W
ith bonfire night arguably not quite the major event that it used to be, Halloween now seems to mark the tipping point after which Christmas sales really kick into gear across the toy market. Of course, suppliers would prefer things to ramp up earlier, and I completely understand why – but I suspect most consumers are perfectly happy to wait until November to start thinking about Christmas in earnest.
from the publisher
John Baulch - @Baulchtweet
Perhaps we were spoiled last year, when Gary Grant popped up on just about every TV and radio channel in October to warn consumers that if they didn’t go out and buy their toys immediately, they would miss out due to stock shortages. Realistically, that was never going to be the case this year. So perhaps this year we settled back into the traditional pre-pandemic pattern: get Halloween (and bonfire night) out of the way, then press the button marked ‘Christmas is coming’. Christmas TV ads start to appear, shops roll out their festive displays and start playing all those songs which we have heard a thousand times before, yet still get us in the mood. At this stage, I feel it’s important to focus on what is yet to come, rather than dwelling too much on what did (or more accurately, didn’t) happen in recent weeks. Forget about the October Circana data (for now at least, there will be plenty of time for post-mortems later) – what happens in the next few weeks can make a huge difference to where we end up. Between now and Christmas, a weeks’ sales will often be the equivalent of a normal month’s sales. Admittedly, we have quite a bit of ground to make up, but don’t forget, December wasn’t that great last year. So, we may be in a bit of a ‘tortoise and hare’ scenario here: we went out like a train last year and tailed off the closer we got to the finishing line. This year, we started slowly but the pace is picking up. I have no idea where we will end up, but I still believe there is all to play for in the final stretch. Meanwhile, while we are all fixated on Christmas, it will be 2024 before you know it – and that brings us straight into Toy Fair Season. For 2024, it remains a truncated period, with no North American event to round it off in February. I will also be interested to see how many people head to Hong Kong at the start of January – I will be making the trip for the first time
since 2020, so it will be fascinating to see how much has changed over the past four years. I will be spending time at the Hong Kong Toys and Games Fair and over in the Kowloon showrooms and will report back on what I find. Even if there are some changes at both ends of Toy Fair Season, for the majority in the UK toy community, the heart of the Season remains unchanged – London and Nuremberg still occupy their traditional slots in the last two weeks of January. It will be the 70th anniversary of the London Toy Fair in 2024, which is a terrific milestone. I am very much looking forward to that achievement being celebrated across the duration of the event. We’ll also get to find out who has won the Toy of the Year and Retailer of the Year awards, and most importantly, start to see all the great new products that will be hitting shelves as the year unfolds. As ever, next month’s bumper January issue will contain our exhaustive preview of the London Toy Fair, together with – for the first time ever - a standalone supplement previewing the Nuremberg Toy Fair. However, for those retailers who like to start planning their show itineraries nice and early, this month’s issue includes an early sneak peek at some of the exciting new lines which will be unveiled in Nuremberg. This will give those retail buyers heading to Germany the chance to make appointments with those companies that have new launches which catch their eye – turn to page 54 to get a glimpse of what’s new in Nuremberg. As this is our final edition of 2023, I want to thank all of our readers and advertisers for their fantastic support this year. Despite the many challenges and twists and turns along the way, this has been our best-ever year – and that followed our previous best-ever year in 2022. Quite literally, we couldn’t have done it without you, so a huge thank you from all of the Toy World team. Here’s hoping for another good year in 2024: one thing is for sure - the toy market will never be dull and uninteresting. In the meantime, I hope you all have a fantastic last few weeks’ trading, and – when it finally arrives – a wonderful Christmas. The January issue will be landing on desks not long after the New Year dawns, to help you prepare for your trips to London and Nuremberg, and the Toy World team looks forward to seeing you all somewhere along the toy highway in January.
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