Inspired Play from edplay November 2020

from

Dedicated to the Specialty Toy Industry November 2020

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Snap Ships: Easy Build, Easy Sell, Epic Play PlayMonster’s Snap Ships connect the strongest play patterns in the boys’ aisle into one epic toy line. This Build to Battle system fuses construction, action play, and vehicle play in a way that’s never been done before.

The first-of-its-kind toy line encompasses a 360-degree approach to engage its target audience of boys ages 8 and up.

PlayMonster’s strategy is to create great product, compelling content, and an immersive AR app. The company will execute a robust digital strategy along with TV advertising.

“We are confident that we are delivering an amazing, high-quality toy line paired with great content that will resonate with boys,” says Sakita Withers, Snap Ships brand manager.

PlayMonster cites three key elements that set Snap Ships apart from anything else the market has ever seen.

1. Snap Ships features a patentpending cube-locking system.

This completely modular system centers around core cubes that snap together with a signature sound. Once constructed, these highly detailed sets are fully functioning toys.

“We went through several prototypes while engineering the cubes,” says Jeff Swenty, one of the inventors of Snap Ships. “After creating a simple prototype with only three parts, we worked nonstop to perfect the cubelocking system. Once the pieces could strongly lock together, then we got really creative until the arsenal grew to over 100 unique ship parts.”

PlayMonster’s current lineup

includes nine kits that are easy to assemble, yet durable enough for active play. Each set includes a mysterious UJU tech piece.

Some feature launching projectiles while others add a cool look to the ship.

The opening price point for the line is $9.99. Each set contains instructions for multiple builds, a collector’s card, and cross-sell materials.

2. Dawn of Battle is an immersive eight-part animated series that’s now on YouTube.

To tell this epic story, PlayMonster needed a powerful partner and joined forces with the award-winning content studio Wind Sun Sky to produce an engaging animated series.

3. Kids can download the free Snap Ships app.

It contains digital building instructions for the core Snap Ships kits and an assortment of custom ships unique to the app. Kids can use the app to track their collection, prep ships for flight in augmented reality, and test fire the ship’s weapons for battle.

Winning the Retail Battle

Snap Ships is the perfect toy line to display at retail. Each set can be easily assembled with key features illustrated for shoppers. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, assembly of the toy by consumers while in-store may not be possible. However, employees can walk a consumer through the steps of the easy interlocking cube system.

Setting up a video loop demonstrating assembly is always a great option.

When displaying the product at retail, there are some interesting facts to share with your customers.

The Scoop on Snap Ships • Patent-pending interlocking cube system • Cubes make signature sound when snapped together • Special included UJU tech piece gives a ship extra power • Easy, flexible assembly • Durable for active play • Multiple build options in each kit • Opening price point: $9.99 • Highest price point is $39.99, providing excellent value • Classic good vs. evil storyline appeals to boys • Immersive eight-part animated series on YouTube • Free app offers added play value with additional builds.

Co-creator Scott Pease, along with Swenty, were inspired to create Snap Ships from their backgrounds in the video game industry and their love of science-fiction novels. These industry veterans, along with the experts at PlayMonster, know what appeals to kids and it’s a formula that appeals to all ages. Great content mixed with great product wins the battle every time.

For more information on Snap Ships, visit snapships.com or contact your PlayMonster sales representative.

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Just Like the Real Thing Maybe you’ve heard the name BRUDER. You think to yourself, “Aren’t those the toy truck people?” Yes we are. But there’s a little more to it than that.

Let’s take a little trip down memory lane. BRUDER was started humbly in 1926 by Paul Bruder. Working in painstaking detail using a small hand press, Paul produced brass reeds that he delivered to a local toy company. Today, BRUDER Toys are represented in 60 countries. We also happen to be the largest family-owned 1:16th scale plastic toy vehicle manufacturer in the world. The way it happened is simple: the playing child is at the center of every single product made by BRUDER. Playing is not an end in itself, but lets children have experiences in the adult world, engaging in development and healthy imaginative play. Special attention is paid to the well-balanced interaction of easy-to-handle play functions and models that are true to life and offer the greatest possible level of durability. Or as BRUDER likes to say, “Just like the real thing!”

In 1998, BRUDER America Inc. was formed by Beate Caso, the granddaughter of Paul Bruder. Beate and her husband Mark worked tirelessly. The pair had the foresight to see where toy vehicles were heading. They knew BRUDER was a better, safer, more engaging toy than anything else.

With the U.S. market support of specialty toy stores, BRUDER is moving closer to its goal.

Bruder truck, it’s kinda over at that point. They know it, they get it, and soon they have an entire fleet. For us, showing people that they do the same thing as the real thing gives us a value that we do not get from many other companies.”

Striving for “WOW” isn’t enough.

Being the recipient of 84 awards, BRUDER does not rest on its laurels when deciding to make a vehicle. Making a BRUDER means taking a full staff of designers and engineers to go over every meticulous detail, function, color, and feature our customers expect of us. We constantly strive to achieve the highest level of customer satisfaction that is rooted in our innovation, expertise in plastic technology, and concern for the environment, using our resources based on the principal of sustainability.

Today, our toys are still manufactured in Germany and the European Union. Every toy carries the name of Paul and the humble beginnings with a hand press and a dream. In 2019, BRUDER was honored as a “Traditional German Brand” for the first time. Our Bruder dealers are key in making our dream into a reality. Our specialty toy stores remain a paramount pillar and we are adamant that this cannot and will not change.

Bruder Toys America. Family owned, family operated. Just like the real thing.

BRUDER Toys stand out.

Taka Andrews of Miller’s in Mamaroneck, New York, says, “Bruder trucks really do what the real things do. And that’s how we sell them. It makes it very easy. Once kids get their very first

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November 2020

Dedicated to the Specialty Toy Industry

Welcome to Inspiredplay, a magazine concept that helps manufacturers and publishers tell you “the rest of the story” about their products and businesses. Traditional display ads combine with insightful narratives to provide valuable nuggets you can use today to sell products and promote play.

Adverstories

Features

3

7

4

Snap Ships: Easy Build, Easy Sell, Epic Play from PlayMonster Bruder Toys: Just Like the Real Thing

11 Bringing Big Imaginative

Ideas To Life from Magnatiles

by Kala

14 The Ukelele for Everyone!

16 Pix Brix: What Will You

Pixelate?

Quaggle: An “Engineering

Masterpiece” of a Game

from Funsparks

18

from

20 4M STEAM from Toysmith

Powers Educational Fun

24 Adventerra asks, “Are You

Carrying Green Products?”

France, from Iello

26 LOKI Games, Made in 28

Amahi: A Family Business

Dedicated to Serving Your Business

31 Tapping into Christmas

by HABA

Artistic to Enjoy Do-Wikki from Wikki Stix

Family from Fat Brain

33 You Don’t Have to be

47 Brain Games for the Entire

Wordplay

2021: A Space Odyssey

by Kevin Fahy

10 Grayce Notes

After 25 years, the mix at Grayce McLaughlin’s store remains fun, relatable and fresh.

12 Holiday On Ice

Forecasts and ideas to give your sales expectations a lift.

22 Puzzling Out Your Product Mix

Independent Rep Sandy Ruben talks trends with insight from a team of retailers.

30 Best Practices

for Multichannel Inventory Management

34 Sir Troy, King of Toys

How did Troy Cefaratti open his second 9,000 square-foot store during a pandemic?

Departments

36 38 40

For Your Business Information Industry News Retailers Recommend Fabulous Products

42

New & True and Inspired Play Products

•Koplow Games •Fractiles

•Lulu Jr.

46

Index of Advertisers

About the Cover: “Move Over Unicorns Llamas Rule the Toy Business Now,” said The New York Times after a trip to Toy Fair.

The Make Your Own Llama Doll kit from 4M, distributed by Toysmith, is a favorite craft activity for kids age 5 and up.

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word play

by Kevin Fahy

2021: A Space Odyssey If you look out your window, either at home or at work, your street probably looks pretty much the same as it did a year ago. I actually did so, and the only thing that stood out at home was an all-electric SUV in my neighbor’s driveway. That would not have been the case in 2019.

At my office, which is also in a residential neighborhood, I don’t see anything I wouldn’t have seen last year, nor is anything missing. The autumn leaves stir in the breeze, and the cars cruise by.

Looks can be deceiving, and in this case they certainly are. If we could see into the lives of the people in those houses, or those cars, we would surely find plenty of differences from what we would have seen 12 months in the past. Some have lost their jobs, or their businesses. Others have lost friends or relatives. Everyone has lost something.

One of the biggest and most common problems that many people now have is that they are struggling to pay their rent, whether it is residential or commercial. On the residential side, there are approximately 110-million Americans, or one-third of the population, who live in rented homes, and a lot of them were hard-pressed to keep up with lease payments even before the pandemic. Almost 4 percent of renters were evicted last year.

Now the situation is much worse. It is generally thought that at least 30-million people are living on borrowed time, so to speak, unable to pay the rent. For the time being, they are able to remain in their homes because the Centers for Disease Control issued a moratorium on evictions through the end of the year. A number of states have passed legislation to that effect.

I would assume that most of us do not want to see people put out on the street, but mandated forbearance on rent brings up a couple of questions. One is what happens when the moratorium expires, as we are not likely to return to full employment any time soon. My guess is that congress will address the problem, perhaps by the time you read this.

The other question is about the landlords. As businesspeople ourselves, we understand that owning and operating rental units is a business like any other, and we are talking about picking out that industry and telling its customers that they no longer have to pay for the product. Or, to be more precise, they don’t have to pay for it right now.

What if the government did the same thing to you? The public desperately needs your merchandise but doesn’t have the money to pay for it, so we’re just going to let them take it, for now. Of course you would want to do your civic duty, but you would probably expect some sort of relief from paying your suppliers. They, in turn, have suppliers of their own.

For the most part, though, eviction moratoriums have done little or nothing to backstop the landlords, who still have to pay mortgages, property taxes, maintenance and so forth. You might think that most rentals are owned by sprawling developers or real estate investment trusts, but that is not completely true. (continued on page 9) November 2020 — edplay.com 7

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Dinosaur Hill Says Good-bye Dinosaur Hill, that delightful tiny toy shop in New York’s East Village, will close at the end of November. “We have enjoyed nearly 40 years of toys, handmade wonderments, a celebration of life and learning,” says founder Pam Pier. “I just turned 77, have worked since I was 14, and have decided it’s time to retire.”

The news isn’t all bad for the neighborhood though. A new toy store, operated by a Dinosaur Hill employee and her husband, is scheduled to open on the same block. The March Hare will carry puppets, marionettes, board games, puzzles, stuffed toys and more, says its Instagram account.

Pam is a trained artist and early-childhood educator.

She opened the store in 1983 because “I wanted to keep kids out of cyberspace and engaged in 3-D activities.” To that end, she filled its 450-square-foot space with a magical mix of products: “old-fashioned wooden wheel-y vehicles, dexterity improving games, science kits, pickup sticks , xylophones, art supplies, soap bubbles, Erector sets, hobby horses, books, stuffed orangutans, puppets, marionettes, a multiethnic range of dolls and, as an afterthought, wearables,” listed EV Grieve, the award-winning East Village blog. Writer Lynda Dyett reported that some of the items are produced by local artists, and many others come

from small-scale companies around the United States. Some come from around the world: marionettes from the Czech Republic, Wayang Kulit puppets from Indonesia, and clothing from India and a women’s craft co-op in Ghana.

Lynda described Dinosaur Hill as “this little-shop-thatcould,” and wrote, “It set the pace for the many visionary and iconoclastic stores that have opened on the East Village’s side streets.”

In 2013, edplay asked Pam for her advice on creating eyecatching window displays. Her response was this: “You have to force customers to use their imagination. We try to have displays that create a narrative. Our goal is to have people stop and look at it, and think about the parts and how they relate to each other. For instance, in our current window we created a dock with a nutcracker on it. There is also a ship, a pirate dingy, a giant whale, a small fawn and an eagle with three little birds. The middle of the display reads, ‘Give peace to all living creatures.’ All of these things may or may not relate to each other. Regardless, they make people stop and wonder.”

Very soon, edplay will be calling The March Hare’s owners Karen McDermott and her husband Jason McGroarty, to get their perspective on specialty toy retailing. Pam is on board there as a consultant. We wish them all the best of luck.

Dedicated to the Specialty Toy Industry

Copyright © 2020

Publisher J. Kevin Fahy kfahy@fwpi.com

Advertising Director Tim Braden tbraden@fwpi.com

Production Manager Mark Stash mstash@fwpi.com

Editorial Director Tina Manzer tmanzer@fwpi.com

Ad Sales Representative Darlene Ryan darlene@fwpi.com

Marketing Director Amy Colburn amy@fwpi.com

Graphic Artist Christopher Cornett Christopher@fwpi.com

Enewsletter & Online Advertising Manager Rick Kauder rkauder@fwpi.com

Subscriptions Yesenia Rangel accounts@fwpi.com

About edplay Founded in 1994. edplay is the original trade magazine for the specialty toy industry.

With six printed issues and monthly enewsletters, it reports on new play products, features interviews with toy experts, and provides best-practice advice for running an independent toy store.

Around the Table a publication of the Game Manufacturers Association Art Materials Retailer for People Who Sell Art Supplies Educational Dealer for retailers who sell to teachers, parents and schools ASTRA Toy Times The Magazine of The American Specialty Toy Retailing Association

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Wordplay (continued from page 7) More than 40 percent of residential units, 22.7 million out of 48.5 million, are owned by individual investors, who generally own one or two buildings. Sometimes referred to as “mom and pop” landlords, these investors are often people of moderate income.

I have a friend who makes his living as a public speaker, a career which came to an abrupt halt last March. He told me recently that he had always put his money into local apartment buildings, thinking that was a safe plan B if anything should ever happen to his primary occupation. “Now,” he told me, “people aren’t paying their rent.”

Someday the pandemic will end, and all the accumulated rent will come due. I don’t know how tenants, many of whom were struggling to begin with, will come up with all that money, or what recourse landlords like my friend will have.

On the commercial side of the ledger, things are considerably different. Business rentals are divided into three categories: office, industrial and retail, but it’s primarily that last one that concerns most of our readers.

At the end of 2019, the vacancy rate for retail space stood at 10 percent, which was more than double the residential rate. That is about the same rate it’s been since the Great Recession of 2008-2009, having reached a peak of 11 percent in 2010. Historically, though, those statistics may be misleading.

Before that recession happened, the retail vacancy rate was 6.4 percent, which was more in line with past experience. As the economy expanded over the following decade you would expect retail vacancy to go back down, but it never did. There are two obvious reasons for that.

One is the growth of online sales, which has increased over that decade from about 5 percent of total retail to about 15 percent.

That trend is expected to continue, albeit more slowly.

The other reason is that, in spite of the first reason, we kept building more stores! It didn’t make any sense, seeing as we already had far more space than anyone else in the world, and our population was not growing very much.

The U.S. has nearly 24 square feet of retail space for every American. That’s 40-percent more than number-two Canada, and 10 times that of Germany. Even during good economic times it was getting to be a problem.

Now it’s totally off the hook. Since the beginning of the pandemic we’ve seen major store closings from venerable department stores such as J.C. Penney, Macy’s and Brooks Brothers, mall mainstays like Kay Jewelers, Victoria’s Secret and Gap, and freestanding chains including Pier I, Office Depot and Bed, Bath & Beyond. The vacancy rate has doubled, to 20 percent.

The law of supply and demand should have translated into more favorable leases for retailers over the past 12 years, and especially over the past eight months. It has, but unfortunately many retailers are not in a good position to make long-term commitments even at lower rates.

What has resulted, in many cases, is a sort of hybrid lease in which the landlord agrees to assume some of the risk by taking all or part of the rent as a percentage of sales. That way the retailer has lower expenses during lean times, and the landlord also has more skin in the game. He has more incentive to see that the property is well-maintained, safe and attractive.

Recently, though, landlords have come back with their own idea. “Now that we’re partners,” they argue, “how about sharing some of your online revenue as well?” Your ecommerce business, after all is built on the foundation of bricks and mortar, and those bricks belong to the landlord.

It’s a rapidly changing world and even though the pandemic may feel as though it has frozen everything in place, it will actually serve to accelerate change. Someday soon, after the bigger fish are fried, we’re going to have a lot of other things on our plates.

You can e-mail Kevin at kfahy@fwpi.com.

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Grayce

Notes

by Tina Manzer

A pre-pandemic photo with storeowner Grayce McLaughlin (third from right), manager Jennifer Sassano (far right), and staff.

Passersby love to browse the big front window on Main Street, and the display changes often. Products can be purchased from touchofgrayce.com under the category “shop our window.”

Touch of Grayce in Geneseo, New York, is celebrating 25 years in business. The store has occupied the same 2,000-square-foot space on Main Street since 1995. “Things to do these days are limited, and we think people find comfort in familiar and peaceful shopping experiences with trustworthy and wellknown shops,” says owner Grayce McLaughlin. “Main Street Geneseo has continued to be a safe and vibrant place to be throughout this time.”

Before she was a retailer Grayce was a stay-at-home mom for 10 years who wished for a toy store on Main Street. When the time was right, she opened one that featured educational toys, children’s books and natural healthcare products. Over the years her inventory has expanded to include “an array of Earthly goods,” including handmade, locally made and ethically sourced gifts, jewelry, kitchen items, décor and more.

Geneseo is a college town, and Grayce is a graduate of the state university there, as are many of her staffers. The SUNY students and alumni are an important market to the stores and restaurants in town. They are also loyal local shoppers, and Touch of Grayce is happy to serve them.

When the store closed for the pandemic on March 17, touchofgrayce.com was up and running a week later as an e-commerce site. “Our manager, Jennifer Sassano, has built and maintained our website with constant feedback and help from the whole team,” explains Grayce. “Although we prefer seeing our customers face-to-face, the website has become a resource for our community to safely browse our selection.

It’s a joy to browse the product selection online because the choices are ever-changing depending on the weather, current trends, holidays, and more. It’s a true reflection of the unique brick-and-mortar, Touch-of-Grayce experience. How well is it working? We talked to Grayce to find out. edplay: First, how’s business?

Grayce McLaughlin: Since we opened up back in June, business has been steady. We have connected with new people who discovered us after their normal routines changed.

I love the “curations” section of your website, especially the themed gift bundles – the “witchy” bundle with the Dragons Blood incense, the “Go Vote” bundle with the candidate socks, and the Waboba bundle. How often do those categories change?

Our curations are a collaborative effort based on the pulse of the world around us. Right now they range from “Dead Head” and “Artists” to “Outdoors” and “Woman Power.” Customer feedback, current events, and new products all factor into our choices. Our team members all have different interests which keeps our selections fun, relatable and fresh. Our gift bundles are designed to be a fun surprise whether you are gifting them or getting one for yourself. They were born from the many items we have that are an assortment. (continued on page 46)

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Give the gift of learning this holiday season!

HOLIDAY FAVORITE:

Magna-Tiles Metropolis

www. magnatiles.com 748-246-7209

Bringing Big, Imaginative Ideas to Life Holiday shopping will look a lot different this year, but one thing remains unchanged – kids still have wish lists.

The Magna-Tiles Metropolis set, a top seller month after month, will be the toy at the top of those lists this season. With 110 pieces, this innovative magnetic building set fuses math, science, and creativity, and helps children explore big concepts.

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Holiday Success in retail is a slippery proposition.

Santa is coming! Hopscotch Toys figured out a

way to safely host Santa at its McMinnville, Oregon, store.

“At first we thought we wouldn’t be able to do it,” explains owner Linda Hayes, “but then we put our thinking caps on.” Here’s what they came up with.

• Santa sits at a desk across from kids and parents who remain safely social-distanced on a couch.

• The setup looks like “The Tonight Show,” and Santa will “interview” his guests.

• It’s in a back room so a door to the outside can be open.

• Visits are by appointment, on weeknights, after the store closes.

• Santa will be there more often compared to past years.

• A HEPA air purifier will be operating.

• Family members may choose to stay outside and watch through the window to avoid crowding.

• The staff will disinfect surfaces between appointments.

Consider the four “A”s of service –

any time, anyplace, any way, anywhere — to come up with shopping solutions to meet customers where they are, recommends Howard Meitiner, managing director of investment bank Carl Marks Advisors. “The ‘winners’ are going to be those retailers who accommodate consumers the way they want to be accommodated.”

To elevate the experience of their customers, stores should exude the three “C”s this holiday season – Caring, Confidence and Continuity – says Mood Media, a provider of environmental enhancements (background music, digital signage, scent diffusers, etc.) “Ask yourself and your team, what are we doing to show we care, how are we going to convey confidence in our brand, and are we maintaining continuity with who we are?”

U.S. toy industry dollar sales increased by 19.1 percent or $2.2- to-$13.7 billion in the first three quarters of 2020, reports NPD. Experts are cautiously optimistic that the growth will continue through the holidays.

Online Shopping Explodes!

Big Four accounting firm Deloitte is forecasting a 25- to 35-percent increase in e-commerce sales during the holidays compared to the same period in 2019.

More than 13 percent of Square’s customers operated cashless businesses in August compared to 5.4 percent in February. The decline in U.S. cash usage this year alone would have taken three years without the pandemic, estimates the mobile payment company.

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ay on Ice

The National Weather Service predicts a warmer winter this year,

good news for retailers whose customers may have to wait outside before shopping in-store.

These forecasts/ideas/tips may give you a lift.

The U.S. Coin Task Force

designated October #getcoinmoving month to inspire more consumers to dig their coins out of jars and sofa cushions and circulate them.

Last December was the fifthwarmest December in 125 years, reports Evan Gold from weather intelligence firm Planalytics, in an interview with the National Retail Federation.

Nearly 70 percent of 2020’s holiday shoppers

expect to switch spending from services to products, a potential boost to retail. More than half plan to trade up to better-quality items, and almost half expect to have more money to spend because they didn’t travel or dine out – all according to a survey by CoresightResearch.

“Deloitte expects holiday sales will be driven by a K-shaped recovery — a scenario in which growth is uneven because some sectors and income groups do better (at the top of the K) while others do worse (at the bottom). The firm’s holiday retail forecast splits the difference, estimating modest growth between 1and 1.5 percent,” according to Knowledge@Wharton, the school’s online business analysis journal.

Baby Nancy, a baby doll with a dark

complexion and textured hair, was recently inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame.

Launched in 1968 by a cooperative toy company in South Central Los Angeles, she was the bestselling Black doll in L.A. by Thanksgiving, and was selling nationwide before Christmas. The following year, Baby Nancy was given an Afro, “challenging white beauty norms and making her the first toy with authentic Black hair,” says the National Museum of Play. “The popularity of Baby Nancy exposed a long-standing demand for ethnically correct Black dolls that the mainstream market had failed to deliver previously.”

Shoppers are looking for more mindful and experiential gifts this year due to COVID-19, says a survey by Cratejoy, a subscription box marketplace. Their lists include unique items that revolve around hobbies, books, crafts, cooking, and games.

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The Ukulele for Everyone!

Kala doesn’t make toy ukuleles. It’s a company that makes real ukuleles for the toy market – and that’s important for your business.

High-quality, entry-level musical instruments provide value for your customers.

In 2016, at Toy Fair in New York City, we recognized a real need for an actual, playable ukulele in the toy market. Our ukuleles are made with real strings and real tuners, and they are made to stay in tune. When someone has a great first experience, they will continue to learn and, at some point, upgrade or buy another ukulele.

To provide even more value, Kala offers learning materials at little or no cost to your customers. They can learn to play right out of the box! With every purchase of a Kala ukulele, they have access to free online lessons and our free app with tuner, with the option to subscribe to learn more than 2,000 popular songs.

Kala is the world’s largest ukulele brand, so selling our instruments benefits your store in two ways.

1. Brand recognition – we are an established, well-known brand in the music industry.

2. Instrument quality – selling a quality ukulele means happier customers and fewer returns.

The ukulele is a hot seller in toy stores – a trend that is here to stay. Many young people pick it up to emulate popular artists from around the world who have made the ukulele their main instrument.

The most effective way to sell ukuleles is to let your customers see it, touch it and hear it. Make sure shoppers can reach them! Get the instruments out from behind the counter and down off the top rack. If you are worried about small children, put the ukuleles on a shelf that tweens, teens, and adults can reach, but also have at least one as a floor model for

everyone to touch and play. A kite store in Southern California displays a Kala on a string outside its door. It hangs at waist level so that people walking by can stop and play it.

We are happy to work with you on how-to-sell ideas, and we offer a variety of wonderful, creative display options.

When you order from us, we will help you brainstorm display solutions and let you choose from our selection of POP displays.

Kala ukuleles are for everyone.

They are small, portable, and easy to take anywhere. It is not uncommon to see them being used in preschools and classrooms and with parents and kids together. Children can start learning as young as 3 years old, and teenagers and adults love them, too. They make a great musical, educational and brain-powered gift for anyone on your list!

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edplay-202

KALA UKULELE

MAKING THE HOLIDAYS MERRY & BRIGHT *lights not included

FIND YOUR FAVORITE AT KALABRAND.COM edplay-202010-Holiday-ASsorted-D1-lc.indd 1 EPY_06_working.indd 15

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What Will You Pixelate?

Pix Brix are STEM/STEAM-certified open-ended building toys that foster play, creativity, and imagination.

A simple, one-piece, slide-and-stack system allows kids and adults alike to create 2-D pixel art and 3-D builds with Pix Brix. Thanks to their unique patented connection system, the pixel art puzzle bricks can be tightly connected vertically, horizontally, and even diagonally without ironing, water, or glue.

Working with Pix Brix is fast and easy, and does not require a base plate or pegboard. Simply slide the pieces together like a puzzle to create amazing eight-bit-inspired pixel art, or slide and stack them to create awesome new 3-D voxel builds.

Pix Brix are fun, safe, and reusable, and are compatible with other major brick brands. They’re available in 32 colors organized into three color palettes: Dark, Medium, and Light.

Building possibilities are endless. Just visit the company’s Pinterest page –pinterest.com/pixbrix – to find more than 1,000 templates and instructions created by pixel artists around the world.

There’s also a free downloadable Pix Brix app that offers more instructions, templates, and the Photo Pixelator. It helps users crop and pixelate their favorite images by giving them a piece count of the colors they need and a section breakdown. It’s easy to build a personalized pixel-puzzle masterpiece.

A variety of Pix Brix sets are available ranging from happy painter Bob Ross to Van Gogh’s Starry Night. Individual colors are also available in bulk.

Eighteen years ago, Kevin Dumphy started a small toy-vending company in sunny Mesa, Arizona with his three sons: Shawn, Joshua, and Eli. For many years, they tried to find a way to sell brick building kits in vending machines.

It was nearly impossible. They had too many pieces and they cost too much for the vending market. Most were also too large to fit into a vending-machine capsule. “So we decided to create our own simple brick system,” explains Joshua. “That way, we could control the size and number of pieces so it would work for vending.”

In 2016, after two-and-a-half years of research and development, the first Pix Brix Series, “Farm,” was released into the toy-vending market.

“We sold more than 1 million capsule farm animals in one year! Since then, we have released a variety of sets, created a master artist series, and designed exclusive custom kits for various companies and studios. We also developed an online store and are now selling on Amazon,” he adds.

The goal for the Dumphys is to keep growing and improving by expanding their lines, acquiring more licenses, and developing more products and pieces so they can give their customers exactly what they’re asking for.

“We hope that everyone enjoys their experience building and playing with Pix Brix,” says Joshua. “Together, we can Pixelate Everything!”

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An “Engineering Masterpiece” of a Game You’ve never seen anything quite like Quaggle, a new stacking and balancing game. It was created, patented and trademarked by a retired U.S. firefighter.

Award-winning Quaggle combines art, design and physics.

Players take turns by drawing cards and building a structure piece by solid-wood piece. They can hook it, lay it, interlock or hang it. No matter how each one is placed, the structure is picture-worthy every step of the way. Everyone wants to win, but at the same time build the structure as big as they can to see how crazy it can get. Just one wrong move is enough to send it tumbling.

Quaggle is never boring – every game is different, every structure is unique. Play is exciting, fast paced, and extremely addictive. This game won’t be collecting dust in a closet somewhere.

Everyone has a blast playing it, no matter their age. The suggested range is 3 years old right up through teenagers, parents, and grandparents. Kids as young as 6 years old have dominated adults, and vice versa. There is no telling who has what it takes to become the champion.

Even when it’s not your turn you have to watch closely and formulate a plan for your next move. Stay alert to every weight shift and any loose pieces. You never know exactly how safe a piece is until you place it. Grab 11 of your friends and build awesome structures. If you have a steady surface, you can play just about anywhere. You’ll find yourself losing track of time.

There are four Quaggle game modes.

Standard: With cards*, 2 to 6 players, 5 to 15 minutes per round. Winner: the person with the most cards Chill: No cards, no app, 2 to 8 players, 5 to 20 minutes per round. Winner: none Countdown: Quaggle countdown app**, 2 to 12 players, 1 to 5 minutes per round. Winner: last man standing Quick: Quaggle countdown app**, 2 to 6 players, 2 to 10 minutes per round. Winner: Lowest amount of time used Quaggle has so much to offer. It comes with 27 solid wood pieces and 50 illustrated cards, and all that for only $29.99. It’s a true STEM and STEAM game, and helps develop hand-eye coordination and fine-motor skills.

*Using the card deck – take turns drawing cards and stacking the piece shown, whether it’s the “Slice,” “Porkchop” or others, including three “wildcards.” Rack up points for every piece you place. Win bonus points! Do not destroy the structure or you lose points. **Using the free timer app – download the free Quaggle Timer App (iOS and Android) and unlock Quaggle’s full potential with exciting game play for up to 12 people. The app has two play modes, 1. as a unique timer, and 2. as a player scoreboard.

18 November 2020 — edplay.com

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4M STEAM Powers Educational FUN For more than a quarter century, 4M has been leading the way in learningthrough-play with a wide breadth of innovative and educational products.

In today’s environment, at-home learning is as important as ever, and 4M makes it easier for families to continue education outside of the traditional classroom. Its hands-on activities foster positive mental development in fun new ways, and help kids stay focused and engaged while they learn about Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math.

So, what are the four Ms of this globally recognized brand of educational kits?

Most experience 4M products are trusted, legitimate teaching tools filled with detailed activities and related factoids. Each year, 4M introduces new, innovative products to spark kids’ creativity and mental acuity.

“Experience” also applies to providing merchandising solutions, like the KidzLabs freestanding display. It helps stores maximize profit margins in precious retail space.

Most acclaimed 4M has garnered more than 70 prestigious awards for creativity, design and learning from educators, parents and design firms around the world. Most recently, the 4M Scientific Discovery Kit received the 2020 Clamour Influencer Choice Favorite at Toy Fair Everywhere, and the Mega Hydraulic Arm was named 2020 Kid’s Educational Product of the Year by Creative Child Magazine. Each product was tested and reviewed by a select group of family influencers and parents.

The award-winning Mega Hydraulic Arm robot kit is recommended for kids 8 and older.

Most variety The selection of 4M activities is diverse and vast; an entire catalog of hands-on science and art activities unrivaled in the industry for kids of all ages and skill levels. These products range from introducing basic magnetic concepts through play to building complex robots powered by the sun, and include craft projects that unlock creativity and dexterity.

Most accessible 4M provides access for families to explore a variety of STEAM activities without breaking the bank. Ideal for holiday gifting, most products are $20 or less at retail.

Toysmith is proud to be the exclusive U.S. distributor of 4M products for more than 15 years. Through our partnership, we strive to provide spontaneous moments of joy every day for our customers and consumers.

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M d

For 27 years has led the way with award-winning STEAM products designed to inspire creative learning.

Make your store the STEAM destination for holiday gifts!

Product Videos Here!

Contact your Anne McGilvray Sales Representative at 1-800-527-1462 to place your order.

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Puzzling Out Your Product Mix The old rules don’t apply

by Sandy Ruben

The disruption of the last nine months has forced retailers in our industry to re-examine and change multiple aspects of their previously successful businesses. It’s been an ongoing challenge for everyone involved.

One of the biggest discussions during this process has focused on what types of products to carry, since the old rules no longer apply. It seems that some great pre-COVID categories are floundering while others are simply exploding. Puzzles – 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzles in particular – became a major breakout category in early spring, followed quickly by games. When warm weather arrived in May, retailers went hunting for anything new and fun that kids and their families could do while they played outside. Everyone was looking for inflatable pools.

Since then, I haven’t seen any new, dramatic changes, but here we are in the homestretch to the holidays. To find out what’s selling, I turned to the experts. I sent a list of 61 different toy categories to a number of retailers and reps in October, and asked them to rank each one based on a scale of “best” (“hot, great and fantastic”) to “worst” (“insignificant”).

Here are some of the highlights.

I thought I would be writing this article about products by category, but the insight I received makes it more about products by age range. Across the board, items for older kids are vastly outperforming items for younger children, I discovered. “This is an opportunity for us to expand our customer base,” noted one retailer.

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Jigsaw puzzles for older kids and adults continue to be huge sellers. In fact, my retailer and rep experts indicate that 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzles, as a category, are their second-best sellers overall. I will be the first to admit that when retailers were scrambling to get their hands on these puzzles back in April, I considered it just a phase. It would last three or four months at the most, I thought. It’s true that the demand is a little less crazy right now, but it is likely that the jigsaw-puzzle trend will continue into 2021.

“Games for Teenagers and Adults” was the number-one category by votes.

It speaks to the idea that not only are families spending more time together, but also that tweens and teenagers are engaging in fun and challenging activities with their parents!

Building toys for 8-to-12-year-olds were the 13th best-selling category out of the list of 61. Craft kits for 8-to-12-year-olds were 12th, and science kits for 8-to-12year-olds came in 7th – a big surprise!

The lowest end of the spectrum can be summed up by this statement by a retailer respondent “Novelty has really taken a hit this year.” It’s probably due to fewer customers browsing in stores right now, but impulse and novelty items have not performed well online either – even as many retailers report healthy sales from their websites.

The overall category of Pretend Play has also dropped off. It surprised me – I would have thought younger children would need that outlet, now more than ever. Within this broad range, puppets, dress-up, dramatic play, dolls, animals/figurines, and play sets have all experienced sales declines.

Compounds have taken a hit, too, including putty, slime, and other types of molding products. Not being able to display demo samples has dramatically impacted sales, say retailers.

Magnetic building toys are an up-andcoming category. Actually, stay on the lookout for all types of building toys. There may be an opportunity for a couple of new companies to have a building-toy breakthrough in 2021 since the category has been strong throughout 2020.

The crafts category is another up-andcomer. Crafts are appealing to kids ranging in age from 3 to 12. 2021 may be the year to expand your current craftactivity offerings.

This fall, outdoor toys continued at a strong pace, and we expect that they’ll be more popular than ever next spring.

Kites, a subcategory of outdoor toys, did very well in our survey. When the weather starts to warm up a little, it may be time for you to either bring back kites, or expand your kite section.

Many retailers have told me that while traffic is down, the average dollar amount per sale up, considerably.

Parents, and especially grandparents, are buying more-expensive items than they have in the past. Traditionally, the sweet spot for many stores has been $14.99 to $19.99, retail. Now we are seeing a new appreciation for items in the $29.99 to $34.99 range.

The challenges this year have been many, but we’ve discovered untapped opportunities as well. They include the opportunity to increase the variety of products in certain categories you’re carrying, and branching out into categories that you’ve never tried before. Parents and grandparents will keep buying toys in 2021. We just have to make sure that we have what they need.

A category our survey referred to as “Sensory, Tactile, and Fidgettype Toys” was ranked 9th. Toys that are manipulated and played with to release nervous energy are still very much in demand, so they’re worth exploring.

They just need a new name.

No one even wants to hear the word “fidget,” as in “fidget spinners and the oversaturation of our market with them.”

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Are You Carrying Green Products?

A 2020 First Insight study found that 73 percent of Gen Z youth and 78 percent of Millennials expect retailers to be more eco-friendly.

The data echoes a 2019 report by the Toy Association and Prodigyworks, which found that Millennial parents want more sustainable and biodegradable toys and games for their children.

These families will be delighted to see our award-winning games on your shelves!

Adventerra Games makes exciting eco games and puzzles that kids love to play. Made of sustainable FSC-certified materials, all parts are compostable or recyclable. In our games for ages 7+, players make choices to save resources and fight pollution – and the more they work together, the more exciting it gets! And, while some people love to collaborate, others prefer to compete, so our games are both cooperative and competitive to draw everyone into the

excitement! Thanks to strong game mechanics, kids and teens have such a great time that they don’t even notice they’re building math, reading, science, and social skills.

“I love the depth of learning in these games while keeping the fun factor high as kids are motivated to gain points based on best environmental practices,” said a PAL Award reviewer. “A special outcome of playing was watching players continue the conservation conversation days after playing!” The PAL Awards recognize exceptional toys, games and books/media that encourage language, spark fun and invite creative play.

WaterGame This roll & move game is about cooperation and conservation. Players float down a river while drawing cards about saving and wasting water in everyday life. The player who saves the most gallons wins the game. But if the community tank is empty when someone runs dry, everyone loses – so teamwork is essential!

Ages 7+ Recycle Rally Players drive around town collecting objects to recycle. They must move quickly without blocking the streets for others, so it’s a fast-paced race to

pick everything up before time runs out! For 7+, with advanced rules for ages 10+ PowerHaus Players compete to make their house more energy efficient by changing habits and investing in appliances and home improvements. The winner is the one who makes the best choices for their wallet and the world.

Ages 7+, and especially fun for ages 10+ Global Warning Players work together to clean up pollution and slow climate change while the temperature rises with each turn.

Can they slow it down before “Game Over” happens for Planet Earth? For ages 10+, and popular with teens and adults!

NEW for 2020 Holidays Our new preschool line of jigsaw puzzles and games gently shows young children how to care for our world. Adorable sea creatures, a diverse cast of cute kids, and funny recycling bins introduce kids to saving water, going green, and recycling.

We also have an endangered species matching game, and a polar animal roll & move game. Sustainably made, and so much fun to play!

24 November 2020 — edplay.com

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Have fun & save the planet!

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LOKI is a brand of children’s board games founded in France in 2016. It is dedicated to children, made for children and children approved! LOKI games have fascinating stories, clever mechanics and unique designs.

We at LOKI believe that games should deliver more than fun.

Board games are an entertaining and painless way to help kids build essential learning skills. In fact, games are one of the best educational tools around. In addition to teaching kids about teamwork, patience, and how to win and lose gracefully, board games can actually benefit their brains and language development. LOKI has worked closely with teachers to highlight the STEM/STEAM selling points of our games.

Families who bring board games out on cozy Friday nights or over long holiday weekends know that their kids are getting big benefits from special family time together.

LOKI games are

Gender inclusive.

They offer equal opportunities to players of every gender. As long as a player is interested in having fun and building unique strategies, LOKI games are for them.

Full of critical thinking opportunities.

Every LOKI game offers meaningful choices to its players, forcing them to react to and interact with the game and the actions of their opponents. With this in mind, LOKI games are perfect for getting students to adapt their plans and think critically during every single turn. Farmini, our drafting-andtile-placement game for children, focuses on constructing the greatest farm. It encourages their creativity, relates to the real world, and is great for teaching leadership skills.

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Every LOKI game allows players to be an integral part of the experience, moving, manipulating, and changing the game.

It allows LOKI games to appeal to both tactile and visual learners.

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We also want to make sure that the play value of a LOKI game is maximized. That’s why we’ve designed a version of Zoo Run, for example, for children as young as four years old.

It’s a cooperative game in which players must rescue animals from a cruel zookeeper. But the game also has a more difficult version, designed for kids age 6 and up, that pits players against one another in a head-to head-race – great for emotional and social learning. One box contains both games so that children will continue to be challenged over a span of several years.

Even though LOKI games were first imagined, then developed, in France, they seem to attract the interest of people in many countries all over the world. They have been translated in six different languages and are currently being distributed in almost 20 countries. In 2018, SOS Dino won Germany’s prestigious Kinderspiele des Jahres recommendation and was included in England’s Good Toy Guide. In Austria, the game Monsieur Carrousel won the 2019 Spiel der Spiele prize in the children’s category.

More recently, Zoo Run was recommended by Spiel des Jahres 2020.

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A Family Business Dedicated to Serving Your Business Amahi Ukuleles offers a huge variety of instruments for beginner and advanced players.

It does not sell direct, and all its dealers maintain brick-and-mortar locations.

For more than 25 years, Amati’s Fine Instruments – parent company of Amahi Ukuleles – has been producing high-quality, playable instruments for people of all ages. Its founder, Michael Schear, learned how to make violins under a master violinmaker in the Cincinnati area. When his wife decided to learn to play the violin, Michael discovered a gap in the market – a lack of high-quality instruments at an affordable price. He opened a violin shop and set out to create well-made

beginner violins that sounded great.

The business thrived and grew to become one of the biggest wholesale manufacturers of stringed instruments in the industry.

In 2014, Michael tackled the beginner ukulele market with the same goal – to produce attractive instruments with the best sound. He consulted with ukulele experts who recommended that high-quality Aquila strings and well-made tuners come standard in his instruments. Amahi Ukuleles was born.

During their first year on the market, they were awarded “Best in Show” at the annual tradeshow of the National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM). Since then, the line has grown from a small number of products to a wide variety of instruments at all levels and price points.

In 2020, steel tongue drums were added to the Amahi line and another NAMM “Best in Show” was awarded.

The drums were a hit with consumers right from the start because of their beautiful sound. Playing them requires little to no skill. Anyone, even small children, can pick up the set of mallets and start learning (and composing) popular tunes, thanks to Amahi’s online tutorials. They can make music instantly by hitting the drum’s labelled tongues.

They are available in four sizes and five colors.

Their price point, starting at just $69 for a drum, mallets and carrying case, is the best in the industry.

Today, Amahi continues to grow thanks to a dedicated staff that includes three of Michael’s children. It offers great specials and many display options. Its ukuleles and drums make great gifts, and Amahi is fully stocked and ready to fill your holiday orders.

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Best Practices

Multichannel Inventory Management

for

During “normal” times, adding new channels to your brick-and-mortar retail business is a great way to reach more customers, increase sales, and improve the customer experience.

During the pandemic, adding channels – online and mobile, for instance – became a necessity. It was a lot of work for those specialty toy retailers who did not yet have a shopping feature on their website, but in many cases it kept the stores afloat when sales could not be made in person.

Chances are your holiday selling season is already underway. You’ve probably already noticed how inventory management – a challenging process during any busy sales season – has been made even more so with the addition of new channels. To help you keep track of your stock across channels, here are some tips from Francesca Nicasio, content strategist for Vend (vendhq.com), a worldwide provider of cloud-based point-of-sale and retail management software that lets retailers run their business in-store, online, and via mobile. Francesca lists seven best practices to help you get a handle on multichannel inventory management.

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Maintain inventory visibility with consistent identification The more inventory and channels you have, the more important organization becomes. In fact, disorganization may be the reason that an estimated 28 percent of companies do not have inventory visibility across their stores, warehouses and vendors.

A simple solution is to make sure names and other identifying information used for categories, SKUs, and product variations are consistent across the board. It makes reporting more accurate, and can have a positive impact on customer-facing touchpoints like receipts.

Organization of your stockroom is paramount. It makes the process of replenishing shelves fast and easy, it cuts down on employee stress, and it helps prevent loss and theft. When merchandise is stored in its proper place, it’s easier to see when something is missing. (continued on page 32)

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Tapping into Christmas Why does the smell of nutmeg and cinnamon do that to us? One sniff and your mouth starts watering with anticipation. Why do we feel calmer when we see twinkling lights on a bush, tree, or roof awning? We can practically feel the cortisol levels dropping. Why does seeing red next to green alter our moods? It doesn’t matter why. It only matters that you know it happens and you tap into those feelings.

HABA USA has two items to help you tap into the feelings of Christmas – the Animal Upon Animal Christmas Tin and the HABA Nativity Set. Customers see the colors, the symbols, and the images on those items and it taps into their nostalgia. It takes them back instantly to memories of Christmases past and propels them to images of Christmas futures.

We all know customers in the Christmas Spirit spend more. That is why you should be putting out your Christmasthemed toys long before you decorate for the holidays. First, it subconsciously hits people in their feels. You always want your

customers in their happy place. Second, most customers give Christmas-themed items before Christmas as Thanksgiving or St. Nicholas Day (December 6) gifts so the recipients can have more of the season to enjoy them.

Christmas, itself, is a gift to you and all the hard work you do. Make sure you take advantage of everything the season has in the present.

HABA USA is here to help you make Christmas merry.

LIMITED PRINT RUN!

The animals are climbing all over each other to form an ever-taller Christmas pyramid.

But which one will make it to the top? The players take turns carefully balancing squirrels, snow bunnies, penguins and reindeer on stars, fir trees and sleds on top of each other in this wobbly Christmas stacking game.

HABA’S CLASSIC ANIMAL STACKING GAME IN A XMAS THEME COLLECTOR’S TIN! USA_Edplay_20HE0203indd.indd 1

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info@HABAusa.com www.HABAusa.com 800-468-6873

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Best Practices for Inventory Management

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Establish and document protocols Staying organized only works if your employees know your system and abide by it. Just because you understand the impact of multichannel inventory management on your bottom line doesn’t mean that your team does. Standardize your processes and put them down on paper. It will create consistency and empower your staff. Here is a list of systems to spell out.

• Ordering and receiving stock • Getting products for fulfillment • Counting products • Record reconciliation • Handling returns • Security and loss prevention • Health and safety procedures • POS functions

3

Upgrade your tech stack We can’t say it enough: when it comes to multichannel inventory management, it’s absolutely critical to have real-time synchronization and visibility of your stock. Connecting and integrating systems is a big challenge, and 34 percent of companies don’t have the software integration that they need to do it. In fact, more than half of ecommerce brands still use manual pen-and-paper processes to manage logistics.

Surprisingly, as many as 38 percent of companies don’t have order management, inventory management, POS or 3PL software. If you are choosing your POS system, inventory management software and related tools, consider the integration option in addition to their built-in feature set.

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Head to the cloud Speaking of technology, I recommend you head to the cloud when you’re managing inventory across multiple channels. It helps you maintain real-time visibility across brick-and-mortar stores, warehouses, vendors and everything in between.

With a cloud-based POS system, for example, you can make sales from your retail store and instantly update your master inventory data at the same time.

It can help you avoid mistakes like making a sold-out item available to online shoppers.

Going cloud-based also gives you richer insight into your business and your inventory. You can view realtime reports and data analyses to make more informed purchasing, pricing, and inventory-related decisions.

This means you spend less time crunching numbers and more time making strategic and informed decisions.

5

Sync online and offline Regardless of your technology stack, it’s important that online and offline data inputs are synced so you have an accurate, holistic view of your stock. Set your sights on a retail management system that could connect your online and offline data. That way, it will be easier to analyze online versus offline sales. For instance, there may be particular products that perform better online versus in-store and vice versa. Note trends that are both consistent and different for each channel.

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Automate when you can With so many moving parts and pieces, it’s helpful to take the human element out as much as possible.

This can alleviate human error and provide more advanced data analysis. This is where automation comes into play, which allows your team to focus on other important tasks, as opposed to the tedious and repetitive tasks that are easily handled by tech.

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Conduct regular counts While machines can certainly do a lot, it’s still important to conduct “quality checks” by hand, especially when you’re dealing with multiple channels.

It requires a person or multiple people physically counting how much merchandise you have in your possession.

It sounds tedious, and it is – good thing you only have to do a full count once a year. Schedule your audit during a slow period, say, after the holidays, so you can shut down the store and halt operations to solely focus on the count. Partial counts can be conducted throughout the year – essentially you choose a sample group of inventory to count and apply those findings to the rest of your stock. It’s less accurate but also less unwieldy.

Without a doubt, the 2020 holiday selling season will bring us unique challenges beyond our past experiences. The better prepared you are logistically, the better your chances are to increase your presence, drive more sales, and reach more customers.

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You Don’t Have to be Artistic to Enjoy Do-Wikki This engaging and versatile game gets everyone creating It’s game time in Wikkiland! And we’re told that it’s long overdue! With so much family-at-home time, everyone is looking for new avenues of fun and entertainment.

Introducing Do-Wikki! Not just for the kids, Do-Wikki can be played on many levels, which means it’s something Mom and Dad can actually enjoy, too! (We know that playing a game designed for a 4-year-old gets old). This one engages the most reluctant players – it’s even zany enough for tweens!

And the best part is NO SCREENS. Do-Wikki provides hands-on, engaging, creative fun and lots of laughs for everyone. And, besides, what other game has a frog sticking its tongue out on the front?

But this isn’t the only Wikki Stix item for Christmas.

We know that everyone is stressed out, bored and in need of something to lift their spirits. While they won’t cure all the world’s ills, Wikki Stix are great fidget toys. They are colorful, soothing, durable, handy, and can provide a spark of open-ended creative fun. And that can be, even briefly, a very welcome moment.

So think Wikki for Christmas stockings, both the Rainbow Pak and Doodler. For under the tree, place the new awardwinning family game Do-Wikki!

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Sir Troy

King of Toys

by Tina Manzer

Troy Cefaratti just opened his second toy store; his second 9,000-square-foot toy store.

They’re both in Ohio – the original in North Canton and the new one in Medina. But who expands during a pandemic? When you’re a successful merchant like Troy is and you’ve been searching for the right space for years, you have to do it despite the

The Instagram-worthy throne setup at Sir Troy’s Medina location was a busy place during the grand opening on November 1. Mr. Potato Head, Toy Story’s T-Rex, and Bell Hopscotch Rabbit were on hand for the ribbon cutting and celebration. Among the grand-opening events were a free giveaway of a Fat Brain SimplDimpl to the first 50 customers, door prize drawings every half-hour, raffle drawings from November 1 through November 7, and a contest to name the store’s mascot, a giant Schleich tiger.

challenges. “We signed the lease on September 2, received the keys on September 24 and opened our doors on November 1,” reports Heather Marks, Sir Troy’s marketing director. Here she explains how they pulled it off.

How was the grand opening?

Here’s a good story: a little girl and her mom were standing outside the store at 10:45 a.m. When we told them we didn’t open until noon, they said they were standing in line. Sure enough, within 34 November 2020 — edplay.com

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15 minutes, a line formed that quickly wrapped around the building. With more people joining in, the line remained that long for the first two hours of our celebration. We could only safely accommodate 60 people at one time in the store, and everyone patiently waited to be cycled in.

place. Phone calls, emails and an appeal letter later, they granted our flagship status.

How’s business?

Both our communities have been very supportive during this crazy time. We pivoted quickly during the shutdown in Why was November 2020 the right time to open a March to do FaceTime/Zoom shopping, email orders, more second store?

FaceTime Lives. Our e-commerce site was up within two It was the right property in the right area. Plus it gave us the weeks. We have phenomenal neighbors at our North Canton ability to open up for the majority store – while our doors had to of the fourth quarter. We had been remain locked, Pizza BOGO in Troy Cefarrati loves to create and build looking for space for three years! our plaza allowed our customers to with LEGOs. His first store was online, Many folks from Medina made the pick up their packages there. and sold his leftover bricks, but his first hour-long trek to North Canton on Staff who worked during the physical store opened in North Canton a regular basis. So we crunched a shutdown walked, on average, 6 in 2009. Sir Troy’s moved to the much bunch of boring numbers and looked to 8 miles through the store each larger, 9,000-square-foot space in 2015, at demographics, which confirmed day helping customers and filling and has become famous for its wide array we were a good fit. orders. of LEGO kits and full-line offerings from

Pier one moved out on Playmobil, Breyer and Schleich.

September 23 and we started How important to the success

“Sir Troy’s specializes in quality, moving in the next day. of the business is social imagination-powered toys for kids of

Our team and our reps were media? all ages. It carries the brands kids love, totally amazing. Barb White from Word of mouth has always been and parents and grandparents trust,” says Specialty Marketing Group, Marcia the lifeblood of small independent Marketing Director Heather Marks.

Harris from Faber-Castell/Creativity businesses. Today, it’s amplified by

It doesn’t sell video games and most for Kids, David Siegel from Total social media. During our shutdown, electronics, and instead offers trains, Toys and Bill Benda, the national we went from making two to three models, rockets, puzzles, card games, account manager from Schleich, posts a week to two to three posts dolls and STEM kits. “Sir Troy’s does all made sure their brands arrived a day. Since reopening, the amount not chase fads, because they usually fade before our grand opening. Every has settled somewhere in the away before the gift is even unwrapped,” one of them came in to set up their middle.

Heather adds. “Instead it focuses on brands! What other industry steps up A part-time staff member is quality toys that withstand the test of like that? dedicated to handling all of our time and stand out as quality favorites.”

marketing, brand management, What challenges did you face? social media and events. We Hiring in the current market is recruited her from her job challenging anyway. Now try it as a brand-new business marketing and managing classic car auctions, so it was a hoping to recruit qualified individuals who want to join your move from big-kid toys to little-kid toys. team. Then run them through evaluations and interviews to find out if they’re fun. Yup, fun – it’s a requirement Any predictions for toy retail during the holidays? of working at a toy store. We did find some amazing We are going to see smart shoppers out earlier than ever. individuals and are proud to have them on our team.

They know there will be shortages of more items than in the

There were problems with shipping and inventory. I past, plus shipping delays and supply-chain issues. When don’t have to expound on this, everyone gets it. Also, we they see something they like, they will not come back for were sad that we couldn’t have play tables in the store or it later. It may not be there. We’ve been selling Christmashost crafts or events. themed games since November 1.

The biggest challenge came right after we signed the

We anticipate a strong return to quality imaginationlease. It was totally unexpected. One of our major brand/ powered toys. With their kids learning from home, parents are strategic partners cancelled its flagship program for the struggling with the large amount of screen time they’re getting. remainder of the year because they didn’t want their staff Kids used to come home from school and unwind by playing travelling to set up the stores. We had already allocated on the computer or with video games, but now they are at floor space for their fixtures and our order was ready to computers all day. Families are seeking a new balance.

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for your business information De-escalation Training Helps Retailers Handle Customer Conflict Caused by COVID

The National Retail Federation (NRF) Foundation has developed a new retail-training program in partnership with the Crisis Prevention Institute (CPI). It’s designed to help front-line, customer-facing retail workers prevent and de-escalate customer conflict specific to safety mandates of the pandemic.

CPI reports that it has received double the number of requests for de-escalation information since the pandemic was declared. “COVID-19 anxiety continues to rise in businesses and elsewhere across the United States,” says Susan Driscoll, CPI

president. “Overall, tensions are a frequent concern for essential workers who are faced with activating and managing mask mandates while also trying to keep the peace among customers.”

The NRF Foundation’s new programs have streamlined best practices from retailers and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The training is targeted toward employees of small and midsize businesses that do not have learning and development teams.

CPI’s de-escalation training focuses on a multifaceted approach

that includes active and empathetic listening, withholding judgment, allowing silence, clarifying messages, developing a plan, recognizing personal limits and debriefing. In the past 40 years, the organization has trained more than 15 million individuals who span many industries and professions, especially health care and education.

Laws in France Address Gender Neutrality in Toys

Brands Use Video Games as Marketing Tools

Toymakers, retailers and advertisers in France have signed a government charter committing to make children’s toys gender neutral, reports The Local France. The Economy Ministry charter aims to end the practice of designating toys as “for girls” and “for boys.”

Here’s what will happen next.

• A practical guide will be produced for the industry that addresses toy advertising, product design, catalogs, shelving and layout in toy stores, and the design of websites that sell toys, says The Local.

• A training module will be created for sales staff that focuses on advising consumers about their toy selections based on a child’s interest and age rather than on their gender.

• Awareness campaigns will be created on social media.

In addition, training will be offered to childcare professionals to avoid gender stereotyping.

The charter calls for toys and games with a STEM theme to use both boys and girls in their advertising. The best gender-neutral toy advertising will be awarded a prize from the advertising union.

A progress report scheduled for March 2021 will examine how the charter’s recommendation worked over the winter and during the holiday shopping period specifically.

In a fashion campaign called “Off the Grid,” luxury brand Gucci is marketing its products in the classic role-playing game The Sims 4. Players can dress and accessorize their virtual avatars in Gucci hats, backpacks, sneakers, and more, reports Business Insider.

In real life, the “Off The Grid” campaign focuses on using sustainable materials like recycled nylon as part of what Gucci calls a circular fashion model.

“Gucci isn’t the only campaign experimenting with in-game marketing,” explained the article.

“In October, Joe Biden’s presidential campaign released campaign posters in the game Animal Crossing. An avatar of the former vice president can even be found milling about on an island of his own in the game.”

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New Arcade Games Help Kids Improve Attention Skills

A new gaming platform has been designed to help children who struggle with attention and focus skills. Called The Attention Arcade, the cutting edge platform tracks the eye movement of game players to control the on-screen action.

Research indicates that eye movement and attention are tightly linked and share much of the same brain circuitry, according to BrainLeap, the company behind The Attention Arcade.

“To put it simply, where we look and where we are planning to look are where we are placing our attention,” says the company’s press release. “The connection is leveraged by games designed to train different aspects of attention. By using their eyes to control the games, kids can strengthen their focus and attention skills.”

Research to develop the games was funded by the

National Institutes of Health. They were created and tested at the University of California, San Diego. The clinical trial included individuals between the ages of 9 and 25.

All participants who completed the at-home training study showed improvements in at least one measure of attention, and most showed improvements on multiple measures.

On average, there was 68-percent improvement in fast and accurate shifts of attention (Etask), 55-percent improvement in inhibitory control (anti-saccade), and 30-percent improvement in focus (NICHQ).

The Attention Arcade features the following.

• Six training games that address different aspects of attention.

• Three assessments that demonstrate the skills users are developing also transfer to skills in the real world.

• A reporting tool that allows parents to see what games their kids are playing and for how long.

• A parent training module.

“BrainLeap’s vision is a world where attention training is the norm for improving attention and focus in kids,” said Jeff Coleman, CEO of BrainLeap. “Children are more likely to engage with platforms that reward their efforts and are fun.”

Prepare Your Business for 2021

Businesses bolted into 2020 with firm plans and optimistic outlooks, but all that evaporated by mid-March when the focus turned from thriving to surviving. Today, as this turbulent year enters its final months, new questions lie just over the horizon: what will 2021 bring and how can businesses be ready?

“The end of the pandemic still feels a long way off but even so, there is a lot businesses can do to prepare for success in 2021,” says Adam Witty, the ForbesBooks co-author of Authority Marketing: Your Blueprint to Build Thought Leadership that Grows Business, Attracts Opportunity, and Makes Competition Irrelevant. “I’m sure 2021 will come with its own unexpected twists and turns, but I am also confident there will be potential.

You just have to know where to look.”

Witty is the author of seven books, and is also a sought-after speaker, teacher and consultant on marketing and business growth techniques for entrepreneurs and authors. He has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Investors Business Daily and USA Today, and has appeared on ABC and Fox.

He suggests business owners take these four simple steps to plan for success next year.

1. Review what you learned in 2020. Think about what you did this year to maneuver through the hazards. What worked? What didn’t? What would you do differently?

2. Talk to your best customers. Find out what they want and need, and how they anticipate their lives will look in 2021, especially post-pandemic. Learn how your product or service will fit into the flow. Do customers want you to continue offering and delivering products in a low-contact way, or is it important for them to come in and experience what you have available? Does your solution to meeting their needs lie in providing them the best of both worlds – virtual and in-person – or is the right option something you haven’t explored yet?

3. Look at what your competitors are doing. Review how they are reaching customers today, and see if you can find any clues about what they may do tomorrow.

4. Rethink how to use your marketing dollars. While face-to-face interactions are on hold indefinitely because of the pandemic, in-store special events and activities like story time are out of the question. Capitalize on campaigns in which you can reach customers at home.

“If something you couldn’t possibly anticipate was to arise again, like it did in 2020, can your business handle it?” Witty asks. “If the answer is yes, chances are you’re ready to play in a post-pandemic world.”

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industry news The Toy Association will release its “STEAM Toy Assessment Framework” this fall to help toymakers develop and market products that meet a consistent definition of the STEAM category. The framework will be available as a checklist for toy companies to assess whether their toy can be categorized as a STEAM toy, meaning the product: • has all four characteristics of a “good toy”; • has all six of the prime STEAM characteristics and • links to at least two of the specific STEAM areas.

The criteria are set out in the framework and are organized by age, ensuring that the learning goals supported by toys are age-appropriate.

The “STEAM Toy Assessment Framework” joins a number of useful reports and resources from The Toy Association that help toy manufacturers, parents, and teachers encourage children to use toys and play to grow, enhance their learning, and build lifelong skills.

This infographic is one of many resources available on toyassociation.org/steam

The list of 117 finalists for the 2021 Toy of the Year (TOTY) Awards were announced in October. Play lovers can visit toyawards.org until January 5, 2021, to vote for their favorite playthings in each of the 16 categories. Winners in each category, as well as the “Toy of the Year” winner and “People’s Choice” honoree (based solely on consumer votes) will be announced at the virtual TOTY Awards Gala on Friday, February 12, 2021.

Among the finalists were products from these edplay advertisers. Congratulations!

• PlayMonster: Face Paintoos Party Pack – Creative; Drone Home – Game; Snap Ships Sabre XF-23 Interceptor – Construction • MukkiKim LLC: Genius Square – Game • Shore Buddies: Shore Buddies – Plush • Plus-Plus: Plus-Plus GO! Street Racing Super Set – Construction • Klutz: DIY Rainbow Catcher – STEAM

TriAction Toys, a European importer, won three Oppenheim Toy Portfolio awards for its huggable array of soft toys for infants and toddlers. Les Déglingos Original Muchachos The Llama, and Les Déglingos Soft Toys in Tubes Collection earned Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Platinum Awards, reserved for the most innovative and engaging products of the year. Each tube contains either a hippo, ostrich, llama, flamingo or tiger.

Teddykompaniet Baby Comforter with Cow or Cat received Oppenheim’s Gold Seal Award, presented to outstanding new products that enhance the lives of children.

Teddykompaniet is a family-run Swedish business known for its high-quality soft toys.

Piccoli Horses, a company that creates toys and learning experiences to inspire love, kindness and empathy, has named neurological surgeon Leslie Acakpo-Satchivi as the Piccoli Partner of 2020.

Dr. AcakpoDylan (left) with Dr. Acakpo-Satchivi Satchivi invested in Piccoli as a startup after he met CEO Kimberly Rogers and her son Dylan. “I was moved to invest in Piccoli Horses by Kimberly’s dream to help children enjoy the physical act of play while they learned language alongside this adorable plush horse,” he says.

Dylan Rogers was diagnosed at age 3 with gradual on-set hydrocephalus, a genetic brain disease. His condition left him struggling to speak, so Kimberly enrolled him in every therapy available. “Language develops when a child plays,” noted one speech therapist, and play combined with speaking proved to be most effective. Two decades later, Kimberly took what she had learned and blended it with technology and a love for animals to create an app that introduces children to the fun of foreign languages.

Dr. Acakpo-Satchivi, originally from West Africa, practices at the Springfield Clinic in Illinois. “Whenever I travel, I spend time familiarizing myself of the language of the places I visit,” he says. “Nothing brings people together quite like sharing a common tongue.”

For more information, visit piccolihorses.com.

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Learning Resources in Vernon Hills, Illinois, was recently recognized by the Chicago Tribune as a Top Workplace 2020. The prestigious annual recognition, now in its 11th year, celebrates the most dynamic companies and organizations that support and sustain the local Chicago business community.

For more than 35 years, Learning Resources has provided employees with a collaborative, positive environment in which to develop, manufacture and distribute educational toys and games for young learners at home and in the classroom.

The Top Workplaces are evaluated solely through employee evaluations gathered through the Energage employee survey. When it asked what makes Learning Resources special, one employee said this: “Because it’s a company that cares, is inclusive and true to its values.

Education is one of the most powerful ways in which we can change the world and help people reach their potential.

Learning Resources makes this our goal, and these values are inherent in each and every product we create.”

Fisher-Price is appealing to nostalgic grown-ups with a new Instagram gallery that celebrates some of its most iconic toys, reports Ad Age.

The gallery was created to mark the 90th anniversary of the Mattel-owned brand, and features exhibits of Chatter Telephone, Granny Doodle, Barky Puppy, Rock A Stack, Play n’ Go Activity Walker, and others. Each exhibit was crafted by Leila Fakouri, whose set design, photography and art direction skills have been used by Chanel, Nike, Gap and Levis.

“These toys were designed and created in a variety of time periods spanning almost a century,” Facouri explains.

“Each decade has its own style, colors, vibe and nostalgic memories. I focused on bringing this to life by curating a beautiful and complex variety of installations that reflect the visual language of each time.”

“As families continue to look for virtual experiences to enjoy together, the digital museum will enable adults to share memories of their favorite toys with their children,” says Fisher-Price’s Chuck Scothon. “Whether their FisherPrice memory is playing with the rotary-dial Chatter Telephone or rambling behind the Bubble Mower the Fisher-Price Toy Museum is the place to relive it all.”

TOMY International has acquired Fat Brain Toys, the privately held developer, marketer and seller of children’s toys, games and gifts. TOMY International is a subsidiary of TOMY Company and is responsible for the North American, European, and Australian markets.

Fat Brain Toys is considered one of the nation’s leading independent toy companies and is well-known for designing its own line of award-winning toys and games. It joins Tomy’s portfolio of toy brands that include Lamaze, The First Years, Ertl, Johnny Lightning, and more.

Fat Brain was founded in 2002 in the basement of the Carson family home in Elkhorn, Nebraska. It was the direct result of a failed online search for a building toy called Geomag by Adam Carson, then 10 years old. He suggested to his father, Mark, a web developer by trade, that they create their own online store. Their venture became one of the largest online retailers of Geomag in the world.

Fat Brain quickly grew out of the basement, and today offers more than 7,500 in-stock toys, games, and gifts. It operates two retail stores in Omaha and in Overland Park, Kansas, a suburb of Kansas City.

In 2006, Fat Brain Toy Co., a sister company, began developing educational toys. Its first creation, Dado Cubes, helps develop design and visual-spatial skills. Since then, 60-plus original toys and games have been brought to market.

“Fat Brain has continued to grow by staying focused on developing and selling innovative children toy and game products through a multi-channel distribution network, while always keeping consumers at the center of everything they do,” says TOMY President Pete Henseler.

Thin Air Brands LLC has been named to Inc. Magazine’s “500 Fastest-Growing Companies in America” list for the second year in a row. It was ranked 1,970 out of 5,000, with a 215-percent three-year growth rate.

The list showcases “the sharpest, smartest and fastest-growing companies in the country,” says Inc.

Based in Colorado, Thin Air Brands include Anywhere Ball, Ben Franklin Toys, Flight Line Toys, Nature Bound Toys, Pea Pod Babies, Dr. STEM Toys, and Taiyo RC. November 2020 — edplay.com 39

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retailers recommend

Fabulous Products safariltd.com

1

2

grandpabecksgames.com

3

4

David Castillo, Red Balloon Toy Store in Salt Lake City

Good Luck Minis (1) from Safari are our top sellers.

They’re tiny – each one is no bigger than a paperclip – and they have a ‘cute factor’ that makes them really appealing to kids and adults alike. Plus, they’re fun to collect.

Three games by the same company – Grandpa Beck’s Games – just fly out of here. We’re the company’s topselling specialty retailer! Cover Your Assets (2) is a card game where players of all ages create matching sets of assets like jewelry and classic cars. Customers buy multiple games because they give them away, or need another deck for home, their dorm room, etc.

Cover Your Kingdom (3) is like a sequel. Players create sets, but of funny and ‘punny’ creatures. ‘Pigxies’ is one. There are more cards, too, so more people can play.

Skull King (4) is a card and bidding game. The mechanics, though, come from set collection games.

We’re doing well with the Ravensburger collection of Escape Puzzles (5), and I’m excited about the potential of the LEGO Adventures with Mario Starter Course (6).

grandpabecksgames.com

5

ravensburger.org

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10

microkickboard.com

9

amahiukuleles.com

Christine Osborne, Wonder Works Toy Stores in Charleston, South Carolina

Parents who are looking for beginning art supplies for their kids are often overwhelmed by the wide selection. But when we show them Studio in a Box (7) from Kid Made Modern, it’s a problem solved.

Everything budding artists need to get sketching, painting, or coloring is conveniently packaged in this set.

Different: A Story About Loving Your Neighbor (8) by Chris Singleton teaches children around the nation to love others no matter their race, skin color or religion. Chris has dedicated his first book to his late mother, Sharonda Coleman-Singleton, who passed away June 17th, 2015, in the Mother Emmanuel AME Church shooting in our hometown of Charleston.

The Tongue Drum (9) from Amahi sells extremely well when you have a demo available. It combines incredible high-quality construction with amazing sound.

We love ALL Micro Kickboard scooters, but the Mini 3in1 Deluxe (10) is a favorite because it grows with the child from ages 1 through 5.

6 lego.com

8 chrissingleton.com

7 kidmademodern.com

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new & true 1

2

Elapsed-Time Dice from Koplow Games are simple, skill-building learning aids that help teach a difficult concept. In a fun way, they help kids in grades 2 and up understand how much time has passed, or will pass, between two different events. Elapsedtime dice are among the 1,200 different standard and polyhedral dice offered

by Koplow Games. The company’s extensive educational line includes a variety of different math dice plus math manipulative dice verbalized in several different languages. Elapsed Time Dice come in three sets: four jumbo (29mm) 12-sided dice including a yellow pair for a.m. and a white pair for p.m.; and a set of jumbo yellow a.m. dice only, and a set of p.m. dice only. info@ koplowgames.com, 1-800-899-0711

3

4

5 1. The much anticipated Magna-Tiles Storage Bin & Interactive Playmat is the perfect holiday add-on! With a spacious interior that holds up to 300 Magna-Tiles and sturdy side handles, this portable storage bin is easy to use and move around. magnatiles.com 2. Do-Wikki from Wikki Stix is the perfect Christmas gift! It’s a new family game that’s fun for all ages. It’s in-stock and shipping now! MSRP: $14.95 800-869-4554 info@wikkistix.com

3. Pix Brix is an award-winning pixel puzzle brick that utilizes a unique patented connection system. This simple and revolutionary one-piece slide-and-stack system allows users to create 2-D pixel art and 3-D builds by connecting vertically, horizontally, and even diagonally. pix-brix.com 4. Beware! In Kraken Attack by Iello, the tentacles of the terrible Kraken just burst out of the waves. Hurry up, everyone on deck, get your weapons and use your pirate skills to save your ship. It’s a great cooperative tower defense game! MSRP: $34.99.

For 2 to 4 players ages 7+ iello.com

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6 7

8

5. The Rock ’N Roller Piano from Fat Brain Toys is what happens when a xylophone meets a baby toy. Early musical exploration becomes a wild adventure.

MSRP: $29.95 fatbraintoyco.com 6. Kids will love learning at home with the 4M Scientific Discovery Kit. This comprehensive collection of 42 popular and award-winning projects fosters STEAM learning through multiple disciplines. Tell time with lemons, experiment with bubbles, move with magnets and more! The kit comes with everything needed except a few common household ingredients.

1-800-527-1462 annemcgilvray.com

Fractiles is an engaging magnetic “toy” and a quintessential STEAM activity.

The different angles of its cheerfully colored diamond-shaped pieces are based on the number seven and so they are all compatible. Placing them on the black magnetic background to form patterns is a soothing, engrossing and creative process.

When children “play” with Fractiles, they’re building important math, logic and focus skills. Parents gladly offer Fractiles as an educational alternative to screen time. What’s more, they can’t help playing with it themselves! People of all ages say that it’s a relaxing, artistic and fun activity.

Fractiles is made entirely in the U.S. and safe for children and the environment. fractiles.com

7. Numbers Farm from HABA is a winner! It teaches numbers, counting, and colors with the play value of blocks! Made with the HABA quality you love. habausa.com 8. Kala has introduced four Sparkly Ukuleles in Pink Champagne, Ritzy Red, Stardust Gold and Rhapsody in Blue.

Welcome to the Roaring 2020s! kalabrand.com

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new & true 10

9

12 11

9. The much anticipated Hungry Bins by Adventarra Games is a cute classification game that introduces kids to recycling and composting. Sustainably made, too! For ages 3+ adventerragamesusa.com 10. iHeartArt kits from Bright Stripes occupy the kids-art-supplies sweet spot between chunky crayons and professional tools. The six mash-up art packs in the new fall collection feature mediums ranging from glitter and gel pens to watercolor blends and inks. Each pack is contained in a sturdy, high-quality binder. brightstripes.co

11. Zber is a nighttime yard game with a little zing.

It’s an entirely new spin on disc golf developed by an engineer in Wyoming. The object is to score the most points by knocking the balls off the target poles. A set contains five LED lighted poles, 6 lighted discs, and a mesh bag with a shoulder strap. zberdisc.com 12. Gridopolis is a strategy game played in three dimensions. Its dynamic and multilevel gameplay is both fun and challenging. It comes with 217 pieces but only seven unique game parts. Players use them to create a board, then move, build, jump and capture until they’re the last player standing or have the most points when time expires. gridopolis.games

13. Shore Buddies, a TOTY finalist in the plush category, teaches kids about reduce, reuse and recycle.

They are the world’s first stuffed animals made from 100-percent-recycled plastic bottles. Each one comes with an educational message about the dangers of single-use plastics for our oceans and marine life. shore-buddies.com

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13 14

15

14. Players of new Drone Home

by PlayMonster race to launch their aliens down the ramps and land inside the drone. The game is fastpaced fun for the family, and the first game to include a real, flying drone. playmonster.com

Lulu Junior bookmaking kits help parents replace TV time with creativity time. Award-winning IlluStory and My Comic Book kits provide just what the experts recommend. For many families, screen-time rules were put on hold in mid-March, giving kids a free pass to play video games, watch TV and catch up on social media.

Studies show that excessive screen time eclipses the healthy behaviors children need, and parents are eager for creative alternatives. So stock your store with gifts parents and kids love. Each Lulu Junior bookmaking kit comes with everything they need to create their very own hardcover book or comic book. Email us at sales@lulujr.com to become a retail partner today and get 10-percent off your first order!

15. Jabuka is a new, rotating letter/word game with a coffee theme. It’s a fast, portable game with simple scoring, and can be played by multiple age groups. Unlike other word-building games, it has its own alphabet. Kids are getting a big kick out of learning to speak Jabuka! jabukagames.com

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Grayce Notes

(continued from page 10)

“Shop our window” is one of the categories. How often do you change your displays?

We swap out the books in our window every other day, and our full displays change monthly. We have always thought of our window as our “first online store” because it was something people could browse at any time whether we were open or not.

Main Street Geneseo is lively from early in the morning to late at night with students, people walking, or families on their way to dinner. We want to catch their eyes as they go by and remind them of the array of products we have available inside! Thanks to our website, now they can purchase the products 24/7!

How challenging is it to keep things fresh? How effective is it for sales?

The big push for small business over the last few years has been to become “omnichannel.” That means being present instore, having an online store, being active on all social media channels, and being accessible via phone, email, DM, and in-person. It can be overwhelming. In order to keep all of these channels engaging to customers, we have to keep things fresh.

So each time we create a new bundle, or change a window display or a curation – we need to take photos, update our social media pages and website.

How important is social media? Has it become more important since the pandemic?

Social media is a great resource. During the pandemic, channels like Facebook and Instagram felt like the only real way to communicate with our customers and keep them up-to-date.

It also is a more casual way for them to get in touch with us

compared to an email or phone call. We try to post daily. We do this with a combination of scheduled pre-set posts as well as organic spur-of-the-moment posting when we get in a funny new book or an exciting order. Jennifer is our social media expert, but lately we have been encouraging our customers to share photos with us so we can share real-world use of our products!

How many employees do you have?

Our team has remained small over the last five-or-so years with just three to four members at any given time, plus a little extra help during the holidays. Because everyone has different interests and specialities, it helps the store run smoothly.

Heading towards Christmas, what’s your bestselling toy?

At Touch of Grayce, you will never see a big rack full of “Our Bestselling Thing.” When our customers are looking for a toy, we take into consideration the child they are shopping for and find the best thing for them. We are very knowledgeable about our toys and we definitely have personal favorites and triedand-trues. But each sale for us is an individual opportunity to deliver the best gift or toy that person can give.

What’s your prediction for the holidays?

Our hope is to stay healthy and open. We are expecting to face challenges this season, but we are planning ahead to ensure a fun, safe, and easy environment for all of our shoppers. We are working hard to meet the needs and preferences of all of our customers. We think all of the options we have created for our community will make for a joyful holiday season.

ADVERTISER INDEX Company Page Website Adventerra Games N. America

25

adventerragamesusa.com

Amahi Ukeleles

29

amahiukuleles.com

5

brudertoys.com/en/usa/dealer

back cover

fatbraintoyco.com

Bruder Toys Fat Brain Toy Co.

Company Page Website Koplow Games

42

koplowgames.com

LuLu Jr.

45

lulujr.com

PixBrix

17 pix-brix.biz

Playmonster

inside front cover

playmonster.com

7

sentosphereusa.com

Fractiles

43 fractiles.com

Sentosphere USA

Funsparks

19 funsparks.com

Toysmith

21 toysmith.com

HABA/Habamaass Corp.

31

Valtech

11 magnatiles.games

Iello

27 iellousa.com

Kala Brand Music Co.

15

habausa.com

Wikki Stix

33

wikkistix.com

kalabrand.co

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Brain Games for the Entire Family As families struggle to find productive activities during the long winter months, many are turning to games that fuel their competitive spirit, get the mental gears spinning, or simply instigate a raucous good time. These five games by Fat Brain Toy Co. will entertain multiple generations unlike any other activity.

Outsmart. Out Stack. Out Corner.

Corners Up is a game of strategically stacking game pieces to try and collect the most corners. The game board is ever-changing, building out from a 4-by-4 grid into a perfect pyramid. Planning, timing, and luck combine into one thrilling challenge with the tricky game of Corners Up.

A Battle of Balance

Weight For It is a headspinning mix of strategy and physics! Players take turns placing the weights onto the wheel to try and make it rotate so the correct arrow is aligned with the number on their card. Line it up just right and you get to keep the card as a point. Get it wrong and you have to wait to try again on your next turn. Logic and reasoning are sure to twist and turn into knots of thrilling confusion with the fascinating game of Weight For It.

A Game of Flipping Madness

In-SAND-ity is the fast-acting game of flipping sand timers to try and keep them flowing the longest. Using one hand, you’ve got to keep the sand flowing by flipping and moving the timers to an empty space one at a time. Stay focused and move fast ... the instant a timer runs out, your opponent gets to hit their button to stop your time and start theirs before jumping right into the sand-flippin’ action. This dynamic game encourages concentration, quick thinking, hand-eye coordination, and fast reflexes.

Block or Be Blocked

GridBlock ... can you block without being blocked? The goal seems simple enough – just get your four pieces on the board. But pieces of the same color MUST touch, and pieces of the same shape MUST NOT touch, creating ample opportunities for blocking ... or being blocked. It encourages strategy skills, planning, critical thinking and logic.

Can you draw a trout with your snout?

Pencil Nose is a hilarious party game where players have to use their nose to try and sketch the prompt and then hope their teammates can correctly guess what they’re drawing.

Can you draw a rose with your nose? Pencil Nose comes complete with specially designed eyeglasses, marker, and a clear, erasable frame. It encourages family bonding, cooperative play, coordination, creativity, quick thinking, and communication skills.

See our ad on the back cover.

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