Leader with Tim Murray

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Tim Murray

“Are you ready for Toy Fair?’’ With only weeks to go until the doors open, now is the time to plan who you’ll see, and this issue of TnP will help you with that. Yes, you can view products remotely, but nothing beats holding that new product in your hands and getting a real feel for it. This issue will help prepare you for the big events that land in the coming weeks, both Toy Fair and, across the channel and into Germany, Nuremberg’s Spielwarenmesse. As ever, you need to flip the magazine over to get our coverage ahead of the German trip.

Toy Fair – and Spielwarenmesse – have been on the tip of everyone’s tongue pretty much since I arrived at TnP - not quite a fresh-faced youth - last summer.

Trade shows dominate the conversation, even for the people who don’t go, the ones who often complain about trade shows and ask “what’s the point anyway?”

A veteran of trade shows for more than 30 years as a journalist, I’ve visited them in the States, in Europe and plenty here in the UK, and, after the likes of the Video Software Dealers’ Association shows in Vegas and Hollywood, I can testify to what fun they can be (having once had a performance by Riverdance dedicated to me on the Sony Pictures lot in front of a huge audience, the same trip where Disney had turned a park into Agrobah and I also got to meet heroes such as John Woo and John Waters, I know this only too well), but there’s a usefulness to them too, as any retailer should and would attest too.

I’d often been to Toy Fair before joining TnP – it was at Toy Fair I first picked up a copy of the magazine more than a decade ago, while scouting around - partly out of self-interest and also as a freelance journalist writing about film and home entertainment (as I’ve noted before, there’s a lot of crossover between toys and other entertainment industries I’ve worked in for years) – so I’m familiar with the show and its size and scale.

The mere fact that the show sold out exhibitor space well ahead of schedule and will be packed to the rafters shows how important it is. During lockdown I thought that when some semblance of normality returned, society might become more caring, less angry and - you know - calmer. A quick look at the internet and social media, notably Twitter, where it’s still very, very angry, populated by people who are permanently up in arms or frothing at the mouth, shows that this was arguably one of my most misguided thoughts ever. What people appear to have done, however, is reassess their working lives and decided what bits were pointless and which were important. Working in an office every day and the daily grind of commuting are, it appears, outré (unless you’re in retail). But, and this may come as a surprise to many, going to trade shows is important. Anyone who has trudged up to a giant exhibition hall after another late night of excessive drinking and bad diet may find it hard to believe that they’d ever miss going to a trade show, but people did and so, here we are again. There’s loads in this issue to enjoy, including a look at Disney’s 100th birthday through the eyes of its Baby arm, an exclusive interview with game creator Matt Edmondson, who offers up a lovely and genuinely enthusiastic view of the business, and a look ahead to all the big exhibitors at the show. Now, don’t forget to pack your comfy shoes and we’ll see you at the bar or on a stand or elsewhere at Olympia. Please feel free to give me a shout at tim@lemapublishing.co.uk so we can arrange a meeting at Toy Fair and beyond. Oh, and don’t forget to turn the magazine upside down so you can catch our Nuremberg coverage too.