the design of the title ensuring that the advertising forms an essential part of the reading experience.”

Current portfolio For boys, Turbo Xtreme (print run: 40,000) is the stand out title, followed by Dinomite and Fantastic, while Pony (c. 32,875) is the lead title for girls, followed by Easy Peazy and PonyPals. Signature also publishes a range of seasonal titles, such as Halloween, It’s Christmas and The Christmas Magazine.

Coming up It’s Pirates hits newsstands in time for the Easter holidays. Details of other potential launches are under wraps, but the firm hopes to match its tally of four new titles last year.

Advertising options available The team can create bespoke and creative packages, with options including covermounts, competitions, sponsored posters and advertorials.

Signature has worked with firms including Vivid, Flair, Schleich, Mega Brands, Spin Master and Bandai on a number of campaigns, while it has also published licensed magazines for toy brands, including I Love Ponies from Vivid and Dinosaur King.

Why print magazines?

“Magazines allow children and parents to exercise far more choice than they are able to with a television programme,” comments Steve Moore, group operations director. “They have actively chosen to pay for content that they believe will be directly relevant to them. To that end there is already a bond of trust between the reader and the publication – it is very difficult to achieve this with other media.

“It is this intimate relationship, coupled with the fact that magazines’ physical and tangible nature, that makes the paper product an essential part of a quality advertising campaign.”

27

PANINI 01892 500100 www.paninionline.com The Panini Group was established 50 years ago in Modena, Italy, with subsidiaries throughout Europe and Latin America. As well as publishing comics, children’s magazines and manga, the firm is a leader in the published collectable sector. It has distribution channels in more than 100 countries.

Current portfolio Panini has 24 magazines in its stable covering preschool, teen, boys and girls, plus an extensive Marvel collector’s portfolio. Key licences include Scooby-Doo, Spectacular Spider-man, Disney Make It, Hannah Montana, Disney Girl, Doctor Who, Postman Pat, Marvel Heroes and Bliss among others.

Coming up Panini has just acquired Disney Playhouse and will be relaunching it to coincide with the channel rebrand. It is also planning on launching into a number of different sub sectors in 2011.

Advertising options available A wide range of options ranging from standard pages, advertorials, double page spreads, covermounts, gatefolds and posters.

Teen titles Bliss and Mizz also have online options available.

Panini has recently worked with toy firms including Character, Hasbro, Bandai, Interplay and Flair, with the campaigns featuring dedicated space, advertorials, sticker sheets and posters.

Why print magazines?

Jessica Tadmor, Panini UK’s head of marketing, explains: “Magazines are still the most intimate and exclusive form of media. Children will sit and read a magazine or comic from cover to cover, so it has their full attention. Advertising on TV or online can be seen as irritating and disruptive, ads in magazines are a part of the editorial offering – they are seen as informative, not invasive.”

ALSO LOOK OUT FOR...

Titan Publishing:

020 7803 1922 www.titanmagazines.co.uk

Skyjack Publishing: info@skyjackpublishing.co.uk, www.skyjackpublishing.co.uk John Brown Media: 020 7565 3000, www.johnbrownmedia.com Future Publishing:

01225 442244 (Bath) 020 7042 4000 (London), www.futureplc.com

Bauer Media:

020 7295 5000 www.bauermedia.co.uk

APRIL 2011

28

SUPPLIER PROFILE JUMBO

Backward thinking Jumbo’s Wasgij puzzle range has become a pillar line for the firm, but is still very much a priority brand in the UK and will be backed with a sampling programme and marketing campaign. Ronnie Dungan found out more…

IT MUST be difficult to come up with new variations on the age-old jigsaw puzzle format, however it seems that if you do, the rewards can be worth the effort.

Characterised by a distinctive comical style of caricatured illustrations across the Original, Mystery and Destiny collections, Jumbo’s Wasgij (it’s ‘jigsaw’ spelled backwards. See what they did there?) allows players to solve the puzzle by using clues from the humorous box image to solve the puzzle.

Gray Richmond, managing director of Jumbo Games, says: “The Wasgij puzzle range is a major development area for the company and we are dedicated to introducing new products and fresh marketing initiatives to encourage new converts to this fun and addictive puzzling craze.”

Jumbo experienced great success with Wasgij last year, with growth of 27 per cent according to NPD. Expansion for the brand included the first licensed Wasgij puzzle, which celebrated the 50th anniversary of Coronation Street – the first product where puzzlers could puzzle the box image as well as the jigsaw itself. It also entered a new category with the Wasgij Spin and Shout game and the Wasgij Christmas puzzle was the biggest seller in the range’s history.

Key developments in 2011 include the introduction of new products APRIL 2011

including the Carry On Wasgij Mystery and Wasgij Original Family Puzzle. The Carry On puzzle extends the licensed Wasgij offering and features a montage of scenes from the iconic comedy films. The Wasgij Family puzzle is a brand new concept which features three different sized pieces so family members of any age or experience can puzzle together.

Releases for summer 2011, include 150 piece versions of the Original, Mystery, Destiny and Christmas concepts. There will also be a brand new full size Wasgij Christmas and Wasgij Original which will be set in the chaos of a local vets surgery.

Marketing strategies for 2010 included large-scale sampling in 15 Argos stores across the UK, where

We are dedicated to introducing new Wasgij products and fresh marketing initiatives to encourage new converts to this fun and addictive puzzling craze.

Gray Richmond. MD, Jumbo Games

over 20,000 mini 54-piece Wasgij puzzles and money-off coupons were distributed to consumers. Jumbo intends to continue working with retailers directly to attract a new Wasgij fanbase.

The newly introduced Wasgij website (www.wasgij.com) includes information, news and clues about each puzzle. The site has already encouraged the brand’s loyal following with thousands of plays for the online game and subscribers to the Wasgij newsletter.

For 2011, Jumbo will push point of sale interaction with shelf edge strips, Wasgij displays and wobblers to explain the puzzle concept to new potential customers.

Fun Family Games from Cartamundi view our complete range at

www.cartamundi.com Units 8 - 17 Sandhurst, Kings Road, Chareets Industrial Estate, Canvey Island, Essex, SS8 0QY. Tel: 01268 511522, Fax: 01268 513109 or e-mail retail@cartamundi.co.uk.

FEATURE POKEMON CARD GAME

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31

Gotta catch ‘em all Pokémon is looking forward to a strong year with a series of product launches, new TV scheduling and over 150 new pocket monsters. Katie Roberts finds out more...

"2011 IS SET be a blockbuster year for the Pokémon brand,” says J.C. Smith, director of consumer marketing at The Pokémon Company International. “Our fans and retailers will experience one of the most exciting years since Pokémon’s introduction in 1996, with new video games, television animation, a Pokémon Trading Card Game expansion and merchandise all launching this spring and summer.”

Kicking off the activity for the iconic brand was the Pokémon Black Version and Pokémon White Version video games, which were released in the UK last month and feature over 150 new Pokémon.

In Japan, the games sold a total of five million copies in just 17 weeks, making them the fastest selling titles ever for the Nintendo DS. This exceeds the previous record, set by Pokémon Diamond Version and Pokémon Pearl Version, which took 38 weeks to hit the five million mark in Japan.

To keep up brand momentum, the games will be backed up by new expansions for the Pokémon Trading Card Game, fresh merchandise and a new animated TV series.

New products will include expansions for the Pokémon TCG, launching in the UK through Esdevium Games on April 6th, and toys featuring the new characters will arrive later in the year.

The brand will be supported with a multi-million pound marketing campaign alongside the launch of a UK targeted version of the pokemon.com website.

The initial TCG product line will be followed by expansion pack boosters.

The cards allow collectors and players to discover a legion of over 70 never-before-seen Pokémon from the newly explored Unova region. Joining the old favourites Bulbasaur, Charmander and Squirtle are the new starter Pokémons: Snivy, Tepig,

and Oshawott. They are flanked by powerful new monsters like Zoroark, Galvantula, Reuniclus.

The trading cards will receive a new look, increasing the size of the

Pokémon TCG decks for players to choose from, allowing for battles against up to 14 virtual TCG players in three leagues. The web game fully replicates the rules, gameplay and

To keep up momentum, the games will be backed up by new expansions for the Pokémon Trading Card Game, fresh merchandise and a new animated TV series.

The brand will be supported by a multi million pound marketing campaign. design and adding a new unique foil treatment to the rare Pokémon cards.

Also arriving with the Black & White Theme Decks is an interactive online experience: Pokémon Trainer Challenge.

The all-new online version of the Pokémon Trading Card Game (www.pokemontcg.com) will initially feature three pre-constructed

strategy of the physical card game.

Ensuring the brand awareness and entertainment continues on the airwaves, the latest season of the children’s animated series is slated to air later this year on CITV. The first two episodes of the new Pokémon series have already premiered on CITV, and in February and viewers were able to see the movie premiere

of Pokémon - Zoroark: Master of Illusions during the half-term period.

The latest TV season introduces children to the new Pokémon characters in a new storyline based on the Pokémon Black Version and Pokémon White Version video games.

It’s not just cards though, as a new toy line featuring the characters is set to hit retailers this coming year.

There will be a wide range of UKfocused content available for the first time at www.pokemon.co.uk, along with localised sites for the French, German, Spanish and Italian markets.

With the fan base of the international site, pokemon.com, continually growing and reaching upwards of 2.4 million unique visitors per month, these figures are set to rise with the territorial expansion.

The website is designed to be the central hub of all of the property’s information and activity and will provide a home for the global Pokémon community.

APRIL 2011

32

BOYS MARKET SPECIAL BRAND RECOGNITION

Total recall With demographics so finely-tuned and marketing messages laser-guided onto them, brand awareness among any given group is usually high for certain key brands. But what are the brands that boys aged 10-14 recognise most?

Philippe Guinaudeau offers some insight from his BrandTrends UK research…

WHAT BRAND comes to mind first for British boys 10-14 years old when asked about entertainment brands?

Sony? Microsoft? Nintendo? None of these actually.

Surprisingly, and by an ample margin, Disney is the most commonly mentioned entertainment brand for this specific demographic group. (See chart). Furthermore, the brand also attracts the most “first mentions”, indicating that it is truly the most defining entertainment brand for boys 10 to 14 years old.

Following, Harry Potter takes second spot for unaided awareness, as well as for top-of-mind (first mentions). The brand ties with video-game brands Xbox and Nintendo; but the first mentions of Harry Potter make a real difference to the perception of the brand.

The other entertainment brands boys would spontaneously name are video-game brands: Xbox, Nintendo etc. They even name specific games, such as Call of Duty, Need for Speed or even EA Games.

However, just because boys spontaneously name Disney or Harry

Brand Popularity vs. Merchandise Appeal British Boys 10-14 Years

Source: Kidz Global / BrandTrends UK – January 2011 Potter as an entertainment brand does not necessarily mean they prefer these brands or associate any positive attitude to them. And so, this would

Unaided Awareness – Boys 10-14 Years Up to Five Mentions, % Respondents

not necessarily mean Disney or Harry Potter would benefit in selling more merchandise with their name on it, amongst this demographic group.

Disney is the most commonly mentioned brand for this deomographic Kidz Global

Source: Kidz Global / BrandTrends UK – January 2011 APRIL 2011

As a matter of fact, their popularity would rank at a lower level when you consider these brands in their competitive environment, e.g. in conjunction with the videogame brands kids also spontaneously named.

The following brand matrix examines the correlation between brand popularity, measured in terms of the Brand Popularity Index (BPI), with potential interest in buying branded products. The BPI is a unique composite index of brand popularity, specifically created for

BrandTrends, and based on all awareness and attitudinal measures.

It allows a true evaluation of the popularity of a brand vs. Its competitive sets, across age groups and genders.

And so the chart below indicates, The Simpsons, Microsoft Xbox and Sony Playstation top the popularity chart; while Nintendo Wii then Microsoft Xbox lead in purchase interest. Harry Potter, in fifth place scored brand in this chart, shows a significant gap vs. the first group, despite its large spontaneous recognition as an entertainment brand.

Last point: The Simpsons, as the brand is significantly above the line, may have less merchandise potential than its popularity would indicate.

And the real challenge for Fox is to adapt to commercial application. But popularity is there, and consumer demand strong for the brand.

■Kidz Global provides analysed data on the Kid markets around the world.

For more info: www.kidzglobal.com.

at the Park Wednesday 27th & Thursday 28th April 2011 plaY-room invite all independent toy retailers to visit Cranmore Park near Solihull for their annual toy show • • • • •

Convenient location Free on site parking Free refreshments Free hot lunch 70 key toy suppliers

Information and registration at: www.cranmorepark.co.uk or telephone 0121 683 1415

SECTOR GUIDE BOYS

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35

Male orders

Licences and brands still rule for boys, and another strong crop in 2010 helped the sector reach £1.53bn in sales. Here, we take a look at what’s coming up this year, with some stats from NPD to kick things off...

Boys Spend % Across Toys Supercategories, 2009 vs 2010 1.0% 2.9%

1.5% 3.3%

3.6%

3.9%

4.3%

5.0%

8.4%

7.2%

7.2%

8.8%

13.4%

11.3%

15.4%

12.4%

13.3%

12.1%

11.4%

13.8%

20.3%

19.4%

12 Months to December 2009

12 Months to December 2010

KEY

ALL OTHER TOYS

DOLLS

ACTION FIGURES & ACCESSORIES

YOUTH ELECTRONICS

VEHICLES

PLUSH

OUTDOOR & SPORTS TOYS

ARTS & CRAFTS

BUILDING SETS

GAMES/PUZZLES

INFANT/PRE-SCHOOL TOYS

(source: NPD Consumer Panel Full Year 2010

IN 2010, 53 per cent of all toys purchased in the UK were for boys, accounting for £1.53 billion (source: NPD Consumer Panel) – a rise of six per cent. This growth was driven by the six to 11 year-old age group, where spending increased significantly. However, the largest age group for boys was two to three year olds, accounting for 20 per cent of total spend on boys.

Outside of infant and pre-school toys, building sets was the largest super category for boys in 2010, having grown by 29 per cent since 2009. This was heavily driven by the continued growth of Lego with Lego City, Star Wars and Atlantis popular properties, in addition to the launch of Lego Hero Factory and Mega Brand’s Halo Wars ranges.

Interestingly, the next largest area is outdoor and sports toys, where Nerf had extraordinary growth in the last year. The good summer in 2010 also helped sales of scooters, sports games and ride-ons.

Both vehicles and action figures, traditionally strong areas for boys toys, saw value decline in the last year as purchasing for boys changed.

Despite the high sales of Toy Story, action figures struggled to grow last year, perhaps due to there being another strong toy licence at the cinema in 2010. However, Dr Who finished the year in growth as did

Bakugan – both of which had new TV series last year.

Traditionally the boys market is much more dynamic than girls with latest licences and brands playing a strong role in consumer purchasing habits for the sector.

53 per cent of all toys purchased in 2010 were for boys, accounting for £1.53 billion - up six per cent.

Unsurprisingly perhaps, the top licence for boys was Toy Story, although both Star Wars and Ben 10 still top sellers.

Hot Wheels and Cars remained top selling properties within vehicles for 2010.

2011 should see a resurgence in licensed blockbuster films aimed at boys with the release of Cars 2 and the third Transformers movie, in addition to a number of comic book adaptations (Captain America and Thor) and a fourth outing for the Pirates of the Caribbean.

These releases should reinvigorate all boys’ areas, with action figures, vehicles and building sets all likely to expand this year.

APRIL 2011

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SECTOR GUIDE BOYS

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MATTEL

Hot Wheels will be supported with a major multi-platform brand campaign throughout this year, featuring partnerships with the British Racing Drivers Club and Silverstone.

Other news includes the return of the Cartoon Network TV show, Hot Wheels: Battle Force 5.

A new large-scale play-set for the Rev Ups assortment of gravity will be unveiled, while there’s also a new way to play Hot Wheels with the Wall Tracks, which move play from the floor to the wall for a new perspective of play. There are new additions to the Colour Shifters range, basic vehicles and stunts, action and racing track sets.

Matchbox’s Skybusters line of diecast planes and helicopters will receive increased marketing support this year with the range’s first TV advertising campaign running now. Big Rig

LEGO

This year’s biggest launch is the company’s latest IP – Ninjago - a revolutionary dual-platform concept consisting of a collection of dualling minifigure spinners and cards, followed by the release of constructable battle play-sets. Offering children aged six and over a new experience that bridges physical action play, Lego product building and interactive online activities, Ninjago is an action packed Ninja theme. There are various sets and spinners/cards to collect. It will be supported by a consumer marketing programme.

Hero Factory is also a top priority for the year, receiving high levels of marketing support including three new 22-minute CGI cartoons.

Building on the launch of Minifigures in 2010, two new minifigure series will be offered in the first half of the year.

With each minifigure sold in a sealed mystery bag, there is a surprise with

01628 500000

Buddies will also grow with the introduction of a new character – Smokey The Fire Truck.

Mattel’s latest WWE collection builds on the Flexforce line-up. Autumn sees the launch of the WWE Flexforce Colossal Crash Down Arena featuring an elevated 18-inch superstructure.

The WWE Rumblers collection also continues with the launch of Transforming Rumble Rig that changes from a big rig to an entire WWE arena.

A marketing campaign featuring press, TV and PR, as well as a programme of live UK events and talent tours will continue to drive awareness of products throughout the year.

Mattel will also launch a raft of new action figures and play-sets based on Batman: The Brave And The Bold, while the Prehistoric Pets range continues to grow and will be supported with TV advertising and PR.

01753 495000 every purchase, further driving frequency, repurchase and the desire to collect them all.

The Buildable Action Figure Category will benefit from investment including strong TV and online support plus instore promotions and activities.

Following the success of Atlantis in 2010, Lego Pharaoh’s Quest is another new independent play theme for this year, fusing a mythical Egyptian theme with fantasy creatures.

Lego Star Wars sees an expansion of the range, introducing novelties designed to support demand from the existing collector base, while also recruiting new fans.

The T-6 Jedi Shuttle comes with flick missiles, a rotating wing for flying mode and a detachable cockpit that turns into an escape pod. The Bounty Hunter Assault Gunship Includes new Sugi, Aurra Sing, Embo and IG-86 Assassin Droid bounty hunter minifigures.

The Imperial V-wing Starfighter has a working cockpit and rotating wings for flying and landing modes. The V-wing is used to hunt down the Rebel Alliance. It includes Imperial pilot and astromech droid R2-Q2 figures.

Jar Jar Binks and his fellow Gungan prepare to ward off the invasion in The Battle of Naboo set, which includes 12 minifigures in one set.

The action set includes eight battle droids with blasters, two droid pilots, Jar Jar Binks and Gungan scout minifigures.

HASBRO

With three movie releases to support and new launches from some key brands, Hasbro says its boys category for this year is even bigger and better than ever.

The new Beyblade range features advanced top designs, light and sound effects, and new accessories, including epic arenas. Children can enter the code found in each specially marked package at BeybladeBattles.com to compete against other Beybladers from around the globe.

From the Nerf N-Strike Stampede ECS blaster to the new N-Strike Barricade RV10 blaster, Hasbro’s Nerf N-Strike line continues to deliver power, performance and customisation.

Summer sees Hasbro introduce the new Star Wars role-play toys. The Ultimate FX Lightsaber will provide one of the most authentic Jedi experiences ever for kids, while new Electronic

FLAIR

Autumn will see the introduction of Morbs, morphing orbs that transform into a big headed, small bodied Morb character. Launching with 76 monsters and warriors, there are also three accessory sets to collect including the Mega Morb, the Jet Fighting Morb and the Cannon Firing Play-set.

Lazer Stunt Chasers are a new range of remote control toys. The cars follow an infrared light projected by the remote handset, which makes it easy to use and gives even more control, while the distinctive chassis design allows the vehicle to perform stunts, flips and tricks while always landing on its wheels; ready to go again. There will be several sets to choose from.

Zibits will have 18 new designs to collect, plus some new accessory sets, including the Zibit World Starter Sets which make the perfect introduction to

37

020 8569 1234

Helmets allow kids to strap on the helmet and take on the persona of Star Wars characters This year is set to be a strong one for action packed blockbusters, including Transformers: Dark Side of the Moon. To support the movie, Hasbro will launch a new Transformers line featuring MechTech technology, which captures the action of the upcoming Paramount Pictures live-action movie from director, Michael Bay and executive producer Steven Spielberg.

It’s also going to be a big year for the Marvel Universe as two of its biggest heroes will be coming to the big screen with Thor at end of this month and Captain America: The First Avenger at the end of July. There will be some roleplay toys to support the releases, including Thor’s Hammer and Helmet and Captain America’s Throwing Shield, so kids can re-enact scenes.

0208 643 0320

the Zibit Universe. Autumn sees the arrival of larger sets including The World Accessory Pack, Z Rail Highrise and for some big robotic adventures, the Battle Fortress Play-set. Finally the new ZX34 is a Mega Remote Controlled Zibit, which sucks up orbs and then fires them out and comes complete with light and sounds features.

Boys will also be able to capture the adventures of Captain Jack Sparrow with the Pirates of the Caribbean 4 collection including articulated figures depicting both classic and new characters from the films. The Battle Pack Character Assortments will include an exclusive figure piece – collect them all to create a fifth figure; the figures also have luminous features that will be revealed by a backlight LED. The hero item will be the Queen Anne’s Revenge Ship.

APRIL 2011

38

SECTOR GUIDE BOYS

THE IN THING 0845 365 3030

Dracco Spin is a new battling spinning top. There are twelve different tops to collect.

Each spin top is made up of separate components and stickers, making each spinner is unique, creating a collectability effect. The Dracco Spin foil pack contains a Dracco Spin Top, Launcher, Pull-String and a sticker sheet for £1.99.

Alongside the foil packs are the giant Battle Arenas. Taking the customised spin tops, the arenas are the ideal accessory to host those intense battles. Retailing at only £14.99, each arena comes with everything kids need to jump into battle - two Spin tops, two Launchers, two strings and two sticker sheets.

Ranging prices from the £1.99 foil packs and £3.99 double packs to the £14.99 Giant Battle Arena set, Dracco Spin offers a new addition to the battling spin top market.

MEGA BRANDS

Mega Brands is launching two exclusive Halo ranges, Red vs. Blue, as well as special new items celebrating the video games franchise’s 10th anniversary.

The toy line, which has been one of the firm’s licensing success stories, combines vehicle play and features accurate representation of heroic UNSC and enemy covenant character, will now be augmented and unified with the addition of new bases.

Major new licences will be introduced to the Mega range including the launch of Need for Speed, featuring three different scales of vehicles: Action Scale, Custom Scale and Collector Scale.

APRIL 2011

TOPPS

01908 561588

The Topps 2011 Premier League Sticker Collection is the only official sticker collection of the Premier League and has some never before seen additions.

The sticker album returns for another season of football action in 3D for the first time ever. Each 2011 sticker album, costing £1.99 comes with a free pair of 3D glasses, allowing collectors to bring players to life.

The new look collection, which will cost 50p for a pack of six, comprises of over 450 stickers and will include club information, facts and player statistics making it not only a sticker collection but a comprehensive guide to the 2010/11 Barclays Premier League season.

The 2011 collection also includes a new Topps feature - a look back at some of the Premiership heroes of the past. Each team is now not complete until a special legend sticker has been

01844 350033

Mega will also be launching new construction toys based on the next big TV show from Turner, Generator Rex. Dragons Universe will be taken to new levels this year as the Dragons’ story intensifies and new products including Dragons Riders will be launched in spring.

This year Marvel and Mega Bloks team up, as Mega unveils the ultimate Super Hero construction toy line featuring Spiderman, Iron Man and Captain America.

The products for boys continue to come with the launch of various Micro Action Figures from different product brands such as Marvel, Halo and Generator Rex.

found including players such as Arsenal’s Thierry Henry, Tottenham’s David Ginola and Liverpool’s Robbie Fowler.

Following a hectic January transfer window, and some fresh faces making names for themselves in the Barclays Premier League in the 2010/2011 season, a total of 160 Match Attax cards have been produced and are available now. With new signings, showboat, hat-trick heroes, limited edition and a new 100 club card.

Match Attax Extra features some new faces appearing in the Barclays Premier League such as Liverpool’s Martin Kelly, Chelsea’s new signing David Luiz and the return of some old faces including Aston Villa’s Robert Pires, formerly of Arsenal. And after making a huge impact during the start of the season, Gareth Bale will become a member of the Match Attax 100 Club.

HORNBY

Since being granted a licence by the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) to produce a range of official London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games merchandise, Hornby Hobbies has been busy developing across its Corgi, Hornby, Scalextric and Airfix brands.

Initial Limited Edition product has already achieved sell out status.

London 2012 Diecast Taxi Collection was seeded into the market in February last year. The collection showcases 40 different Olympic and Paralympic sports through artistic pictogram motifs. This year, the firm has invested in a marketing campaign that sees the taxis brought to life on real taxis across London.

As part of the Team GB programme, Scalextric is producing its first cycling set based on the Velodrome where the indoor track cycling takes place. The set will be supported by a major TV campaign.

RE:CREATION 0118 973 6222

Re:creation is launching a number of pocket money lines aimed at boys.

Leading the charge and launching in July, are the Ickee Stikeez, a collection of hundreds of different miniature wacky and weird creatures that stick to almost anything.

Each Ickee Stikeez comes in its own storage pod, which can be linked together using the Ickee Stikeez builtin sucker to create a whole world of weird characters.

Ickee Stickeez will be launching with its own TV campaign from July, through to Christmas. The brand will be supported by its own website too.

The firm is also backing a number of its other pocket money brands including Space Putty, with display solutions showing TV ads at the point of sale

01843 233500

The Great British Classics vehicles collection highlights vehicles that have achieved worldwide recognition as British icons, but with the added dimension of London 2012 styling.

London’s iconic Routemaster Bus and LTI Taxi are joined by the Mini and Concorde models.

Scalextric is also offering Micro Scalextric (1:64 scale) and the Scalextric Start (1:32 scale). For an introduction into the world of slot car racing, the sets feature a new lap counter and the latest Scalextric Start set is the Pro Racing Series. The set offers six alternative circuit options.

The Micro Scalextric range has plenty of new additions, including the new super car from McLaren – the MP4-12C – with cars designed exclusively by Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button. Another new set features the main characters from the forthcoming Disney Pixar Cars 2 movie with Lightning McQueen taking centre stage.

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RUBIE’S

This year Rubie’s celebrates its 60th birthday and currently has 20 affiliate companies worldwide along with a portfolio of leading properties such as Batman, Harry Potter, Star War/Clone Wars, Mario Brothers, Toy Story, Disney Princess, Michael Jackson, Transformers and many more.

For this year, Rubie’s continues to add strength to its boy’s licensed catalogue with blockbusters such as The Green Lantern, Cars 2, Transformers 3, Pirates of the Caribbean 4 and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

“We are thrilled to be working with so many new and exciting licences for 2011 and beyond. However, new

BANDAI

Building on last years successful product launch of Ben 10 Ultimate Alien, Bandai will be releasing new 10cm and 15cm figures throughout the year.

Among the key lines for autumn is the Revolution Ultimatrix, this new feature Ultimatrix fires out mini figures (included in the new assortments of 10cm figures).

The Alien Crash Vehicle is a new pocket-sized car, which features Ben ‘Mark 10’ car and Kevin Action Cruiser car pieces, which clip to the car body, and when the car hits a flat surface, the car pieces fly off. The Ultimate Chest Badge is a new role-play item based on the Ultimate Alien series. Kids wear the Chest Badge around their neck and hit the Omnitrix centre to hear alien phrases from the show.

Summer sees the launch of the new Power Rangers series – Power Rangers Samurai. Bandai has been the toy partner for Power Rangers since it’s inception in 1994 and will be working with a new broadcast partner as it launches a toy range to accompany the

08453 070707

opportunities can only come from the success of our current partnerships and our great product range. Rubie’s always works hard to maintain focus on existing key evergreen licenses such as Batman. This means that even in non movie years like 2010, we continue to sell incredible numbers of Batman costumes, a testament to the strength of the brand as well as our ability to market it,” says Rubie’s UK head of marketing, David Wootliff.

Rubie’s has just launched its 2011 catalogue. This licence-led catalogue includes new lines such as Disney’s Tangled and Tron, Glee, Harry Potter, Kiss, Lady Gaga, The Green Hornet, The Muppets, Wacky Races and more.

08456 028782

new TV show. The 10cm Mega Rangers are the entry price-point figures with weapon accessories. A new scale and function are the 16cm Switch Morphin figures – press the trigger at the back of the torso to see the figure head flip from ninja to Power Ranger mode. Other key lines within the range are the Disc Cycles with Figure, Samurai Morpher, Samurai Megazord and the Samurai Mega Blade with quick draw action and sounds.

To support the new animated TV series and Pokémon Black and Pokémon White Nintendo DS video games, Bandai will be launching a new range including 4-in-1 and 6-in-1 figure packs, Twister Figures and Twister Figures with Pokémon Arena.

Bandai premiered the new Thundercats product range at UK Toy Fair in January.

Planned for late winter release, the range will include figures, vehicles, roleplay and a large scale play-set complimenting the new animation series.

BRAINSTORM The new Eureka Deep Space Home Planetarium and Projector features two domes, which project the planetarium projects stars or constellations onto a surface. The planetarium module also rotates, moving the images around the room.

Deep Space is also a slide projector and has three interchangeable slide disks to project 24 colour NASA and Hubble Telescope images of spacecraft, astronauts, planets and nebulae onto a surface. At bedtime – Deep Space transforms into a night light. The included colour, educational booklet is full of space facts.

The Eureka R/C Illuminated Moon is an authentic moonscape, which shines moonlight and scrolls through 12 illuminated lunar phases, operated by remote control.

Observe the eight rotating planets as they orbit the full, light-up sun of the Eureka R/C Illuminated Solar System.

VIVID

Vivid will continue to offer the number one Toy Story item of 2010 - Toy Story Collection Buzz Lightyear, as well as all his Toy Story Collection companions.

2011 will see the firm extend the range to include Big Baby and Twitch, both of which include interactive features. In the plush category, Mr Pricklepants, Buttercup and Dolly will also debut this year.

December will see the release of Happy Feet 2 and Vivid has a range of quality collectables, plush characters, play-sets and novelties. Key items in the range are Sing ‘n’ Dance Erik, and the Penguin Pals collectable assortment - one-inch versions of the key characters from the film.

Fyrflyz are the modern day version of the yo-yo. Swing, spin and twirl to

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01200 445113 Operated by remote control, the detailed, colour planets rotate on three different speeds around the sun.

At a lower price point, the Eureka Space Explorer Room Projector, with 24 colour NASA and Hubble Telescope photographs, projects onto the walls of any room. Kids can also read information about the moon, planets and space, as each product is supplied with a colourful, educational booklet.

The Eureka Nature Projector Torch has two domes to project different patterns onto bedroom walls. Choose from Sea Creatures or Wildlife projector domes.

The Eureka Space Projector Torch has 24 colour NASA and Hubble Telescope photographs.

The Eureka range also includes The Original Flying Bird. The mechanical toy flies up to 50 metres by flapping its tearproof wings, powered by a rubber band.

And now available is the new mini flying bird, perfect for indoor flight.

01483 449944

create light shows and practice tricks.

Choose from three styles - Cyclone, Blue Angel or Nytfyr.

2011 will see the introduction of indoor and outdoor hunting game, The Hunter Series, which allows kids to battle with a flying Alien or Vampire.

Charge the blaster, toss the Alien or Vampire and let the battle commence.

To complement the existing Klip Kitz range, Vivid is introducing the Cars 2 range, which includes the same accessories. Start off small with the Mini Kitz Assortment, with four Mini Kitz characters to choose from. The new 2-in-1 Deluxe Kitz allows kids to construct key characters in two ways first build them in the traditional way, then transform them into a surprise version from the movie.

APRIL 2011

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WIND DESIGNS 0844 257 1180

Wind Designs has been appointed as a national distributor for Hasbro.

The Hasbro range includes the Nerf Blasters and Super Soakers, as well as other boys’ brands including Transformers 3 Dark of the Moon, Marvel figures including Thor, Iron Man and Spider Man and Star Wars.

The new X2 Blaster is two blasters in one. It blasts foam darts and water at the same time. Fast action and safe play for all ages, the blaster launches the darts up to 35’ whilst at the same time firing a jet of water up 30’.

The darts can also be soaked in water before loading them into the X2 Blaster in order to give a good soaking. The blaster can also just be used as a water blaster to soak targets and opponents with a steady stream of water. A large water reservoir ensures kids will leave their target soaked before having to refill.

With built in ammo holder, removable water clip and quick pull launcher, the X2 Blaster is quick and easy to reload.

Includes four soft darts.

SPIN MASTER

Bakugan Gundalian Invaders hit TV screens on Cartoon Network in the New Year and introduced the Battle Gear and Super Assault brawlers, plus new characters and transformations across the core line. The launch comes off the back of another strong year for the brand, which saw consumer sales grow by 32 per cent, the third consecutive year of growth and the Bakugan Booster pack finished the year as the number one volume SKU in the action figure category (source: NPD).

On February 1st, Bakugan Dimensions, a new MMOG (Massive Multiplayer Online Game) went live and heat reveal codes found on all new brawlers encourage kids to take part in the free online battling with no downloads required. Bakugan

HTI

01253 77888

HTI provides an extensive range of JCB role-play, wheeled and outdoor toys.

Designed with close attention to ruggedness and reliability, the new product lines will be available at retail from autumn/winter 2011.

The new JCB Multi Construct range from HTI allows kids to build a JCB construction machine using an array of vehicle pieces with the tools provided.

The Multi Construct range comes with accessories to make many kinds of construction machines. The range consists of four lines - Backhoe Loader, Dump Truck, Low Loader and Backhoe and finally the Assembly Plant, which comes with a Backhoe Loader and a battery operated drill for role-play activities.

The Multi Construct range was also selected by the BTHA as winner in the

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Gundalian Invaders is being supported with TV advertising across four new TV creatives in spring with a further five ads in autumn.

Air Hogs looks set for another good year with the award winning Vectron Wave back on TV and three new SKUs launching in spring. Autumn TV focuses on the R/C Sharp Shooter, an indoor helicopter that fires missiles and uses tail-lock technology for a stable flight.

Tech Deck and Flick Trix continue to grow and this year sees the Paul Rodriguez Skate Lab Assortment TV advertised in spring followed by the new Skate & Go Park in autumn and over 480 new licensed board designs launching across a range of price points, keeping things fresh and driving collectability.

Toy Fair 2011 Best New Toys in the vehicles category.

New toy vehicle lines can be seen in HTI’s own-brand Teamsterz range to demonstrate its strength in die-cast, radio control, special feature and plastic vehicles, as well as new design racing track sets and multi stack garages. New for autumn/winter is the Teamsterz Big City Stacking Garage, a four-level Stacking Garage comprising of a garage with car wash, a helipad and a petrol station.

The firm is also introducing a range of Stacking Garages allowing kids to continue to build up the floors creating a Teamsterz universe. The new range also includes new track sets such as Twin Turbo Racerz and Thunder City.

It continues to produce scale diecast toys for Bob the Builder, Postman Pat and Fireman Sam. Based on the vehicles from these pre-school TV series, all items feature the theme tune, voice phrases and character drivers relevant to each vehicle.

Two new Disney ranges for autumn/winter, include a range of Phineas and Ferb wheeled toys. The range includes a new Phineas and Ferb Folding Scooter, In-Line Skates, Skateboard and a Helmet and Protection Set. Secondly, the new Club Penguin wheeled toys range includes a Folding Scooter with drawer, as well as a Folding Scooter with Puffle bag.

TOMY

Tomy has a wealth of new ranges for boys in 2011, including K’Nex, which is expanding to incorporate Mario Kart Wii and Top Gear licensed products.

The Mariokart Wii range has a number of sets to build. The Mario Kart Wii Track Pack features a Mario figure and a trophy from the game, the Track Pack provides a track to race karts around and can be added to as more sets are collected.

The sets include Mario v The Twomps, Mario v The Goombas, Bowser v The Fireballs and Yoshi v The Lava Plumes.

There are battery powered obstacles for the karts to race through and each pack contains two motorised karts and sounds taken from the game.

The range also includes two larger sets, the Mario & Yoshi v Mecha Bowser

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VTECH 01235 555545

In preparation for the movie Cars 2 in July, VTech is launching its licensed range, which offers a breadth of unique electronic toys for all ages and learning abilities.

The new McQueen Kidizoom styled camera features all the Cars characters, editing and adding frames, stamps and effects. The camera stores over 500 photos, which can be easily enhanced with an SD slot for memory expansion and boasts a two megapixel resolution with a two times digital zoom.

Lightning McQueen Learn & Go is a handheld toy that enables children to interact with McQueen on his adventures while learning at the same time. There is also a Lightning McQueen Learning Laptop.

020 8722 7300

Building Set and Bowser’s Castle Ultimate Building Set. K’Nex includes a range of Kid K’Nex sets, which feature chunky and colourful pieces for younger children to enjoy. The moving Amusement Park Sets include both simple and more complex builds of theme park rides for children between the ages of seven and nine. New for this year, K’Nex is also producing a retro style range called Classic K’Nex, which feature themes from the early years of K’Nex, such as a Garage and Gas Station.

Building on 2010’s line of Harry Potter toys, the new range includes poseable action figures of Ron, Hermione, Draco Malfoy, Professor Snape and Harry and his nemesis Lord Voldemort. Also available are Light Up Wand Pens.

APRIL 2011

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SECTOR GUIDE BOYS

MECCANO

Meccano has introduced a futuristic collection of drones, patrol ships, raiders, bombers, fighters, commanders and destroyers in the new Space Chaos range.

Aimed at boys from seven years upwards, Space Chaos invites kids to enter a futuristic world to build spaceships and enter the battle to win the Green Crystal. Each model comes with stickers to add to the ship and trading cards showing the unique powers of each spacecraft.

A secret code on each trading card can be entered online to access extras including a biography of the spacecraft, wallpapers, posters, transformation cards, combat cards and the game board to play the Space Chaos card games.

The first wave of Dark Pirate and Silver Force forces includes Drones

JUMBO

Jumbo Games has a range of boys’ products coming out this year, including games and puzzles to tie in with the Disney Pixar film release of Cars 2, Fireman Sam and Horrid Henry.

To celebrate the release of Cars 2, Jumbo will be launching a new collection of puzzles including the Disney Car Puzzle and Colour - a 24-piece doublesided floor puzzle, which doubles as a colouring activity. Once the puzzle is completed, children can turn it over and colour in the black and white image on the back using the wipe clean crayons provided. Plus, the puzzle comes in a transparent carry bag. Other jigsaws include a Giant Two in One Activity Floor Puzzle depicting the cars from the film and a 100-piece puzzle in a deluxe tin with a free Disney Cars fridge magnet.

Further products to collect include the 70-piece Puzzle in a Tin and the Puzzle in a Tube including a free Lightning McQueen poster. Plus, there is a Supercharged 4 x 35-piece assortment of puzzles and a 100-piece Glow in the Dark puzzle.

APRIL 2011

01844 278888

which build one spaceship each; Patrol Ships and Raiders and Bombers, which each build two models of increasing complexity. The last set also comes with two trading cards and a missile launcher.

Joining the fray in autumn will be the Fighters, including a Dark Pirate Commander and a Silver Force Destroyer each with light and/or sound effects. The Destroyer comes with a working missile launcher and three trading cards.

An additional combined ship card can be downloaded when more than one spaceship from each side is collected to access even greater powers for use in the epic battle to win the Green Crystal. As well as the card game, online games will follow later in the year at www.spacechaos.meccanouk.co.uk

01707 289289

Jumbo has also updated its Fireman Sam range for 2011 with a new offering of games and puzzles including the Fireman Sam Rescue Game, where players spin Fireman Sam to collect all four cards, which depict everything needed to put out a fire. The memory game also features the theme tune and sound effects from the show. Other products include the nine in one bumper pack, 24-piece Puzzle and Colour and a pack of 36 Giant Playing Cards depicting characters from the show that can be used to play a variety of traditional card games.

To tie in with the film release of Horrid Henry in the summer Jumbo also has a range of puzzles and games for boys including a two in a box Horrid Henry puzzle, and a 100-piece Discover Puzzle.

Games include the Horrid Henry Slide & Find Game, where children try to find their Horrid Henry character by rolling the die and sliding the tiles on the box to uncover the matching cards, as well as Horrid Henry Giant Playing Cards.

LEARNING CURVE

Following the 2010 launch of its Chuggington toys, Learning Curve is introducing new vehicles and play-sets to both its collectable die-cast and interactive ranges.

Interactive uses Smart Talk wireless technology for each of the new character engines to recognise, greet, and interact with the other engines and destinations in the range. The new Wilson and Dunbar Starter Set includes two character engines and ten track pieces.

The new expandable Wash and Fuel Set with Brewster features Interactive engines and training stops and includes 33 pieces in total and initiates over 175 lights, sounds and phrases when used alongside other Chuggington interactive vehicles and sets.

The hero product for the range is the new Steam Around Old Town Set with Puffer Pete, which introduces real steam to the interactive experience. Using ionized water to generate steam, engines pull up to the Old Steamworks,

ESDEVIUM GAMES This month sees the release of Theme decks and Boosters of the new Pokémon Trading Card Game expansion: Black & White.

Black & White Sneak Peek tins, which now include a collectable Pokémon figure and the Zoroark Character box have been out since early March to give players a taster of what is to come in the new releases that include over 70 New Pokémon.

There are also two new aspects to Black & White that bring the Trading Card Game online for the first time. The Trainer Challenge and Online Play features add value to an already successful brand.

Theme decks will be available from April 6th and Boosters will follow on the 25th. Theme decks and Boosters will this year, for the first time, include online codes to allow players to battle each other across the Internet. The Trading Card Game Online (TCGO) is set to revolutionise how Pokémon is played and will help make the game accessible to everyone, at any time.

As well as having the

01392 281900

where a push button activates a whistle top to release steam.

Thomas & Friends has two wooden award-winning systems – Early Engineers and Thomas Wooden Railway System. The play-sets are designed as an introduction for children as young as 18 months to the Thomas world. Kids can then grow with the systems as the Early Engineers track is compatible with that of the older targeted Wooden Railway. New for Early Engineers in 2011 are the Hiro, Victor and Spencer character engines, each available from July 2011.

The Thomas Wooden Railway range also sees new introductions including Arthur, Toad, Scruff, Duncan, Fergus, Skarloey, and Devious Diesel, alongside three new feature twin-pack sets: Box Cars, Sodor Dairy Cars and the Light-Up Aquarium Cars. New sets include the introductory Thomas & James Starter Set and the 28-piece Battery Powered Figure 8 Set with Sir Topham Hatt.

01420 593500 physical cards in their hands, players will now gain the equivalent number of online cards too. They can then use the online cards to battle against other players and further their online reputation. There is also lots more available online too: such as styling the player; arranging the collection; searching for cards; identifying target cards and a new, moderated, player-toplayer chat feature is set to be brought in. All this will available through the new UK-dedicated website, www.pokemon.co.uk.

www.hornby.com

www.airfix.com www.corgi.co.uk

www.scalextric.com

For further information please contact the Hornby Sales Team on: Tel: 01843 233502 or email sales@hornby.com

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SECTOR GUIDE BOYS

WOW TOYS 020 7471 0980

Wow’s spring line includes Police Plane Pete, a friction powered police plane with rotating propellers and a rotating cargo hold.

Also new is Lunar Lenny, a push-along rocking space buggy which comes with removable spaceman and alien figures. Roll-it-Riley, a frictionpowered steam roller is also new. Its roller turns to mix and match faces and it comes with a rattling roller and engine sounds. The set also includes a removable driver and road sign. Robbie Racer, a friction-powered racing car with a removable driver will be available for one year only.

MAPS TOYS

The Marshmallow Classic Blaster from Maps Toys is the sweetest shooter around. The blaster fires real marshmallows in quick succession, using a pump action. Kids simply load the blaster with large marshmallow pieces and they are ready for battle.

The Classic Blaster can fire marshmallows up to 40 feet. The Classic Marshmallow Shooter is also available for quick-fire play. Use mini marshmallows to target your opponent, firing spongy bullets up to 30 feet.

In addition, the unique Bow & Mallow is also new for 2011. Load up the bow with mini marshmallows, draw back the arrow, aim and fire up to 30 feet. Each blaster can be loaded with any brand of fresh mini marshmallows.

The shooters compress different shapes of marshmallow as it enters the nozzle and then it springs back into

APRIL 2011

GOLDEN BEAR

01952 608308

Following the launch of My 1st JCB in 2008, the success of the range has grown with each year and Golden Bear is introducing more products this year.

The My 1st JCB team has recruited a new member who will be joining the other characters in autumn/winter. Dan Dozer - the youngest member of the team - is very handy to have on site; with five phrases, flashing light and moving scoop.

Doug Dumptruck will be charging around this year also, as he will be transformed into a remote control vehicle. Remote Control Doug Dumptruck is controlled by a steering

01483 776 006

place once fired.

Also new from Maps Toys is the Be Amazing range – a collection of unique creative toys that will inspire children of all ages. The team at Be Amazing has been developing products to engage and enhance a child’s development for over ten years. Their aim is to help children discover the world around them through play.

The science-based products are inspired by growing things which in turn help to grow a child’s imagination, discovery and creative skills. All the products were developed in classrooms inspired by lessons that involved and entertained children. First to launch in the UK are Yuck, Geyser Tube, Snow Jar and four different Labs in a Bag - Wonders, Adventures, Newton's Antics and Come to your Senses.

wheel style control – kids can move him forward, backward, activate his five phrases, flashing flights and when Doug reaches its destination, they can tip the bucket.

This year will also see the launch of the My 1st JCB Talkies. Joey JCB, Doug Dumptruck and Elvis Excavator come to life when their character disc is inserted into the top of the Talkie.

Press the button and the character will appear and move on the screen whilst saying one of four phrases.

The JCB range continues with the Mini Pullbacks, the My 1st Talking Vehicles, Play-sets and Puzzles.

SCHLEICH

Schleich is embarking on a new venture this year with a boys’ focus, which will see the introduction of a historical New Heroes collection for the World of History and further figures for the fantasy Tribe of Arelan.

Ready for release in May, the Arelan Heroes increase the choice of intricately detailed figure sets that cleverly combine man with beast. Each Hero will come with an animal companion while the Hero takes on the characteristics of his faithful friend. The play concept combines the Bayala World of Fantasy with the World of Nature. For example, Torak rides his brown bear with spear at the ready, while Kenjok and his alligator makee an intrepid team.

Also for boys this year is the New

JOHN ADAMS 01480 414361

John Adams is increasing its New Scotland Yard offering in partnership with The Metropolitan Police.

The firm is building on the success of its Forensics Kit, Board Game and Jigsaw Puzzle.

The New Scotland Yard Fingerprint Kit includes tools and instructions to detect, lift, record and examine fingerprints, while the New Scotland Yard Impressions Kit contains everything needed to examine and analyse impressions.

All are used to help solve role-play crimes. Further products include a Dress-up Set and Walkie Talkies.

Products are suitable for ages eight and over, with rollout beginning from next month.

Simon Pilkington, John Adams’ managing director says: “The products continue to sell extremely well and we are looking forward to the latest round of introductions.”

01279 870000

Heroes collection, which consists of five historical figures as part of the World of History range. Each of the new figures represents outstanding fighters of their own times, matched to a role model from history and posed in a dynamic fighting position. The mysterious Ninja is a feared fighter from Japan and well disguised in his black attire - he is ready for attack with a sword in each hand.

Additional support for the retailers comes in the form of new in-store marketing materials and window display kits, providing more opportunities to encourage footfall. Schleich is also holding a ‘Who’s your Hero?’ campaign, where retailers can take part in a shop window contest and win an adventure trip for two.

New for 2011, The Green Lantern Out in Cinemas June 14th

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HABA 0161 304 9555

Three new Terra Kids Construction Sets include fully working Catamarans, Windmills and Musical Gears.

The Catamaran set includes more than 50 wooden pieces, which glue together, plus plastic swimming elements and propulsion rubbers.

Once complete they will have a fully working model ready to launch onto water. Additionally, the Terra Kids Windmill set has two assembly options so boys can decide whether to create a windmill or a turning disk for optical illusions.

Haba’s designers recognise a boy’s desire to be independent and this contributes to the design of the Terra Kids range – in particular its Angler’s Set which contains everything to provide an introduction to fishing. The zippered bag holds a telescopic fishing rod and landing net, plus hooks, floats and split shot weights.

CORINTHIAN Supported by the iconic boys’ licence, Star Wars Slingers will launch in May, combining fast action gameplay with collectability.

Essentially a patented yoyo device with a magnetic base, the Slinger is designed to pick up collectable metal medallions. There are 65 collectable medallions available, each featuring a different Star Wars character. Each medallion has different ratings and rarity value.

There are six different coloured Slingers, each again featuring different Star Wars characters such as Darth Vadar and Anakin Skywalker.

Each Slinger has a power meter on the top, which shows the power points. If a player hits the ground too hard, they lose power points, so the idea is to make sure the Slinger reaches just low enough to kiss the medallions and pick them up. Each of the six Slingers has a different maximum power score but each also has different levels of sensitivity, meaning the ones with the higher maximum scores are more sensitive and players are more inclined to lose points for being too heavy handed.

There are numerous games to play with the Slingers and Medallions such as Face Off, Quick Draw, Manhunt and

WORLDS APART

With the Disney/Pixar Cars 2 movie set for release this summer, Worlds Apart is confident that sales of its home range of Cars 2 toddler bedroom furniture are set to be strong. The themed bedroom sets use a combination of characters and colourful learning products. At the same time, these items also provide parents with important tools for establishing and maintaining a practical bedtime routine.

The Lightning McQueen Feature Bed has been designed to look like the fourwheel Disney/Pixar character. The toddler bed with pull-out storage drawer can be used for role-play during the day and sleep at night.

The Cars Six Bin Storage unit and Sling Bookcase are designed to keep kids’ rooms tidy. A sturdy frame with six fabric storage drawers, the unit is ideal for holding clothes and toys, while

01494 462640

Sniper. These games feature on the leaflet included in the booster packs and will also be available online at www.slingersthegame.com Booster packs containing five medallions will be available at retail for £1.99, whilst a Power Pack featuring ten medallions, including one guaranteed rare medallion, will retail for £3.99.

The key SKU is likely to be the Starter Pack, containing one Slinger and three Medallions. The Battle Pack featuring two Slingers, ten medallions and a battle mat will retail. In addition there will be a collector book in which to house all 65 medallions.

Star Wars Slingers will be heavily TV advertised from May onwards. Feel the force.

0800 389 591

there are four fabric slings in the bookcase.

There’s also a sturdy Cars Desk and Stool, a handy Cars Toy Box and a Cars Cube Tidy that pops up ready for use in seconds. Made from printed fabric, the Cars Fabric Wardrobe is easy to assemble with a single rail and two rollup doors.

For seating options there’s the inflatable Cars Cosy Chair and Flip Out Sofa, which unfolds into a lounger. The products also feature machine washable covers.

Worlds Apart is also offering a range of bedroom accessories including the Cars 2 Go Glow Light and Go Glow Clock Bedtime Trainer. Bedroom sets from Worlds Apart will also soon be available in a Spider Man range.

The firm will support its themed toddler bedroom sets with PR and social media marketing activity.

MV SPORTS MV’s range of boys’ outdoor toys is growing with the addition of new licenses, new products and TV advertised products.

The new Ben 10 Ultimate Alien includes a range of wheeled toys and accessories, adorned with Alien graphics in their ‘Ultimate’ form.

MV is also revealing a new collection of Star Wars: The Clone Wars bikes, scooters and skateboards. The range is distinguished by strong graphics and innovative products; such as the new Lightsaber Scooter with a light-up stem in the style of a Lightsaber.

Doctor Who is another strong boys’ property in MV’s catalogue, characterized by the new Sonic Screwdriver Scooter. This scooter comes with a monster identifier, which is activated by a Sonic Screwdriver device that randomly recites a fact file on one of nine of the Doctor’s enemies throughout history.

MV will be rolling out a range of skateboards, scooters and bikes in conjunction with

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MARBEL 01208 873123

Safsof rubber foam toys are designed and produced to support children’s learning, sports skills and to encourage children to get active. The Cricket Bat and Ball features a 61cm soft cricket bat and is perfect for a quick, safe game of cricket.

The Super Torpedo is a throw and catch game for the park or beach. The high-density soft foam toy is the ideal size and weight to develop physical skills.

The bowling set is a fun take on the classic ten pin bowling game. The set includes six pins, a mat to lay them out on and a rubber bowling ball.

0121 748 8000 Transformers 3. The movie is supported by a new CGI TV series, Transformers Prime, set to air in autumn/winter on Cartoon Network, which MV hopes will further boost its revenues for the property.

A summer of action-packed adventure from superheroes Thor, Captain America and Green Lantern is supported by a range of skateboards and scooters with movie graphics.

MV’s boys’ pre-school selection is also stronger than ever this year. The Thomas & Friends range is set to show significant growth this year with the introduction of several new feature driven ride-ons, including the new 3D Engine Ride on and the return of the Battery Operated Train & Track Set. The selection of bikes, trikes and tri-scooters has also been revamped with new concepts of Thomas and his friends.

Fireman Sam has a vibrant range of wheeled goods. Leading the way is the innovative Firehose Scooter and Jupiter Ride On. Bob the Builder is also set to make a strong statement this year spearheaded by the irresistible Toolbox Trike which comes with a real removable toolbox and six-piece tool set.

APRIL 2011

©2011 The LEGO Group

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FIESTA CRAFTS 020 8804 0563

Fiesta is offering a Spitfire with Pilot hand puppet in its puppet range this year. The pilots arms can be moved and either attached to the control or made to salute during a fly-by. The new puppet is part of the awardwining range of Tellatale Puppets from Fiesta Crafts which includes lots of carefully designed fairy tale and story characters, all designed to inspire children to raise their creativity and imagination levels.

WOWWEE

New to the Paper Jamz Pro Guitars range are three new designs, which come with a new 14 fret sensor bar, allowing boys to switch from power chords to picking out pitch-perfect notes with just a touch of a button.

Paper Jamz Pro also comes with a whammy bar and a built-in accelerometer which will instantly detect any change in position of the guitar. Turning the guitar through 90 degrees will alter the octaves of the notes for an authentic sound and by shaking the neck of the guitar during the final note of that sweet solo, kids can add vibrato to the note. Slide a thumb down the whammy bar to bend a note to breaking point.

For the first time, kids can download their chosen tracks to the Paper Jamz Pro guitar, which is available from August and is suitable for age 11 and over.

JOHN CRANE

01604 774949

The new Tidlo Collection by John Crane offers a range of vehicles for boys to play with.

For little boys, the Lorry Shape Sorter is a pull-along that offers shape matching play in a bright moving vehicle. The lorry encourages shape and colour matching and can aid kids with their first steps. Little boys will love the lorry’s blue and chequered flag livery.

As boys get older, Tidlo provides a host of ride-on toys for more boisterous play. The Red Scooter and Motorbike are ideal for boys and each ride-on vehicle comes in high gloss paint with fine detailing, whilst the easy grip handlebars and pneumatic tyres ensure a safe and comfortable ride.

The Tidlo Collection is fully merchandisable by retailers, who can

01295 711588

The Paper Jamz Pro Microphone features cutting edge tuning technology to enhance vocals. The product features both a robust and powerful microphone and a powered amplifier featuring the kind of technology rarely seen outside professional recording studios. Kids have access to a range of vocalcorrecting and enhancing audio options while singing.

Perfect Pitch Technology is the latest in vocal correcting technology, automatically analysing and adjusting the singer’s voice in real-time, ensuring each note is pitch perfect for the chosen song. Soloists can also use vocal enhancing features such as chorus, vibrato and harmony. Kids can also download their favourite tunes to the Paper Jamz Pro Microphone to sing along to. Available from August 2011 and suitable for ages 11 and over.

request free point of sale with orders to help actively merchandise their new Tidlo section in-store.

Tidlo has been highly researched so John Crane is sure to be offering consumers what they want and need.

An at-a-glance age range symbol and category ensures retailers can show the toys to their best advantage in learning related sections and consumers can make an informed purchase.

In addition, the developmental icons on each toy are an added bonus to consumers who can be confident in a product’s play and learning value.

A PR and marketing campaign including consumer advertising, promotions to raise awareness via a number of social media strategies will support the launch of the Tidlo Collection.

JAKKS PACIFIC

Jakks Pacific has a wide portfolio of boys electronics, construction, role-play and entertainment for autumn/winter. Spy Net will deploy another range of surveillance gadgets, backed up with an extensive website to upload and download content. Two TV ads are in the mix, with 380 TVRs, along with PR support. The range has extended to 17 lines.

Real Construction also expands with new action play-sets, drills, nail guns and expansion packs. The Real Construction Deluxe Workshop with Drill is TV supported with 380 TVRs and PR. B.I.G is a giant hand for an extendable reach, a better catch, etc. The B.I.G Hand is TV supported with 350 TVRs and PR.

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GREAT GIZMOS 01293 543221

The KidzLabs series appeals to scientific minds, with an abundance of experimental and practical projects from which to learn. With an already wide collection, five new items have now been added to the series.

Amongst the new items are KidzLabs Green Science Solar Robot and Math Magic kits. The Green Science Solar Robot kit was recently awarded Toy Fair Best Creative Toy. Boys can learn how to make a moving robot using solar panels and a motor, whilst discovering the basic principles of electricity and mechanics. With everything required included in the box, once complete, they can also teach their robot some simple tricks.

Alternatively, Math Magic contains over 15 tricks, games and puzzles which kids can astonish their friends with, from magic number tricks, speed calculations to even reading minds. To add interest, kids can get their family involved too with the Math Memo Card Game.

01344 638900

Max Force is a brand of toy shooters which safely delivers maximum distance and accuracy up to 100-feet and also allows kids to see what they have hit.

The range will be supported with over 420 TVRS and PR in autumn/winter.

Black & Decker comes to the TV screens with 350 TVRs and PR support, focusing on the Real Power Workshop.

The set features lights and sounds, including a working drill press, gripping vice and circular saw.

Jakks holds the full master toy rights for Spongebob Squarepants for action figures, play-sets and feature plush.

Finally, Jakks has a full range of action figures and ring play-sets, including the likes of Hulk Hogan and Sting in the line.

APRIL 2011

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SECTOR GUIDE BOYS

GROSSMAN 0141 613 2525

Grossman’s new range of fashionable helmets are designed to help parents keep their kids safe, by combining style with safety. The firm is introducing a full range of cycle chic for 2011. For boys, the shark helmet is available in a variety of colours with ferocious teeth and a bendable fin, so if they do fall off the fin folds to allow the solid shell of the helmet to do its job. There is also a Mohican design, with foldable spikes for the same reason.

Grossman has secured the Doctor Who licence and will offer a range of items throughout the year. The Tardis tent will feature its own console and graphics from the series. The firm is also offering Doctor Who and Dalek seats to go with them.

Also in the Doctor Who range, there is a range of enemies, from an Inflatable Cyber Man to an inflatable Dalek. An inflatable Tardis completes the set.

REVELL

Revell continues to increase its presence across the boys market this year with additions to its R/C and Star Wars EasyKit ranges.

On the R/C front, 2011 will see Revell release its Supermicros helicopters.

The Supermicros are some of the smallest remote-controlled helicopters on the market. Designed for indoor use, they come in three designs – the Tiger, the Pirate and the Sparky. Each of the helicopters features electronic gyros to aid flying, even without any experience.

Meanwhile, Revell continues to expand its Easykit range across both The Clone Wars and Classic Star Wars properties. The Easykit Pocket range

APRIL 2011

BLADEZ TOYZ

02392 658255

Bladez Toyz has grown over the last four years to become a market leader in designing and supplying radio controlled toys. The product range is positioned to appeal to both children and adults, suited to a range of budgets and skill levels.

Bladez’ latest range, The Pump N Play radio controlled inflatable vehicles, has already been awarded a Toyology Gold award for 2011. The Pump N Play line features an inflatable durable body shell, which is lightweight and ‘furniture friendly’. The inflatable is controlled by a child friendly handset which manoeuvres the inflatable forward and back, left and right plus allows the child to perform stunts and 360 spins on the spot, so can be used in a small room.

The package includes a pump, R/C handset, R/C base unit and stabilisers, plus the inflatable which comes in

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caters for the younger end of the boys market from age six and over, with a number of easy to make pocket-sized Star Wars ships, including the famous X-Wing Fighter and Anakin Skywalker’s Jedi Starfighter.

The larger Star Wars Easykit toys will see the Galactic Empire’s famous spaceship, the Tie Fighter added to its ranks this year, together with Luke Skywalker’s X-34 Landspeeder, featured in the first Star Wars film.

Both are suitable for boys aged eight and over.

All EasyKit toys can be put together quickly and easily due to their unique snap together system, which requires no glue and no paints.

various designs including Monster Trucks, Racing Cars, Construction vehicles and Robots. The inflatable body shell is removable from the radio controlled base unit, which allows the child to swap and change the vehicle from any number of styles and design.

Additional body shells are also available.

Bladez will be launching an exclusive licensed range later in the year, which will be previewed in Harrogate. Bladez will not be in the main Toymaster show but will be holding private meetings in the St Georges hotel showroom opposite the Majestic hotel. Please call to book your appointment.

In addition the G-Bladez gyro helicopter range has three new products. The benefits of the G-Bladez range include auto stability and precision control, ease of flight, ultra manoeuvrability, and robust design.

LE TOY VAN 020 8979 2036

Emerald Castle is a new addition to Le Toy Van’s extensive castle range. At 50cm high, the three-tower castle fulfils a popular mid-range price point, placing it between Le Toy Van’s existing Camelot and Lionheart castles.

Scaled to work with the company’s range of Budkins characters, or any other figurines of around 10cm tall, Emerald Castle has a unique angled tower design and features a green dragon motif on the rear wall, drawbridge and flags. All figurines are sold separately.

Emerald Castle is finished in a stone clad style with emerald stoneeffect tower details. Archer arrow slits and flame-effect torches complete the look. The baseboard features a stone paving effect with a moat and surrounding greenery.

INTERPLAY 01628 488944

Interplay’s selection of Wild Science for Boys kits feature a range of activities from making bouncy rocket balls through to snot slime. Each kit introduces elements of science with an educational bias.

Weird Slime Laboratory allows boys to create rat gizzards in tadpole soup, fake fish eggs and slimy snot. This kit does exactly what it says on the box with plenty of experiments included.

Boys can also learn about energy blasters and elastic collisions with the Hyperlauncher Rocket Ball Factory, which contains everything needed to create a mass accelerating launch ball.

There is also the award winning Wild Physics & Cool Chemistry Laboratory, (two kits in one) which teaches the

world of NonNewtonian Fluids and Long Chain Polymers.

The Practical Joke Soap Laboratory contains all the ingredients for boys to make bubbling eyeballs, soapy severed fingers or even brainy hand wash.

All the Wild Science Kits come with an illustrated colour instruction booklet and each experiment is more than just play, as each kit supports the National Curriculum Science KS2. With a PR campaign and TV support, the kits can be stocked with the confidence that boys will keep coming back for more.

Alternatively, Interplay’s ‘build and play’ Technokit collection boasts a selection of kits for boys to build and explore the world of technology and physics. The kits feature everything from a Stunt Buggy that does wheelies to a Trebuchet siege machine; in a mix of modern and ancient technology.

Finally, My Living World is the award winning range that explores the world of living creatures, including ants, worms and Triops. The kits are safe, educational and environmentally sound.

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SECTOR GUIDE BOYS

WICKED VISION 020 8870 1470

The technology of the mood ring has moved into the toy world with a new range of colour changing sports toys.

New to the UK and presented by Wicked Vision, the Original Chameleon range of cutting edge, colour-changing, active sports products are a new addition to the growing Wicked series.

The Chameleon range incorporates thermo active technology, which enables it to magically change colour with heat. Even the touch of a hand will activate its colour morphing properties to instantly transform.

The toys are made from Soft Safe foam for indoor and outdoor use. Also available is The Sports Ball, The Turbo Ball and The Flying Ring.

BLUW

EggBods are new mix ‘n’ match collectables from Bluw Toys featuring a range of characters for boys aged four to seven. Range extensions - including licensed lines – are set to be launched later in the year. Transformers has already been signed and Star Wars and Ben 10 are imminent.

Each toy not only looks fantastic but also features a mix ‘n’ match head, arms and accessory so you can swap your collection around to create crazy new characters. EggBods also have a wind-up function that makes them walk around and move their arms up and down.

The Current Boys’ Range Includes Captain Hard Boiled, the EggBod who sails the seven seas, Egg Bot; supersci-fi EggBod; Crack Commando; The EggBod who’s ready to strike; Fireman

APRIL 2011

BROOKITE

01837 53315

At the beginning of the year Brookite launched a new range of Venom Kites, following on from the Venom Skateboards.

The kites are available as Sport or Power models – all featuring a skull image and in colours that echo those of the skateboards. Designed to be flown by ten year-olds and up, these kites are designed to fill a particular void in the market.

The Skateboards are available in three price points and all come with ABEC 9 bearings and Chinese or Canadian maple decks. Venom Web is the entry-level board, ideal for young beginners looking to try skateboarding

020 7627 1268

Scramble and The EggBod. EggBods were the winner of Best Pocket Money Toy at Toy Fair this year.

EggBods are launching in the UK in all Toymaster stores, Toys R Us, Argos and Hamleys where they will feature in the window display throughout the Easter holidays. The toys will also be available for purchase at www.eggbods.com. In autumn/winter, EggBods will move to all major UK toy retailers and will be joined by new extensions to the range.

EggBods will be supported by a marketing strategy that includes TV appearances on Cartoon Network, competitions, giveaways and an online viral campaign. Furthermore, at www.eggbods.com kids can find a variety of activities and games and explore the EggBod world.

for the first time. Venom Spider is aimed at anyone wanting to move up from the entry-level board and features a higher spec and the Venom Mecha is a pro-level board with the highest quality spec and is stronger and lighter for the more experienced boarder.

Ben 10 products continue and the Light Disc, Glow Heli and Helix Flyer still top the lists. Shaped kites featuring Ben 10, Cars and Toy Story are ideal for the younger boys.

Also aimed at the boys market are Brookite’s R/C Helicopters – the firm has three in the current range – each features the latest technology and is fully controllable.

IMC TOYS

Cars2 products arrive on shelf in June and IMC has a range it hopes will maximise sales. The range includes a choice of two sets of walkie talkies featuring designs of Lightening McQueen or Francesco. There’s also a range of Games including Air Hockey and the Race Game, while the hero product is the Lightening McQueen interactive Story Teller. It features over 15 minutes of content, which comprise of eight stories related to the upcoming movie release. The mouth and eyes move and the story teller features the real voice of Owen Wilson.

IMC is also offering a range of Spider Man toys this year. The firm has added to the Truck Play-set with a smaller Helicopter Play-set and Spiderman Mask Walkie Talkies. With two big Marvel Film releases on the way, the firm is also

DKL 01604 678780

Mic.o.mic is a collection of plastic construction toys designed for boys aged three and over. Textured parts are connected by pins and clips and the range includes an array of brightly coloured vehicles that are durable and solid. The unique tool makes them easy to assemble and once the construction is complete, models can offer hours of play.

The wide variety of sets are available to in cars, motorbikes, trains and planes, as well as two boat designs which float on water. A feature of all mic.o.mic products is that they can be disassembled at any time, which allows the model to be created over and over again and offers added play value. Each kit box encourages children and parents to play together and comes with parts to make one vehicle, a construction tool and a set of instructions.

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offering the Marvel Heroes Guessing Game, which features just about every hero and baddy from the Marvel Universe.

Spongebob Squarepants is a new arrival at IMC and IMC has a range of Sticker U & Tattoo Machines, along with a Battle Ball game. There is also a Spongebob Crabbe Patty RC car. The car is full function.

The new Ben 10 Ultimate Alien Range features the Omnitrix walkie talkies, the Omnidisk launcher and the Guessing Game.

The introduction of the I-Motion Cars will be supported with TV advertising.

Available in Red Buggy or Blue Street Racer, the cars are controlled by a hand held steering wheel which contains sensors that monitor hand movements and steer the car accordingly.

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SECTOR GUIDE BOYS

MOOKIE

Mookie is now in full swing with the new Urban X range. The children’s bikes, carts and cars range is taking the firm’s wheeled range in a new direction. Urban X products compliment the Smart Trike line. The wheeled toys will be in the market for spring/summer, in addition to the new scooter range from Mookie.

The new range of Street Cruz scooters is available for kids aged three and over, all with adjustable handle bars. The scooters are now available as a Mini starter scooter for the junior rider. Also new to the range is the Retro for the beginner, Lightning with front and rear brake lights, Classic, a folding scooter and Extreme, the pro scooter suitable for kids aged eight and over. Mookie is also introducing the Thunderbolt, a new low deck scooter.

The launch of the Mookie RC range provides a new indoor and outdoor radio control brand. The Titan copters come with gyroscope control to make

LITTLE TIKES 01908 268480 The new 2-in-1 Pirate Ship classic foot to floor ride doubles as a play-set with figures, cannon, anchor, pirate flag and storage under the deck hatch.

The Tikes Castle features a turret, slide and secret door, while the new wooden Richmond Treehouse Play System is packed with playhouse on stilts, swings, slide and covered sandbox. This year Little Tikes is also launching its two smaller version A–frame swing sets: the Milano with its single swing seat and the Roma two swing seat set.

The red Sports Coupe is an ideal first foot to floor ride-on and includes sporty handling, deluxe treaded tyres and horn. The new Cozy Truck has rugged styling and chunky wheels and the Cozy Pumper is an addition addition to any of the Little Tikes rideon vehicles for extra role-play games.

Its three weather-proof electronic fuel buttons make six sounds, plus there’s a hose, nozzle, credit card and swipe slot.

The 3-in-1 Trike is a first bike and now there’s a version with the Little Tikes Discover Sounds Dashboard with sounds and LED indicator turning signals. Plus a Deluxe version complete with four position reclining seat, foot rests and cup and snack holder.

APRIL 2011

01525 722722

flying easier. The copters are available in three sizes: Titan Nano, Titan Mid and Titan Grand, all with excellent durability and many functions.

Mookie has signed a European distribution agreement with Modular Construction Toys - a new modular freestyle approach to construction toys. Modular Construction Toys take a new approach to the traditional theme, allowing 3D fully modular construction of race tracks, highways and districts.

All Modular kits are compatible with one another and include construction pieces, metal cars, connectors, decorative stickers and accessories.

Unlike conventional construction sets, Modular Construction Toys allows the building parts to be stacked vertically without limit. The toys are suitable for children from five years and up.

Multiple variations are in development and a large range will be available in the second half of the year. An extensive TV campaign is planned for autumn 2011.

CESAR 2011 is set to be a strong year for Cesar and Marvel in the boys’ category, with two superhero action films set for release in the spring and summer.

Hitting screens next month, Thor is the tale of a warrior on the brink of becoming a celestial legend. Kids can become part of the Avenger initiative with the Cesar deluxe muscle costume, which comes with fabric helmet. The firm is also offering a version of the mighty Thor hammer to complete the look.

Following in July, undersized patriot Steve Rogers answers the call of duty by volunteering for an experimental serum program that transforms him into the Super-Soldier known as Captain America.

Armed with his shield, Cap will fight to protect the world from Red Skull’s attempts at domination.

Cesar’s costume range will include value and deluxe muscle versions to cover a range of price points and a

REBEL TOYS

01482 887917

The Maisto-Tech range of radio control products has a strong product offering this year with many price points covered and products specially designed for the toy market, as the award winning Rock Crawler Junior demonstrates with its age six plus rating.

Rock Crawler Junior has front and rear motors for a climbing action and 4X4 driving experience, available for preEaster delivery. It is supplied fully readyto-run. The junior version follows the success of the larger Rock Crawler which has new colour options this year and is once again supplied ready-to-run with a 6V rechargeable battery pack and charger. The toy is suitable for age eight

01733 397400 shield will be available too.

Customers can still find all the other avengers in the Marvel collection, including Iron Man, SpiderMan, Wolverine and Hulk.

Cesar has also recently signed Cartoon Network’s Hero 108.

First costume designs based on key characters Lin Chung, Mighty Ray and Jumpy Ghostface were previewed at Spring Fair and will be launching later in the year. Ben 10 and Bakugan from Cartoon Network also continue.

There’s a new range of generic themed costumes for boys too, including traditional styles such as cowboys, Indians and pirates, plus astronauts, pilots and firemen. The Illusion range features costumes which include trousers and t-shirts with detailed, photo-realistic style printing that look just like the real thing.

and over.

Another notable inclusion into the range is the Baja Beast. The new addition is a step closer into the R/C hobby sector by Maisto, as the vehicle offers superb handling and steering with its digital proportional steering control, front and rear suspension and tri-band controller, which allows three users to play simultaneously. Once again it’s fully ready-to-run with a 7.2V rechargeable battery pack and charger. Also suitable for ages eight and over.

There will also be a Ferrari 458 Italia and Lamborghini 83X in 1:24th scale for mid year delivery.

BIGJIGS 01303 250400 Bigjigs Rail offers a range of wooden railway products, from individual carriages to complete train sets and battery operated engines that run on the railway. Over the past year, Bigjigs Rail has developed its Heritage collection to include 16 replica engines of well known locomotives.

New for 2011 is the Countryside Train Set. This mid-priced train set contains 72 pieces including all of the people, animals, shops and trains needed for play.

Rail Name from Bigjigs Rail offers individual letter carriages to allow children to create their own name as a train and play with it on their railway.

Letters come in red, green, blue and yellow. A Display board with header rail and complimentary rail name to use on the header board is also available.

In addition to the rail range, this month sees the launch of the new Road Range. The line is designed to stand alone or integrate with the rail range through the use of ‘link items’.

The Bigjigs wooden railway collection currently contains eight ‘link items’ including the Signal box, Farmyard Crossing, Oil Processing Plant, Grand Central Station, Dockside Recycling Centre, Container Shipping Yard, Electric Car Station and The Arches.

Š 2011 Hasbro. All Rights Reserved.

*NPD Data, Full Year 2010

SECTOR GUIDE GAMES AND PUZZLES

www.toynews-online.biz

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Counter attack Games and puzzles is one of the most enduring areas of toy sales, even seeing increases at the beginning of the recession. ToyNews finds out what the latest innovation has been in the popular sector…

WINNING MOVES 020 7298 9500

This year Winning Moves will take Top Trumps from the playground to the classroom, with the second National Schools Top Trumps Tournament.

The championship is already underway, with the grand final taking place in London at the end of May. Every school that registers receives a free Top Trumps Tournament game and seven packs of specially created ‘Feeling Good’ Top Trumps packs.

The event uses the tournament rule set as opposed to the traditional one on one style of play.

Last year Top Trumps ran the first National Schools Tournament and the event was such a success, with thousands of pupils from all over the UK taking part, that the event has now become a permanent fixture.

IMAGINATION GAMES

Following a successful 2010 with Top Gear and Doctor Who ranges, Play That Tune and Beat the Parents, Imagination Games is planning for another strong year in 2011, with a number of new games launched into the children, family and adult categories.

Card game, Ruckus, is aimed at families and is centred around fourminute rounds where players must collect sets to advance up the board and ‘wild dice’ can be rolled to get there quicker.

MATTEL

01628 500000

Mattel’s Games portfolio will continue to expand throughout 2011 with new takes on favourite brands, new launches and marketing programmes.

A UK edition of Scrabble Trickster will be released to tackle the British market and Scrabble Dash, a new fast-paced card game, will provide word game fans an on-the-go option.

Due for release in July alongside the Pixar sequel, the new Cars 2 My First Scrabble uses the licensed characters to provide younger children with an introduction to word play.

There are more Pictionary titles in store for this year. Along with last year’s family edition are two more new ways to play the popular drawing game.

The Pictionary Card game is a simple innovation where no drawing is required. The idea is Pictionary meets charades, where players act out clues

01270 619100 Ka’lide is an action game, which uses magnets to introduce an element of unpredictability. When the magnets are flicked into scoring zones, it interacts with others and could make a player’s existing score increase, disappear or be multiplied.

Another addition to the family range, quiz game Get it Wrong to Win, turns logic on its head. Players must answer questions incorrectly to win the game.

Although it sounds easy, Imagination says the intense time limits will put players under pressure.

A success on the continent, Am I...

Napoleon brings electronics to the classic Am I game, where teams of players help the wearer of the guessmo, which displays a name to guess who they are, using only words or mime.

Launched last year, the travel range, Funsize, now includes Top Gear South American Challenge and the aforementioned Ruckus.

All Imagination’s new games and existing products will be supported by PR throughout the year.

for their team using the simple images on the cards.

Pictionary Bendables will bring an extra dimension to the game in autumn, as players use bendable tubes to create, perform and guess clues.

The evergreen card game, Uno, will celebrate its 40th anniversary with a major marketing campaign this year, while Uno Extreme joins in the festivities with a new design.

Mattel recently licensed the hugely popular iPhone app, Angry Birds, to create Angry Birds Knock On Wood, a skill and action game. The new game has a large potential fanbase, as the app has already enjoyed over 50 million downloads worldwide.

Growing its kids’ games portfolio, Mattel is also unveiling Red Rover – a new memory matching game for preschool kids.

HASBRO

Hasbro will continue its Family Game Night campaign this year, encouraging families to get together around kitchen tables and living room floors for entertaining nights. The company will introduce a number of new games and new takes on classic titles, for families to enjoy.

The Game of Life: Adventures Edition heads up the list, with the family favourite receiving an update.

The games takes players on adventures both far away and a little closer to home, allowing them to choose between climbing the Himalayas and adopting a pet – two of the adventures in this edition. Family Games Night also sees the return of

LEGO 01753 281900

Five new games have been unveiled in Lego’s range. The heat is on with Sunblock. For two to four players, the scenario is a day at the beach. Players must move sunshades and rubbish bins to secure the perfect spot and force their opponents to go home.

In Banana Balance players move a monkey to collect the most fruit while the tree grows new leaves and bananas. If players tip the tree, they will lose.

In Frog Rush, players must race to cross the pond. The winner is the first to reach the riverbank before being eaten by the stork.

Ramses Return challenges between two and four players to enter the pyramid, uncover the crystals and grab the treasure, while avoiding the mummy and the curse of Ramses.

Further lines will launch in autumn.

020 8569 1234

Scattergories and Taboo and fastpaced old favourite Shark Attack has been re-launched.

Connect 4: Launchers Edition is the latest incarnation of the four in a row game. Players aim, launch and connect their way to victory using a new, horizontal grid.

Monkey Dunk joins the family of Elefun and Friends characters. The winner is whoever can make the most monkeys jump into the lagoon, however Elefun can pop up at any moment to stop them.

Finally, Hasbro is adding Ratuki to its card game range. The fast-paced family game joins versions of Cluedo and The Game of Life.

APRIL 2011

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SECTOR GUIDE GAMES AND PUZZLES

GREEN BOARD GAMES 01494 538999

London Brainbox is the most recent edition to join Green Board Games’ flagship range.

Still using the established rules, it’s a memory test where players have ten seconds to study an illustrated card before answering a question on the picture they just saw. BrainBox also has educational value as it helps kids to develop their memory skills.

The game card artwork is provided

by Collins’ Illustrated London Maps and when fitted together the cards form a fully illustrated map of the city.

Other versions include World History, Olympian Sports and World Travel with Reminisce and Once Upon a time available later in the summer.

Further lines for this year include sister product BrainBites, a series of quizzes in a tin, Chase the Cheese, a one-player logic game and Pix Mix, a visual identification game.

JUMBO

Further strengthening its offering with a new collection of single player brainteasers, Jumbo Games is now distributing Smart Games.

The range includes the 3D wooden puzzle Camelot Jr, a puzzle for children ages four and up where the players must unite a knight with his princess.

For ages seven and up, Anti Virus is a sliding puzzle game where tiles can only be moved diagonally and in a group to stop the spread of a virus.

In the travel-sized North Pole Camouflage, players must place

APRIL 2011

DRUMOND PARK

Drumond Park, the manufacturer of games like Doh Nutters and Pig Goes Pop, won the TRA/BTHA Best Game Award 2010 and was also in the TRA’s Dream Dozen for its Pumpaloons game last year. The firm is now introducing two new offerings into its portfolio.

Aimed at children aged four and above, is Dino Bite. Armed with special sets of tweezers, up to six players must avoid the T-Rex’s bites to steal eggs from its nest. The dinosaur features growl and roar sounds.

The company’s new puzzle, Oginov, is a tumbling pyramids puzzle. Its colourful three-dimensional globe and pyramid set-up is angled to provide

01293 543221

transparent tiles to direct polar bears to safe land and fish to water. All the games offer four difficulty levels resulting in 48 different challenges.

Logical thinking and imagination are required to solve the puzzles, which are designed to increase spatial perception, concentration and help memory training.

Jumbo showcased Smart Games at Toy Fair earlier this year, and will launch the range in the autumn/winter period, with expected retail prices starting at £7.99.

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four different mind and dexterity tests – spatial skills, colour recognition, maths and visual awareness. Aimed at ages eight and over.

New family and adult games in the pipeline for the coming year include an updated and child-friendly version of Rapidough; His and Hers which follows the same picture and recognition formula as Logo and Best of British; TV show games The Million Pound Drop and Eggheads and a twin sister for Articulate, called Articulate (Your Life), with six new categories. In the magic and novelty sector, Drumond Park is introducing Stephen Mulhern’s Magic Set and a Box of Shocks.

RAVENSBURGER

This year Ravensburger will celebrate the 25th birthday of Labyrinth with a special edition version of the board game. Now fans will get the chance to own the moving maze game in a special edition tin.

Ravensburger adds to its Thinkfun range with five new puzzles this year.

Tilt is a teetering logic game; Solitaire Chess is a single player game, which uses traditional chess moves and River Crossing is a puzzle where players must find a way to cross the river.

All of the games use challenge cards with ranked difficulty, so players can build up their logical thinking skills.

GOLDEN BEAR 01952 608308

This year Golden Bear has expanded its My 1st JCB range with a new series of traditional puzzles and games.

All of the products in the range are intended to develop the child’s handeye co-ordination.

There are jigsaws, touch and feel puzzles and a dominoes set, where kids have to match up pictures of the JCB characters Joey JCB, Doug Dumptruck, Larry Loadall, Freddy Fastrac and Elvis Excavator.

Also available is the Giant Floor Puzzle. When all the pieces are put together, the entire JCB team is revealed in giant form.

01869 363800

Other new introductions include Pathworlds, an unusual word search game and Zingo 123, a number version of Zingo Bingo.

Ravensburger is also strengthening its licensed portfolio with new properties including Cars 2, Angelina Ballerina and Penguins of Madagascar.

New designs will also be available in the Bob the Builder, Charlie and Lola, Star Wars Clone Wars, Chuggington, Disney Fairies, Disney Princess, Toy Story, Tangled, Winnie the Pooh, Hello Kitty and Top Gear lines.

The firm also offers adults puzzles in a range of piece counts.

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DKL 01604 678780

Wonderworld’s educational Eco Games aim to provide children with an introduction to energy saving and the environment.

Suitable for three years and over, the games are made from high quality wood and are finished with safe, nontoxic paints.

The Eco Town set provides children with an insight into domestic energy saving. A town can be created with houses, trees, bicycles, recycling bins and a rain water tank. The town on each board can be joined together for more creative play.

The Penguin Rescuer Game encourages children to work together to bring the penguins on a melting iceberg to safety, while also teaching them about global warming.

VIVID New to Vivid’s pre-school jigsaw collection is the Little Charley Bear range including Three in a Box and Ten in a Box varieties.

Also launching this year is the Everything’s Rosie line. Piece together the three jigsaws to reveal Rosie and her friends. Also available is a set of ten jigsaws, with puzzles ranging from six to 12 pieces. Piece the jigsaws together to reveal ten scenes from the show and then connect them to create one floor puzzle.

The portfolio also includes ZingZillas four and ten in a box and Timmy Time and Roary the Racing Car four in a box varieties.

Another new addition to the puzzle range is the 100piece and 300-piece jigsaws in the Justin Bieber collection.

There are four new additions to Vivid’s games offering this year. Little Charley Bear Guess & Spin Game gets kids to spin Charley to pick a card and then act out the action for opponents to guess. Get it right to win the card and the player with the most cards wins the game.

With Everything’s Rosie Rock ‘n’ Rollin’ Rosie Game, each player takes

APRIL 2011

TOMY

020 8722 7300

Tomy is offering Harry Potter fans a choice of two collectable puzzle ranges this year.

The larger of the two is a 300-piece glow-in-the-dark range featuring classic scenes from the films including Harry and his friends, as well as Voldemort and his army. Once the puzzles are complete, an optional glow in the dark layer can be applied. There are four puzzles in total, suitable for children aged six and up.

Also available is a micro-puzzle range recreating the original Harry Potter film posters in 150 pieces.

Included with each set are frames styled like giant puzzle pieces, which allow kids to interlock their finished

01483 449944

turns to stack Rosie’s goodies into the hands. The first player to make them fall over loses.

Moshi Monster game Where’s Moshi? challenges players to find the mystery moshling. Last of the new launches is the Justin Bieber: Always Be Mine Game. Players perform dares to win special kisses to give to Justin.

Also available are ZingZillas Zak on Tour, Timmy’s Pop up, Fifi’s Stack a Cake and Roary’s Pitstop Panic games.

Potter poster puzzles into a neat montage display.

The 300-piece sets will retail at £9.99 and the smaller at £7.99.

To celebrate Sonic the Hedgehog’s 20th anniversary this year, Tomy is distributing a range of licensed Sonic products throughout 2011.

A tabletop game, Sonic v Shadow Disc Battle, will feature action figures of Sonic and his arch-rival, Shadow the Hedgehog. The game revolves around shooting discs at different targets to collect coins.

The game can be expanded with additional shooters and targets of other characters, including Tails, Knuckles and Dr Eggman.

CHEATWELL GAMES

Celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, Cheatwell Games has a history of bringing innovative games to the market. Continuing the tradition is the App-Player. It’s a board game, which utilises an iPhone or iPod touch in place of a traditional deck of playing cards. There are currently four game apps, all using the same board.

By blending electronic gaming with the traditional board game, Cheatwell can easily introduce additional games to the App-Player and update the current crop of titles. There is also the potential for questions to closely reflect current events.

The App-Player board has it’s own loud speaker and an iPhone or iPod and the App Store provides the games.

Cheatwell Games predicts the AppPlayer is the future of board games.

Build-Your-Own 3D Puzzles are detailed, true-to-life representations of famous world landmarks.

CARTAMUNDI 01268 511522

Cartamundi together with Puzzler has created four family card games, Match Play, Red Herring, Sangarma and Take Five. The games have been developed to test general knowledge and can be played by two players or in teams.

Expanding into the Spanish market, Cartamundi has recently acquired toy manufacturer, Marigó. At the Marigó factory, plastic game components like dice and chess pieces are made as well as complete games, ranging from dominoes, chess, checkers and bingo games to travel games.

For the travel games, Marigó has an exclusive licence agreement with wellknown football teams such as FC Barcelona, Real Madrid and Athletic Bilbao, which allows them to use the logo and colours of the team.

Marigó also offers its customers the possibility to have a tailor made game to their own specifications of the. The games are now available to order from Catamundi.

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Despite being 3D they require no tools, glue or craft skills to make.

New for this year is the Taj Mahal and the Tower of Pisa with London landmarks in the shape of the Houses of Parliament, St Paul’s Cathederal and the Tower of London.

Cheatwell has also just announced that a Westminster Abbey version will be launched in time for the Royal Wedding in April.

The firm is also introducing six Wallace and Gromit jigsaws.

Plop Trumps is an educational poo game. Each card carries facts on a diverse range of animal droppings from Leopards to Locusts and Lemurs.

Finally, Pig Popper is supplied with six soft foam ball poppers. Kids stuff a popper into the pig’s mouth, squeeze its tummy and it fires the popper.

Cheatwell will soon be launching Dog and Dino Poppers too.

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SECTOR GUIDE GAMES AND PUZZLES

ESDEVIUM GAMES 01420 593593

Esdevium Games holds exclusive distribution rights for Hasbro’s Nostalgia Range.

Over the years, Hasbro has kept its board game range fresh by releasing new-spins on old favourites. Recent offerings include Cluedo Harry Potter and the modern Monopoly Revolution – but now Hasbro has taken Monopoly, Cluedo and Risk back to their first editions.

The Nostalgia Range was designed so the board games are direct representations of their vintage counterparts, with original artwork, a wooden box, durable components and metal pieces – no plastic.

The range received positive public and media response at Toy Fair, particularly from The Telegraph, which named Monopoly Nostalgia Edition the best toy at the event.

The games will launch in Q2.

Monopoly is expected to retail at £29.99 and Cluedo for £34.99

ORCHARD TOYS

Fresh from receiving a special recognition award from the Toy Retailers Assocation, Orchard Toys is back to business with five new games and a jigsaw puzzle.

For children between three and six years old, Three Little Pigs is a board game where two to four players must build straw, wood and brick houses to reach the centre of the board. However, the big bad wolf is always a danger.

There was an Old Lady... Who Swallowed a Fly is a memory game, which teaches relative size by encouraging players to collect creatures in the right size order. An animal size guide is included.

Alphabet Lotto is four games in one.

The double-sided board has letters on one side, pictures on the other. Either side can be used with the separate letter tiles or the picture tiles.

APRIL 2011

PEERS HARDY

0121 524 1439

Peers Hardy will bring two new ball bearing maze challenges to the puzzle sector in 2011.

Maze Racer won The Best Toy award in the Games and Puzzles section at Toy Fair. The Peers Hardy game is an electronic race game, where players must grip and tilt the steering wheel shaped frame to navigate the maze. Press a button to start the timer and the challenge is to complete the maze in the fastest time possible.The time trial gameplay is intended to challenge adults and children alike.

Also available is the AddictABall, with 138 stages. Starting at stage one, players must follow the maze without dropping the ball off the puzzle until all stages are complete.

The AddictABall travel edition is a smaller package, but still manages to pack 100 stages of maze into a smaller package. Although there are less stages, Peers Hardy says the travel

01953 859525

Players must find all the cards which match their lotto board. For the three plus age group, Alphabet Lotto is intended to help children achieve early learning goals by improving memory skills and letter recognition.

Aimed at an older five plus age group, Animal Safari focuses on maths skills. It’s a strategic dice game where the numbers shown on the two die must be added and subtracted correctly to collect animals; whoever ends up with the most wins.

Shape Snap is a bright colourful game where three to six year olds count, sort and match colours.

Teddy Bears’ Picnic is a 15-piece jigsaw puzzle for children aged two to five, which encourages observation and fine motor skills while developing language and social communication and links with the early learning goals.

version is just as hard, because every movement is magnified on the intricate scale.

Also new is Time Trial, a lap timing gate, compatible with most R/C cars.

The game comes with cones and tyres, so kids can set up a course then race with friends. Time Trial will record times down to the last split second. The Time Trial Plus will also be available later in the year and will include a R/C Car. A range of desktop games is also planned including desktop football, pool, hockey and table tennis.

UNIVERSITY GAMES After seeing returns from a TV ad campaign for the family game Smart Ass last year, University Games will put a similar focus on promoting its new game Five Second Rule. It was awarded Best New Toy for 2011 in the games and puzzles category at Toy Fair.

The role-play game Murder Mystery Party, University Games’ first game series, will be relaunched this year with new, up-to-date content.

Variations include A Taste for Wine and Murder, Murder at Mardi Gras and Murder Down Under. The new versions are expected to reconnect with the existing Murder Mystery fanbase, while appealing to a new audience at the same time.

A board game based-on the successful BBC Two quiz show, Pointless, has been buoyed by news that the series has been recommissioned for a fourth and fifth season. In the show, hosted by Alexander Armstrong, contestants aim to end up with the least points by racking their brains

GIBSONS GAMES 020 8661 8866

Developed with the help of child psychologist Dr Amanda Gummer, the two new My World games were designed to help children of all ages learn while playing.

My Lotto is a game teaching facts about other countries and cultures, while My Dominoes replaces the traditional dominoes with brightly coloured jungle animal pieces.

Gibsons Games has also partnered with the National Trust, Hornby, Airfix and the RHS to diversify its collection of puzzles. Stop Me & Buy One is a set of four 500-piece jigsaws featuring an ice cream salesman in four hand painted summer scenes.

To commemorate the Royal Wedding, Gibsons has released Royal Wedding playing cards. Each of the 52 designs features a unique photograph of William and Kate along with other members of the Royal Family.

01359 243900 for answers no one else can think of.

The Really Nasty Horse Racing Game is celebrating its 21st anniversary and the game has a new box design to mark the occasion.

For the pre-school audience, University Games has launched a new system called Play ‘N Learn. It’s a concept designed to help learn through play according to their individual development needs.

Finally, Michael Jackson Puzzles are jigsaws replicating the performer’s most iconic moments.

70

SECTOR GUIDE GAMES AND PUZZLES

HIVE ENTERTAINMENT 01706 242070

JOHN ADAMS

Mario and Bowser are battling it out again, but this time in the classic strategy game of Chess. The Chess set comes with 32 detailed hand painted figures from the Nintendo Mario video games. Each figure stands on a coloured base indicating the piece it represents in the game. The set also includes a Super Mario chess board and is presented in a special metal box making it a real collector’s item.

Nintendo Collector’s Puzzles – Mario Galaxy, new Super Mario Bros and Mario Kart allow kids to relive the fun and excitement of the classic Mario video games in puzzle form.

The puzzles are packaged in a collectable Wii console-shaped display box. Once joined together, the 550-piece jigsaws show classic and recognisable scenes from two of the most popular Mario games.

The completed puzzle size is 18inch x 24-inch.

John Adams is adding new products to its puzzle range this year. Doggie Doo is an educational game, which aims to teach kids how to take care of a dog.

Duties include feeding, walking and scooping poop. It’s suitable for four year olds and up.

In the quick fire board game Caption It, players must choose the funniest caption to match a photo and an appointed judge chooses the funniest answer. It’s suitable for children aged eight and over and will be supported by a TV ad campaign.

Mr Creepy Practical Jokes builds on the success of Mr Creepy Magic. It’s a practical joke kit, including moving cockroaches, severed fingers and ants and maggots, and will also be supported with TV advertising.

Following a successful licensing programme with The Metropolitan Police Service in 2010, John Adams will be increasing its New Scotland Yard

PAUL LAMOND GAMES

0207 254 0100

Adding to its award-winning Chimp and Zee range, Paul Lamond is launching two new games, Dodge the Dino and Who’s the Princess.

There are also three new activity craft sets titled On Safari, Make-Over Friends and Pretty Ponies.

Gruffalo’s Child, Dr Zoo and Mr Men join The Gruffalo, The Very Hungry Caterpillar and Tinga Tinga Tales ranges and a series of new Scooby Doo titles in the licensed portfolio.

Joining Hot Potato, Jumping Monkeys and Chairs in the skill and action range, are Humpty Dumpty’s Wall Game and Meerkat Mayhem.

This year marks the 20th anniversary of Atmosfear, the original interactive board game. First launched by Spears in 1991, the classic title was re-released in September last year.

Two licensed BBC board games join Paul Lamond’s family offering: the QI game and Just a Minute, based on the game shows of the same name.

Finally, Paul Lamond has a new series of 3D kids’ jigsaw puzzles with glasses included. In 1,000-piece puzzles, there are many new ranges, including the adult comedy series Viz.

APRIL 2011

HABA

01480 414361

range, with a new board game and jigsaw puzzle.

John Adams has signed the Rubik’s licence this year and will revamp the classic cube with more impact, and environmentally friendly packaging.

Adding to the range, Rubik’s Race is a fast-paced, two player challenge and launched last year, Rubik’s 360 brings extra depth to the puzzle range All Rubik’s products will be supported by approximately 2,000 TVRs with tagging to drive retailer footfall, plus an integrated PR and marketing campaign.

With Tetris Link, John Adams brings the famous gaming brand to the toy industry. The game is a strategic contest where players must block their opponents path while trying to score points by linking pieces together.

The game is suitable for children aged eight and over and will retail at around £25.

0161 304 9555

Haba’s puzzles are designed to challenge a child’s dexterity and observation skills while simultaneously inspiring creativity.

Each puzzle in the Discovery Puzzles line includes magnified motifs around the edge, which are repeated in miniature within the bigger picture, encouraging children to discover the matches. Each puzzle has a small story to complement the picture.

Themes include a Knight’s Castle, a Construction Site and Farm Animals.

Similarly, Haba’s Giant Puzzles provide a two-inone activity, as once complete, they not only make a bright colourful jigsaw puzzle, but also provide the backdrop for an animated play scene using a set of included wooden cars, dolls and animals.

Offering a departure from the traditional jigsaw, Arranging Games are an artistic puzzle with no fixed solution, allowing children to experiment and create their own scenes.

For example, the colourful flower-like shapes in Arranging Game Florina can be presented in a variety of different ways on the board or on a floor or table for free compositions. Arranging Game Paletti uses shapes with different depths of blue, green and pink to create a kaleidoscope effect.

HTI

INTERPLAY 01628 488944

Jigsaw fans can add another dimension to their hobby with the 4D Cityscape puzzles from Interplay.

The 1,230-piece puzzles currently include London and New York. Once the landscape has been completed, the various buildings and skyscrapers are added to finish the scene.

Once the length, width and depth have been created, there is then a fourth dimension of time. The first layer of the London puzzle shows the old London Town prior to the Great Fire in 1666, while overlaying maps show the streets of modern London.

A Time Poster is included to guide the player through history, showing the order in which London was built.

London starts in 1078 and finishes in 2014, adding under-construction sky scrapers like the Shard.

Interplay will soon be extending the range with additional cities, including Hong Kong, Las Vegas, Paris and Tokyo among others.

01253 778888

Launched at Toy Fair, the iball3 is a new electronic puzzler developed by Andrew Reeves, the veteran games inventor.

The ball is small enough to fit into hands and is made from clear blue plastic, which reveals the inner circuitry. On the surface there are six buttons, which light up in a sequence to be memorised and replicated by pressing the buttons in the right order.

Level one must be completed within 20 seconds to unlock the second stage. The levels reset after 90 seconds, but the real test is speed.

When completing the puzzle, an LED display within the globe will show a number which players can enter on the website, www.iball3.com. The site will tell players how fast they completed the puzzle to within a hundredth of a second.

Each iball3 is unique and has its own preprogrammed registration number, so players around the world will be able to interact with each other and compare times on the leader board.

Children and adults can both play the game. The iBall comes with a black stand.

SECTOR GUIDE GAMES AND PUZZLES

www.toynews-online.biz

RICHARD EDWARD

020 8311 8888

As a manufacturer of game cards, playing cards and trading card games, Richard Edward is a partner of a number of well-known games brands including Top Trumps and Monopoly.

Richard Edward works to get products in consumers’ hands, when they need them, at what it hopes is a competitive price point.

The firm has the capacity to produce in excess of 40 million decks of cards per year using its fully integrated inhouse facilities.

Among the products offered, are trading card sets, card components for board games, stand alone card games, and playing cards for promotional and conventional use, plus delivery throughout Europe and worldwide.

A range of specialist printing and innovative finishing processes are also

IMC

offered to ensure that the company can try to meet even the most demanding creative brief.

From foiling, to glow-in-the-dark or creating inks that react to temperature to randomised collation and unique coding within trading card sets, there are many different effects to choose.

Because everything the firm does is carried out on one site, it offers flexibility to work to its clients’ needs.

The company’s environmental credentials include FSC and Green Mark, together with scope to reduce its clients’ carbon footprint by purchasing a British product.

Richard Edward is also audited to Global Sourcing Principles (and can be found on the SMETA database), the ETI base code and holds both Investors in People and ISO 9001 accreditations.

01904 720908

After enjoying success with its Toy Story range last year, IMC Toys is looking to achieve the same with licensed toys from this summer’s big release, Cars2.

In its 30th year in business, the firm will release two table-top games to coincide with the Disney Pixar release. Designed to represent a speedway track, the battery operated Table Top Air Hockey has a tyre shaped puck and road cones for paddles, with a Lightening McQueen scoring marker.

Table Top Pinball has an automatic score board and features characters and sounds from the movie.

As part of its new Ben 10: Ultimate Alien range, IMC is supplying another themed table-top pinball set along with a Ben 10 Guessing Game.

The R2D2 repair game and Star Cruiser attack will continue to form the core of IMC’s Star Wars range this year, bolstered by an Air Hockey Game and a Battle Ball Game, where the aim is to shoot down all opponents’ characters to win.

For younger kids, the Mickey Mouse Club House Toodles Shape is a matching game with cards shaped like the characters from the show.

CIRCA CIRCA

JOHN CRANE

01604 774949

John Crane has purposely designed Tildo games to puzzle and perplex small children.

The new My First range has retro styling, while the chunky pieces are ideal for small hands.

My First Jigsaws are available in a choice of four designs and are comprised of four pieces, which slot into a tray.

The pieces have designs which do not match the tray, encouraging more logical thinking to complete the jigsaw, leading to an increased sense of achievement on completion.

07984 623159

Celebrity Masterchef winner and Dancing on Ice contestant, Nadia Sawalha is backing About Time, Circa Circa’s board game brand, in the UK. About Time made a splash at Toy Fair thanks to Sawalha and some guerilla marketing, drawing a number of buyers to the stand.

Sawalha played About Time over Christmas with the inventors and loved it. She says: “I'd all but given up on board games. About Time has re-ignited all that childhood excitement I used to experience all those years ago from a group of friends and family sitting round the table laughing, fighting and storming off all over a board game.”

Circa Circa recently launched its new Friends and Family Edition of About Time, which sold out at a number of retailers over the Christmas period.

About Time is also enjoying continued success in Germany, where it has had a second strong Christmas season with About Time Das Zeit Spiel, co-branded with Die Zeit newspaper.

Last year the firm invited Günther Jauch to be a player piece in the game. Jauch, who was recently voted the most famous living personality in Germany, joined the pantheon of famous player pieces including Gandhi, Shakespeare and Elizabeth I. Circa Circa is in talks with games publishers in several European markets and is also exploring cobranding opportunities in the US.

73

LEAPFROG

Alternatively, My First Shape Matching, available in Insects and Farmyard editions, go for a more distinctive look. Due to its handle, the puzzle board shape resembles a handbag and the pieces are attached by cords to ensure safe travel.

The My First Peg Puzzle games come in two versions, with a Pirate Ship theme available for boys and a Princess Castle for girls.

The Tildo packaging is equipped with developmental icons and the brand is supported by a PR and marketing campaign.

01895 202840

Leapfrog’s Explorer is a handheld gaming device aimed at children between the ages of four and nine.

It has over 35 different learning and play experiences and can play videos and read e-books.

The Explorer already has a wide range of licensed games, using characters like Dora the Explorer and Scooby-Doo to encourage the development of key motor and social interaction skills.

Leapfrog continues to expand its games portfolio with new games, with Cars2 and Spongebob Karting available later in the year.

With the Tag Reader, children can scan the pages of specially made books to unlock educational features and games.

Available Tag Reader books include the Disney Princesses and Pixar Pals ranges. This year will also see the release of new titles including Tangled.

Leapfrog’s latest learning tool is the Tag World Map. It’s an interactive map of the world, where children can improve their geography and learn about other cultures. The map takes kids on an adventure around the globe with more than 30 games including treasure hunts and races.

APRIL 2011

74

SECTOR GUIDE GAMES AND PUZZLES

MARBEL 01208 873123

GREAT GIZMOS

Marbel offers toys from George Luck, maker of quality wooden puzzles. The puzzles have won numerous awards and have been acclaimed for their ability to make education fun. Marbel has a range of the puzzles, appealing to a variety of ages.

For 18-months and above, The Big Outdoors has six different shaped pieces in a frame. Pieces are raised to aid lifting and the jigsaw helps improve hand-eye co-ordination.

More advanced SKUs like the Penguin puzzle come with multiple layers, requiring logical thinking.

Jigsaws like the Great Britain and Ireland map are suitable for teenagers and adults, as well as younger children. The puzzle features 49 animal pieces, which must be slotted together to create the British Island.

AGENTA MARKETING

New from Great Gizmos this year is a range of educational monkey-themed games from Popular Playthings, including four word and number games, each with a learning objective.

Monkey Math aims to make simple sums more fun. The game includes a monkey scale, 15 banana number tokens and comes with instructions.

Children hang on equal number of bananas from each of the monkey’s hands. If the addition is correct, the monkey will look straight ahead and his arms will be level. If the numbers are not equal, his eyes will be crossed and arms will move up and down.

01536 401128

Launched at Toy Fair, Colour Your Own Puzzles from Agenta Marketing combines two traditional kids activities – puzzles and colouring-in.

Using the included crayons, the pictures are coloured-in and can then be taken apart and played with as a jigsaw. Through its Earlybird Toys division, family company Agenta Marketing designed the entire range itself.

Each set has its own theme, with Pets, Farm Animals, Safari Animals and Mini-Beasts currently available to choose from.

The puzzles have been produced in two different sizes to target both the low and high price ranges.

The large set has six different puzzles while the smaller option has three.

Agenta Marketing has resisted the Far East manufacturing trend and Colour Your Own Puzzles are manufactured entirely in the UK at a competitive cost.

APRIL 2011

01293 543221

To play Monkey Bingo, kids need to load the 16 animal tiles into the banana crate and have each player choose one of the eight two-sided bingo cards, and the nine monkey chips.

A designated player pushes the monkey towards the crate of bananas and one animal tile with colourful animals pictured on it will pop out. The name of each animal is called and if a player has one of them on their card, they put a monkey chip over its picture.

The first player to cover three pictures is the winner.

Monkey Match and Monkey Multiplier complete the collection.

BIGJIGS 01303 250400 This year sees the re-design of Bigjigs range of Chunky Lift Out Puzzles.

The wooden puzzles are available in 11 designs, including Farm, Safari, Pets, Toys, Emergency Services, Construction Site and Dinosaurs.

There are also four newly added designs featuring Space, Fairy, Pirate and Castle.

Designed for ages 12-months and over, each puzzle has a 12mm thick base with five chunky lift out pieces.

The line also features bold interesting shapes that encourage the shape learning process in children.

The shapes are also useful as story telling aids, further helping children learn the names of the different characters and animals.

In additions, the puzzles feature different colours on the base to encourage kids to match the piece to the corresponding base colour.

The puzzles also help develop a child’s fine motor skills.

The re-design has seen the whole collection gain a bright, vibrant colour palette along with new window box packaging, providing an eye catching display in-store.

The Bigjigs range is fully tested and features old favourites and newcomers alike.

EDUCATIONAL LEARNING 01268 478556

TACTIC

07771 867828

Newcomer Educational Learning is releasing its first two games this year.

Launched to the trade at Toy Fair, Wildcat and Dinohistoria are educational card games, which are equally suited to the retail and educational markets.

The cards are aimed at ages seven and upward and are currently available as a double pack, sold in one tuck box. They will be available separately later in the year, due to popular request.

Wildcat is made up of 52 playing cards and four information cards featuring photographs and facts about wild cats from around the world. Wildcat can be played with younger children as pairs or snap.

After evaluating Wildcat with children, an Anglia Ruskin University study said: “The games have the potential to underpin the school curriculum and work in primary schools.”

Dinohistoria is made up of 56 cards, using high quality images licensed from the picture library of the Natural History Museum and captions on the prehistoric beasts.

Educational Learning director Jeffrey Goodwin aims to launch further products to provide play and entertainment while learning.

Molkky is one item of the Tactic outdoor games range, which also includes Giant Yatzy, Giant Tower, 10 Sticks on a Board, Polli and Kyykka.

Mollky is an outdoor family game from Finland and is the fastest selling outdoor game in the Nordic and Scandinavian territories and is increasing in popularity throughout Europe.

Tactic is launching Molkky in the UK with a comprehensive PR programme to create awareness throughout this year. The campaign will focus on the game being for the whole family, promoting active play, its eco-friendly credentials and its European manufacturing. Articles will be pitched to parental, youth, national and niche publications. The game will also appear on prime time TV chat shows and topical children’s shows.

Further to this, a Molkky Facebook page has recently been established and will be updated weekly with material promoting family fun and outdoor play.

Molkky is hand made from natural Finnish wood, which is from sustainable forests.

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(Beyblade™ single top - RRP £7.99)

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Contact The In Thing on

0845 365 30 30

Or visit www.TheInThing.com

May Show 17th - 19th May 2011 Toymaster would like to invite all Independent Toy and Model Retailers, both in the UK and Ireland, to attend the 2011 May Show.

Over 100 suppliers will be in attendance at the Majestic Hotel, Harrogate, on the 17th - 19th May and we hope you are able to join us in making the most of the opportunities offered.

For more details or to register, please contact Jo Skelton on Tel: +44 (0)1604 674477 Email jo.skelton@toymaster.co.uk

Dedicated monthly retail coverage

Retail Only News • Data • Opinion

Argos launches TV channel

Page 78

by Katie Roberts ARGOS WILL launch a new home shopping channel on digital TV this summer.

The new channel will provide a fourth way for customers to shop at Argos, alongside the online, in-store and catalogue channels. Argos says it hopes it will also allow consumers to explore the benefits of its products in more depth.

The firm intends to launch the shopping channel initially on Sky, competing against established operators QVC and Ideal Shopping.

The retailer will be responsible for all the production and the content of the channel.

Argos managing director, Sara Weller commented: “The launch of our new TV channel will see us really delivering on our commitment to offer our customers a whole range of convenient ways to shop with Argos.

“Our most recent catalogue launch, in January, was the first to fully integrate our growing Twitter and Facebook communities, where customers can access our products, share ideas and discover lots of engaging content.

“Our ability to connect between

Counter Insurgent’s blood pressure is raised by trying to open a new product ordering account....

Charts Page 79 Retail Charts including Amazon, WH Smith, Mail Order Express and the Entertainer...

New products The launch ... will see us delivering on our commitment to offer a range of ways to shop at Argos.

Sara Weller, Argos MD channels means that the content we will be producing for Argos TV will also have wider potential applications online and in store, adding further to customer choice, value and convenience.”

Meanwhile, Home Retail Group has cut its profit forecast as Argos sales figures fell, but toys remain strong within the store.

The group said it now expected pre-tax profit to be between £250m and £255m, compared to its forecast in January, which forecast profit to be around the mid-point of its previously guided range of £250275m.

Total sales at Argos for the eight weeks to February 26th, saw a likefor-like sales decline of 4.6 per cent to £520m. Net new space contributed 1.5 per cent, bringing the overall sales drop to 3.1 per cent.

Argos: 0845 120 4365

Murphy’s chain goes under IRISH MINI-CHAIN Murphy's has gone into voluntary liquidation, blaming the country’s current economic woes.

Closing shops in Mallow, Blackpool, Midleton and Fermoy, the family-owned business has gone into voluntary liquidation with the loss of 30 jobs.

In a statement, the company's managing director Gerald Murphy cited the state of the economy, lack

Comment

of access to credit from banks and suppliers, and high running costs.

The company started as a family-

run grocery business in Mallow in 1929, but became a full toy store in 1999, expanding two years later with shops opening in Blackpool, Fermoy and Midleton.

The firm's assets are for sale for enquiries call Mallow + 353 22 21197; Blackpool 353 21 4210445; Fermoy + 353 25 30000; Midleton +353 21 4630044 For trade enquiries: info@murphysworldofwonder.ie

Page 80 Wind Designs, HTI, Corgi, Tick Tock Trading and Whitestep all feature

Hero Product Page 81 Worlds Apart’s Winnie The Pooh Interactive Friend...

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RETAIL ONLY

HIGHSTREET COUNTER INSURGENT Dispatches from the retail front line...

ISN’T IT great that in the current climate, some companies seem to think their sole purpose is to raise buyers’ blood pressure?

I recently contacted a company that had a couple of nice lines which I saw at the Spring Fair. I didn’t have an order form, so I called them and asked if they could forward one to me. I asked if they had one in Excel format, only to be told they can’t send it in spreadsheet form as I could change the prices.

What a great way to start a trading relationship - insult your customer by accusing him of dishonesty. I could have told them to lock the cells but I couldn’t be bothered.

They said they could scan a copy and email it. I pointed out that I could enter the very

simple order onto the scanned document, but warned the quality might not be readable after two scans.

Couldn’t I just email a letterhead with an order on?

No, it had to be on an order form. I even offered to fax the copy over, but they had no fax.

After I sent the order over to them they called and said they couldn’t open the scanned document.

I sent it over again and this time I had a call to let me know I hadn’t signed the order.

I jokingly asked if they would be able to accept a scanned signature, at which point there was a lot of whispering in the background and the answer came back, as we were a new account, “no”.

I asked the best way to place the order, and I was given the option of posting the signed copy of the order form, via the agent (who hasn’t stepped a foot over my door in

What a great way to start a trading relationship – insult your customer by accusing him of dishonesty. four years) or, if I preferred, they could take the order over the phone. I don’t need to tell you that was the final straw and asked in a manner not short of a full blown rant which, if in public, would get

me a wide berth and trained police marksmen called.

If they were being so bloody awkward over a paper copy order, then how the hell could they take it over the phone?

Apparently telesales were

allowed to and ‘normal’ sales weren’t. Needless to say, I never did get the order and to be honest I can’t be bothered to chase them anymore.

The moral of the story to all suppliers is - and in the interest of my blood pressure as we near the end of the football season - keep it simple, don’t put barriers in the way and remember that sometimes your first impression on a buyer could earn you some nice business.

PRICE CHECK: APRIL 2011

APRIL 2011

Lalaloopsy Tippy Thumbelina Doll (MGA)

Animagic My Tender Care Twin Puppies (Vivid)

Moxie Girls 16” bike (MV Sports)

Hot Wheels Five Car Pack (Mattel)

Learn and Groove Musical Table (Leapfrog)

£26.99

£15.99

£119.99

£6.49

£32.99

N/A

N/A

£125.99

£5.99

N/A

£24.97

19.99

N/A

£5.49

£29.97

£24.90

£9.99

£79.99

£5.75

£17.99

£25.00

£22.00

N/A

N/A

N/A

RETAIL ONLY

www.toynews-online.biz

79

RETAILCHARTS WHSmith.co.uk

CHART DATE 11/03/11

1

Lego Star Wars Brickmaster

2

Large Brick Box

3

Lego Atlantis Brickmaster

4

Sylvanian Families Sister at Home set

5

Thomas & Friends Assorted Models

6

Lego Pirate Brickmaster

7

The Entertainer

CHART DATE 11/03/11

Dorling Kindersley

1

Lalaloopsy Blossom Flowerpot Doll

Lego

2

Grafix Twisty Sticks (300 pieces)

Dorling Kindersley

3

ITNG Talking Plush Igglepiggle

Flair

4

My First Wooden Blackboard

Learning Curve

5

Little Tikes Magic Doorbell Playhouse

Dorling Kindersley

6

Star Wars Imperial AT-AT

Science Museum Solar Airship

Great Gizmos

7

Kidizoom Plus Digital Camera, blue

8

Timmy Time Wooden Dominoes

Golden Bear

8

Forest Double Swing 2

9

Toy Story 3 Four-in-a-box Jigsaw Puzzle

Ravensburger

9

Air Blasters Double Shot Two Pack

10 Lego Atlantis: The Menace from the Deep Activity Book

Amazon

Penguin

CHART DATE 11/03/11

1

Cotton Reels

2

Giant Size Playing Cards

3

Bananagrams

4

Nerf N-Strike Clip System Dart Pack

5

Original Rubik’s Cube

6

Scrabble

7

MGA RMS International Hasbro Colorific MGA Hasbro VTech TP Activity Toys Buzz Bee

10 Hello Kitty Scooter

HTI

Mail Order Express

CHART DATE 11/03/11

Galt

1

Thomas Desk and Stool

Yaffe

Paul Lamond Games

2

Thomas & Friends Two Seater Toy Box

Yaffe

Winning Moves

3

Table and Two Chairs

Hasbro

4

Thomas My First Desk and Stool

Yaffe

John Adams

5

Waybuloo Toy Box

Yaffe

Mattel

6

Waybuloo Patio Set

Yaffe

Eyepatch Black Satin on Elastic

Pams

7

Waybuloo Folding Chair

Yaffe

8

Pirate Costume Cutlass

Pams

8

Thomas Slumber Glo Bed

Yaffe

9

Nerf N-Strike Barricade RV-10

Hasbro

9

In the Night Garden Slumber Glo Bed

Yaffe

10 In the Night Garden Chalkboard Easel

Yaffe

10 Shopping List Game

John Lewis

Orchard Toys

CHART DATE 11/03/11

Play.com

Dominoes

CHART DATE 14/03/11

1

Maxi Micro Scooter, purple

Micro Scooters

1

Rubik’s Cube Classic

2

Maxi Micro Scooter, black

Micro Scooters

2

The Very Hungry Caterpillar Dotty Fleece Blanket

3

Mini Micro T-Bar Scooter, blue

Micro Scooters

3

Monopoly

4

Mini Micro T-Bar Scooter, pink

Micro Scooters

4

Tyrannosaurs Rex Board Game

5

Star Wars Trade Federation Troop Carrier

Lego

5

Club Penguin Arctic Fleece Blanket

Character World

6

Minifigures Series 3

Lego

6

Tangled: Rapunzel Fleece Blanket

Character World

7

Mini Micro T-Bar Scooter, green

Micro Scooters

7

Natural History Museum Flower Pressing Kit

Great Gizmos

8

Playing Cards

Waddingtons

8

One Tough Puzzle

Paul Lamond

9

Build & Play Mini Assortment

Meccano

9

Bananagrams

10 Furreal Friends Butterscotch Pony

Hasbro

10 Me to You Daisy Fleece Blanket

John Adams Character World Hasbro Paul Lamond

Winning Moves Character World

APRIL 2011

80

RETAIL ONLY

PRODUCTNEWS

Wind Designs unveils new blaster THE NEW X2 Blaster is two blasters in one – it fires safe foam darts and water at the same time.

The foam darts can travel up to 35’ while simultaneously firing a jet of water up to 30’.

The foam darts can also be soaked in water before loading them into the X2 Blaster to add to the drenching. Alternatively, kids can use the X2 Blaster as a water blaster and target opponents with a steady stream. A large water reservoir is included for extended play.

With a built-in ammo holder, removable water clip and quick pull launcher, the X2 Blaster is quick and easy to reload. The toy comes with four soft safe darts and is suitable for children from age five and over.

Wind Designs: 0844 257 1180

CREATE-A-WORLD IS a colourful and innovative game that has just arrived in the UK market. The multi-purpose imagination game provides a range of play options and ideas, making it easy for kids to express their creativity.

The game includes 60 handmade playing pieces made from felt, including animals, vehicles and fairy-tale characters among others. Kids can combine characters to make new scenes.

Packaged in a draw-string bag, ideal for travelling, the game can be played by boys and girls, independently or as a group.

To save space, the game can also be hung on the wall for both play and display.

Whitestep: 0207 323 9514

Ben and Holly join HTI line-up HTI HAS signed a deal with Entertainment One, to create a range of toys based on Ben and Holly’s Little Kingdom.

The line, targeted at three to seven year-old girls, includes a Tea Pot set, a Breakfast Gong set, a Princess Holly dressing table, a Magic Kitchen and a selection of dolls’ prams.

The agreement is the latest in a string of brands signed up by HTI,

which also offers ranges for Peppa Pig, Hello Kitty, JCB and Toy Story.

John Hutt, CEO, HTI, said: “The success of Astley Baker Davies with Peppa Pig meant that the licensing deal with Ben and Holly was particularly attractive and we were delighted to secure the opportunity.

“The feedback from retailers has been overwhelmingly positive with orders already being taken. It is the appeal of brands such as Ben &

Create-AWorld hits UK

Holly combined with the popularity of role-play toys that has driven our global success.”

HTI: 01253 778888

New ranges join Shains offering

Corgi adds to Vanguards collection

SHAINS UNISEX fashion accessories are made from recycled rubber, into which interchangeable letters and themed icons are added to make names and messages.

The latest additions to the Shains collection are the Metal and sparkly Popsicle ranges.

New Popsicle Shains are transparent bracelets interspersed with glitter, available in four pastel colours. In contrast, the new Metal range features chunky metal letters and icons. All of the letters and icons in the ranges are fully compatible, so it is possible for any of the designs to be combined.

The firm also boasts a range of eco credentials and its products are

CORGI IS releasing two new Subaru Impreza Turbo models, adding to its Vanguards collection.

The 2008 Time Attack Championship winner, Olly Clark’s Subaru Impreza Turbo TCM, also known as The Gobstopper, is now available in 1:43 scale die-cast. The limited edition model brings the iconic styling and detail of the winning car alive through the use of new tooling.

Corgi is also resurrecting a car from the 1990s with the new limited edition Subaru Impreza Turbo Humberside Police model, available in 1:43 scale. The vehicle reinvented the performance car rulebook and Corgi’s model recreates the vehicle

APRIL 2011

certified lead free and made of recycled and recyclable materials, including the packaging. Ten per cent of the profit made from the sales of Shains is also given back to environmental organisations.

A marketing campaign to promote the new Popsicle and Metal ranges is currently underway and for retailers interested in stocking any Shains range, Tick Tock Trading is offering a Retailer Starter Kit of 153 prepacked assorted items.

Tick Tock Trading: 02871 312680

with meticulous attention to detail paid to the markings on the car.

Martyn Weaver, Corgi marketing manager, said: “The Subaru Impreza Turbo models have always been an exciting addition to the road and now we are giving everyone a chance to own their own version.”

Corgi: 01843 233502

HERO PRODUCT

www.toynews-online.biz

81

Worlds Apart Winnie the Pooh Interactive Friend This summer, Worlds Apart is entering the licensed nursery sector with a new Winnie the Pooh collection...

THE NEW range follows the style of the forthcoming Winnie the Pooh film – launching in April, it’s Pooh’s first cinema outing for six years and was made using traditional animation techniques. Already well-established in the licensed and children’s home and lifestyle sectors, the Pooh products will launch Worlds Apart into the licensed nursery field.

The range includes an interactive plush, bedtime trainer clock, a two in one nightlight, a torch and more. The hero product, Winnie the Pooh Interactive Friend, can be set to interact with children during their daily activities, helping them to establish and maintain routines.

Parents decide the timings for breakfast,

dinner, bedtime, games and more; bringing the toy and child together for key moments throughout the day whilst reinforcing the daily routine. The Winnie the Pooh Interactive Friend is in line with Worlds Apart’s aim to create toys which are fun for children while also being practical.

Equipped with a honey pot and spoon for meal times, Pooh alerts children when it’s time to eat, saying – ‘I’ve got a rumbly in my tumbly’, and he asks kids to get dressed in the morning and helps get them ready for bed at just the right time by saying ‘time for bed’.

Pooh has over 50 spoken phrases, and with an interactive hide and seek game the toy promotes physical activity and coordination for the child and offers longstanding play value.

Worlds Apart will support the Winnie the Pooh Interactive Friend and further Winnie the Pooh products with full PR and marketing activity.

© Disney. Based on the ‘Winnie the Pooh’ works by A. A. Milne and E. H. Shephard

Equipped with a honey pot and spoon, Pooh alerts children when it’s time to eat, saying ‘I’ve got a rumbly in my tumbly’.

Above: The plush Interactive Trainer will help kids establish a daily routine

Release dates: WINNIE THE POOH INTERACTIVE FRIEND August 2011 CONTACT DETAILS: Phone: 0800 389 8591

APRIL 2011

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RAINBOW PRODUCTIONS

■ Character Costumes & P.O.S.

+44 (0)20 8254 5300

Rainbow Productions

SUPPLIER/MANUFACTURER

0208 254 5300

■ Suppliers/Manufacturers Brookite

01837 53315

Cambridge Brainbox

01279 821 333

Esdevium Games

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01702 295 110

Fun Collectables

01844 273 719

Ideal Software

01767 689 720

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01707 289 289

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01727 763 700

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01526 351 919

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01902 493 999

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01442 250 130

Thumbs Up

0845 466 8880

Yoyeti

inventors@yoyeti.com

Wow Toys

020 7471 0980

■ Toy Suppliers Cartamundi

01268 511 522

Richard Edward

0208 311 8888

RAINBOW PRODUCTIONS has over 25 years experience in creating custom-made branded characters for clients within the toy industry, as well as sectors such as retail, leisure and sport.

These bespoke characters are commissioned for a range of promotional opportunities.

Examples include their presence at photo-calls, at product launches and to provide added interactivity and entertainment for target audiences during brand experience campaigns.

As well as manufacturing branded costume characters (of specific toys, of company logos, of child-friendly costume character ambassadors for organisations),

Rainbow Productions also exclusively represents over 100 licensed children’s properties for personal appearances within the UK. The company manages the presence of the licensed characters at venues such as trade shows, leisure attractions and during key seasonal retail events such as shopping centre Christmas Lights Switch-ons.

More recent additions to the firm’s portfolio of licensed characters offered for “Meet and Greets” personal appearances include Captain Barnacles from the Octonauts, Driver Dan, Little Charley Bear and Water Hazard from Ben 10: Ultimate Alien. These characters join classic properties

represented for personal appearances like Postman Pat and Jess the Cat, Paddington Bear and Peter Rabbit.

Working with licensors, licensees, retailers and toy brands, Rainbow Productions provides support services which help to highlight the availability of licensed merchandise in-store, whilst also boosting the overall awareness of that brand by families, when they have the opportunity to see and meet these characters at live events.

RAINBOW PRODUCTIONS E: info@rainbowproductions.co.uk T: +44 (0)20 8254 5300 www.rainbowproductions.co.uk

JUMBO GAMES SUPPLIER/MANUFACTURER

01707 289 289 JUMBO GAMES is a leading producer of adult and children’s puzzles and games in the UK. The majority of its high quality products are made at a dedicated factory in Holland.

As the number one producer of adult puzzles, Jumbo actively seeks the best artists and most popular licenses to strengthen its best-selling adult range. The company is celebrating the 35th anniversary of the ever-popular

Falcon range in 2011 with new licenses, including Carry On and Shoot, beautiful new imagery and strong marketing initiatives. Jumbo is also introducing humourous new puzzling concepts and innovation in puzzle accessories with the launch of the Fashion and Foldable Portapuzzle.

Jumbo plans to cement its strong position in the children’s

puzzle and game market by adding new licenses, Everything’s Rosie and Raa Raa the Noisy Lion, to the impressive pre-school roster.

There will also be new products and puzzle concepts for popular existing licenses including Peppa Pig, Ben & Holly’s Little Kingdom, Fireman Sam, Horrid Henry, and Disney Princess.

The firm is also entering the brain training market for Autumn/ Winter 2011 with the distribution of Smart Games, a new range of single player games. The range offers 15 diverse products aimed at both sexes and ages two up to adult.

Gray Richmond, Managing Director of Jumbo Games commented: “Jumbo are

dedicated to producing high quality and reasonably priced products across our ranges. We are consistently updating our portfolio with strong new product launches and the addition of exciting new licenses – 2011 is set to be a very busy year for the company.”

For further information: Tel. +44(0) 1707 289 289 www.jumbo.eu

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88

TOY TALK

TOY TALK

Our new Manager of the Month launches and we have one last shot of Robert Mann in a vest, fingers crossed...

Jon SALISBURY Observations from a toy industry survivor....

IN A NEW book called Toy Town, author Sarah Monks tells the colourful tale of Hong Kong, the city that took toys to the world.

The book should be essential reading for anyone serious about buying, selling, manufacturing or marketing toys anywhere in the world. It explains why Hong Kong has played such a vital role in 20th century toy development but also how transient can be a location’s grip on a business when the book explores whether China will one day lose the toy industry just like Germany lost it to Japan and then Japan to Hong Kong, concluding that the most likely contenders, Vietnam and India, have a long way to go, from expertise and red tape to logistics. The Pearl River Delta will reign for some time to come, it decides.

Highly respected US toy inventor Bruce Lund says he recently heard from a very knowledgeable Chinese factory source that the government intends to double factory wages in next five years. With labour representing 20 to 50 per cent of a product's cost, the price of all kinds of products, not just toys, are expected to rise dramatically over the next five years. With commodity prices already up dramatically and others still rising due to hikes in oil prices, it looks as if China is steadily catching up with the reality of a developing economy.

It wasn’t that long ago that Western marketeers were too embarrassed to admit that their products were originating in Hong Kong. Lesney, the makers of Matchbox Toys, used to put on their packaging “Manufactured in Hong Kong under European supervision,” to divert attention that the toys were made in the Far East.

I wonder if it is all going to come full circle, perhaps US and European designed toys will soon be able to shout from the rooftops “Manufactured in China under Chinese supervision”?

GROSS INJUSTICE Here’s Martin Grossman and his wife Eli at the recent wedding of their daughter Gillian to Jonny Cohen at the Grand Central Hotel in Glasgow.

The father of the bride is looking relieved having managed to replace the wine for the wedding which was impounded by customs en route back from France.

Despite assurances and letters from the his local MP, the vicar, the hotel and the caterer, customs officers refused to believe the vast amount of alcohol was for a wedding celebration and held onto the lot (probably had something organised themselves). Martin then had to order the special wines from Manchester with only five days to go before the wedding and paid over double the price. So, he’s not smiling, he and his wallet are in shock.

MANAGER OF THE MONTH

IN ASSOCIATION WITH

Philip Morris UK and Ireland Country Manager, Papo UK What was your first job in the Toy industry?

Working in the warehouse for Consolidated Merchandising Company in Australia - 1978 What do you love most about working in the industry?

The people I have met over the years.

What would you do if you weren’t in your current role?

Good question!

What does your average working day consist of?

Since setting up Papo UK in January 2010 the average day consists of many varied tasks, anything from having the boiler serviced to presenting to key customers

APRIL 2011

What’s the best bit about your role?

Our achievements over the last 12 months And the worst?

Not enough hours in the day Where do you hope your career will have taken you in five years time?

To be a major player within a successful brand Use three words to describe yourself.

Self-motivated, passionate, focused Who would play you in (Papo UK):The Movie?

George Clooney

Tell us a funny story about a moment in your Toy Industry career: As a whippersnapper attending a selection meeting for Club Wholesale, I was asked to demonstrate a new product, this product was a pair of stilts that had been designed by a mad Scotsman. After attaching them to my legs, I went on to demonstrate walking and promptly fell onto my face. The committee burst out laughing and the line…was not selected.

TOY TALK

89

TOY TRUST AIMS HIGH The Toy Trust is hoping to raise £45K at this year's big fundraising event at Rutland Water.

The BTHA’s charity arm is joining forces with Great Ormond Street Hospital to raise money to re-vamp and re-equip the hospital’s five play therapy areas that help seriously ill children cope with their stay at the hospital.

Some £45,000 has been pledged to this end and a big part of that is the Toy Trust G.O.S.H. FUNdraiser Day at Rutland Water on Saturday 11th June.

The event will consist of a 27km bike ride; seven km run; costume three-legged race; costume egg and spoon race and culminates in a costume raft build and race on the reservoir.

Team members can enter as many or as few events as possible, so everyone can participate.

You can enter a team in the event now by contacting simon@btha.co.uk with your team name, company name and expected number of participants – six per team (although companies can enter a second team or individuals/couples can contact Simon to join another team).

Each participant is asked to raise a minimum of £300 sponsorship for the event, with a goal of £5,000 per team.

Set up a sponsorship page at www.virginmoneygiving.com, search for The Toy Trust and create a personal fundraising page in connection with the Trust. Or collect the money in house and make one total team transfer to the Toy Trust account.

Teams should organise their own travel to the event. Participants are welcome to bring along family members, as there will be activities to get involved with and, for children, a teddy-bears picnic.

ONE LAST ‘MARATHON MANN’ HEADLINE? Tomy's CEO will finally, finally, run the 26.2 mile course for the Toy Trust on April 17th.

He's certainly put in the training - having originally planned to compete in the 2010 London Marathon but the big day is finally drawing near for Tomy boss Robert Mann.

Mann's training for the event began back in October 2009 - although an administration error meant he's had to wait until April 17th this year to finally take on the 26.2 mile course.

He completed a number of events in 2010 as part of his preparation, however, including the UK Kilo marathon, the London Triathlon and The Great North Run. And, he says, despite being beaten to the finish by an octogenarian and a guy in a gorilla outfit, his enthusiasm for the challenge remains high.

Mann will be raising money for the BTHA Toy Trust and wishes to encourage both private and corporate sponsorship. All funds raised will go towards helping disabled and disadvantaged children's charities through the Trust.

Individuals can sponsor Mann by clicking here to visit his Virgin Money Giving site.

Corporate cheques payable to the Toy Trust should be sent c/o Pat Biggin at Tomy UK, St Nicholas House, St Nicholas Road, Sutton, Surrey, SM1 1EH. Asked how the training was going, Mann said: "It has been difficult to maintain a regular training programme, particularly with the bad weather through December and overseas travel to Hong Kong, Tokyo and various fairs. However, I have been encouraged by the film Run, Fay Boy, Run and hope to finish well before last year's 'slowest' time of nine hours and 34 minutes."

APRIL 2011

My Favourite Things Kristy Frost, Sales and Marketing Executive, Meccano Favourite album: The most up to date Now album (sad I know!)

------------------------------------------------------------Number one single when you were born: Merry Christmas Everybody - Slade ------------------------------------------------------------Film: Forgetting Sarah Marshall or Hot Fuzz, they both really make me laugh -------------------------------------------------------------Book: Anything steamy -----------------------------------------------------------------------------TV programme: If it’s got ‘celebrity’ or ‘reality’ in the title, i’ll watch it -----------------------------------------------------------------------------Magazine: I love Now, I buy it most weeks -----------------------------------------------------------------------------Holiday destination: An all-inclusive somewhere exotic -----------------------------------------------------------------------------Pet: I did have a rabbit called Snuggles once but I didn’t feed it so my parents got rid of it ---------------------------------------------------------------Heroes: Charlie Sheen (he just doesn’t care!)

--------------------------------------------------------------Website: Trip Advisor is so useful and of course Facebook -----------------------------------------------------------------------------Way to spend a weekend: Pub followed by dinner and maybe a walk in the woods opposite my house -----------------------------------------------------------------------------Game/toy: Scrabble on the iphone -----------------------------------------------------------------------------Tipple: Vodka in the pub and red wine with dinner (but not on school nights) -----------------------------------------------------------------------------Food: I love eating. But a roast is probably my favourite -----------------------------------------------------------------------------Piece of advice: Life’s too short to worry about the small things

90

FEATURE PLANNER

JUNE 2011 Girls market special Fashion dolls Summer movies In June, ToyNews will carry a comprehensive guide to what’s new in the girls market across all sectors, licensed and own-brand toys.

Following on in a similar theme, we’ll also bring you the latest developments in the fashion dolls sector.

Finally, we’ll look at the blockbusters due to hit the big screen this summer and how toy companies can maximise these opportunities.

Editorial deadline: April 8th Advertising deadline: May 6th

FORTHCOMING EVENTS KAZACHOK LICENSING FORUM March 31st - April 1st La Halle Freyssinet, Paris www.forumlicence.kazachok.com

PLAYCON (FORMERLY TOYCON) May 4th - 6th Hyatt Regency Scottsdale Resort, Gainey Ranch, Scottsdal, Arizona www.toyassociation.org

THE GADGET SHOW LIVE PROFESSIONAL April 12th 2011 NEC Birmingham www.gadgetshowlive.net

ABRIN TOY FAIR (BRAZIL) April 13th - 16th Expo Center Norte, São Paulo www.abrin.com.br

PLAY-ROOM AT THE PARK April 27th - 28th 2011 Cranmore Park, Solihull www.play-room.uk.com

TOYMASTER MAY SHOW May 17th - 19th Majestic hotel, Harrogate www.toymaster.co.uk

BTHA/AGM INDUSTRY DAY May 29th Great Fosters Hotel, Egham, Surrey www.BTHA.co.uk

TOY TRUST G.O.S.H. FUNDRAISER June 11th 2011 Rutland Water www.btha.co.uk/toytrust/

Got any events you would like to see added to the calendar? Email samantha.loveday@intentmedia.co.uk

www.toynews-online.biz Editorial: 01992 535646 Advertising: 01992 535647

ToyNews is published 12 times a year by Intent Media ~ Saxon House, 6a St. Andrew Street, Hertford, Hertfordshire SG14 1JA Fax: +44 (0)1992 535648 © Intent Media 2011 No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means without prior permission of the copyright owners.

ISSN: 1740-3308

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