Toys n Playthings July 2019

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Helping everyone sell more

019 July 2 No. 10 8 Vol. 3

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CONTENTS Regular 5 Leader – with Mark Naish

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6 News – the latest toy industry headlines

019 July 2 No. 10 3 l.

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12 Licensing news – the latest on licensed products 14 Media news – the multimedia rundown 16 Movie news – what’s happening on the big screen 18 Retail news – the latest from the retail landscape

Chairman Malcolm Naish malcolm@lemapublishing.co.uk

Managing Director Mark Naish mark@lemapublishing.co.uk

Editor Mairead Wilmot mairead@lemapublishing.co.uk

Editor Georgie Dobie georgie@lemapublishing.co.uk

Media Solutions Manager Simon Davis simon@lemapublishing.co.uk

Writer Naomi MacKay naomi@lemapublishing.co.uk

Digital Publisher Mirella Anstey mirella@ltw.media

Digital Editor Rhys Thomas rhys@ltw.media

Production Director Paul Naish paul@lemapublishing.co.uk

Circulation Manager Robert Thomas robert@lemapublishing.co.uk

22 Ask the experts – some top PR and marketing companies talk about outsourcing PR/marketing function and offer advice on how to build an effective marketing strategy 24 Toy talk – retailers reflect on the retro and wooden toys making a comeback 25 Trade talk – suppliers talk toy trends and what they think will be popular this summer 30 What’s new – new products that you need to get your hands on 62 Step back in time – a slice of toy history from the industry’s longest running magazine

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63 Don’t miss – unmissable products for buyers and retailers

Features 36 Wooden and role play – TnP takes a closer look at the latest toys and playthings in this ever-popular category 48 Arts, crafts and messy play – TnP discovers more about the category that can help build a child’s confidence, encourage sensory exploration and tackle anxiety

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58 Dolls, dolls, dolls – a rundown of some of the best dolls to come to market this year

Special Report 16 Playmobil coffee break – the low-down on Playmobil: The Movie 20 Retail interview – James Colclough of Wizard Toys (East Midland Toy Company) talks to TnP about the company’s plans to rebrand

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28 Spotlight focus – Spin Master speaks about its Cool Maker brand and how the company approaches product development 32 Look back on the Toy Trust’s Big Challenge – TnP covers the events of this important industry day 34 2019’s TnP Golf Day – looking back on this year’s TnP Golf Day 35 TnP Ambassadors – we share our tiny testers’ verdicts on Spin Master’s Candylocks dolls

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At the heart of retail A member of the Audit Bureau of Circulation

Independently audited ABC circulation of 5,112

47 Kids Insights – Nick Richardson and David Martin discuss the company’s offering and how its data can benefit clients

Columnists

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15 Media analysis - Generation Media uses the popularity of Love Island to illustrate TV’s continued relevancy 17 Gaining insight – Kids Insights reflects on the challenge that is engaging your target audience, at the right time, and via the most effective channels 25 Retail opinion – John Ryan addresses the importance of knowing your customer when merchandising a toy store 26 The Independent/Secret Supplier – Our dynamic duo talk about the value of getting out to see as many toy shops as possible

1 July 2017 to 30 June 2018

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Helping everyone sell more

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LEADER T

A member of the Audit Bureau of Circulation

Independently audited ABC circulation of 5,112 1 July 2017 to 30 June 2018

PUBLISHING

At the heart of retail Also by Lema Publishing

more than 150 toy people took he sun has finally returned after Mark part in the Toy Trust Big Challenge what seemed like an interminable Naish event. It had been horribly wet in the time of downpour and it looks week leading up to the event, like it will stick around. Talking of but the rain stopped and some returns, as many are already reasonable weather arrived on aware, Toys "R" Us is looking the day making for an exciting to make a comeback – event. The day, which saw albeit in a modest way. key industry luminaries According to Bloomberg, take part in many gruelling Richard Barry, CEO of challenges, helped to raise parent company Tru over £100,000.

Kids Inc, is reported to Team TnP were on-hand have pitched his vision to report on the events of at a recent conference to the day. Read-up on the toy industry figures said event on page 32. Graham the stores are supposedly Canning had this to say: "I going to be a third of the would like to thank everyone for size of their previous outlets P28 their support of the Toy Trust’s Big and be more experiential with Challenge event. Well done to those play areas. who swam, ran, cycled and walked!

Reports do suggest It was good to see the industry (though unconfirmed) Don't coming together to help raise our that they could use an forget that target of £100K!" inventory consignment Hasbro will be Also, don't forget that Hasbro will model whereby suppliers holding its be holding its annual seven-a-side only get paid when bought by consumers – annual seven-a- football and netball tournament starting at 12:00 on 12 July, helping not a model the trade will side football to raise money for the Toy Trust. Last feel comfortable with I'm and netball year Hasbro raised an impressive quite sure! tournament, £6,000 However, I am certain for the Toy that many consumers will starting at This welcome back the brand 12:00 on 12 July Trust. year the and support the fledgling company retailer. Those who grew is aiming for up with Toys R Us are likely to have an £7,500, we wish affinity to the brand, after all. them good luck!

Of course, there are many who will say In this issue, we that if they always had consumer support, hear about Spin why did it fail before? Maintaining a beast the size TRU with the challenges they had Master's Cool Maker brand on was clearly unsustainable in the current page 28. We also retail climate. But with a considerably learn more about smaller business –provided the capital is there – it should be far more manageable, its Kinetic Sand range (showcased with an opportunity to grow. As to on our front cover), whether it will succeed – as always, only within our arts and time will tell. crafts feature on In other news, on Saturday 8 June, page 56.

We chat to P32 James Colclough of EMTC about the rebranding of its toy stores to Wizard Toys.

And TnP gets the low-down on Playmobil: The Movie.

What's more, we look at what’s new in the wooden and role play toys category, scout out some of the best arts and crafts products on the market and present some of the dolls available this year.

You can also enjoy the usual mix of news, expert views and insight.

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If you would like to subscribe to any of our other market leading titles please call Robert Thomas on 01442 289930 or email your request to robert@lemapublishing.co.uk

NEWS

Playmobil gets glow-ing at Festival

Mattel rejects MGA merger bid Mattel has rejected the latest takeover bid from MGA Entertainment.

MGA Founder and CEO Isaac Larian confirmed he had launched a fresh campaign last month to merge his own company with publicly-traded Mattel and put himself in the Chairman’s seat.

The proposed deal would also reportedly require the resignation of Mattel’s current directors, who would be forced to leave without a golden handshake.

The move is the latest in a string of offers from Isaac, who has a long and checkered history with Mattel, including the famous billion-dollar BarbieBratz court case. He first put the idea to Mattel’s board last spring.

In the zone This year, Autumn Fair will see the introduction of a new international sourcing zone dedicated to imported goods. This new zone is designed to increase value and variety for visitors and responds to estimates that the global retail sourcing and procurement market will grow nearly 12 per cent by 2024.

The area will give manufacturers the opportunity to exhibit new products and showcase techniques to the forward-looking retail market.

Julie Driscoll, Regional Director, Autumn Fair, says the initiative will give retailers who can’t commit to overseas trips “international sourcing opportunities at their doorstep.

Not only that, but we’ll be pushing to attract more international retailers to buy from the UK-based suppliers.”

A dedicated Sourcing Theatre will host talks from well-known industry experts on supply chain management, partnerships, and more will offer advice.

Playmobil will once again sponsor the popular Gloworm Festival, which attracts more than 18,000 visitors to Thoresby Park in Nottinghamshire each summer.

The family-friendly festival will take place on 17 and 18 August 2019, with Playmobil bringing its famous Play Days to the event.

As headline sponsor, Playmobil will enjoy fullstage branding and feature costume characters on stage between acts, as well as giving young fans the chance to pose for a photo with their favourite characters.

It will have its own marquee, packed with displays, models, play-tables and life-size characters, as well as the Playmobil: The Movie playsets to share with guests at the festival.

A banner for Banba Playmobil has sponsored a large banner wrap outside Banba Toymaster in Mary Street, Dublin.

The banner at the store, which is in its 75th year, focuses on Playmobil: The Movie, which launches on 9 August.

TRENDS: MOVIE LICENCES

Kristin Morency Goldman looks at how hot movie-licensed toys inspire imaginations and encourage creative play Kids get excited about engaging with their favourite characters and storylines, so it’s no surprise that licensed playthings continue to account for roughly 30 per cent of all US toy sales. Toy companies are coming out with a variety of innovative products that hit on the emotional aspect of a property, while also deepening play patterns that build skills and inspire imaginations.

“Toy purchases over the next few months will be driven in part by upcoming blockbuster movies, including live-action remakes of The Lion King and Aladdin, as 6

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Toy purchases over the next few months will be driven in part by upcoming blockbuster movies, including live-action remakes of The Lion King and Aladdin, as well as Toy Story 4, Frozen 2, and the next Star Wars instalment

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well as Toy Story 4, Frozen 2, and the next Star Wars instalment,” notes Adrienne Appell, Trend Expert at The Toy Association in the United States.

“Kids will also have their sights set on toys based on popular YouTube channels, digital content, and classic properties that have been engaging families for generations.”

‘Explosive Entertainment’ was one of the six hottest trends announced by The US Toy Association at Toy Fair New York in February. The show unveiled thousands of toys – from plush and building sets, to collectables and action figures – based on hot licences. Check out a few examples of ‘Explosive Entertainment’ toys and games that will be sweeping the toy aisle this year:

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Kids@Play joins festival fun Kids@Play will be sponsoring the ride-ons section of the Good Toy Zone this summer.

The Good Toy Zone will be pitching up at The 3Foot People Festival, The Great British Food Festival - Knebworth and finally at CarFest South. The three family-focused events will be attended by more than 80,000 people.

“We have been keen to work more with the team at Fundamentally Children and we believe this is a great way to showcase

80,000 Number of visitors at the three festivals this summer.

just some of our range”, says Nathaniel Southworth, Kids@Play Managing Director.

“We’ve got the new Dakar Rally Pedal Quad Bike, our award-winning JCB Excavator, and the brand new Massey Ferguson pedal tractor on trial with the public. All of these items launch this summer and are ready for immediate shipment from our UK warehouse.”

Space pioneer presents Spirograph awards Helen Sharman, the first-ever British Astronaut, presented the first-ever Spirograph Young Designer of the Year Awards.

Joined by Nicola Bergot from Flair, the UK Distributors of Spirograph, Helen gave awards to budding designers who had created designs with names such as Binary Star, Meet the Aliens and Out of This World.

Sisters Rosa and Anna Gomes (aged seven and five) won with their joint work of cut-and-stick artwork called The Planets.

Helen Sharman said: “I loved Spirograph

Burping Spongebob Squarepants Game (PlayMonster): Spongebob turns 20 this year! Celebrate with this laugh-out-loud game. Push his belly or chin to hear a fun tropical tune, then roll the die to see which way to pass him – but hurry before he burps! If you’re holding Spongebob when he lets one loose, you must take a token. The player with the fewest tokens wins.

Playmobil: The Movie – Marla in the Fairytale Castle (Playmobil): With the Playmobil movie hitting theatres later this summer, kids can get in on the action with this exciting playset featuring Marla in her ball gown and the Fairy Godmother in the Fairytale Castle. Comes with accessories, forest animals, and a unicorn.

JULY 2019

when I was young and with this year’s theme I was delighted to be involved. We had lots of entries and it’s really good to see how the children interpreted the space and night sky theme.”

How to Train Your Dragon Toothless Pillow Pet (CJ Products, Inc.): How to Train Your Dragon fans will love to cuddle up with Toothless, a playful and intelligent Night Fury dragon from the popular franchise. Pillow Pets are super soft, cute, and collectable stuffed animals that unfold into fuzzy pillows that kids, teens, and adults love!

Pokémon TCG: Detective Pikachu Case File (The Pokemon Company International, Inc.): The iconic Pokémon Trading Card Game (TCG) receives a special collection of new products in celebration of the new live-action Pokémon film, Pokémon Detective Pikachu. These sets feature newly designed packaging inspired

Hot Wheels partnership kicks off The worlds of Football and Hot Wheels are set to collide as Hot Wheels partners with YouTube superstars F2 Freestylers to kick off epic head-to-head challenges.

The partnership launches with a hero challenge video that will feature on the F2’s popular channel, which has more than 10 million subscribers.

The soccer superstars will demonstrate their incredible football skills while going headto-head with a Hot Wheels on an incredible 150ft long track. The partnership includes social content, YouTube content, a meet-andgreet with the F2 at a Hot Wheelssponsored football tournament, and retailer activations.

10 million The number of subscribers of the F2 YouTube channel.

by Ryme City and will appeal to both collectors and competitive Pokémon TCG players alike. Includes one promo card featuring Detective Pikachu, one metallic coin inspired by Detective Pikachu, two Detective Pikachu booster packs, and one additional Pokémon TCG booster pack.

Disney Villainous: Wicked to The Core Strategy Board Game (Ravensburger North America): Wicked to the Core is the newest and second game in the popular Disney Villainous Game franchise. It introduces three new Villains – Hades from Hercules, Dr. Facilier from The Princess & the Frog, and the original fairest of them all, Evil Queen from the iconic Snow White.

Want to see hit toys and games coming to market in 2020? Come to Toy Fair New York – the largest toy, play, and youth entertainment product marketplace in the Western Hemisphere.

Visit www.ToyFairNY.com to learn more.

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NEWS Noon joins Alpha Anne-Marie Noon has joined the marketing team at Alpha Animation & Toys.

Anne-Marie was previously a toy buyer at John Lewis & Partners, and spent almost 12 years in brand and marketing management roles at GP Flair.

The Alpha Group has toy brands including preschool hit, Super Wings, inflatable range, WWE Airnormous and SpongeBob SquarePants master toy line.

Plans for the future include powerful new remotecontrol designs, and a new co-production of a preschool series in partnership with DHX.

Flair for marketing Flair continues to reinforce its marketing team with the appointment of Iulia Toader as Marketing Manager for the GP Flair boys and girls toys categories, plus the arrival of new Product Manager Gurpreet Chohan.

Toader joins Flair after spending the past five years in Dubai as Marketing Manager for I-Brands, a leading toy distributor in the Middle East Region.

Gurpreet Chohan joins as Product Manager for the boys category, with a toy experience built in product development and retail, most recently with eOne Entertainment.

The Flair Marketing Department will be organised in two teams; the GP Flair portfolio led

by Iuila Toader, and the Just Play Portfolio led my Marta Zietkiewicz.

IMC Toys appointments After successfully launching Cry Babies in the US market, IMC Toys has appointed Crystal Ganir, Director of Marketing for IMC USA and Chelsea Wood, Senior Sales Manager.

IMC has set up an LA office to gear up for multiple product launches in the upcoming months.

Crystal worked at Moose Toys as Senior Brand Manager, the launch of Shopkins and Little Live Pets, while Chelsea had been a Key Account Manager at Schleich for several years.

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Fake elves get caught out PMS International, the UK Company behind the Elves Behavin’ Badly brand, has successfully removed and destroyed tens of thousands of ‘knock-off’ copies of its Elf Doll from the market.

The fake Elfie Dolls were being imported from China into the UK and distributed to retailers throughout the UK, infringing Community Registered Designs. The company’s in-house and external legal teams immediately sent out cease-and-desist letters.

They have been successful in removing all of the counterfeit items from the market and securing a significant sum in damages for the infringing activity.

Paul Beverley, MD of PMS says: ‘’We will be relentless in recovering every piece of counterfeit stock and seeking maximum compensation, and where our brand name or trademarks have been copied, we will also initiate criminal proceedings for handling counterfeit products”.

Ramping up retail support Wilton Bradley has bolstered its support for retailers, with backdrop displays supplied to The Range for 10 of its top spa selling stores. This attractive display was specifically designed to set the scene for instore displays of its Lay-ZSpa hot tubs.

In addition, Wilton Bradley has recently rolled-out its Lay-Z-Spa Retail Support Wilton Bradley has recently rolled-out Roadshow 2019 across the UK its Lay-Z-Spa Retail Support Roadshow. to promote its popular range of hot tubs.

This summer, we are expecting our H20GO! range from Bestway to be most popular. Brand new for this year the sub-brand Constant Air is the latest innovation in outdoor inflatables by Bestway, incorporating the newest inflatable technology to create child-friendly mega inflatable waterparks for the home and garden.

The company has a proactive approach to supporting its retailers via sales support, POS materials, FSDUs, consumer advertising and other creative marketing initiatives to help them sell more.

Did you know?

Asmodee sweeps the board at awards Asmodee UK swept the board at this year’s UK Games Expo Awards, winning an impressive 24 awards out of the total 32 up for grabs.

Among the winning products were Who Did It?, the Fun Fast Games title, which took the Judges’ Award for Best Children’s Game; Ticket to Ride: New York, which was awarded the People’s Choice winner for Best Family Game, and Maki Stack, crowned Best Party Game by the judges.

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NEWS

10th birthday Chuggington celebrates its 10th anniversary in 2020.

Gibsons reports rapid growth Gibsons has seen a rapid growth in international sales over the past 12 months.

The family-owned company, which celebrated its 100th birthday in May, attributed much of its success to Alice Tournaire, appointed to the role of International Sales Manager last May. Sales Director, Nicki Gumbrell, says: “We were delighted to welcome Alice into that role a year ago, and she has worked extremely hard over the past 12 months to build strong foundations with our export business, including representing Gibsons at the Hong Kong Gift Fair for the very first time.”

Due to their new focus on the export business, Gibsons expected international sales to increase but thanks to Alice’s tenacity, they were thrilled to report a substantial export growth (YTD May 2019 + 90 per cent vs. 2018) after working with new markets such as Australia and China.

Knight of the tiles The champion of the UK Games Expo Rummikub Tournament was crowned after a challenging and competitive day at the UK Games Expo, NEC Birmingham last month.

Craig White, 43, from Hertfordshire beat off tough competition to claim the winning title as the master of tiles, as well as taking home a £250 cash prize and a bundle of Ideal games from John Adams – the UK distributor of Rummikub.

Mr White, who has been competing in Rummikub Tournaments for five years said: “I’m really excited to have won! Having finished in fourth place on the last two occasions, it is great to finally get over the finish line!”

Funko gets the bird at Comic-Con

18-21 July Dates for the 50th edition of San Diego Comic-Con. 10

Funko is teaming up with San Diego ComicCon as it celebrates its 50th anniversary, by producing a special collectable.

The pop culture specialist has designed a special collectable featuring the world-famous event’s Toucan mascot.

The collaboration will see Funko and ComicCon develop co-branded merchandise exclusives for the five-day event, including a Batman Pop! vinyl figure holding an SDCC bag and a SDCC Toucan Mascot Pop! PEZ Pop! packaging will also feature 50th artwork and the iconic SDCC eye logo.

Another first will be Funko’s double-decker booth, a larger-than-life display area with 72 Comic-Con-exclusive vinyl figures.

Chuggington steams ahead It’s a busy time for the Chuggington trains! Production has started on season six of the popular children’s series, and Alpha Group has been appointed as the global master toy partner in a multi-year collaboration.

The new season and toy line will debut in 2020.

Celebrating its 10th anniversary in 2020, Chuggington is enjoyed by pre-schoolers on A-list broadcast networks and key streaming platforms in more than 178 countries across the globe, and the brand has generated over $1 billion at retail from licensed products.

Little Tikes brings big screen to Butlin’s

Little Tikes brought toy fun to Butlin’s guests this summer as it launched its first-ever, drive-in cinema experience at the Butlin’s Family Festival in Minehead, Somerset last month.

Festival fans staying at Butlin’s Minehead were able to take their pick from more than 80 Cozy Coupes that were available to drive into the cinema zone where they could watch a screening of the popular Cars 3 movie.

The Butlin’s Family Festival celebrated summer, holidays, outdoors and spending time with family and friends at the four-day event.

Magic Renaissance “There’s no question magic is enjoying a renaissance”, says Marvin Berglas, Creator of Marvin’s Magic and VP of The Magic Circle.

The indicators are that sales are booming for the 30-year-old specialist entertainment and magic company - not just in the UK but also in many territories across Europe, The Middle East, India, China, Australia and significantly in the US. The fact that 11 of the 40 semi-finalists who featured in this season’s Britain’s Got Talent had magic-related acts proves that people love to be amazed and amused.

Magician Ben Hart, in particular, made a huge impact, performing close-up magic. Ben was last year’s recipient of the Marvin’s Magic Rising Star Award.

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Kinetic Sand heads to summer camp Spin Master’s leading sand brand Kinetic Sand is partnering with SuperCamps this summer to bring hours of hands-on creative and imaginative play to children across the UK. Kinetic Sand activities will run in all 60-plus SuperCamps venues throughout the summer holiday season, reaching thousands of children. SuperCamps kids will also have the chance to win individual packs of Kinetic Sand during their visits.

The exciting experiential partnership includes extensive marketing activity through SuperCamps’ digital channels to drive awareness of the Kinetic Sand summer activities including website promotion, e-newsletter and social outreach.

SuperCamps Director Nathan Nicholas adds: “We are superpleased to add Kinetic Sand to our offering this summer. Hands-on creative play is such an important part of early years development, and Kinetic Sand provides a completely new, interactive experience for our kids. We can’t wait to see their faces!”

Spin Master will also be launching the Sandisfying Set this summer. The new product lets fans transform Kinetic Sand like

never before, encouraging you to create mesmerising sand effects and incredible videos to share with friends. The set comes with ten different tools, two pounds of Kinetic Sand, a transformable sand box, phone stand and backdrop for filming videos.

Generation Media teams up with youth charity Generation Media is dedicating the equivalent of 30 working days this year to volunteer with the charity Fitzrovia Youth in Action.

Members of the Generation Media team will be able to volunteer their time to several events and initiatives, including community gardening days, children’s football tournaments and the charity’s Christmas community dinners.

Fitzrovia Youth in Action is Camden’s leading charitable foundation, set up by local young people in 1997 to empower kids and young people to create positive change in their community.

Villainously good Tall order for The Ravensburger team enjoyed an action-packed weekend at last month’s Games Expo held at Birmingham’s NEC. The popular Disney Villainous strategy game was a central focus for the company’s stand, as well as the soon-to-launch Wicked to the Core expansion pack.

With Games Expo attendance up over 18 per cent on last year, the Ravensburger team amplified its exposure at the show with an exclusive Facebook competition targeted at event attendees.

Ravensburger’s Benn Bramwell says: “It was our first time exhibiting at the event, and our light strategic games were a huge hit. We are already looking forward to exhibiting again next year.”

JULY 2019

Schleich

Schleich UK has announced a partnership with the Giraffe family restaurant brand in a mass sampling and brand awareness activity throughout the school summer holidays.

‘Wild Summer at Giraffe’ will take place from the end of June and will see Schleich-branded activity sheets distributed throughout the restaurants, together with the chance to collect five different figurines from the Schleich Wild Life series, including a polar bear, elephant, ring-tailed lemur, zebra and of course giraffe, with every kids meal purchased.

Lisa Morgan, MD of Generation Media, says: “This project is important to us because the work we do is primarily in the kids, youth and family space.

“Donating company time allows us to give back and positively contribute to the development of future generations.

We are already planning on making this an annual occurrence to sit alongside our other charitable events and donations.”

Basic Fun! snaps up Tonka licence Basic Fun! has an agreement in principle with Hasbro for the Tonka brand.

The multi-year deal would expand the licensing relationship between the two companies, which already includes Pound Puppies, My Little Pony Classic, Lincoln Logs, and a number of other Hasbro ‘vault’ brands.

Product development, distribution and marketing for the Tonka brands has until recently been overseen by Funrise, which extended its agreement with Hasbro last February.

But that partnership will come to an end before autumn 2020, when Basic Fun expects to launch its first wave of Tonka products at retailers around the world.

Basic Fun’s range will feature the classic steel Tonka Trucks, die-cast range, and traditional plastic lights and sounds products.

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Brought to you by

LICENSING

NEWS

BLE registration open!

Visitor registration is now open for the 21st Brand Licensing Europe.

You can register by visiting www.brandlicensing.eu/register.

This year is a momentous one for BLE as it changes venues and introduces a host of new features to engage attendees.

In addition to moving to ExCeL London visitors can discover first-time publishing, gaming and interiors activations – three of the many growth areas

within licensing – plus new publishing, animation, French and Italian pavilions.

Visitors will get the chance to meet with more than 260 exhibitors this year, and over 20 first timers originating from across Europe and further afield.

Diary date: BLE 2019 takes place between 1-3 October at ExCeL London.

Mario Kart comes to Hot Wheels This summer will see Hot Wheels and Nintendo release a range of die-cast vehicles and track sets based on the Mario Kart video games.

The Hot Wheels replica line features 1:64 scale diecast replicas of the beloved Nintendo characters and authentic, high-performance toy vehicles.

The Mario Kart vehicles can race, stunt and crash on a variety of branded Hot Wheels Mario Kart track sets and are also compatible with existing Hot Wheels sets.

Matt Brutocao, Senior Director of Global Brand Marketing, Hot Wheels, says: “Our new Hot Wheels Mario Kart line creates an exciting Mario Kart play experience, complete with fun characters, authentic details and the type of out-of-thisworld racing challenges.”

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Global licensed retail sales hit $280bn

12.6%

Global retail sales of licensed merchandise and services grew 3.2 per cent to hit $280.3 billion in 2018, according to Licensing International’s fifth Annual Global Licensing Survey, up from the $271.6bn raised in 2017.

The entertainment and character sector was the largest category by some margin, accounting for $122.7 billion (43.8 per cent) of the total global licensing market.

The global toy sector did tumble by 2.1 per cent due in part to the collapse of Toys R Us and dramatic upheaval in a number of other leading national specialist chains, such as Intertoys and BR Toys.

Perhaps most surprisingly, respondents said an average of 79 per cent of business came from brick-and-mortar stores in 2018 and 21 per cent from online retail. Those are the same average percentages reported in the prior two years, despite a global shift in focus to ecommerce and online marketing.

Percentage accounted for by the toys market.

Siso Toys enters Ryan’s World Harry Potter toys fly off shelves In the run-up to the launch of the Wizards Unite app game, data revealed that one Harry Potter toy was sold every five minutes in the UK. This fact comes from analysis by The NPD Group, which shows that the boy wizard is second only to Star Wars in terms of value sales. One quarter (24 per cent) of those sales are to people aged 18-plus.

The top-selling toy is LEGO’s Harry Potter Hogwarts Great Hall.

With sales of £44m at retail in the same time period (12 months to May 2019), the Harry Potter franchise has brought a touch of magic to the UK toy industry and lifted its performance.

Siso Toys UK has partnered with kids’ entertainment studio pocket.watch, and secured the UK distribution rights for YouTube phenomenon Ryan’s World.

The licensed toy range launched in the US last year, selling out across the country.

The range was picked up by major US retailers including Walmart and Target, with significant shelf space and store distribution to meet the feverish demand from fans of Ryan.

Siso Toys UK is looking to replicate that success in the UK with its line-up of Ryan’s World toys, produced under licence by Jada Toys.

The range includes mini cars with characters, feature action vehicles that include a character as well as eye-popping RC, including the Stunt Panda RC that performs tricks and stunts.

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NEWS

Stars of the show

Kidz stuff

Little Live, Treasure X, Blinger, Pokémon, TapIt!, and What’s in the Box had their own dedicated spaces.

Character Options held its first Character Kidz Show last month – a day-long event that brought the firm’s key brands to the UK’s up-andcoming YouTubers.

Character Kidz delivered four floors of filming opportunities to more than 50 channels. Backdrops and unboxing were the key theme, with staged areas such as a Treasure X Alien Autopsy Suite, giant What’s in the Box Challenge Cube, Laser X Fusion Range and Blinger Style area.

Jerry Healy, Group Marketing Director, Character Options says: “Online influencers are key to our marketing strategy and instead of a single brand launch event to invite them to, we decided to combine more than ten. Character Kidz promised to deliver one mass extravaganza of brands seen at their best.

“The day had been specifically set up for child influencers and their needs and the ‘minituber’ community has been really excited to attend.’’

Universal Kids picks up Polly Pocket Making magic

DHX Media and Mattel have greenlit a 26-episode second season of Polly Pocket, the animated series based on Mattel’s original micro-scale doll brand.

In addition, Universal Kids has pocketed both seasons, and will begin airing season one in the US this summer.

In the new series, Polly inherits a magic locket that gives her the power to shrink to four inches tall. Now equipped with Tiny Power, Polly leads her friends Shani and Lila on tiny adventures that lead to big fun!

Niantic, the company behind Pokémon Go! has released a new AR app – this time inspired by the world of Harry Potter.

The game blends real world exploration and augmented reality interactions based on players’ locations.

Harry Potter: Wizards Unite, developed with WB Games launched in June in the UK, US, Australia and New Zealand, inviting Potterheads to head out with their smartphones and investigate the world around them for chaotic magical.

“Today marks the beginning of an incredible journey for fans of the Wizarding World, opening up virtual doorways to remarkable adventures in the world around them,” says John Hanke, Founder The professions you can pick from in and CEO, Niantic.

Wizards Unite include: Auror, Professor

Mattel blends best of both Mattel has unveiled the launch of Hot Wheels id, the evolution of the beloved brand that blends digital and physical play into a groundbreaking new ‘mixed play’ experience.

With Hot Wheels id, Chris Down, Chief Design Officer, Mattel says: Hot Wheels id employs “This is the first time our fans will uniquely identifiable vehicles, be able to keep track of topa smart Race Portal, Smart speeds, races-won, and challengesTrack, and digital hub, so fans completed with Hot Wheels id can build their personalised die-cast in the physical world. fleet and enjoy an entirely “Then, they can collect, manage new way to play. and race the same cars in the digital world. This revolutionary mixed play experience enables kids of all ages to take on challenge like never before.”

Having launched in June, Hot Wheels id is available exclusively at Apple.com, select Apple stores and on the App Store.

Putting a spin on things

PAW Patrol goes on tour The PAW Patrol pups are hitting the road with Bricklive, a touring experience showcasing models built from the world’s most popular toy brick.

The Nickelodeon characters will join a number of themed Bricklive shows touring the UK from this summer.

The five-year agreement will see Bricklive produce Nickelodeon-themed promotional exhibits with PAW Patrol, followed by a broader Nick Jr. theme in the autumn. Other Bricklive themes include Animal Paradise, Brickosaurs, Outer Space and Mythical Beasts.

Bricklive is not affiliated with The LEGO Group.

Did you know? and Magizoologist.

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tnp.media

MEDIA

ANALYSIS

I’ve got a text!

I

TV has struck TV rating gold once again with due to the sexual nature of the show; the language ITV2’s most successful show in the channels and more recently the negative implications history - Love Island. It was not intended to be on body image. Plus, it is definitely past many family viewing but ‘it is what it is’, and the show children’s bedtime. is performing very well for all audiences.

Arguably ITV have acted responsibly: the show Any doubts as to whether this show would is broadcast after the watershed and they do continue to capture the British public’s imagination include a ‘warning disclaimer’ at the beginning were quashed when memes began circulating of the show. We can make an assumption with across social media (over a month before the first the data, taking into consideration the volume of broadcast) that as soon as ‘day-dot’ was upon us, housekeepers and children watching Love Island, they would be uncontactable between 21:00-22:00 that viewing is likely to be a shared family viewing for the rest of the summer - appointment TV in the experience. Parents are often present to explain most literal sense. or censor any unsuitable ‘hot tub’ On Monday night’s premier episode, moments. Whether this is enough on Love Island ITV’s part is of course questionable.

Love Island’s average viewing figures hit 3,026,000 adult impacts and 5.95 The figures we analysed do not take has proved to TVRs peaking at 21:30 (BARB, 2019). To into consideration children streaming many that TV put this into some sort of perspective, the show to devices (potentially still retains its ten times as many people watched watching in the bedrooms away from Love Island on Monday than the London the heart of the home). pulling power Marathon this year.

Regardless of your thoughts on The overnight figures also revealed that this, Love Island has proved to children were also watching. Average many that TV still retains its “pulling viewing figures demonstrated 274,000 power”. For too long, the messages children impacts and 2.92 TVRs tuned in. To put emerging from the advertising industry have this into context, this was +166 per cent higher been that TV audiences are in decline, and that than the average viewing for the top broadcast digital online media is the pre-eminent choice show on the kids’ commercial channels in April for modern marketers. ITV and Channel 4 2019 – PAW Patrol. have pitched running battles with the likes of One could argue that BARB’s definition of Facebook and YouTube about the validity of children – that is young people aged four- to such claims. TV needed a bona fide success story 15-years-old – is skewed by teenagers, who would to prove its relevancy, particularly to millennial predictably be watching Love audiences who we are told are Island. However, upon further increasingly migrating away analysis, we can see that 45,000 from linear TV. Love Island children aged four- to nine-yearsdoes this in spades. Does old tuned in. This raises concern this mean you should start incorporating Love Island spots for your latest toys and games launch campaign?

Perhaps. But The number of children aged four- to 15-years-old who then again, tuned in for Monday night’s premier episode of Love Island. perhaps not!

“

Generation Media takes the example of Love Island and its popularity to illustrate TV’s continued relevancy – particularly to millennial audiences

“

274,000

Generation Media is the UK and Ireland’s largest independent media buyer of toys and games advertising. Visit generationmedia.co.uk or call 0207 307 7900 to learn more.

JULY 2019

1

MOVIE

NEWS

COFFEE BREAK Playmobil hits the big screen

Toy Story glory The long-awaited Toy Story 4 took a record-breaking £13.3m over its opening weekend in the UK and a highly respectable $238m globally. This is the third biggest global opening of 2019, behind only Disney/Marvel smashes Captain Marvel and Avengers: Endgame.

Having gone straight in at number one at UK box office, the return of Woody, Buzz Lightyear and friends The record-breaking saw Walt Disney Studios amount Toy Story 4 holding both the first and brought in over the second spots at the UK and Ireland box office, with opening weekend in Aladdin still flying high after the UK. five weeks of release. Along with the original crew introduced as Andy’s toys 24 years ago, Toy Story 4 welcomes some new faces, including Ducky and Bunny, and Forky.

£13.3 million

Mattel on the ball for movie

TnP gets the scoop on the new Playmobil movie from Jamie Dickinson, Marketing Manager, Playmobil UK What we can expect from Playmobil: The Movie?

The movie is all about Marla and her brother Charlie, who disappears into the magical animated universe of Playmobil.

Tell us more about the movie toy lines from Playmobil We are releasing nine new playsets based on the film, as well as two series of collectable figures. These will all launch in July, along with the first wave of collectable figures, followed by a second release in December. The new playsets include Marla and Del with Flying Horse, Del’s Food Truck, Emperor Maximus in the Colosseum and Rex Dasher’s Porsche Mission E. What plans do you have for the movie launch?

There will be a special family day, packed with fun and games for everyone to enjoy. This will be one of the first opportunities for everyone to watch the movie, meet Cinema release the characters and see how each date: Playmobil world fits into the film.

9 Augu st 2019

The latest Mattel toy getting its own movie is the iconic Magic 8 Ball.

The toymaker has tapped Blumhouse Productions to create a live-action feature film based on the fortune-telling gadget, which will feature a “suspensefilled” story.

On board to direct is Jeff Wadlow, whose previous work includes Kick-Ass 2 and Truth or Dare.

This is Mattel’s first partnership with Blumhouse, having teamed with Warner Bros. for live-action Barbie and Hot Wheels movies.

Elsa lets go in Frozen II trailer Frozen fans have been given their first full look at Frozen 2 that is set for release this November.

The two-minute trailer shows Elsa battling her inner demons and cascading waves as she strikes out on a journey to save the kingdom.

Disney’s official synopsis says: “Why was Elsa born with magical powers? The answer is calling her and threatening her kingdom. Together with Anna, Kristoff, Olaf and Sven, she’ll set out on a dangerous but remarkable journey. In Frozen, Elsa feared her powers were too much for the world. In Frozen 2, she must hope they are enough.”

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How will Playmobil be promoting the movie toy lines?

We will be working with several influencers during the runup to the movie premiere, as it provides us with a great way to connect directly with the consumer. The playsets and movie will also feature heavily on our social media.

What support can you offer retailers stocking these lines?

We have a number of display items, including graphics and large figures available to retailers. The large figures in particular are always popular as they provide customers with great photo opportunities. We also regularly invest in advertising with retailers. For example, we currently have an advertising banner at the Banba Toymaster store in Dublin, which heavily focuses on the movie.

Why should people watch Playmobil: The Movie?

To re-live their childhood memories and introduce their children to the Playmobil universe!

17 tnp.media

CONSUMER RETAIL

OPINION INSIGHT

Right time, right place A

ccording to PwC’s new Kids Digital Media report 2019, over $4.6bn (£3.6bn) is forecast to be spent on advertising to kids globally each year. With digital advertising set to account for as much as 37 per cent of this, it is becoming increasingly challenging for brands to get their messages to their audiences.

This begs the question, how confident are you that your advertising is engaging your audience at the right time?

Over the past two years, Kids Insights has been collecting data regarding the attitudes, behaviour and consumption of children in the UK. We have seen how the ecosystems they live in have become increasingly fragmented as they continue to have far greater access to technology, meaning that they have much greater choice in the content they consume and when they consume it.

The speed of change in kids’ ecosystems continues to surprise. New properties are quickly establishing themselves, which in turn affects how children spend their time.

Since Fortnite launched in 2017, we have observed the number of children and the amount of time they spend playing Fortnite increase. We have also witnessed the arrival of platforms such as TikTok. Since February this year, TikTok has grown 282 per cent, becoming the joint most popular app

alongside YouTube for girls aged nineto 12-years-old.

Our latest Kids Insights data shows that children under 13 (this data can be broken down by age, gender and region in our portal) are spending 107 hours of their week sleeping, eating, going to school, doing homework and completing chores, meaning they have just 38 per cent of their week left for other activities.

steadily reduced over the last two years to the point where Netflix is now being watched by more children than linear TV. There are further challenges for brands too, as our data from last quarter shows that YouTube has been overtaken for the first time

by Netflix as kids’ favourite video platform - one that does not allow for advertising messages.

And with two-thirds of children who watch TV and play with toys at the same time, there are some inherent challenges for toy companies to look to new strategies to get their brands and products in front of the right audience, at the right time.

To find out more about how Kids Insights can help your business engage its target audience, at the right time, and via the most effective channels, contact the team by calling 0330 159 6631.

Kids Insights reflects on the challenge that is engaging your target audience, at the right time, and via the most effective channels

The data shows children are spending 20 per cent more time playing video games and going online than they are watching TV. When we look at how kids spend their time during a typical school day, we also see that the number of kids who spend time watching TV after school (between 16:00 and 18:00) has fallen from 54 per cent to 47 per cent (a 12 per cent decline) since the beginning of 2018.

Another example of how the children’s ecosystem is becoming increasingly fragmented is the significant reduction in the amount of linear TV they are watching. This has

Our research and strategy team works with clients from across the sector, using data collected through surveys with 21,300 kids in the UK each year. We provide insight to help clients develop their advertising and media strategies, from identifying the right media to inspiring their creative execution. To download a complimentary Kids Insights report, visit: kidsinsights.co.uk/ toysnplaythings, or to organise a meeting please call 0330 159 6631.

JULY 2019

1

RETAIL

NEWS

Amazon pops up on high street

Toys R Us: all-American return?

Reports suggest that Toys R Us will open a handful of stores in North America by the end of 2019, along with an ecommerce platform.

Bloomberg sources suggest Tru Kids CEO Richard Barry has been pitching the idea to US toy industry leaders, but the report has not been confirmed by Tru Kids.

The bricks and mortar locations will be smaller than the warehouses Toys R Us was known for.

Within that space, a greater emphasis will be placed on in-store theatre.

Tru Kids will reportedly look to implement a model in which suppliers are paid only once product has been sold-through in-store - or online.

And online retail is likely to play a big role in the toy giant’s comeback.

Tru Kids was established in January 2019 to oversee Toys R Us, Babies R Us, Geoffrey – the famous giraffe mascot – and a number of other consumer brands.

This news comes after Toys R Us announced its return to Australia earlier in June, resurrecting itself through a licensing deal with local operator Hobby Warehouse. Hobby Warehouse will be able to sell toy products from brands such as LEGO, Barbie and Disney through the Toys R Us and Babies R Us websites, with the brand taking an online-only approach for its first 18 months of launch.

Mothercare board hit by cost cuts A reshuffle in the Mothercare boardroom has halved costs, according to the retailer.

Chief Executive Mark Newton-Jones, who was himself let go and then re-hired after a month, told a conference that the board had previously been more appropriate for a far larger company.

The board now includes more hands-on directors and the company has taken on more restructuring experts.

Recent figures show the retailer’s losses had risen by almost 20 per cent to £87.3 million, while group revenues dropped 7.9 per cent to £1.07 billion for the year.

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Amazon has opened the first of 10 UK pop-up shops aimed at getting small online sellers onto the high street.

The first Clicks and Mortar shop opened in central Manchester last month.

A total of 100 small online businesses will get the chance to trade within a real-world retail setting in the year-long pilot scheme.

Homeware, electronics, health and beauty products, and food and drink are set to appear in the shops, which will also give customers the chance to tryout products from companies such as Swifty Scooters.

Shops are expected to pop across England, Scotland and Wales.

Did you know?

Amazon is planning to open 10 UK pop-up shops to help get small online sellers onto the high street, as part of a year-long pilot scheme.

In the US, Amazon has opened bookstores as well as cashier-free Amazon Go stores. Speculation is rife that an Amazon Go store is set to open in London.

The US also saw a trial of pop-up kiosks, which were shut down earlier in the year.

Fact!

Shoppers have roundedup their purchases 6.7 million times since Pennies was introduced in 2011.

Customers raise £3m at The Entertainer

Customers at The Entertainer toy shops across the UK have hit an incredible milestone of £3 million raised for children’s charities across the country - simply by rounding up their purchases to the nearest pound using Pennies.

The Entertainer added Pennies to its tills in its high street stores in June 2011. Since then, shoppers have rounded-up their purchases more than 6.7 million times, raising an incredible £3 million for a number of children’s charities, including nine of the country’s leading children’s hospitals.

“We are so grateful to our customers for their generosity through Pennies at the till,” says Gary Grant, Founder and Executive Chairman of The Entertainer.

tnp.media

B&M books profit our industry, rising costs and B&M has posted another year of uncertain times for consumers, profit and revenue growth thanks demonstrating that its value to expansion. credentials remain as resonant In the discount as ever with customers.” retailer’s 2018 Meanwhile, in the UK financial year, group another 50 B&M stores are profit before tax planned for the current increased by 8.7 per The number of new UK financial year. cent to £249.4 stores that million. Meanwhile, revenues surged 17.1 B&M is per cent to £3.49 planning to billion as the retailer open in the added 44 new UK current stores and continued plans for financial year. overseas expansion.

CEO Simon Arora said: “B&M has again delivered strong results against the challenging backdrop of continued structural change in

50

White takes top job at John Lewis

Argos: top toys for Christmas Marking exactly 200 days until Christmas, Argos announced its highly anticipated top toy predictions for the Boppi, ‘The Booty Shakin’ 2019 holiday period at Llama the beginning of June.

Blume Doll The list of 12 new and Owleez exciting toys that are LEGO Harry Potter Night Bus set to feature on every 7” Real Walking Buzz Lightyear child’s wish list came as Furreal Cubby Bear new research Kindi Kids Toddler Doll conducted by Argos Paw Patrol Mighty Pups Super revealed that a quarter Paw Jet of Brits had already Fisher Price Imaginext started their Christmas Transforming Batmobile shopping. Remarkably, Fortnite Battle Bus the study found that Peppa Pig Playset just under 10 per cent L.O.L. Surprise 2-in-1 Glamper had even finished their festive gift buying.

The Argos research also revealed that a third of us (32 per cent) expect to spend more on gifts this year.

Parents are set to spend an average of £273 on presents for their children - dads averaging £295 and mums £258.

Top 12

Ofcom chief executive Sharon White is joining John Lewis as Chairman.

White will replace Sir Charlie Mayfield when he steps down as Chair of the department store chain in 2020.

White will also oversee Waitrose supermarkets.

Her salary for this prime position? £990,000 a year.

Smyths European expansion Smyths Toys Superstores is expanding in Germany, having completed its rebranding of Toys R Us stores that it bought last year when the chain collapsed. The number of stores it operates across Germany has grown to 66.

Along with expanded retail footprint, Smyths is building a multi-million pound distribution centre in northern Germany. Set to open ahead of Christmas this year, this centre will improve the flow of stock throughout Germany. It will also come into play in serving other regions across central Europe.

Smyths now operates 214 stores across Europe, including 21 in the Smyths family’s domestic Republic of Ireland and 100-plus in the UK, where more stores continue to open almost monthly.

JULY 2019

Caballs closes its doors Caballs Toymaster sadly closed its doors at the end of June, as Ann Laide, the toy shop’s Owner retired.

Caballs had been in her family for three generations, having served locals of Tralee in County Kerry, Ireland for the past 99 years.

The shop was originally opened under the banner A. Caball & Sons in 1920 by her grandparents Mary and Arthur Caball, who made a living selling a mixture of sports and hardware goods to prams and other nursery essentials. It was also a local bicycle specialist.

19

RETAIL INTERVIEW

WIZARD TOYS (EAST MIDLAND TOY COMPANY)

Back to basics James Colclough of EMTC speaks to TnP about the company’s plans to rebrand its stores to Wizard Toys, and shares with us some top-tips on selecting a profitable retail space and merchandising effectively in an independent toy store There have been some exciting developments at EMTC. Can you tell us more?

Well, we are now fully independent and no longer a member of the Toymaster buying group. This was a really big step for our business as they’ve given us a lot of support over the years. I would not still be in the toy industry had it not been for Toymaster.

When I opened as a one-man band 10 years ago, I spoke to Roger Dyson and were it not for him and Toymaster there is no way that I would have been able to get our first store off the ground. It was an absolutely solid start and I would highly recommend becoming a Toymaster member to any retailer just starting out. But life does change and the operation that we are running now is different – it’s a new dynamic. But we are still very much here. I guess in some ways we’re almost starting again, but with strong foundations.

So now, we will be launching new branding for our toy shops in the next few weeks. The branding will be Wizard Toys. It’s still early stages – we’ve got a few logos and ideas.

It’s actually based on an idea that we used back in 2009 when we first opened the shop in Melton Mowbray.

While we were Toymaster, we were always just known as Toymaster.

But coming away from Toymaster, we wanted to have something that sounded a bit better than EMTC. There are a lot of good reasons for going with Wizard Toys. We’ve always had that wizard feel, and of course

“

There are a lot of good reasons for going with Wizard Toys.

We’ve always had that wizard feel, and of course it ties in with Harry Potter and the magical feel of toy shops

James Colclough, Wizard Toys

”

Did you know?

At this year’s London Toy Fair, EMTC won the award for Specialist Multiple Toy Retailer of the Year.

20

it ties in with Harry Potter and the magical feel of toy shops. We’re going to have a loyalty card that we’ll call our Magic Card.

As part of this rebranding, there’s going to be a relaunch of each of our stores. We have a lot of PR activity planned, some sponsorship, and we’ll probably also have our own character.

What measures have you been taking to maintain relationships with suppliers?

Through Toymaster, we have a lot of contacts in terms of suppliers. The award we won at London Toy Fair was in recognition for what we do – our staff, the way we merchandise, our customer service and the way we take the supplier’s end product, put it on the shelf and sell it in a way that suppliers have always been happy with.

We’ve had suppliers’ full support – in fact in some instances we’ve had more support – some of them have offered a bit of extra credit as a bit of a leg-up to help us in the short-term.

I think they know that if they get their product to us, we will look after it.

Take Magformers, for example, they have a stand in each of our stores and the company knows that we push it to the front, we get it out on our play table and demo the product.

Can you tell us about your current sites and what criteria you look for when deciding on locations?

Our Melton Mowbray store was our first location. Market towns work really well for us, as they have a mixed population.

It’s in a good location – you get the kids after school, you get the mums that come

tnp.media

Best-selling brands WIzard Toys (EMTC) does well with products from The Puppet Company, GALT, Schleich, LEGO, Playmobil, BRIO and Games Workshop. in with pre-schoolers in the day and get involved with local things.

We just opened up a new store in Grantham, which links the chain really because we’ve got Melton Mowbray, Newark-on-Trent and it’s the town in the middle. They’re all very familyoriented places and also a bit of tourism as well – you’ve got a bit of heritage around the town.

The Grantham shop replaces the store that we had in York. When we originally looked at the York location, on paper everyone thought it couldn’t fail. The unit that we got was the ELC’s highest turnover store – it was all to play for. But sadly, the shopping experience in York has changed quite a lot. It’s really difficult for retailers, as children and families don’t shop there. All the locals get in their cars and go to the trading estates, where it’s free to park, as in York city centre it costs £20 to park.

Because of our experience in York, we decided to base ourselves within a shopping centre in Grantham.

We’ve gone back to basics – something that we really know well – an old market town that has good footfall and we’re pleased to say it’s doing really well so far.

How do you merchandise your toy stores?

Well, we’ve got a bit of a back-tobasics approach really. When you go to our stores, hopefully you’ll see that they are a fun and exciting place to see toys. But they’re also nicely organised and merchandised so that you can get a double push chair around – it’s an Aladdin’s Cave, but you’re not falling over stuff.

So, it’s a pleasant shopping experience.

JULY 2019

People need time and space to browse.

Out of the box is also big for us too, so if we can leave one product on the stand, or show one to a customer for a demonstration, we’re always keen to do that.

Can you tell us about the progress you’ve made with setting-up direct shipping?

We’ve got two key suppliers set up with this shipping method. The first is BERG with its go-karts and trampolines. We are now fully set up with direct shipping in all four stores, and so far, so good. It’s all about staff training and staff confidence.

BERG has been really helpful – the company has been around all of our stores and trained the staff to fully understand all of the differences between their go-karts. So the customer can leave the toy shop thinking, “Gosh, I could actually treat the kids to a trampoline or a go-kart for summer.” So that’s a high-ticket price sale that we would otherwise have no way of getting.

In February you spoke about wanting to re-establish some core ranges into store. How has this been going?

You can try various things and get lost sometimes. You can buy-into things that seem exciting, or movies that maybe don’t work quite so well as you had hoped. And then, all of a sudden, you realise that you’ve not maintained your basics. We like to think of every member of our staff as a shop keeper. We don’t want to let our basic spinners – The Puppet Company, GALT, Schleich, LEGO, Playmobil, BRIO – run out because we’ve got a shelf full of Buzz Lightyears.

What’s been selling well recently?

We do well with premium brands – people know us for that. And also, we’re seeing a big resurgence around models – I suppose you’re talking

“

“We’ve got a bit of a back-tobasics approach really. When you go to our stores, hopefully you’ll see that they are a fun and exciting place to see toys” James Colclough, Wizard Toys

”

the big kids – or the adults. Kits from Tamiya and Games Workshop do well with us. This product has its own area, but it’s not completely blocked off. It tends to be near the counter area, as there is often some discussion around which paint is required for the different sets and so forth.

In our Grantham and Melton Mowbray shops Games Workshop is right in the heart of the store. One of the things that big brand suppliers don’t fully appreciate about toy shops is the recruitment angle. When I was a kid, I remember seeing all the cool things in the model shop window – kids today don’t really get to see that anymore. They see people on YouTube doing fantastic things that they’re unlikely to be able to achieve. But if you go into a model shop, you go from DUPLO to LEGO Technic and when you want something more advanced, someone in the store can chat to you about that. There’s that support to progress. I don’t think brands always recognise the toy retailer’s role in that consumer recruitment process.

What products look like they’re going to sell well this summer?

Well, we’re just about to have a heat wave – so the key outdoors stuff.

At the moment, there’s no fidget spinners or Loom Bands; there’s no real hot craze.

So while it’s nice to have Toy Story, I think that’s likely to do better around the time of the DVD release, as we come into Christmas.

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THIRD

PARTY SPECIALISTS

Ask the experts This month, TnP asked some of the top PR and marketing companies serving the toy industry about the benefits of outsourcing PR/marketing function. They also share their thoughts on what they believe underpins an effective marketing strategy CAROLINE FOSBURY

LESLEY SINGLETON Founder, Playtime PR

Founder, Fosbury PR

What was your motivation for founding Playtime PR? I founded Playtime PR five years ago after working with a number of toy brands as a freelancer. I’d built a small but perfectly formed client base and knew there was room to grow.

What was your motivation for founding Fosbury PR? I founded Fosbury PR in 2005, so we're almost 15 years old! As my strength grew in the toy and nursery sector, I found I was operating autonomously from my two partners in my former agency. With my colleagues more focussed on other industries, it seemed like a good time to consider going it alone!

What are the benefits of outsourcing PR/marketing?

We work with some fantastic in-house marketing and PR people and our aim is to become an extension of that team. We have daily contact with relevant journalists, researchers, producers and influencers, meaning we can spot opportunities, angles and trends for your brand to hijack.

Our understanding of the market and deep appreciation of audience fragmentation and targeted messaging means we’re increasingly involved at the product development stage.

What underpins an effective PR/marketing strategy?

I’m forever shouting “There is no one size fits all!”. Just as every child is unique, so is every toy and therefore, every campaign. To me, the best strategy starts with a blank canvas, considers the audience segmentations carefully, and then looks at the most efficient routes to reaching those people.

It’s also important that strategies integrate the various marketing disciplines – PR doesn’t work in a silo; brands need consistent messaging running through everything from their TV campaigns to social media, influencer engagement and media relations.

What do you consider to be the benefits of outsourcing PR/marketing?

I think in-house departments can often be focussed on their own industry. By outsourcing PR, businesses can benefit from their agency’s wider experience, knowledge and contacts whether it be ideas, systems, best practice, media or other partnerships.

What underpins an effective PR/marketing strategy?

It’s all about the brief and setting clear goals and expectations. PR now has an incredibly wide remit; it’s all too easy to go off piste. A good PR campaign will focus on the outcome and set clear, measurable objectives! Another important factor is allowing your agency to become fully immersed in your business. A client who treats their agency as an integral part of its team is ultimately going to benefit as the agency will be able to make more informed recommendations!

JULIE PITTILLA Founder, Pittilla PR What was your motivation for founding Pittilla PR? I made a silly career move, hated the agency I moved to, so I started to work for myself back in 1986. I loved building the business with my Co-Director Sara Janicki.

I was fortunate to work with some of the best PR people around: Lianne Bertelli, Caroline Fosbury, Sarah Allen at Mattel, Eva at Hamleys (sadly no longer with us) and Emma, Michelle and Tony at Nortons. The toy business continues to nurture some great agencies: Bastion, Bertelli Comms, Big Top PR and Playtime PR among them.

What are the benefits of outsourcing PR/marketing?

For the client it gives total flexibility, they don’t have the additional charges incurred by employing staff and they can negotiate terms of notice and working hours. Consultancies also have access leads and information through their broad client base that can benefit their clients.

What underpins an effective PR/marketing strategy?

It needs to do what the client wants it to do. And the client needs to be told if it can’t.

I’m still a great believer in the power of mainstream media. I come from national newspaper stock and get a great buzz from creating an angle that creates some hype.

All the MSM outlets have a strong online presence so you can cover all angles. I like to use the media that best fits the message. Sometimes that has to be honed down and carefully targeted, sometimes it can be a big splash.

22

VICKI MARLER-HAUSEN Founder, Elmer Marketing What was your motivation for founding Elmer Marketing?

I set up Elmer Marketing in May 2018 having been in the corporate world for 16 years. I could see economic challenges having an impact on our industry, so I thought some toy companies may welcome the opportunity to hire marketing services on a project by project basis.

What are the benefits of outsourcing PR/marketing?

Anyone choosing Elmer Marketing to support a product launch, run a media campaign or organise an exhibition will benefit from many years of experience and access to a fantastic network of contacts. I see my role as being one of a project manager, where I can make considered recommendations and important introductions to marry up the right people with the right expertise. So much of what we do in toys is seasonal, so companies should start thinking about bringing in support as and when they need it to lower the risk. Companies must not compromise on marketing when they are looking at where to cut costs - there is always a solution for them out there.

What underpins an effective PR/marketing strategy?

Understanding your product and audience is key. Getting your branding right is also incredibly important. If you have all the right ingredients at the very beginning then the campaign will look after itself. I therefore urge companies to think wisely, do their research early and not rush to market. You also need a passion for what you do to get the best results.

tnp.media

FROM 12pm

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RETAIL

OPINION

''Customers love the fact that wooden toys are great-quality items and remind them of their own childhoods''

Talking retail

Next month we’ll be asking how you feel about eco issues – packaging, sustainability, recycled products.

If you would like to be featured in Toy Talk email georgie@lemapublishing.co.uk

TnP loves to hear your views .

This month we chat to retail ers about retro and wooden toy s making a comeback

Andrea Gornall

Paul Copeland Director, Mulberry Bush Ltd

Category Manager (toys) Shop Direct (Very.co.uk and Littlewoods.com)

Have you seen a resurgence in retro toys?

Yes certainly. Retro toys, traditional toys and wooden toys continue to be popular among our customers.

Have you seen a resurgence in retro toys?

Over the past couple of seasons, we’ve seen strong sales performance from traditional play products. Especially wooden toys, which there’s been a lot of demand for. We expect this trend to continue and plan to stock significantly more lines of traditional toys year-on-year.

What products in particular?

We’ve seen sales increase across yo-yos, humming tops, toy soldiers, Jack in the boxes, Noah’s Arks and diabolos.

Brands popular with our customers include Brio, Janod, Lanka Kade, Tender Leaf Toys, Tidlo, Le Toy Van and Bigjigs Rail.

What do you think is driving it?

In part, it’s because parents are preferring their children to limit their use of technology. But also, customers love the fact that wooden toys are great-quality items and remind them of their own childhoods. They like the fact the toys can be more easily passed on from child to child or indeed generation to generation.

James Colclough Director, East Midland Toy Company Ltd

What do you think is driving it?

Appetite for traditional toys is coming from across our whole customer base. This is down to customers placing greater focus on the sustainability of toys; the belief of many that traditional toys hold children’s attention for longer; and parents favouring toys that remind them of their own childhoods.

"I’m still waiting

Have you seen a resurgence in for a yo-yo craze. retro toys?

It’s about time We are seeing more interest we had one!" in wooden toys. I think that people want to spend more and get one really decent thing.

Evolving customer behaviour means that once a toy starts costing more than about £40, we find customers will shop around online.

However, go-karts are a ‘traditional’ toy that we do well with; we have been working with the brand Berg.

Marbel’s Hape range and toys from Bigjigs also do well.

What do you think is driving interest?

The new Toy Story film is having an effect – obviously the kids all want a Woody, Buzz or Forky.

But the film also reminds them about traditional toys – like the Slinky.

22

"We plan to stock significantly What products in particular?

In particular, dolls houses, toy more lines kitchens and other ‘pretend of traditional play’ products have proved popular. Kidkraft and Melissa & toys yearDoug are two of the big brands. on-year"

Karen Dorn Owner of The Forgotten Toy Shop Nottingham and online at www.theforgottentoyshop.co.uk Have you seen a resurgence in retro toys?

Traditional toys have always been popular with the older generation, but I have definitely seen a recent surge of more younger adult generation of parents (myself being one) that have grown up with both the experiences of traditional toys and also the technology games. They are seeing a difference in children’s behaviour as they are not getting the stimulation and imaginative play and interaction with others as they would by just playing with technology.

What do you think is driving it?

A lot of primary schools are teaching the children about the retro toys and so it sparks more interest for them when they see them.

I am finding also that more of my customers are becoming more aware of the current drive for reducing plastic waste, so are opting more for wooden toys, as also they last a lot longer.

What products in particular?

Some of my recent popular toys have been the wooden yo-yos, cup and ball and pop gun from House of Marbles. The others have been the original Slinky, finger puppets and wooden pull/push-along toys. Jacks, tiddlywinks and dominoes have also been firm favourites.

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TRADE

OPINION

Trade talk

TnP loves to hear your views.

Next month we’ll be asking suppliers what they’re doing to set themselves apart in the current retail climate.

For your chance to feature in next month’s Trade Talk, email georgie@lemapublishing.co.uk

This month, Team TnP checks in with some of the industry’s key players to find out which toy trends they think will be popular this summer…

GRAHAM CANNING

TIM HALL

Sales Director, VTech and LeapFrog

Marketing Manager, Ravensburger UK Coming into summer, what are the most promising toy trends?

For us, the record-breaking, opening box office results for Toy Story 4 are incredibly promising. We’re already seeing that impactful start translating into strong sales for our licensed puzzle range.

As families continue to seek ways to spend quality time together away from screens, we’re seeing significant benefits in traditional segments.

Coming into summer, what do you see as the most promising toy trends?

Fortunately, the unpredictable British summer weather doesn’t seem to affect LeapFrog’s most popular role play item, the Scoop & Learn Ice Cream Cart. And we are anticipating that the new summer themed role play line, Smart Sizzling BBQ Grill will have the same success.

Which of your products do you expect to be most popular over the holidays?

Kidizoom cameras are popular all through the year, but we expect the Kidizoom Action Cam HD to be very popular over the holidays.

Which of your products do you expect to be most popular over the holidays?

GraviTrax was a stand-out success for us last year and there is more potential to be unlocked.

Our biggest game launch of the year, kNOW! presents game fans with something new.

SIMON HAMPTON

DAVID MORDECAI

Head of Sales and Marketing, Wilton Bradley Coming into summer, what are the most promising toy trends?

We see slime being a promising toy trend over the summer. This new way to play is great fun for kids and definitely not as messy as it sounds!

We have a number of Bestway products which are collaborating with Slime Baff to create a new element of fun to outdoor toys.

Which of your products do you expect to be most popular over the holidays?

This summer holidays we are expecting our H20GO! range from Bestway to be most populars. Brand new for this year the sub-brand Constant Air is the latest innovation in outdoor inflatables by Bestway, incorporating the newest inflatable technology to create child-friendly mega inflatable waterparks for the home and garden.

EXPERT OPINION

CEO, Tobar Coming into summer, what are the most promising toy trends?

There is nothing massively new in terms of toy crazes coming to the fore at the moment but anything tactile is still bang on trend, especially the different types of sand that you can mould and stretch.

Of course, price points are key and pocket money as a category just goes from strength to strength as consumers are always looking for value.

Which of your products do you expect to be most popular over the holidays?

That’s easy – Boppi, the twerking llama.

And Angry Birds merchandise is flying out at the moment.

NICK RICHARDSON

Yo-Yos have appeared as one of the top toys on Amazon over the last couple of months.

Managing Director, The Insights People

Battle drones – Kids are now watching competitive drone racing and drone battle fighting. Some drone racing teams have appeared in answers when we ask children: ‘What are your favourite sports teams?’ The Drone racing league will be broadcast on Twitter this year and it has previously been shown on Sky Sports.

Coming into summer, what are the most promising toy trends?

We ask over 85,000 children across the globe each year about what they think will be the next big thing. And our research tells us that all the typical trends are still there – LEGO, Slime, Fortnite, Pokémon. But there’s some interesting ones appearing.

Yo-Yos – The popularity of Yo-Yos is possibly due to the influence of people sharing YouTube videos of themselves doing tricks, as well as the re-emerging trend of traditional toys.

JULY 2019

Treasure X – In this game/toy kids are able to “search for real gold through layer after layer of pirate adventure with this surprise-reveal collectable.” It’s one of the games where you have to excavate and dig through a tray of dirt to reveal your toy. You can then trade and collect different characters.

Basically, Treasure X brings collectables and surprise packaging to a new (boys) audience.

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THE INDEPENDENT

OPINION

Hit the road!

Our favourite Independent retailer talks about the value of getting out to see as many toy shops as possible and implores other retailers to do the same

Bestsellers VOLUME: 1) Hot Wheels Singles – Mattel 2) Sun & Moon Pokémon Cards – Asmodee 3) L.O.L. Hair Surprise Dolls – MGA VALUE: 1) L.O.L. Hair Surprise Dolls – MGA 2) L.O.L. Bling Surprise Dolls – MGA 3) L.O.L. Under Wraps Dolls - MGA

At best, the results were mixed.

I have a number of large toy retail stores within a few miles of my doorstep that I visit regularly, as I like to keep up to date with promotions, markdowns and so forth. This trip was different. And by different, I mean exactly the same – but it was different in that I spent many, many minutes on Google Maps, calculating how far each location was, trying to plan the route to avoid big cities during rush hour. I have to say that although it doesn`t sound like much, I am a creature of habit and I very much enjoy routine. I do not welcome change, so this is a big step for me.

And yet, every year I have taken two days out of my schedule to get out and about in the UK to see as many toy retailers as possible.

The point of writing this is to show that if you are a toy retailer – in particular an indie toy retailer – you have to get out there.

Visiting your closest competitors will tell you a lot, but it doesn`t give you an in-depth and strong

“

If you are a toy retailer – in particular an indie toy retailer – you have to get out there

“

I

have just arrived back home after a long two days on the road, travelling over 300 miles with the sole aim of visiting as many toy retail stores as possible.

“Why?”, you might ask? So do I! I have done this for a number of years now, following a fruitful conversation with a competitor of mine who always spent a lot of time, effort and money on obtaining information. I can`t discuss what his motives were, but I thought I would take a step on the wild (or absolutely crazy) side and see for myself whether or not it was worth investing the time.

THE SECRET SUPPLIER

Know your onions Hold onto your hats and listen up, as this is something on which The Independent and The Secret Supplier both agree – get out and visit more toy retailers

“

From his retail visits, The Independent gains vital information on ranging, closeout activity and margins

“

O

n occasion, I completely disagree with the sentiment expressed by The Independent in his monthly articles. But not this month!

This column by The Independent is a must read story of a strategy that can be employed by any retailer who wants to improve his or her business.

The Independent describes his wearisome retail visits where he observes, or rather – to use

his language – spies on the activities of his competitors.

From his retail visits, The Independent gains vital information on ranging, closeout activity and margins. All of this information can be used to negotiate with his company reps to secure a better deal.

To be a successful retailer, it makes good sense to watch the activities of larger competitors, like Smyths and The Entertainer.

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d!

The first year I took this task on I found it so tiring. So much of my energy went into trying to focus on the sat nav and figure out which lane I should be in. Because of this stress I didn`t learn much either.

I almost stopped the whole thing after just one year, but my friend questioned my negativity and told me to give it another go. He suggested I visit a different area of the country.

I did, and it was insightful. I hear regularly from big bosses of suppliers that they are not out in the stores enough to see what is going on. This is ridiculous, as knowing your customers should be part and parcel of working together. But I can see where they are coming from.

All businesses have it tough at the moment, and to spend time out on the road when there is stuff to do in the office seems wrong – but I am telling you it isn`t.

I visited three Smyths stores over the last two days, and in each store

they had over 500 pieces of Ryan`s World stock on display across the various products. So, I took photos, sent them to my rep and asked why we are so starved of stock, when we had placed large orders very early in the year. I will follow this up with him, make my point and hopefully secure myself some stock that my customers can purchase.

In this instance it helps give weight to an argument. When I visited one store in the past and had that discussion with my rep, I was simply told that it must have been a fluke, as the big retailers are also out of stock – or maybe they just got their shipment in late. But when you go into three stores, it leaves no wriggle room.

Also, I notice that when I am in the same retailer, but in different locations, it helps me to remember the deals they have on and get a feel for how heavily they have bought into certain lines. Spending time in these stores also offers the opportunity to hear feedback from customers. I used to spend over an hour in one store, but the staff started to look at me funny, as if

But why are these retailers consistently successful? Well, the answer can be found within their stores if you look hard enough, and this is what The Independent has been doing.

He uses the intelligence that he acquires on these retail visits to improve the offer he gets from larger suppliers. It is difficult to put a value on this intelligence, but it should encourage all independent retailers to follow The Independent’s example.

And, of course, this does not only apply to retailers. The same argument can be just as easily applied to suppliers. To really understand what is going on in our industry, it is vital that we suppliers spend time at retail and

listen to retailers. Many suppliers will say that they are too busy running the company to “waste” time away from the business. Of course, this is a clear indication that the supplier does not really understand the value in getting out to retail. I wonder, is this the same type of supplier who does not study all the letters of complaint about his or her product – or worse, does not personally reply to letters from small children who go to the trouble of writing a letter to the company about their favourite character?

This month, The Independent is talking about a vital subject that applies equally to retailers and suppliers alike. So, for that Mr Independent – thank you!

argument when trying to create your own promotions.

Let me explain...

JULY 2019

5

The number of years that The Indie has been taking his annual road trip to get out and visit as many retail outlets as possible.

I had two heads – of course they were missing the fact that I was simply spying on them.

To an extent, I suppose that it is hard to put into words exactly what I am able to gain from the trip. But this is my fifth year of doing it, and afterwards there are always a raft of emails sent, meetings arranged, and issues raised – most of which are successfully resolved.

Another thing I learnt during a previous trip was about the markdowns given by a big supplier for a range that wasn`t working. I never would have seen this unless I had travelled far enough to do so, because the retailer I saw it in isn`t anywhere near me. This allowed me to get the markdown monies I needed to help move the stock through. This may have come eventually, as it would have been brought up during our meetings, but what has more impact, saying that you need some help to get rid of a range, or showing a photo of help that has already been given?

One rule for all The Secret Supplier advises not only retailers but also suppliers to get out and make store visits to really understand what is going on in the industry.

27

SPOTLIGHT FOCUS SPIN MASTER

Nailed it Hedley Barnes, GM Northern Europe, Spin Master talks about the Cool Maker brand, the importance of listening to retailers and about how the company approaches product development Can you tell us a bit about the Cool Maker brand?

The Cool Maker brand has always been positioned as an arts and crafts product at retail and it has performed well within this category. From sewing to pottery to bracelet making and now easy manicures, the Cool Maker brand has kept up with the needs and wants of the child of today.

First launched in 2012, with the Sew Cool machine, Cool Maker has expanded its product offering over the years to provide all the tools children need to create endless designs.

Within the current product line, you can learn real skills like sewing, pottery, baking, bracelet making, nail design, as well as hair and makeup.

From where did you draw inspiration when developing this range?

Spin Master is known for pushing the boundaries of creativity, innovation and fun across all brand portfolios and entertainment properties – and Cool Maker is no exception.

Our Cool Maker team embodies what the brand stands for by staying ahead of the curve and on top of growing trends.

The team continuously participates in trend-seeking trips, where the scour the globe in search of inspiration and new product designs. With Go Glam Nail Stamper, the team was inspired by an outdoor nail kiosk that they spotted on a street in New York City.

What makes the Cool Maker Go Glam Nail Stamper so appealing?

The Cool Maker Go Glam Nail Stamper brings the intricate and trendy nail designs from salons home with a quick and easy-to-use nail stamping machine.

Our patented nail polish provides a seamless transfer from the nail design cartridge onto the nail without any mess. Children can simply pop in the desired design, paint their nails with their favourite Go Glam nail polish colour and press down on the stamper. With three easy steps, their nails can go from a simple manicure to beautiful and detailed nail designs.

How will Spin Master be supporting this month’s launch of the Cool Maker Go Glam Nail Stamper?

The launch will be supported with TV and digital advertising, as well as an extensive PR campaign that will target consumer media, together with beauty, parenting and youth influencers to share just a few of our plans!

Fun fact!

The Go Glam Nail Stamper was inspired by an outdoor nail kiosk that was spotted by the Spin Master team in New York City.

“

We believe that by developing innovative toys, games and entertainment we can excite retailers and ultimately delight our consumers

Do you feel it is important to build strong working relationships with retailers?

Absolutely! It is also very important to listen to our retailers’ advice and needs, as they are closest to their customers.

We value the partnerships we have with our retailers in each of the regions in which we operate.

”

How does Spin Master approach product development?

At Spin Master, we believe that by developing innovative toys, games and entertainment we can excite retailers and ultimately delight our consumers.

We have a strong history of bringing consumers magical experiences with products like Zoomer and Hatchimals.

Spin Master has dedicated teams focused on scouring the globe in search of new ideas and innovation – and in addition to our own team of internal designers and engineers, we also work with a group of 200 external inventors globally. These ideas and concepts eventually make their way into our 36-month brand innovation pipeline.

To support the launch and sales of our products, we develop robust marketing campaigns. For example, we create compelling content for digital channels like YouTube and design impactful retail displays.

Spin Master has a vast offering that spans multiple categories. How does this broad portfolio benefit retailers?

With such a broad portfolio – and toys representing a diverse mix of play patterns – we have created a more sustainable revenue base. Our 36-month brand innovation pipeline allows us to plan for ups and downs within certain segments and to offset when needed.

200

The number of external inventors that Spin Master works with globally.

01628 535000 | www.spinmaster.com 18

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RETAIL

OPINION

Know your customer F

rom Angel to Highbury & Islington may sound a bit like a best-sellers for the season may be present, but equally they game of Monopoly (or Mornington Crescent for Radio 4 may not. Not everything appeals to every child in the same fans) for those in the London know, but it is in fact a 1.8-mile way – irrespective of location – and it is the job of the indie journey along a road called Upper Street. This is an affluent part toy shop proprietor to understand the makeup of the local of London and among other things the thoroughfare has multiple demographic and to act accordingly. restaurants, cheap and less so, bijoux giftware shops, a theatre, And so, I have a challenge for toy shops and their owners. convenience stores and, of course, places to have a cocktail.

How easily can you answer the following questions?

There is also a toy shop called After Noah, which has been 1. Do you know the proportion of families in your around since 1990. This is the People’s Republic of Islington, so immediate area that have kids of a toy-desiring age? you’d expect the toys on offer to be ‘right on’ and you would not 2. Do you know the sort of things that their parents be disappointed. If you like a not-too-bright looking store front, would like them to play with? Does this mean wooden toys and soft toys of the kind that look both nostalgic electronic or toys to support development – or both? and almost handmade, then this is the place for you. And 3. How often do you change the stock in your store when you see the name Steiff you know that you are in luxury, and how reflective of your location is your offering? generally wallet-voiding territory.

4. Do you really know what shoppers in your area want?

What is absent are guns (of the plastic variety), electronic 5. Do you offer anything other than toys? screen-based toys and items such as scaled down versions of Ferraris or Mercedes that you sometimes see over-indulged kids In case you’re wondering, the last question in the list is to test-driving in the toy departments of large department stores in make you think about what there might be for adults who central London. This then is a toy shop as many of those for whom wander in to your shop. For many grown-ups, a trip to a toy childhood is a thing of the distant past might remember. It’s the shop is not a thing of wonder but instead something to be stuff of AA Milnes or the Famous Five but brought up-to-date and endured and which will probably be undertaken, at best, offered to an appreciative North London somewhat arty audience. twice a year: Christmas and birthday time. By being a dualIt should be noted that this is a toy shop, but it is also a store purpose store with both sides of the business being served by in which you can buy furniture and gifts, much of it made or (in the same workshop, After Noah provides more than a single the case of vintage pieces) restored in situ. This specialist reason for dropping in to take a look. really is an old curiosity shop and for those with It is also not like every other toy shop time, it’s the sort of place where the whole family as far as its merchandise is concerned. A It is the job recent quick scoot around a handful of can have a browse. All of which is a long way of of the indie saying – know your customer! small toy stores in London and the SouthAfter Noah could easily be a place of bright East revealed that in this respect it is very toyshop plastic, with little in the way of educational toys or much the exception. Even allowing proprietor to toys that feel pleasantly old-fashioned. The reason for the fact that toy shops are not why it is not is simple: there may not be that much understand the everywhere, shoppers do travel of a market for that kind of thing in this modish makeup of the and if they see more or less and worthy part of inner London. the same thing in multiple local After Noah is approaching its 30th birthday. fatigue is an demographic and locations, Over the years the shop has evolved to remain in inevitable consequence. tune with its location; once that fancy Steiff teddy to act accordingly Apologies, therefore, for has been purchased, it’s only a short walk down perhaps having written at the road to Ottolenghi, the restaurant where every some length about a single dish seems to have about 30-plus ingredients and which would shop that sells toys, but it is emblematic do well in a cookery Olympics. of what a good store should do if it wants The question is how many toy shops are as at ease with their to stay the course. Having the right things location as this time-honoured indie? It’s actually pretty easy to in your shop is a lot more than just ticking find places where toy shops are thin on the ground – if they exist at off the top ten items that appear with all – and to find an empty unit. Then it’s off to the trade fair, splash predictable regularity in the weeks that lead out, stock your store and, finally, wonder why the tills aren’t ringing up to Christmas. out in quite the merry fashion that you might have imagined.

Think carefully and don’t just follow The point about toy shops – like the one in Islington – is that the plush herd.

John Ryan addresses the importance of knowing your customer when merchandising a toy store

“

”

John Ryan is Stores Editor at Retail Week. He has worked for the magazine for more than a decade covering store design, visual merchandising and what makes things sell in-store. In a previous life he was a buyer.

tnp.media

WHAT’S N Brand spanking new launches from top toy companies to help you sell more

Meet the Bellies!

FLAIR 0208 643 0320 www.flairplc.co.uk Flair’s fun new doll brand, the Bellies, will be ready for adoption from July.

The Bellies are the craziest, cutest and funniest interactive The Bellies babies are able to interact with one another. babies with a unique play value – not to mention collectability and heaps of surprises.

Born in Bellyville, each baby comes with its own story and personality.

Take their plasters off to hear a heartbeat, listen to them babble in their own language – and watch as they interact with their Belly siblings. And the surprises don’t stop there. Adoptive parents will soon discover their new baby’s birthmark and find the surprises left behind in their diaper.

Did you know?

Ritzy roll out TOMY 01271 336155 | www.tomy.com

Watch out for…

The Ritzy Rollerz multi-media campaign across TV, magazines, PR and digital channels.

30

July sees the launch of Ritzy Rollerz - the all-new collectable line featuring a range of characters on wheels for children aged four- to seven-years-old.

Each Ritzy Rollerz character boasts its own unique features, as well as hidden wheel charms in the ‘booty’ trunk. The range taps into current play patterns, offering children the chance to accessorise and experience different textures and surprises.

Starting in June 2019, Ritzy Rollerz is supported by a multi-media takeover across TV, magazines, PR and digital channels. PopJam and YouTube will showcase a series of webisodes that delves into the world of Ritzy Rollerz and its characters, while an owned media content strategy will expand reach further. Waves one and two are available from July 2019.

Dress to impress JANOD/JURATOYS sales@juratoys.co.uk www.janod.com The P’tite Miss Dressing Table is a beautiful wooden vanity station that features a large round mirror and a functioning drawer that opens so that little ones can put away their precious things. Children can sit comfortably on the stool as they play with the ten beauty and hairstyling accessories that come included.

Children can be just like mummy as they let their imaginations run free.

Also available from Janod is the best-selling P’tite Miss Vanity Case that makes the perfect playtime accompaniment to this fun piece of toy furniture.

Fact!

The P’tite Miss Dressing Table comes with ten beauty and hairstyling accessories.

Pocket money pleasers MAGIC BOX TOYS 01403 251286 www.magicboxint.com Magic Box Toys has announced plans for a fourth series of SuperZings, hitting shelves later this year.

SuperZings is the ‘hero vs. villain’ pocket money range that The number sees everyday objects and food as collectable characters. The brand of new already has 11 million units in the UK. SuperZings Series 4 will see the introduction characters of 80+ new characters, including that will be rare finds, with accessories and playsets adding new elements of launched in gameplay to further evolve the Series 4. world of SuperZings.

SuperZings Series 4 will be supported by a significant marketing launch campaign comprising TV, digital, social, unboxings, PR and webisodes.

80+

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NEW Get the drift WILTON BRADLEY 01626 835400 www.wiltonbradley.com

16km/h The max speed that can be reached by the Typhoon Power Drift Trike

2019 sees the introduction of the Typhoon Power Drift Trike and two new electric scooters – the Electro and Energizer. The Typhoon Power Drift Trike was created using in-house tooling and 3D design, evolving the Viper design and colourway.

With an impressive run time of 60 minutes and max speed of 16km/h this impressive ride-on provides endless outdoor fun.

The new Electro and Energizer electric scooters also follow on from the unique Viper design. The electric scooters market is currently growing at a fast pace, especially as the use on roads has been legalised in certain countries.

Did you know?

This new Monopoly game comes with an interactive Mr. Monopoly banking unit.

Corner the market HASBRO 020 8569 1234 www.hasbro.com Suitable for children aged eight-plus, the Monopoly Voice Banking game features lights and sounds and comes with an interactive Mr. Monopoly banking unit.

The iconic Monopoly top hat is voice-activated and the personality of Mr. Monopoly handles all of the game’s transactions. He keeps tabs on players’ money and properties, so there’s no cash or cards to think about.

Talk to Mr. Monopoly and he responds. Press your token’s button and say, “Buy St. James Place” And Mr. Monopoly will track the transaction, keeping the game moving.

To win the Monopoly Voice Banking game, travel around the board aiming to be the person with the most money and highest property value.

The game includes, a Top Hat banking unit, game board, four tokens, 22 title deed cards, one “Get Out of Jail Free Card,” four reference cards, 16 houses, 16 hotels, two die, and game guide. The game requires three AA batteries.

The Monopoly Voice Banking game is a two to six player game that is now available, having launched at the beginning of July.

JULY 2019

Rescue and reveal VIVID IMAGINATIONS 01483 449944 www.vividtoysandgames.co.uk

What lies beneath

Muddy Buddies is the exciting new Children can collectable that launches in July. soak Muddy The Muddy Buddies pets have been Buddies to reveal abandoned and are waiting for children their beautiful to come to their rescue. new pals.

Little ones can release their Muddy Buddies from their crates; place them in warm water and use the included brush to remove the mud, revealing their beautiful friends beneath.

There are twelve friends to collect in each series of Muddy Buddies. The first series are domestic animals including cats and dogs. The second series will be launched later in the year and will feature wild animals.

Muddy Buddies will be supported with a strong marketing campaign, encompassing TV, digital and kid influencer activity, across a variety of platforms.

31

Big Challenge: Big success

Juratoys

More than 150 industry folk ran, swam and cycled to raise funds during the Toy Trust’s Big Challenge in June, with heroic performances, laughs and even some sunshine. TnP was on hand to cover the events of the day

A

round 200 people from across the industry gathered in Wallingford, Oxfordshire on Saturday 8 June to raise money for The Toy Trust’s chosen charities via the annual Big Challenge event.

The fundraising day saw 150 toy folk get stuck into the sporting events from companies including event sponsor Generation Media, as well as Flair, Character Options, Hasbro, VTech, Mattel, Vivid Toy Group, Epoch, Jakks Pacific, Lego and Disney to name a few.

Brave participants were keen to raise a bit of money for charity by throwing themselves into one of the gruelling challenges that had been organised by the Toy Trust.

Graham Canning, Chairman of the Toy Trust, says: “It was a great day.

The weather was kind to us and stayed dry. I would like to thank everyone for their support of the Toy Trust’s Big Challenge event. Well done to those who swam, ran, cycled and walked! It was good to see the

“

industry coming together to help raise our target of £100K The Toy towards less fortunate children Trust is one of and to see and meet two of the most fulfilling the charities we are helping: charities we work Over The Wall (a charity that aims to empower children with with. As an serious illnesses to become agency, we’re the hero of their own story) fully embedded and my AFK (a charity that with the work of supports disabled children and the Toy Trust and young people by providing mobility equipment, education, we are training, employment support committed to and promoting self-advocacy). raising as much The work that they do is so money as inspiring and it’s not too late possible for this to donate!”

Helen O’Brian, Head of great cause Corporate Fundraising, Over Jonathan the Wall, says: “The fundraised money from the Toy Trust Chambers, really does make a huge Generation Media difference to our programmes.

We would like to thank the Toy Trust, all who took part, and Hasbro, who have been supporting our charity for many years.”

The events included the Sprint Triathlon, the Olympic Triathlon, the 3km and 7km Runs and the 60km Bike Ride. Although it was all about the taking part and not the winning, credit must be paid to those firstplace finishers in each event. Coming first in the Sprint Triathlon was Phil Markham of Lego, who completed the event in 01h 09m 26s.

The gold medal winner in the Olympic Triathlon event was Jonathan Chambers of Generation Media, who completed in 02h 38m 36s. Robert Lyon took home another gold for Generation Media (what are they feeding these guys?), who was the fastest in the 7km Run, while the 5km Run went to Andy Gosling of HIT Entertainment. And last but by no means least, the 60km Bike Ride went to Pete Dibak of Flair who crossed the finish in a highly commendable 2h 06m 26s.

TnP’s Simon Davis, Flair Chairman Peter Brown, and TnP Chairman Malcolm Naish support the athletes

Toy Trust Chair Graham Canning and Founder of The Entertainer Gary Grant 1

tnp.media

Event sponsors Generation Media

“

The Toy Trust is one of the most fulfilling charities we work with.

As an agency, we’re fully embedded with the work of the Toy Trust and we are committed to raising as much money as possible for this great cause

“

Jonathan Chambers, Generation Media

Hasbro boys are all smiles

“

The John Adams team celebrates completing the Big Challenge

Daddy looks like a carrot in his swimming hat – I’m really proud of him

The Flair team with Chairman Peter Brown

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“

The Character Options team show off their medals

Five-year-old Why are we Joshua, son of Alex taking part?

Reynolds, Vivid Toy Group Charity baby!

It’s great to be able to raise money for children and give them an opportunity to play

“

Susan Journeaux, Flair

Vivid’s Alex Reynolds and son Joshua

Toy Trust Chair Graham Canning and the BTHA’s Toy Trust organiser Matt Jones

Disney celebrates medals all round

Jon Diver of Character Options and Jeff Taylor of Arena Azure

JULY 2019

The Mattel team turn out for Toy Trust’s Big Challenge 2

Tee party The weather was a mixed bag for the toy industry golfers who made their way to the 11th annual TnP Goring and Streatley Golf Day, but it didn’t dampen their competitive spirit!

Malcolm ‘Bubba’ Naish reports on the day

N

ow in its 11th year, we all thoroughly enjoyed the day despite some most unkind weather in the afternoon round.

With fantastic staff at the golf club looking after us extremely well, the morning ninehole Texas Scramble was once again a most closely-fought competition, with the winning team of Richard Dinham (Character Group), Keith Elmer, Richard Wells and Mark Jones (Paul Lamond Games) putting in a most impressive score.

For our golfing readers, this team managed FIVE birdies in the nine holes and a score of 26.8.

Second – the team of Mike Barratt, Martin Stone, David Snow (Jakks) and Graham Gardiner (Rubies) with 28.4.

An excellent effort comprising of two Birdies and one eagle three on the par-five fifth hole.

Third with 29.4 were Lance Brown, Phil Green and Steve Richardson.

Following a hearty lunch of ham, egg and chips, the serious business of the afternoon got under way.

With not only the ‘Individual Stableford’, ‘Team Four-Ball’ and ‘Yellow Ball’ up for grabs and some serious prizes, we also of course had the ‘Nearest the Pins’ and

Bubba Naish

‘Longest Drive’ to compete for, along with ‘Best Gross’.

The ‘Individual Stableford’ competition was won by Lance Brown – playing off eight he scored 38 points.

In second place and playing perfectly to his handicap of 14 was Mark Jones with 18 points on each nine – 36. David Snow was third on countback from Stu Nicholas with both on 35.

The ‘Team Four-Ball’ is perhaps the most competitive of the various competitions and this year was no exception.

The winning team of Kevin Moore (Newbright), Mike Brighty, Adrian Whyles (Interplay) and Lee Clowes (Trends) scored 111 points, closely followed

by Lance Brown, Phil Green, Alex Gribben and Steve Richardson on 110 and third with 107 Martin Stone, David Snow, Graham Gardiner and Mike Barratt.

Only two teams managed to retain their yellow ball throughout the 18 holes and this competition was won by the Triptrees – Susan, Brian and James – and Phillip Morris.

We managed to lose ours on the third, so well done to the winners.

We have always had a special trophy to celebrate those golfers with higher handicaps (24-28) with a handsome cup and trophy for the winner to keep.

Richard Dinham was a most worthy winner this year with 39 points playing off 28, also winning the ‘Longest Drive’, so a most successful day for Richard – the handicap committee will be meeting shortly to discuss next year’s handicaps!

The Mike Arnold trophy for the ‘Best Gross’ was won by Stu Nicholas with just 75 shots playing off three.

A most worthy second was Lance Brown on 77 playing off a handicap of eight.

‘Nearest the Pin’ winner was Mike Brighty, ‘Nearest the Pin in Two’ on the 18th was Steve Wells with, as already mentioned, ‘Longest Drive’ being won by Richard Dinham.

And congratulations to Susan Triptree on winning the Ladies Trophy with 33 points.

Our Editor Georgie Dobie was on hand to present the winners’ trophies.

We look forward to Tuesday 2 June, 2020, when we hope that the weather will be warm enough to warrant a barbeque for our next TnP Golf Day in Goring and Streatley.

tnp.media

Mum Nicola says:

“

Candylocks really lend themselves to pretend play

A whole lock of love Evie, five, got together with her friends Dolly and Lennie after school to create a new girl squad with the help of Spin Master’s new Crazylocks dolls – Evie’s mum Nicola tells us more Dolly and Lennie are two of Evie’s closest girlfriends who pop over to the house often for some afterschool fun. I’m always on the look-out for things that they can do together, so when I had the opportunity to bring home four of the new Candylocks dolls from Spin Master, I was keen to see what the girls would make of them.

It can be hard to keep up with Evie

when it comes to her hobbies and favourite toys – in that sense she’s very much your typical fiveyear-old of today – but Candylocks definitely made an impression on her and her favourite gal pals.

Evie loves anything cute and colourful – and when you throw novelty surprise and collectability into the mix, you’ve struck Evie-gold!

With Candylocks, kids can collect 20+ different dolls in the range, each shaped like a cotton candy cone that can be unwrapped to reveal what’s hidden inside.

Adding that wow-factor, each doll features its own scent, such as vanilla cupcake and cotton candy, and 30cm-long, soft, multi-coloured ‘cotton candy’ hair for easy styling.

The girls loved making over their new girl squad members, customising their dolls’ luscious locks with the mystery hair gems, hair twirlers and pin accessories that are included. For their modest price point, I was happily surprised with how much you got for your money.

Evie, who is a bit of a style icon in the making, was particularly impressed that each doll’s accessories followed a different theme. She couldn’t stop talking about how much she liked the colours – and of course now wants

s: y a s e i Ev e h I loves!t colour

“

“

“

S R O D A S S A AMB L A I C E SP

20+

The n umbe r of Candy locks dolls availa ble to collec t.

them all!

Candylocks certainly ticked all of Evie’s boxes – and Dolly and Lennie loved them too! Dolly was obsessed with how they smelt (they really do smell delicious!) and Lennie was really good at thinking up pretend play scenarios in which their new girl gang could exist.

As someone who used to play with dolls growing up, I remember making up my own stories, imagining what cool things they may have gotten up to on any given day. There was definitely a sense of nostalgia as I watched Evie play with her girlfriends. These palm-sized fashionistas really lend themselves to pretend play and the social element is the cherry on top of the cake as far as I’m concerned.

Contact Spin Master 01628 535000 www.spinmaster.com

FEATURE

WOODEN AND ROLE PLAY TOYS

Good old-fash i Wooden and role play toys is a category that sparks nostalgia at the same time as supporting today’s parent consumers who are ever-more focused on actively supporting their child’s early development. TnP finds out why role play and wooden is a win-win…

T

hink back to your own childhood, and the items you’d pick out as ‘favourite toys.’

There’s a good chance that several of them may have Items been wooden.

The joy of wooden and such as train traditional role play toys is that they tend to be well sets, based designed, beautifully made on classic, and of high quality, and those important selling points add evergreen up to generations of play value. So, it’s really no play patterns, surprise that this evergreen also inspire category is so popular with consumers of all ages. the nostalgia Kerry Abass, is Marketing Manager at online toy factor that subscription service, Whirli. spans Founded by Nigel Phan in 2018, users sign up to a generations learning library plan enabling them to create a toy box Katy Fletcher, perfectly tailored to their Ravensburger UK child and one can that also be updated.

“Nigel became aware of the constant need parents feel to change and upgrade toys to aid development, and with growing concerns for the environment and sustainability, he wanted to

“

”

launch an affordable business that would avoid the problem of unwanted toys,” says Kerry.

“We have customers across the country, with several in quite remote locations, such as the Scottish Highlands, and the key point is that we make toys affordable, with no risk.

“Wooden toys is undoubtedly one of our most popular categories, and it’s one parents in particular love. These toys tend to be durable, well made and of high quality, so they last for a long time, and they also look great in your home.

“Wooden and role play toys also sit very comfortably with our sustainable message.

Environmental issues have become top of mind with consumers, and these toys can be used multiple times by multiple children.”

Kerry says that Whirli has great relationships with brands including Le Toy Van, Janod and Melissa & Doug, famed for their wooden toys.

“We work closely with them, and they are really responsive with beautiful products. I think the pretend play toys such brands specialise in help develop children’s emotional capabilities and can help boost language skills as well.

“When playing with them children have to assume a completely different personality to themselves and it helps them to understand what it’s like to walk in another’s shoes. These social skills, especially in the years leading up to starting school, are invaluable.”

Juratoys is renowned for the company’s expertise in educational, wooden toys. Jura’s

DID YOU KNOW? Janod wooden toys are designed by

Janod Wooden Toys

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Sales and Marketing Manager, Michelle Probert, says that wooden pieces are very ‘of the moment’ with the associated environmental message.

“Our Janod wooden toys are designed by parents – and we feel it’s important to design product that children will love and cherish, and that last a long time,” Michelle says. “We have a lot to offer when it comes to role play and have launched over 200 new products this year, including the gorgeous Hippo and Llama ride-ons, and the stylish Lagoon Maxi Cooker, that parents will love just as much as their children. In addition, our Green Market continues to be the best seller within our role play collection, followed by the Happy Day Cooker.

“We have certainly noticed that there is an increasing amount of our customers who enquire about sustainability. Janod is the number one wooden toy brand in France, and because every child is different, Janod creates clever toys that helps them develop their skills.”

Mike Lynch, Senior Brand Manager at LeapFrog, says role play toys are attractive to consumers as they allow children to imitate parents through play.

“We then add extra value by including learning aspects throughout the toys,” he says.

“Developing role play skills is so important for young children as this helps with gross and fine motor skills, and can also help to introduce numbers, colours and shapes.

The LeapFrog play parents. range starts as young as six months,

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h ioned fun

Leapfrog

Ravensburger

but our core age range is two to five years.

“Our Shapes & Sharing Picnic Basket and Scoop & Learn Ice Cream Cart are both selling well this year, and 2019 will also see the introduction of the Smart Sizzling BBQ Grill, with nine food pieces for pretend grilling and even a question button for helping to teach colours and numbers.”

Casdon has much experience in role play toys. The Little Helper collection is home of the Dyson replica vacuums. These toy vacuums feature real suction and spinning beads – an instantly recognisable favourite. Another classic is the Hetty and Henry Household

Casdon

JULY 2019

Cleaning Sets.

Also perfect for pretend play is the Development at Ravensburger Little Cooks collection UK, says wooden toys often and the Mr Kipling Cake Stand & represent a timeless, classic Tea Set that allows little ones to design style that doesn’t date. treat friends and family to “Items such as train sets, based afternoon tea. on classic, evergreen play patterns, And the new Tetley Tea Set will also inspire the nostalgia factor appeal to kids with the that spans generations,” famous ‘tea folk’ but also to Katy says. “Everyone in adults for its durability and a family can be involved Environmental nostalgic charm. in the play, and that can Marbel’s Hape brand has never be a bad thing. issues have become launched a fantastic “Wood is in BRIO’s selection of wooden and role DNA and the brand is top of mind with play toys for 2019 – not only successfully building on consumers, and extending existing ranges, this with innovations such as infant toys, but also such as the unique wooden and role play maintaining its use of interactive SMART Tech sustainably sourced range. The BRIO world toys can be used materials with new aims to spark multiple times by additional textures for added imaginations and enable sensory development. children to create a multiple children “We’ve launched some world of their own.

Kerry Abass, Whirli totally new concepts such as “BRIO has been part the Junior Inventor range,” of children’s playtimes says Sales Manager Joe for over a century, and Rushworth. “Offering is certainly seen as an anything from three to 15 ‘iconic’ brand among parents. experiments, the concept is based With clean, simple designs on a process of trial, error and inspired by the brand’s creation. Children can explore Scandinavian roots, the range is physics phenomena, with product visually impactful and details are including Hape’s Deluxe Scientific only added when it genuinely Workbench or the compact adds to the play and discovery.

Science Experiment Toolbox.

“One of the real benefits of “We’ve also introduced a wooden toys is the opennumber of new products to our endedness and adaptability they existing Kitchen & Food range, offer, from younger children from The Pop-Up Shop, which exploring wooden blocks or train comes complete with all the sets and developing dexterity components of a real working skills, to creating more complex shop, to the Tasty Proteins set.” scenarios and ‘playing our’ social Katy Fletcher, Head of interaction, helping them to make Marketing and Product sense of the world around them.”

“

”

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FEATURE

WOODEN AND ROLE PLAY TOYS

Play for time JANOD/JURATOYS sales@juratoys.co.uk www.janod.com Wooden toys are certainly getting attention at the moment.

Some newspapers are even running features on the subject. Last month, the Independent ran a story that featured Janod’s range.

The column spoke about eco-friendly toys – and mentioned wooden toys as a part of this subject, with reference to some of the company’s products.

Janod’s wooden toys are designed by parents and have a traditional feel, while also being educational. The company feels that it is important to design toys that will not only endure the test of time, but also ones that children will love and cherish. Recognising that every child is different, Janod creates clever toys that meet children’s needs in order to help them develop their skills.

This year, the company has launched over 200 new products.

These great new lines include the gorgeous Hippo – a design that is as cute as they come. With a leather effect seat and a handy storage compartment at the

Timeless toys JUMBO GAMES 01707 289289 www.jumbo.eu Jumbo Games’ wooden Goula toys range embodies the continuing trend of traditional play, through highquality toys, games and puzzles that are all developed to support learning through play.

This innovative and traditional range encourages children to play alongside each stage of early development.

The built-to-last and effortlessly timeless range teaches children core developmental skills. The range offers a learning through play solution that is much-loved by parents and children alike.

The products are of the highest quality and adhere to the strictest safety regulations to ensure safe play for children.

The fun Pull-Along Caterpillar, rhythmically moves and clicks when pulled, promoting sensory perception and handeye co-ordination, and the bright interactive pull-along duck, simply moves forward at the gentle pull of string, turning the inner-drum to reveal more full, colour movement and interactions that pre-schoolers will love.

Encouraging spatial awareness, dexterity and problem solving is the warm and bright shape-sorting Geometric Farm shape-sorter. This robust and sturdy farmhouse has been endorsed by the expert team at Fundamentally Children for its complete positioning of learning through play. The testers liked the theme and scope for discussion

38

200

Janod has launched over 200 new products this year. front, this ride-on Is like no other. To add to this, we also have the rideon Llama. Brightly-coloured with a Mexican theme, the llama will stop people in their tracks.

In terms of role play, Janod has a lot to offer. This year, the company has introduced the ever-so-stylish Lagoon Maxi Cooker – a product that parents will love just as much as their children.

Janod’s Green Market continues to be the bestseller within its role play collection, closely followed by the Happy Day Cooker.

Role play is a huge part of learning in the early years and this builds confidence for pre-schoolers.

The company has noticed that there is an increasing number of customers who enquire about the sustainability and materials used in its products – which Janod is happy to provide. Within its extensive portfolio of toys, there is already a good selection of FSC products and this continues to grow every year.

Fun learning Jumbo’s wooden Goula range teaches children core developmental skills; each product in the range has been developed to support learning through play.

between parent and child as part of the play pattern, with the product encouraging conversations around different shapes, colours and even the pictures on the building - facilitating counting of the objects building on numeracy and organisation skills.

Adding an extra dimension to the Goula range, is the 3-in-1 Musical toy, encouraging children to experiment and learn new sounds, with a range of instruments including the xylophone and cymbal. For further interactivity is a lovely version of the classic game of fishing with the Goula fishing game – delivering a variety of different game play formats with different shapes, patterns and colours. The game which is decorated with a host of aquatic creatures, fishes and dolphins is sure to be a firm family favourite.

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FEATURE

WOODEN AND ROLE PLAY TOYS

Turning up the heat LEAPFROG 01895 202 840 www.leapfrog.co.uk LeapFrog, a company acclaimed for its innovative learning toys for children, has an extensive range of role play toys for 2019 that actively teach important early learning skills, such as counting, shapes, colours and the alphabet, while introducing the problemsolving, creativity and social skills children will need to thrive in the 21st Century.

2019 will see a ‘grill-iant’ new addition to the LeapFrog role play range, with the introduction of the Smart Sizzling BBQ Grill. With nine food pieces for pretend grilling, and a further seven accessories for serving, children can place a food piece on the skewer to learn its name and colour – or turn the skewer to grill the food The LeapFrog’s play range and learn numbers. starts as young as six Open and close the lid to hear greetings and sing-along songs, then months, but the company’s press on the grill area to hear fun core age range is two- to cooking sounds or to jam along to five-years-old. LeapFrog’s the music. Turn the number dial to products offer that allset different cooking temperatures, important added value by while learning numbers, hot and cold, including learning aspects and fire safety. There is also a throughout the toys. question button that, when pressed, will ask questions about the food pieces that help to teach colours and

Fact!

Made from Scratch DKL MARKETING 01604 678780 www.dkl.co.uk Scratch Toys, distributed by DKL Marketing, offers fun wooden toys in beautifully designed packages.

The Furniture Collection is a popular seller from Scratch, with themed Tables and Chairs such as Space, Owls, Fish and more.

Children can develop their spatial awareness with the Circus Truck, by putting the circus animals in the truck Shape Sorter. The Seal has a magnet on the bottom, so it can ride along on the roof while children pull the truck!

A great wooden pick-up line is the Colourful Shape Sorters, Pull Alongs with Nodding Heads and so much more.

Scratch’s wooden musical instrument range includes maracas and ukuleles, guitars and drums. The 3-in-1 Musical Fish Bench has a drum, cymbal and a xylophone and is suitable for ages 12 months-plus.

The range also encompasses Jigsaws, Games and Outdoor.

40

numbers. Children will be able to play and learn through three modes of play including Learn, Music, and Explore.

The LeapFrog Shapes & Sharing Picnic Basket and Scoop & Learn Ice Cream Cart are both selling well for LeapFrog this year – and demand for these lines will undoubtedly continue to ‘heat-up’ as it moves further into summer. These new LeapFrog lines allow kids to immerse themselves in pretend play, as they pack their own picnic and lay on a summer time spread for their family and friends – whether that be on the living room floor or outdoors in the garden. The Scoop and Learn Ice Cream Cart is cream of the crop where role play is concerned. Kids will love putting on a show as they dish up their favourite flavours from the cart.

Smart thinking SMART GAMES 01903 885669 uk@smart.be Smart Games’ collection of wooden games will have little ones entertained for hours.

Arrange hardwood towers and stairs to create the path for a knight and his princess to be reunited in Camelot Jr! Children will love this brain-teasing fun, as they complete the 48 challenges.

Pull a rabbit out of the box with Bunny Boo. Is the rabbit looking through the round hole or through the star-shaped one? Is it standing on the yellow, red or blue block? For age two and up.

Day & Night is a fun-filled game of logic that evolves with a child’s growing skills. Kids can arrange and stack the pieces to match the challenge.

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FEATURE

WOODEN AND ROLE PLAY TOYS

All aboard!

RAVENSBURGER 01869 363 800 www.ravensburger.com Fans of BRIO World can continue to expand their horizons this year with the introduction of the Safari Adventure Set, as well as further innovations in the SMART Tech range which brings additional life and action to the open-ended play offered by this exciting world.

The BRIO World Safari Adventure Set is a 26-piece addition to the popular range. It is fully compatible with all BRIO World Railway System items and enables children to explore the savannah as they enjoy imaginative animal play with the included train, tracks, animals and ranger. A Safari Airplane and a selection of additional Safari Animal and Wagon sets are also available.

The BRIO World SMART Tech range also continues to be a strong focus. Adding a new dimension of play to the world, this collection of high-tech additions includes SMART engines with sounds and lights which interact with Action Tunnels and the SMART Washing Station, putting the power in children’s hands as they arrange and rearrange the pieces offering endless combinations.

For younger BRIO fans, from 18 months, My First Railway continues to be a popular choice. Recent introduction the My First Railway Farm offers frustration-free play and hours of fun. Helping to introduce children to a world of farmyard animals, this 12-piece

set includes five wooden animals – each of which have three distinct sounds that are activated when they are placed in the farm meadow.

Ravensburger will roll out its most comprehensive BRIO marketing campaign yet for the second half, firmly setting this iconic and forward-thinking brand at the heart of pre-school play and beyond. This will include the first UK TV commercial for the brand, showcasing the imaginative new learning through play opportunities that the SMART Tech collection brings to the unique BRIO World. With the programme also including digital, PR and event activity, BRIO is set for a big year. A full range of high impact point of sale is also available to support retailers who ‘get on board’.

What’s new?

Ravensburger’s SMART Tech range adds a new dimension of play to the world. The high-tech additions include SMART engines with sounds and lights that interact with Action Tunnels and the SMART Washing Station.

Capture this castle Did you know?

MARBEL 0845 6000 286 www.marbel.co.uk

The Hape Viking Castle is a dollhouse-style castle that comes complete with wind-up flame drawbridge, bone ladder, lined treasure chest, dungeon with secret entrance and a spooky glow in the dark cobweb.

From the real world, to out of this world, you can rest assured that you will find it all among Hape’s range of role play toys for preschoolers. Transforming traditional play sets into the modern-day equivalent, welcome to a fantastic resource to help develop handeye coordination, creativity, social skills and spark imagination.

A world of Viking warriors, powerful wizards and dungeons awaits with this multi-level Viking Castle from Hape. This dollhouse-style castle has everything needed to act out scenes of noble rescue missions or dastardly deeds. Complete with wind-up flame drawbridge, bone ladder, lined treasure chest, dungeon with secret entrance and even a spooky glow in the dark cobweb.

For more realistic avenues of play, the Fire Station from Hape is a tri-level, life-like wooden model ready for any emergency rescue mission. From the rooftop helipad to the garage with working doors, this station includes a fully furnished office, eating and sleeping quarters, push button bell, alarm and fire pole to send your firefighter whizzing from top to bottom. But you don’t just get the Fire Station headquarters – you also get a fire engine and helicopter to take those rescue missions to new heights, providing

42

all the tools you need to bring a child’s mission to life.

And it’s not only the Viking Castle and Fire Station play sets that allow children to explore matters of role play, Hape continues to offer other opportunities to get to grips with the world around them. From rocket ships to pop-up shops, children can experience something new right at their very fingertips with Hape.

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Working suction

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Includes Carry Case

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Casdon Ltd., Cornford Road, Blackpool, Lancs FY4 4QW Tel: +44 (0)1253 766411 Fax: +44 (0)1253 691486 Email: toys@casdon.co.uk www.casdon.com

FEATURE

WOODEN AND ROLE PLAY TOYS

Keep it clean CASDON 01253 608248 www.casdon.co.uk 2019 continues to see a refresh across all Casdon packaging; with bright colours and bold designs.

The Little Helper collection is home of the Dyson replica vacuums. These toy vacuums feature real suction and spinning beads and will be an instantly recognisable favourite for children.

Another classic in the range is the Hetty and Henry Household Cleaning Sets. Henry’s set in striking red and Hetty’s in pale pink feature a dustpan and brush, mop, sweeping brush and more to help with those heavy cleaning tasks at home.

The Little Cooks collection is also the perfect way for kids to pretend at being all grown up. The Mr Kipling Cake Stand & Tea Set allows little ones to treat friends and family to afternoon tea without the added calories! Or why not have the little ones create a make-believe breakfast with the various Morphy Richards sets?

Everyone likes a proper tea party and the new Tetley Tea Set will appeal to kids with the famous ‘tea folk’ but also to adults for its durability and nostalgic charm.

For summer time, kids can help mum and dad have that garden looking ship shape with the Flymo Turbo Lite.

Did you know?

The Mr Kipling Cake Stand & Tea Set features a shapesorting cake stand.

Fun Fact Join the really useful crew MATTEL

Thomas didn’t feature in the first book in The Railways Series by the Reverend Awdry. The Three Railways engines was about Edward, Henry and Gordon.

01628 500000 www.mattel.com Fisher-Price Thomas & Friends Wood remains a key segment in the Thomas & Friends portfolio, with new additions to the range in 2019.

With an already broad range of engines inspired by the series, characters including Thomas, Nia, Percy and Rosie are joined by the new Wooden Diesel and Wooden Hiro in AW19.

The Thomas & Friends Wood Tidmouth Sheds features a working turntable that can hold up to five wooden engines. The playset includes a wooden Nia engine, who joined the Steam Team in 2018. Meanwhile, Thomas & Friends Wood Cranky at the Docks keeps everything moving at Brendam Docks with his working magnetic crane arm. Featuring three characters; Cranky the Crane, Bullstrode and Dock manager, four cargo pieces and two track adapters, which are compatible with other wood track systems.

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Play

Different!

32 High Park Road, Kew Gardens, Richmond TW9 4BH • United Kingdom Tel: +44 (0)20 8878 2133 • sales@juratoys.co.uk • website www.janod.com

FEATURE

WOODEN AND ROLE PLAY TOYS

Peppa’s in da house!

Fun fact Peppa’s Wooden Playhouse includes 25 accessories.

CHARACTER OPTIONS 0161 633 9800 www.character-online.com Character Options’ Peppa Pig Collection is to introduce a beautifully crafted wooden dwelling to its line-up – a wooden house that promises to be the most luxurious residence for Peppa yet!

Peppa’s Wooden Playhouse is fit for the superstar that Peppa Pig is. This impressive three-storey wooden house stands 75cm tall and has a different coloured backdrop and flooring in each of the eight rooms, even in the two attic rooms. There are around 25 accessory pieces to bring the home to life, such as Peppa and George figures, a host of furniture, a musical night-light, and a lights-and-sounds cooker.

As a major item in this autumn’s collection, Peppa’s Wooden Playhouse will be a key feature within a parent-focused marketing drive, while dual-viewing TV advertising and targeted pre-roll on YouTube channels will focus on pre-school fans.

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SPOTLIGHT PROFILE

Data driven

THE NSIGHTS PEOPLE

Nick Richardson, CEO, The Insights People and David Martin, who recently joined the company as Chief Commercial Officer, discuss the company’s offering. They explain how the data they capture can be used to support clients in the toy industry Nick, do you think data and market intelligence is becoming more important to the industry?

Very much so. Last year we undertook some research and spoke to more than fifty senior CEO, Nick Richardson marketing executives from the kids industry, and we found that 95 per cent of them felt market research was important to helping them achieving their goals, and 71 per cent stated that having access to the right kinds of data and information is the top challenge for their organisation. More than 80 per cent of businesses believed that the recent changes in GDPR legislation were going to have the biggest impact of their business.

I think this emphasises not only the growing importance of market intelligence but also highlights the impact of GDPR legislation, in that it has essentially taken away organisations’ ability to really understand their audience.

Do you have the power to see into the future?

Not quite, but we have consistently demonstrated how we are identifying trends before anyone else.

We talked throughout 2017 about how the gaming revolution (which we are still in the midst of) meant we were going to see gaming come to the fore across the industry and how cross-platform technology would enable a property to grow far quicker than we had ever seen before. Fortnite, which appeared in our data in August 2017, is the perfect example of this. When we brought it to the attention of our clients we knew it had the ingredients to become a major trend, because we have seen in previous years how the likes of Grand Theft Auto and Call of Duty are popular titles even among younger children.

K-Pop is another trend we have seen since 2017, which is now coming to the attention of mainstream culture.

We have been discussing how “Generation Speak” has the power to change the kids’ ecosystem forever.

Chief Commercial And I am convinced Officer, David Martin

JULY 2019

we will see a major trend coming from Generation Speak and kids increasing access to voiceactivated devices and the increasing preference to use their voices to control their devices.

You launched into Europe earlier this year, do you have other plans to grow internationally?

Absolutely. The move to Europe was important for us, and it means we are now operating in the UK, Europe and the US. But our vision is to become the global leader in kids market intelligence, and to do that we will continue to expand into new regions. We will be announcing our expansion into a new region next month, as operating in more regions is such a benefit to our clients, and enables us to provide significantly more value for them.

What makes your solution so special?

Firstly, everything we do is based on the customers’ needs and solving their problems. We are humble enough to listen to feedback and to always be looking to improve what we do, and how we do it.

We have built a real-time solution which is designed to help clients across their business – informing their advertising, content, licensing, marketing, product and sales strategies.

Our real-time portal provides them with the most dynamic and comprehensive overview of what is going on in the kids’ ecosystem. Our portal is fully interactive, meaning you can view, filter and interrogate the data to your own specifics needs.

As we continue to grow our team, and build new innovations, we can help our clients to not only understand their audience but also measure and evaluate their marketing and ultimately help them improve their ROI across their business. The most recent innovation which we have launched here – is a Brand Uplift service where we can not only track the effectiveness of a marketing campaign but also provide significant context based on all of our knowledge.

David, What made you decide to opt for a change in career?

I’ve enjoyed my long career in toys on the supplier side, so a new opportunity to help suppliers, retailers, and licensors achieve their goals in an evolving market is a new challenge for me, at a time when there is so much change in the kids’ market. I’m looking forward to joining a company that has gained a reputation so quickly in the industry for its expertise and integrity.

David, What are you looking forward to in your new role?

I’m excited to be joining a team of people that are dynamic and collaborative, and who are working

passionately to create something new that is going to help all aspects of the industry remain relevant with children for generations to come. It’s going to be fun!

David, what are your thoughts on state of the sector?

Today, the toy sector is particularly challenging for suppliers and retailers, so knowledge of product development and retail shift is so important. In 2018, toys as a sector was over double digits down on the prior year, and that trend hasn’t changed through Q1 2019. The children’s ecosystem is now more complex and there’s an inherent lack of understanding of the changes. Until I saw what Kids Insights delivers, I hadn’t seen anything that analyses this ecosystem with such information, insight, and breadth of data.

David What you think key opportunities and challenges are?

Getting the client base to understand the shifting market and adapt accordingly. There are still lots of opportunities with new tech products such as digital, apps and augmented/VR technology, but some traditional key categories are working well too, such as collectables (L.O.L. Surprise!, Pop! Vinyls, Fortnite etc.), dolls, and card games. Beyond the toy sector, there is huge scope for innovation in other child-specific categories. So, as technology evolves, there will be lots of exciting opportunities for toy brands.

There are also several exciting areas for toy

companies to develop more traditional toys that actively encourage parents to engage in play.

From the Parents Insights data I have seen, we can quantify the number of new parents who are actively playing with their children each day – and for toy companies to develop toys which are both parent and child-friendly is another exciting angle for brands to consider.

For more information, a complimentary report exploring the latest trends or to organise a discovery call to explore how The Insights People can help you, please visit www. kidsinsights.co.uk/toysnplaythings

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FEATURE

ARTS & CRAFTS

Wilton Bradley

Little hands, big impact!

From building a child’s confidence, to tackling anxiety, to sensory development, there’s so much more to arts and crafts than slapping paint on paper. TnP discovers more

T

he positive impact of engaging children with arts, crafts and messy play is far bigger Getting than the sum of its parts.

Clea Ewing, Co-Owner of children involved in independent toy retailer, Fun Learning, says: “We’ve done a lot arts and crafts of brainstorming with customers, and one thing that came up time activities at every and again was parental concerns age is a vital part of over a child’s lack of confidence their development. or specialist needs.

“Art and craft products Such activities help tackle anxiety, building confidence, speech and listening expand their abilities. And creative activities creative horizons, also have a multitude of sensory as well as helping benefits. A child’s progress isn’t purely about intellectual with fine motor development – creative confidence is crucial.” skills Clea says Fun Learning stocks Kirsty Mackenzie, well in excess of 200 products Bandai in the arts and crafts category.

“The Scholastic Kids brand, Klutz is a really important one for us. And Learning Resources’ Playfoam is another big seller. At the other end of the scale is StikBots by Brainstorm which children use to create stop animation. Other core suppliers for us, include West Design and French brand Djeco.

The category’s appeal is evergreen.

Creating something with children, doing something away from technology – even for a short time – is hugely beneficial and sets off different mental processes.”

One supplier that certainly knows the benefits of arts and crafts toys is John

“

Did you know?

Aquadoodle from TOMY offers children the chance to be creative with zero mess.

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Adams. Marketing Manager Lynette Norris says: “Messy play is vital for young children to learn and develop their imagination, explore their creativity and discover all the sensory skills. It’s especially important for children to get hands-on experience, as digital screens are no substitute to real physical play. For example, our Playstuff Dough range is great way for young children to create something while developing sensory skills.

“We invest in quality, evergreen brands such as Blopens, as we know they’ll have a healthy life cycle without being too trend led. We’ve found that focusing on traditional activities such as colouring and putting a new spin on it is the best way to keep things fresh.

ColourMazing is a great example of this.

Blopens also continues to be a best seller for us.”

Claire Ridley, Head of UK Marketing for TOMY, agrees that messy play has numerous benefits for children, particularly when developing and exploring imagination.

“However, there are times when parents don’t welcome mess and that’s where Aquadoodle comes into its own, unleashing children’s creativity but with zero mess,” Claire says.

“Aquadoodle is one of TOMY’s core brands. The range has something for all age groups, and we’ve recently seen a resurgence in popularity for our Peppa Pig inspired mat.

“There’s no doubt that arts and crafts toys will continue to develop and grow alongside younger generations, as parents recognise and understand the importance of creative play to a child’s development. To make the most of this growing market, we

are relaunching our ‘Doodle Bear’ with an interactive app.”

2019 also sees Wilton Bradley strengthen its arts and crafts offering.

With sales of its range of ‘The Great British Sewing Bee’ licensed sewing stations and kits still going strong, the company has introduced a new subbrand from Toyrific – Made It. Discussing the importance of engaging kids in creative play, Simon Hampton, Head of Sales and Marketing at Wilton Bradley said: “Letting kids’ imaginations run wild with different arts, crafts and messy play is very important. An example of this is our Yarn Animal product which gets kids feeling creative, as well as improving cognitive function.”

Also bringing something fun and creative to the category for 2019 is Bandai with Foodie Surprise. This new range offers children the chance to make their own food with sugar-free ingredients that they can eat and share with friends.

Various food carts and takeout boxes are available to collect in the range.

Other arts and crafts lines from Bandai include Sticker Fun that brings an easy and fun way to sticker and the Pretty Pixels Eraser Maker that allows children to make their own erasers.

Speaking of the importance of engaging children in creative activities, Kirsty Mackenzie, Marketing Manager at Bandai UK, says: “We feel that getting children involved in arts and crafts activities at every age is a vital part of their development. Such activities expand their creative horizons, as well as helping with fine motor skills. Variety in this space is key, which is why Bandai continues to innovate with products such as Pretty Pixels - tapping into current trends and reinvigorating what is often seen as a fairly traditional play sector.”

The arts and crafts category has never been more varied. And the growth in this category shows no sign of slowing down.

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Make it sweet BANDAI 0208 324 6160 www.bandai.co.uk New for 2019 is Foodie Surprise – a DIY sweetmaking kit. With various food carts to collect – from Ice Cream to Pizza Trucks, Foodie Surprise allows children to create real food that they can eat and share with friends.

All ingredients are sugarfree and takeout boxes are available as additional sweetmaking packs that can be used alone or in conjunction with existing carts. Foodie Surprise will benefit from a heavyweight marketing campaign including TV, digital and events.

Clever colouring JOHN ADAMS 01480 414361 www.johnadams.co.uk

The Pretty Pixels Eraser Maker allows children to make their own designed erasers using pixelated templates and microwave heat. The range features different themes from animals, fairies, cute and cool; with moulds and design sheets to create erasers of varying sizes to keep kids occupied for hours.

Sticker Fun brings an easy and fun way to sticker.

The high-quality stickers use a special adhesive to enable the users to stick, remove, and re-peel.

Did you know?

Ingredients in the sweetmaking kit Foodie Surprise are all sugar-free.

APRIL 2019

Did you know?

John Adams Leisure is expanding its creative play portfolio in 2019, with more than 20 Kids can make their new and refreshed product lines. own storybooks, The ColourMazing scripts and journals range is the new and with Bookeez. exciting way to colour in. The colour magically stops at the lines to reveal perfect pictures every time. Watch as the ink spreads to create colourful scenes. All the ink is washable and there’s a variety of sets to collect, including 3D Jungle Adventure, Garden Friends and an On the Go Case.

Bookeez is your very own bookmaking studio! Fact or fiction, poem or play, what will you create today? The clever Bookeez unit enables kids to create and re-create their own storybooks, scripts, journals and much more. Bring ideas to life by decorating, stamping and stencilling pages to see stories transform. It’s simple to change a page or the whole book with an easy click. Everything stores neatly inside to minimise mess, too.

The hugely successful Blopens range is extended for 2019, featuring new products at key price points including Neon, Pastel and Shimmer hanging packs. A Rainbow Set, which combines three colours into one Blopens Tool and Blopens Squeezy – a great junior starter kit for tiny hands – is also joining the range.

Glowpad has been paired with the ever-popular PAW Patrol license to allow little ones to draw their favourite firefighting pups with neon markers. Switch on to see your pictures glow and transform.

All the key new launches will benefit from TV, VOD and digital advertising, plus a full PR and social media plan.

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FEATURE

ARTS & CRAFTS

Did you know?

Get creative

TOMY is relaunching its Doodle Bear for today’s child with an interactive app.

TOMY

01392 281928 www.tomy.com Aquadoodle is one of TOMY’s core brands that helps support the development of children’s creative skills, through mess-free fun at home and on-the-go.

Arts and crafts toys remain popular with younger generations, as parents recognise the importance of creative play for a child’s development. To make the most of this growing market, TOMY is relaunching its Doodle Bear – a toy that has been reimagined for today’s child with an interactive app.

The Aquadoodle range has something for all age groups. Classics, like the Peppa Pig inspired mat, have recently seen a resurgence in popularity.

But TOMY has also been busy developing a number of new releases for AW19. The company has expanded its target age

Keep calm with Nebulous Stars MARBEL 0845 6000 286 www.marbel.co.uk Nebulous Stars offers tween girls from the age of seven a wide variety of artistic activities that encourage the use of calming practices such as meditation and relaxation.

From each of the six stars – Nebulia, Isadora, Hazelia, Marinia, Coralia and Petulia – comes an extensive selection of DIY crafting kits to create your own little piece of fairytale magic. They all come beautifully presented with mystical graphics and illustrations, perfect for gifting.

Coralia’s Porcelain Painting Set includes a bowl, plate and teaup featuring a gorgeous intricate pattern that is just crying out for a splash of colour from the eight paints provided.

Petulia’s Dreamcatcher Kit has two glow-in-the-dark bases to make an owl-themed dreamcatcher, while Coralia’s Bay Reef Fashion Set, lets children create their very own precious marine tiara with shells, beads, buttons and rhinestone stickers.

Finally, Nebulia’s Cosmic Jewellery Kit has everything you need to make five gorgeous fashion accessories – necklaces, rings and bracelets will add a little sparkle to your look, thanks to glitter powder, transfers, beads and rhinestones.

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from 18 months to three-yearsold with its new Learn and Play PRO range. This range includes its hero line My ABC Doodle, which will be supported with a TV campaign delivering over 600 TVRs. The range is great for older pre-schoolers to learn while they play – tracing letters and numbers before becoming more independent in their skills. Other new products in the Aquadoodle PRO range include Shape and Create and How to Doodle.

Mini menu GP FLAIR

020 8643 0320 www.flairplc.co.uk With Mini Delices it’s simple to create and decorate your own sweet treats in hundreds of tasty varieties. Already one of the leading creative food brands in France, budding young cooks can become mini patisserie chefs with the 4-in-1 Chocolate Workshop. Use the cute moulds and mini accessories to create chocolate sweets and lollies and then decorate with your favourite treats. The wrappers and mini gift boxes will be the icing on the cake when it comes to serving them to friends and family!

Also in the collection is the Mini Éclair Workshop, which turns everyday bread into delicious chocolate filled and topped fancies. Once shaped and decorated, the mini eclairs can be displayed on the cake stand style shelves or packed into teeny cake boxes ready to give away.

The ultimate mess-free craft tool, the Glitterific Glitter & Vacuum Studio lets children glitter up any item using a special glitter dispensing and vacuuming wand with the glitter cartridges and the sticker sheets included. Once their design is complete they can switch mode to vacuum the excess glitter.

Did you know?

Flair produces other creative products including Spirograph, Mr Frosty and Plasticine.

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FEATURE

ARTS & CRAFTS

Spinning a yarn WILTON BRADLEY

Did you know?

01626 835400 www.wiltonbradley.com Made It is a sub-brand from Toyrific and Wilton Bradley that features a collection of craft Yarn Animals that encourage kids to express their imaginative and creative side. A great gift idea, this brand-new range comes complete with a variety of fun yarn animal templates including a dinosaur, giraffe, unicorn and the animal craze of the year, a llama!

Children are able to use any colour combinations they wish to create the wildest design possible. From a giraffe with a brightly coloured neck to a llama with a crazy afro, each pack includes a whole host of colourful crafty bits.

Wilton Bradley’s range of ‘The Great British Sewing Bee’ licensed sewing stations and kits are great for the inspired viewer. This range consists of beginner-friendly, high quality sewing stations and easy-tofollow kits that are perfect for inspired children to start delving into the creative world of sewing. Each sewing machine and kit feature simple, illustrative instructions as well as a difficulty rating so avid young tailors can continue to progress their sewing skills with the help of Great British Sewing Bee products.

Making scents

DKL MARKETING 01604 678780 www.dkl.co.uk Toy Story 4 joins the Hama Beads range from DKL Marketing. The fantastic gift box contains more than 4,000 beads and the hanging box has more than 2,000 beads, allowing kids to create their favourite characters.

Hama Beads 10,000 Bead & Coloured Pegboard Bucket is the ultimate arts and crafts kit.

The colourful packaging contains more than 10,000 beads in 10 different colours, and two coloured pegboards. There is also a five-pegboard bucket.

Scentco Scented Stationery offers a range of pencils, pens, notepads and more. Each colourful product features a delicious scent guaranteed to last a minimum of two years.

Breyer offers a range of arts and craft products for every animal lover. The best-seller from the range is the Paint and Play Blister Kit. This fantastic pick-up line contains a Stablemates Scale horse, paintbrush and three paints. New to 2019 is the Unicorn Paint and Play Blister Kit. PlayMais 1,000 pieces bucket including instructions and accessories is also a hot seller.

Children aged three and over can create colourful 3D models and 2D pictures with just a dab of water.

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The Toyrific Yarn Animals come in an array of characters including a dinosaur, giraffe, unicorn and llama.

Fashion forward KIDS@PLAY 01291 429 007 kids-at-play.com Kids@Play is set to launch Kid Made Modern this AW19 season.

Founded in 2012 by Todd Oldham, the famous American fashion designer, the range aims to inspire children and parents to find and enjoy creativity everywhere.

All of the products are designed to give children the creative spark that leads them to be imaginative, self-expressive, and resourceful.

From colour-explosive confetti crayons to craft kits, colouring books and the overflowing studio in a box, there’s everything from pocket money lines to gift sets to make Kid Made Modern accessible to all budgets.

DIY den TOBAR 01603 397 105 www.tobar.co.uk Tobar has the perfect outdoor craft project for summer. The Colour Your Own Cardboard Playhouse is ideal for an outdoor/indoor project.

Just slot together the house and then let them loose with crayons and pencils on the preprinted design.

Tobar has loads of kits to make your own slime of different types and textures, or for something less gooey choose a kit to create your own candles or design and decorate glass bottles for a lovely gift.

Creative types can also paint their own piggy bank or take a look at the great sewing kits to make their own sock monkey, rabbit or puppy.

If jewellery is the thing then choose the bestselling kit to make your own Friendship Bracelets.

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TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT AQUADOODLE CALL 01392 281927 OR EMAIL ukcustomerservices@tomy.com 7Q3 $TXDGRRGOHB [ B LQGG

AVAILABLE FROM JULY 2019

FEATURE

ARTS & CRAFTS

Get set – GO! JANOD/JURATOYS sales@juratoys.co.uk www.janod.com

Sets to get started:

With the summer holidays quickly approaching, Janod has a creative solution to keep the little ones entertained ■■ Glitter Fairies and inspired.

■■ Sands World Capturing the imagination of those young and old, Tour Janod brings to market a beautiful selection of arts and crafts kits that contain materials including glitter, pom■■ Foam Mosaics poms, foam mosaics, sand and more!

Unicorn and Sure to be a winner following Disney’s latest hit box Ponies office hit – the live action remake of Aladdin – children can explore the magic of the Middle East with Juratoys’ Embroidery Sequins: 1001 Nights kit. The set comprises a colourful sequin art activity that teaches children sewing basics.

Alternatively, children can load up on llamas with the Llama pom-poms set with an end result that has a 3D element.

Get the picture JUMBO GAMES

King of the Blingers!

CHARACTER OPTIONS 0161 633 9800 www.character-online.com Arts, crafts and fun fashions go hand-in-hand with Character Options’ new sparkly sensation, Blinger!

Blinger is the innovative, easy-to-use, fun fashion tool for kids to add sparkle and shine to their hair, clothes, accessories, stationery and more! The entry point is the Blinger Diamond Collection with its Blinger tool, plus 75 stick-on diamanté gems, which, once applied, will stay on all day.

Once blinging becomes their thing, refill sets of 75 extra gems will add to the sales opportunities.

Blinger will launch with style-focused influencer activity, TV advertising, kids press, pre-roll and more, ensuring “how to bling your things” is top of the mind with girls this autumn.

Another key creative line for kids is the Oonies Squeeze Ball Creator, which will see children making their own fillable squeeze balls – simply slip the reusable ball into the device and fill with liquid and add the glitter or gem accessories provided for a different squeeze ball every time!

Toy Story 4 To support the highly-anticipated release of Disney/Pixar’s Toy Story 4, Jumbo Games has released a Puzzle & Colour box set aimed at children aged four-plus.

01707 289289 www.jumbo.eu The Dessineo Learn to Paint range from Jumbo Games can help children aged four and over to start honing their creative skills and create beautiful pictures with ease.

The Dessineo Learn to Paint Artist Easel is the Hero line.

Using the array of stencils and paints, children can create more than 30 different animal paintings on the brightly coloured and robust painting easel. Inside the easel is a full selection of paints, a paintbrush and roller, mixing palette and step-by-step guide to help children create their beautiful works of art. Once finished, the painting tools and then store them inside the easel – great for storage or if they want to take it with them this summer.

There are four compact Dessineo painting items in the range – the ‘Painting with Stencils’ kits and ‘Painting by Numbers’ kits.

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Season

8 to Collect!

1

Collect. Create. Eat. Repeat!

© 2019 RedwoodVentures, Ltd.

Bubble Tea

Sushi

Pizza

Ice Cream

FOODIE FUN FOR EVERYONE! • • • • •

Launching Autumn ‘19 Create yummy gummy sweets!

Sugar free ingredients The world’s first candy collectable brand Heavyweight marketing campaign with TV and FSDU with screen For more information, contact Sales on 020 8324 6160 or sales@bandai.co.uk

Mini-Collectable Takeouts

COMING SOON!

FEATURE

ARTS & CRAFTS

Guess what…

Hands-on with sand

More than 1.2 million subscribers enjoy watching Kinetic Sand being squashed, moulded, cut and squeezed on YouTube’s Sand Tagious channel.

SPIN MASTER 01628 535000 www.spinmaster.com Kinetic Sand is the squeezable sand kids can’t put down. It never dries out and it sticks to itself – not kids – for long-lasting play with easy clean up.

The social trend of watching Kinetic Sand being squashed, moulded, cut and squeezed has taken off with channels such as YouTube’s Sand Tagious amassing more than 1.2 million subscribers and millions of views of its ‘Sandtastic’ videos.

Social media users across all platforms are sharing their sand creations with #Sandisfying, adding Kinetic Sand squishing to the autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR) trend.

The new Sandisfying Set lets fans transform Kinetic Sand like never before, encouraging kids to create mesmerising sand effects and incredible videos to share with friends.

Further exciting introductions for 2019 include the Sandbox Set,

which is back and now available in brighter colours.

Spin Master is supporting the brand with a host of PR and marketing activities including experiential tours. The brand is also working with SuperCamps to provide Kinetic sand for its 60+ camps this summer.

Stamping a big mark on the arts and crafts category this year is another inspired introduction from Spin Master’s Cool Maker brand.

Following the success of the KumiKreator in 2018, Cool Maker’s 2019 introduction is all about the nails!

Available from July, the Cool Maker Go Glam Nail Stamper is the ultimate at-home nail kit to stamp and style custom manicures in minutes.

There are also Cool Maker Go Glam Nail Pattern Fashion Packs, which allow kids to mix and match their nails with the fashion pack assortments of new colours and patterns.

Get a pizza the action HASBRO 020 8569 1234 www.hasbro.com Hasbro expands its Play-Doh Kitchen Creations range with Play-Doh Kitchen Creations Stamp ‘n’ Top Pizza Oven and Play-Doh Kitchen Creations Popcorn Party Play Food set.

Kids can stamp a pizza crust in the oven, then go wild creating and customising. The cheese crank shreds Play-Doh compound into grated cheese, and the oven playset has plenty of moulds all around it to make

Meet Tootie Meet Tootie, the unicorn who poops Play-Doh ice cream! As she dispenses Play-Doh colours from her you-know-where, this unicorn toy makes laughout-loud sounds and even changes her facial expression. pretend pepperonis, silly veggies, and lots of other outrageous toppings.

The Play-Doh Popcorn Party Play Food set toy comes with everything kids need to make creative PlayDoh popcorn masterpieces.

Finally, imagine a land of colourful dreams where unicorns poop PlayDoh ice cream! This summer, preschoolers will be able to meet Tootie, the hilarious unicorn ice cream maker who loves to create silly Play-Doh sundaes. As she dispenses Play-Doh colours from her you-know-where, this unicorn toy makes laugh-outloud sounds and even changes her facial expression.

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Colourful creations VIVID TOY GROUP 01483 449944 www.vividtoysandgames.co.uk Crayola will be welcoming more cute additions to its Washimals range in AW19. With the Vet Clinic Playset and Beauty Salon Playsets, kids will be able to play with their Washimals pets at home or on the go. They can use the included markers to bring the Washimals to life with beautiful designs, before cleaning them off to play again.

Note-taking and organisation just got more colourful, with Crayola’s new Take Note range! Take Note bridges the gap between kids’ and adults’ stationery with a fun range of products that are perfect for taking notes, writing a diary, or filling in your bullet journal. The Take Note range includes gel pens, erasable highlighters, dual-ended highlighters and felt tip pens. All contain washable ink, so you can make bold and colourful creations without worrying about making a mess.

Also look out for licensed Toy Story 4 and Frozen 2 products - and YouTube sensation Ryan is teaming up with Crayola to release a Ryan’s World Color Wonder pack.

Kids love his online adventures, and can now create bold colouring creations by using mess-free Color Wonder markers.

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FEATURE DOLLS

Doll patrol Spin Master

T

Dolls is a category that has stood the test of time, encouraging children to immerse themselves in imaginative play, helping to nurture essential developmental and nurturing skills

he earliest documented dolls date back to the ancient civilisations of Egypt, Greece and Rome. And it would seem that dolls are here to stay.

According to new research from Kids Insights, who survey 21,300 kids in the UK each year, 43 per cent of girls aged three- to ten-years-old play with dolls. This is equivalent to 1.1 million children in the UK. Keeping things fresh is of course fundamental in maintaining the popularity of this category. And 2019 has seen a great amount innovation in dolls, with companies introducing new, interactive features, new accessories and more diversity within their ranges.

“I think dolls will always remain popular,” says Matt Kirby, Director of Crocodile Stores. “We haven’t seen a huge amount of doll sales this year but we’re doing really well with accessories such as strollers, bottles and sleeping bags, which suggests to us that sales are good somewhere in the market.”

Brian Simpson, Head of Buying at Toy Town told TnP that doll sales have remained strong. He says: “Barbie is the main dolls range for us – unless you count L.O.L. – and it is flying. I am not 100 per cent sure why this is, but all I can say is it is great to see traditional imaginative play dolls doing so well and being played with.”

James Colclough, Director of Wizard Toys (EMTC), has noticed that consumers are spending more on doll purchases, and coming back into store to buy accessories to extend the doll’s play potential.

He says: “We have seen a lean towards little girls having a premium doll such as Dolls World from Peterkin, as well as Baby Annabell and BABY Born from Zapf Creation. And we’re noticing that customers are buying lots of accessories such as clothes, nappies and pushchairs for these dolls.”

Of course, with doll collections growing, there is a great deal of play value to be

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enjoyed. Sara Ibáñez, Head of Marketing for UK & Germany at IMC Toys says: “The category has been developed to include new dolls that have intuitive functions that you can interact with.” She adds: “The play pattern of dolls is simple. Children enjoy taking care of their dolls and being able to nurture them with lots of love and care, just like real parents.”

It is this that makes dolls such a great tool for parents expecting their second child. Matt Kirby of Crocodile Stores recognises that a great number of doll sales come from expecting parents. He says: “Dolls will always remain popular – particularly when a second child is due in the family. I know my eldest loved feeding her doll while mummy was feeding her little sister.”

Certainly, children love immersing themselves in pretend play scenarios and this is something that has a great number of benefits for children.

Imaginative play helps to develop emotional capabilities, boosts social and language skills and supports physical development.

For Mayur Pattni, Marketing Manager at Siso Toys, he says: “The best thing about dolls is they let children develop their imagination through play.”

It would certainly seem that dolls offer endless opportunities to create different role play scenarios – an activity that inspires a child’s creativity.

Interestingly, Kids Insights found that

“

the top three hobbies of girls aged three- to ten-years-old who play with dolls are dancing, drawing and I think swimming. These hobbies require dolls will refined motor skills, creativity and necessitate learning through always remain observation and exploration. popular, Performance within these activities particularly as would undoubtedly be complemented by imaginative play with dolls. a second child This year’s introductions to the dolls is due in the category include fashion dolls, plush family dolls, licensed dolls and baby dolls, as well as an extensive assortment of fun Matt Kirby, accessories to go with these new lines.

There are new Barbie lines, such as Crocodile the new Barbie travel range. And Stores AW19 also sees Barbie’s most diverse and inclusive Barbie Fashionistas range to date, with dolls reflecting disabilities, new body types represented and more diversity in skin tones and physical features.

This year, Spin Master introduces dolls big and small. One of the sweetest introductions comes in the form of Candylocks – scented collectable dolls, each with 30cm of ‘cotton candy’ hair and surprise accessories for The percentage of kids to customise their dolls’ girls aged three to looks. Children can also look to another special ten who play with forward delivery from Spin Master in the dolls according to form of Luvabella Newborn.

From Flair, there’s more from Kids Insights data.

Just Play’s Hairdorables. And there’s another exciting addition – the Bellies. This nurturing doll brand brings cute, funny, interactive babies to the market for adoption.

With so much doll variety, what’s next for the category? According to Nick Richardson, MD, Kids Insights, he says: “One new trend we are seeing is increasing interest in Gacha dolls.

Flair These originate from Japan and add a digital twist to a classic toy. Platforms like Gacha Life, Gacha Studio and Gachaverse allow kids to make their own dolls in a digital format and interact with other users, encouraging personalisation and socialising.”

We will have to watch this space!

”

43%

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All dolled up!

SPIN MASTER 01628 535000 www.spinmaster.com Dolls big and small are making some key entries to Spin Master’s AW line-up this year. One of the sweetest new introductions comes in the form of Candylocks.

Candylocks are scented collectable dolls with hair so soft, it looks and feels just like cotton candy! Available in singles, BFF twin packs or Deluxe 7inch Dolls, girls will love their special features and ability to style their flowing locks!

Each doll has 30cm of ‘cotton candy’ hair, which is super-soft, super-long, and multicoloured, making it incredibly easy to style – create amazing braids, twists, buns, and ponytails that won’t fall out.

Each doll has its own scent such as vanilla cupcake and cotton candy. Shaped like a cotton candy cone, take her home to reveal who’s hidden under there.

Then unwrap the accessories for additional mystery surprises. Collect all 20+ dolls for a super-sweet squad!

Over the past two years, Luvabella has successfully claimed its stake in the baby doll category. She has a larger-than-life personality and lifelike expressiveness. Luvabella Newborn is sure to once again capture the hearts of kids around the globe, with even more expressions and personality, in addition to loveable real-life baby moments. Retailers can Each Candylocks doll has look forward to an August delivery of this newborn!

30cm of cotton-candy, multiSpin Master has extensive plans to support and create excitement for coloured hair. both brands at launch and through the key Christmas selling period.

Fun fact!

Diversity doll

Keeping it real ZAPF CREATION 0845 0533 333 | www.baby-born.com Zapf Creation remains popular in the dolls category with the Baby Annabell and BABY born brands, as well as new brand launches including BABY born Surprise.

Zapf is set to have an exciting autumn with the reimagined Baby Annabell Interactive and Baby Annabell Alexander Interactive dolls. The new dolls have new features that make the dolls more responsive and realistic than ever before.

Baby Annabell Talk Back Julia has also launched this July, with three voice options allowing her to repeat after children.

Dreamy Disney dolls POSH PAWS 01268 567317 www.poshpawsinternational.co.uk The Posh Paws range of Disney Princess soft toys is perfect for girls to create their very own collection of princesses. This enchanting range of Disney Princess dolls is a fairy tale come true with excellent quality and each beautifully styled to bring the magic of Disney to life.

Choose from Aurora, Cinderella, Belle, Ariel, Snow White or Rapunzel. Available in 8in, 10in and 20in.

APRIL 2018

Give us a Huggle!

CASDON 01253 608248 www.casdon.co.uk Casdon has a successful range of dolls accessories in its Baby Huggles portfolio.

The Baby Huggles range offers a one-stop shop for all dolls up to 46cm. The refreshed new colour scheme has been applied to such items as the car booster seat, which features a three-point harness and can be fixed inside a car. And, when it’s time to change the dolls, little ones can use the Baby Changing Mat Set.

MATTEL 01628 500000 www.mattel.com

In AW19, Barbie sees her most diverse and inclusive Barbie Fashionistas range to date, with dolls reflecting physical disabilities, including a doll in a wheelchair and a doll with a prosthetic limb. The new body types for Barbie now include a doll with; a smaller bust, lessdefined waist and more defined arms and diversity in skin tones, eye colours, hair colours, as well as hair textures.

Autumn also introduces the new Barbie travel range, including Barbie Dreamplane and Travel Barbie Doll and her puppy.

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FEATURE

Cuddles with Snuggles

DOLLS

WILTON BRADLEY 01626 835400 www.wiltonbradley.com This year Wilton Bradley is re-launching its popular doll range Snuggles. Parents can watch their little ones care, carry and cuddle their very own Snuggle Doll. Created to encourage imaginative roleplay fun, the Snuggles range of baby dolls and accessories lets little ones learn how to look after others. This range also includes a host of accessories to choose from, including a little doll swing, travel cot, buggy and doll walker.

Baby love JANOD/JURATOYS sales@juratoys.co.uk www.janod.com This collection of Tendresse Dolls are without question the leader within Kaloo.

The lovely, so-soft dolls are suitable from birth, and machine washable. Presented in a pretty gift box with a handle, they are perfect for baby’s first gift.

Tendresse dolls launched two years ago with just three sizes and five designs. There are now five sizes and 10 designs including two boys and two girls with darker skin tone.

The Tendresse Dolls stand is perfect for displaying the dolls and has been very popular within the garden centre sector.

Bear necessities

Dancing doll CHARACTER OPTIONS

SISO TOYS UK

0161 633 9800 www.character-online.com

01620 674 778 sales@sisotoysuk.com

Fashion dolls and a special, featurepacked, large doll all add to an impressive array of girls’ toys from Character Options in 2019.

Character will take serious steps into the large doll market with the Ballerina Dreamer Dancing Ballerina, a beautiful 18in doll perfect for aspiring ballerinas everywhere. Press down on her magical tiara and watch her pirouette, spin on both toes and kick forwards and backwards. She can shuffle her feet and even do the splits. As she dances, press her tutu to play beautiful music for her to perform to! Her tutu even lights up for a truly dazzling performance.

The successful launch of Boxy Girls is to enter a new season with even more dolls to collect. First in line will be the Boxy Girls Mini Dolls series, a pocket money option perfect for collectors with each including one of six Mini Boxy Girls Dolls, plus three mini accessory boxes inside.

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Make their hair curl GP FLAIR 020 8643 0320 www.flairplc.co.uk Just Play’s Hairdorables Series 2 Dolls have sustained the brand’s popularity through SS19. The latest dolls from the girl squad with ‘Big Hair Don’t Care’ attitudes come complete with new styles and a new colour reveal accessory. This AW19, Series 3 Dolls will have accessories to crimp, colour or curl their hair. Series 2 Pets have a beautiful new shimmery look, and we meet the little sisters, Shortcuts, as well as HairDUDEables!

Series 3 will see Hairdorables girls show off their new party-themed style.

Then meet the Bellies; the cutest, funniest interactive babies to adopt!

This new nurturing doll brand offers interactivity, cuteness, humour, collectability and heaps of surprises.

The Masha & The Bear range comprises a mixture of current best-selling doll lines, such as the 12cm dolls for fans to get started. The 23cm soft body doll was among the top three best-selling lines last year, and perfecttly captures Masha. Other dolls in the range include the 40cm Masha doll in her winter outfit and 36cm singing doll, which sings the Masha theme.

Wissper is the animated show on Milkshake, about a seven-year-old with the magical ability to whisper to animals.

Siso Toys UK will be supporting the show with a the basic 23cm Wissper doll, which includes a figure of her best friend Peggy and accessories. A 34cm feature doll with interactive features is also available.

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TNP

LOOKS BACK

Step back in time TnP’s Founder Malcolm Naish looks back through the news of Julys past: 2014, 2009, 1999 and 1989

July 2014

July 1999

• NPD reported that both the French and UK toy trades were the healthiest in Europe – up six per cent on the same period compared with the previous year.

• Chris Guest and his team at Corgi must have been delighted, as following their buy back from Mattel in ’95 they managed to sell the company to Nasdaq-listed American company Zindart for £30m.

• Loom Bands were selling like hot cakes, with building sets up 21 per cent and arts and crafts up 16 per cent.

• And we shouldn’t forget the World Cup fever that saw stickers and their albums doing great – at least until England was knocked out following a very poor team performance.

• In the USA, Planet of the Apes ousted Transformers off the top spot. But not to worry, as Transformers earned $73million at box office, as well as the accolade of highest grossing film for 2014.

• Hasbro topped the TV spend for June, with a spend of just under £800k.

• Lindsay Hardy left Flair to take up the role of Marketing Director at Trends UK. • We highlighted Silverlit’s DigiBirds that were literally – pardon the pun – flying off shelves. Tom Mullen was a trifle cagey over sales figures, but they were great fun and it was money in the bank for Silverlit.

• The best-selling fashion dolls were as follows in July 2014: Monster High from Mattel with dolls ranking both first and forth, Disney Princess Frozen Sparkle Anna in second and third Disney Frozen Sparkle doll Elsa. One Direction’s doll assortment by Vivid were fifth.

July 2009 • The eagerly awaited Argos catalogue that generally heralds the season’s price-cutting, boldly told the consumer that prices would rise by five per cent. Whether Woolie’s demise had anything to do with this, we’re not sure.

• A toy trade legend sadly passed away – none other than Eric Robinson Founder of Red Robin Toys. I first met Eric in the late sixties when he was a Rep for Peter Pan Playthings. Eric moved up the management tree, founding his company in the early Eighties. “Work hard, play hard” was Eric’s motto and along with his friends Bob Holden, Bill Dowle and Kenny Simmonds he helped formed the ‘Gorilla Club’. The assumption was that after a very late night out at toy fairs around the world, waking up in the morning to find your room totally trashed must have been the work of a gorilla rather than yourself!

• Apparently, seven out of ten Woolworth sites were still empty as landlords struggled to find new tenants. In Scotland it was 80 per cent. In and around London half remained empty. The type of retailers taking up sites were B&M Bargains, Poundland, 99p Stores and Home Bargains.

A pattern seemed to be emerging here!

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• Bandai was named Toys R Us Toy Supplier of the Year.

• We were saddened to learn of the death of a toy trade titan – Arthur Katz. He was a major influence on the growth of Mettoy with the Corgi brand, he was also President of the BTHA and a Council member for almost 20 years.

• Lucas Film’s Star Wars ‘The Phantom Menace’ hugely benefitted Hasbro (the company jumped to a 23.8 per cent market share) with LEGO up to 3.8 per cent. It would appear that most other Star War’s licensees were not so fortunate. Pepsi the Star Wars biggest licensee, with a reputed $2bn spend over ten years with Lucas Films, had run into severe problems with the company’s Pizza Hut, KFC and Taco Bell promotions – so much so that these eateries barely experienced any increase in sales, despite huge TV advertising by Pepsi to push the promotion.

• Ty Beanies were also breaking sales records.

• 1999 seemed to be the year that major toy retailers were realising the potential of e-tailing. Amazon announced that it was about to begin selling toys and Toys R Us were branching out into Dixons, Comet and Currys to test the waters.

• We published the top 20 best-selling children’s videos. This month, Batman the Movie was number one, Pinocchio second and Magic Roundabout third.

July 1989 • One of the great characters in toy buying, Mel Taylor of the Co-Op, decided to leave the toy trade. Tales of Mel are legendary. He was a most successful buyer and created the Co-Op’s Toybox brand that was sold throughout European Co-Ops. • Gary Conrad launched Benjamin Toys Ltd with offices in St. Albans.

• To much relief, the government had finally dropped its proposed cut-off date for the sale of toys not bearing the CE mark. In summary, toys that were first supplied in the European Community before 1 January 1990 and which did not carry the CE mark would not be subject to the new regulations. Suppliers would have to prove that any unmarked toys for sale after 1 February 1992 were placed in the market before 1 January 1990. If you could not prove this, then it was prison for life – or something like that!

• Fuzzy-Felt products were still much loved by children around the world. The company was a by-product of a militaryindustrial war effect. Fuzzy-Felt came about when Lois Allan, whose outbuildings were being used to manufacture felt gaskets for sealing tank components, noticed how the workers’ children enjoyed making up shapes and pictures from the cast-off felt shapes.

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DON’T MISS… We bring to the fore a selection of the hottest and newest products that will help you sell more. Buyers and retailers, get in touch with your sales contact now!

Product: Disney’s The Lion King Mighty Roar Simba Company: Hasbro Tel: 020 8569 1234 Web: www.hasbro.com

Product: Scrub & Play Smart Sink Company: LeapFrog Toys Tel: 01235 555 545 Web: LeapFrog.co.uk

Product: Adorbs Company: TOMY Tel: 01392 281 928 Web: www.tomy.com

Product: Bank Attack Company: John Adams Tel: 01480 414 361 Web: www.johnadams.co.uk

Product: Playmobil: The Movie Rex Dasher’s Porsche Mission E Company: Playmobil Tel: 01268 548 111 Web: www.playmobil.co.uk

Product: Munchkinz Company: Vivid Tel: 01483 449 944 Web: www.vividtoysandgames.co.uk

Product: Llama ride-on Company: Janod/Juratoys Email: sales@juratoys.co.uk Web: www.janod.com

Product: Master Detective Toolkit Company: Thames and Kosmos Tel: 01580 713 000 Web: www.thamesandkosmos.com

Product: Yarn Animals Company: Wilton Bradley Tel: 01626 835 400 Web: www.wiltonbradley.com