Toy World Magazine December 2020

December 2020 Volume 10 Issue 4

AVA I L A B L E AT U K R E TA I L E R S

Š 2020 Mattel.

Dolls each sold seperately.

Subject to availability.

The Team...

CONTENTS December 2020 Volume 10 Issue 4

John Baulch

30 Special Feature: The Entertainer

34 Company Profile: Eighth Wonder

Publisher and Managing Editor john@toyworldmag.co.uk 01442 502 408 07932 651 207

Mark Austin

Sales Director mark@toyworldmag.co.uk 01442 502 405

Anita Baulch

News

Regulars

Features

07 From the Publisher 08 News 16 Industry Moves 18 Marketing World 22 Licensing World

19 Generation Media 20 KidsKnowBest 24 NPD column 27 Talking Shop 58 Letter form America 61 Fresh

21 Opinion: Sam Muxworthy 30 Special Feature: The Entertainer 34 Company Profile: 8th Wonder 36 Special Feature: IMC 38 Feature: Show Off 53 Company Profile: Show Cloud 54 Retail Profile: Mastermind Toys 59 Company Profile: Omni Alliance 60 Q&A: Mattel 64 Special Feature: I.E.T.P

Circulation and Financial Director anita@toyworldmag.co.uk 01923 711 439

66 Allegedly

Contributors Sam Muxworthy | Mark Buschhaus | Stephen Barnes Johnathan Chambers | The NPD Group | Lydia Mossahebi

Rachael Simpson-Jones Editor rachael@toyworldmag.co.uk 01442 502 406

36 Special Feature: IMC

60 Q&A: Mattel 36 Company Special Feature: 34 Profile: IMC Eighth Wonder

Lisa Currie

Assistant Editor Lisa@toyworldmag.co.uk 01442 502 406

Alakat Published by

Mark Crowford

Design and Production Manager markc@toyworldmag.co.uk 01442 502 405

www.toyworldmag.co.uk @toyworldmag @baulchtweet

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t the beginning of last month’s column, I hinted that further major developments that would affect the UK toy market were on the cards. It turns out that I was right – and then some! Just after we sent the November issue to press (naturally – it’s the publisher’s equivalent of sod’s law), it was finally announced that London Toy Fair had been cancelled for 2021. Of course, it is a massive shame for the BTHA: I genuinely feel for them, but realistically it was the only logical course of action.

from the publisher

John Baulch - @Baulchtweet

It’s not nice to announce a show cancellation, but never more so than when it’s the main event for the UK toy community. I attended my first London Toy Fair in 1981. I have attended every day of every show since then – well over six months of my life has been spent at the event. But it simply isn’t feasible to run a trade show at the moment – as subsequent events have only served to underline.

At the start of last month, England returned to lockdown, with non-essential shops forced to close once again. Lockdown 1 was largely characterized by a coming together of the UK community in the face of adversity, a collective camaraderie aimed at defeating an unknown enemy. Lockdown 2 definitely felt different: people were quite understandably starting to feel a little tetchy. If Lockdown 1 could be summed up by Captain Tom’s nobility and clapping for carers, an abiding memory of Lockdown 2 will be Midco Toys’ Dave Middleton filming himself roaming the aisles of his local Tesco, bemoaning the fact the supermarket could stay open to sell toys while he couldn’t. “It’s not fair” he pointed out – and he was right. Toy stores were forced to close, yet Ryman’s was able to remain open – get your essential marker pens and paperclips here!

to stores and consumers. Let us all hope that we experience a MEGA December!” Indeed, I’m sure we’re all hoping for that.

Exacerbating the situation, at the time of writing, we are still in the dark about what happens after 2nd December. Numerous retail executives have called on the government to offer some clarity about the next steps, pointing out that retailers can’t just make arrangements to re-open the night before. There are staff rotas to organize, stock to pull together – particularly for omni-channel retailers, do they divert stock to the stores or to the warehouses that fulfill online orders?

The BTHA and the TRA recently joined forces to make their own request to the Prime Minister – that he should add toy retailers to the essential retail list.

The impassioned letter makes a compelling case and few could find fault with its logic. Of course, there are no easy decisions, and if the lockdown is relaxed in December, it will almost certainly result in measures being tightened again in the early part of next year.

From a toy retail perspective, I would imagine that is a trade-off most toy retailers and suppliers would be prepared to make.

The lack of consistency inevitably rankled with toy shop owners and consumers alike – although from different angles. Consumers didn’t see why they weren’t able to buy whatever they want if a store was open, regardless of whether an item was deemed essential or non-essential (and who decided what was essential anyway…?). Meanwhile, independent store owners saw their livelihoods put at risk by being forced to close during one of the peak trading months.

For now, the priority for the toy community is on maximizing sales during the most important month of the year, before regrouping in January to start planning for 2021. This is true for the toy community across the globe: in this edition, we hear from retailers here in the UK (The Entertainer), the US (Richard Derr) and Canada (Mastermind Toys) to find out about life at the sharp end of retailing during these unusual times.

We also bring you the first glimpse of some of the new lines being launched for 2021, in our latest Show Off feature. However, next month’s Show Off feature will take things to a whole new level: the January edition is always a bumper issue, and next year will be no exception. We’ll be delighted to unveil a host of new lines that will be vying for shelf (and screen) space at retail in 2021. This issue will arrive in the first week of January, at the start of what is traditionally Toy Fair Season - we want to give you the chance to peruse all the exciting new introductions, even if you can’t see them in the flesh.

It wasn’t just the indie retailers that were feeling fractious, as KAP Toys’ Nat Southworth eloquently pointed out: “Please also spare a thought for all the suppliers who committed to stock ahead of the lockdown and have containers arriving and warehouses full of product that should be flowing

In the meantime, the whole Toy World team would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. We hope that December trading turns out to be exceptional for each and every one of you.

We’ll return at the start of 2021 – and let’s hope it turns out to be a year to remember, for all the right reasons.

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News BTHA and TRA write open letter calling for toy retailers to be deemed essential

Early Learning Centre ties up with M&S to supply toy range Early Learning Centre has joined M&S as a new guest brand to provide a range of over 200 toys on the M&S website and app, to sit alongside kidswear and gifting ranges for Christmas. This is the second guest brand as part of M&S’s ‘Never the Same Again’ programme announced in May and is part of a commitment to turbocharging growth online.

The curated Early Learning Centre range includes a number of ELC own brand items from cash registers, to pirate ships to farm animals.

It also includes many branded toys including Peppa Pig, Playmobil, Happyland and Paw Patrol, and is available online at M&S.com now.

In February 2019, the Early Learning Centre was acquired by The Entertainer, with a clear vision; to support parents with their child’s early years learning and development through play. Today there are over 300 ELC stores internationally.

Speaking exclusively to Toy World, Gary Grant, founder and executive chairman of The Entertainer, reflected on the journey The Entertainer has been on since it acquired the ELC brand and commented: “We were delighted when we took the brand on; we’ve done incredibly well with it in our stores, and to relaunch ELC with a retailer of the calibre of Marks & Spencer is an amazing opportunity.

They have an incredible database, with around 8m people on it, so we are really looking forward to seeing this new partnership flourish in the run-up to Christmas.”

Andrew Laughton, chairman of the British Toy and Hobby Association, and Alan Simpson, chairman of the Toy Retailers Association, joined forces to write an impassioned open letter to the UK Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, on November 18th, which asked him to add toy retailers to the essential retail list during the final weeks of lockdown, which at the time of writing was due to end on 2nd December.

Part of the letter reads as follows (the full version can be read online at www.btha.co.uk): “We are writing as Chairmen of the British Toy & Hobby Association (BTHA) and the Toy Retailers Association (TRA), to call for toy retail to be added to the essential retail list. Toys are essential tools of play that contribute to child development and learning and have been essential to families this year during lockdown, keeping children entertained, keeping them active, maintaining positive mental health and underpinning the morale of families around the country.

We thank you for trying to keep retail open with click and collect opportunities.

However, there are mixed messages around lockdown which are limiting the opportunity of spreading toy purchases across the festive period. Although the government position is to allow shops to operate click and collect, the message to consumers is to only go out to shop for food and medicine. That means shopping centres and town centres are simply not getting consumers to leave their homes to pick up purchases.

We understand the need for some restrictions to keep the country safe, but we can assure you that toy retail is already set up and prepared to operate under safe, Covidcompliant conditions. To do that we need to help consumers get access to toys as early in the season as possible to spread demand and prevent last-minute panic buying.

We would greatly value your support in adding toys to the list of essential items so we can continue to support children and families throughout the country, help maintain their play, development and educational needs and contribute to the overall morale of our great nation during these most difficult times. We need you to ensure that Christmas isn’t cancelled in a year when we all need some joy to lift the country’s spirits, to assist the UK toy industry and, most importantly, to support families that need our toys for essential child development and some joy this Christmas.”

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News Spin Master to acquire Rubik’s Cube Spin Master has announced it has reached an agreement to acquire London-based Rubik’s Brand, owner of the world-renowned Rubik’s Cube.

Invented by Ernő Rubik in 1974 and launched globally in 1980, the Rubik’s Cube became a worldwide craze, selling hundreds of millions of units, and has inspired and challenged both young and old ever since.

Spin Master has been expanding its position within the games category through acquisitions of new titles and innovative partnerships and collaborations. The Games & Puzzles category is one of the fastest growing super categories in 2020, with families spending more quality time at home with their loved ones.

“There are many growth opportunities for Spin Master with the Rubik’s brand as we transition to a blended model of direct sales in combination with existing partners globally,” said Anton Rabie, Spin Master’s chairman and co-CEO. “Our games division has continuously grown over the past decade and is a cornerstone of Spin Master’s diversified portfolio. The addition of the legendary Rubik’s Cube to our roster of games is a historic moment and we are honoured to continue the legacy.”

The acquisition of Rubik’s brand marks Spin Master’s 22nd acquisition since the company was founded in 1994 and 12th since its initial public offering in 2015. The transaction is expected to close on 4th January 2021.

Jazwares promotes Jonny Taylor and welcomes Holly Oldham As part of its on-going European growth strategy, Jazwares has promoted Jonny Taylor to senior vice president, Europe and appointed Holly Oldham as managing director, UK & Nordics.

To advance pl ans of expansion in strategic European countries, Jazwares has announced that Jonny Taylor will take on the role of senior vice president, Europe. Having established the UK office in 2012 and managed the German office since February 2020, Jonny will continue to support development in these markets, whilst also focusing on growth in other key territories.

Stepping into Jonny’s previous role of managing director, UK & Nordics is Holly Oldham. Holly has worked in the UK toy industry for over 15 years, most recently as the MD at Rubie’s Masquerade and previously leading Hasbro’s UK consumer products business. She is looking forward to bringing her extensive experience within the licensed consumer goods industry, working with world-class brands and market-leading partnerships to Jazwares.

Laura Zebersky, chief commercial officer, Jazwares commented: “​ Over the last eight years we’ve built a solid foundation in Europe with successful offices in both the UK & Germany. We are excited to have Jonny lead our expansion plans in Europe and we are thrilled with the arrival of Holly to the team. We have a talented European team coupled with a strong product portfolio, now is the time to take things to the next level.”

Dates announced for Spielwarenmesse 2021 summer edition It has been confirmed that the summer edition of Spielwarenmesse is now scheduled to open its doors at the Exhibition Centre in Nuremberg from 20th-24th July 2021. In the face of the persisting Covid-19 pandemic, organiser Spielwarenmesse eG was forced to postpone the event for the first time in its history from January until the summer. The announcement comes as preparations for the Spielwarenmesse 2021 summer edition get under way.

Now running from Tuesday to Saturday, the new choice of days reflects the wishes of many retailers and buyers by including an extra weekday.

In terms of content, the industry is supporting the organiser’s plan to present a relevant offering of information and product innovations, where the Christmas season plays as much a role as the outlook for the year ahead. Spielwarenmesse eG will announce further details of the new concept over the coming months.

Looking ahead, Toy World understands that the organiser is seriously considering changing the date configuration for the 2022 Nuremberg Toy Fair. While the Spielwarenmesse will occupy its traditional week in the calendar, the show could replace its current Wednesday - Sunday format, shifting the show a day forward so that it would run from Tuesday 1st February to Saturday 5th February in 2022. A final decision will be taken in due course, after a meeting with the supervisory board.

With London Toy Fair taking place the preceding week (25th-27th January), there would be one less day between the two shows, but this would still give exhibitors and visitors sufficient time between the events to avoid any inconvenience.

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News Hornby sales surge as more take up hobbies in lockdown Hornby has seen sales surge by 33% in the six months to the end of September, according to its latest financial report.

CEO Lyndon Davies praised the results in an otherwise “difficult year”: “We have observed hitherto successful and profitable companies worldwide crumbling under the pressure [of the pandemic], with losses, closures and tumbling share values. Yet we have not only weathered this shattering storm, our sales have increased by 33% in the first half of 2020, moving Hornby back into profitability.”

Not long ago, Hornby was struggling to make profit as it encountered problems with suppliers, however the company has seen a reversal of fortunes during the last year and reported that it was experiencing a welcome “return to normal” in a trading update in June this year.

Lyndon Davies said the firm entered the year with no idea how the business would be impacted by the pandemic. All of the company’s offices have had to close at various points over the year, and several weeks of shipments were lost due to supply chain issues. Despite this, sales climbed to £21.1m in the period from £15.9m last year, which the company puts down to the nation rediscovering slot cars, model railways and model-making. “Whenever there’s a national crisis, people turn inwards and look for things of comfort,” added Lyndon, “And we’ve tried to give people more fun.”

Obituary: Jimmy Hunter We’re sad to report that popular and well-respected toy industry figure Jimmy Hunter passed away on Saturday 14th November, after a long battle with illness. Jimmy was a well-known fixture of the toy industry since the 1970s, having set up his own company Hunter Toys, which was a hugely successful supplier of dolls and dolls clothing.

Jimmy took on the role of BTHA Chairman from 2000-2002 and was heavily involved for many years with both Toy Fair and the BTHA’s ‘Value of Play’ initiatives. He was the champion for Total Fun, the consumer event held in the early 2000s, while he was also the brainchild behind the longstanding Golden Teddy awards. His daughter Sally Hunter, who has followed in Jimmy’s footsteps by building a long and successful career in the toy trade, told Toy World: “The fact that the Golden Teddy awards are still being presented so many years later gives me goosebumps.

It was so important to him that the unsung heroes of the toy trade were recognised; when he stepped away from the industry, he didn’t want a lifetime achievement award, he said: “Give me a Golden Teddy,” which was so apt for him.

He was such a character and so cheeky, even in his last moments on earth. He was so adored in the trade and every year when there is a Golden Teddy, I sit with sheer pride.”

Jimmy was passionate about the value of play, but also took an interest in many other aspects of the BTHA’s work whilst on the board, including improving arrangements for the exhibitors at the British Pavilion in Nuremberg.

Jimmy was also a big supporter of the Toy Trust and the last time many of his toy industry friends and colleagues saw him was at a Toy Trust fundraiser, helping with the marshalling.

Jimmy was always a passionate defender of the industry which he had made his home for so many years. Toys were in his blood, and he wasn’t keen to let anyone besmirch the industry’s reputation and all the good work it did.

As Sally says, “there really will never be another Jimmy Hunter.” Our thoughts are with Jimmy’s wife Lynn, Sally and her brother Richard at this sad time.

Asmodee set to take AsmoFair to ‘the next level’ in January

Headu appoints Perterkin UK as its UK distributor

Asmodee has announced a new iteration of AsmoFair, the pioneering virtual trade-show substitute, to run from 17th-23rd January.

With the Covid-19 pandemic causing a fresh wave of cancellations for major in-person events, including Toy Fair and Spring Fair, the games specialist is continuing to find innovative ways to recreate these valuable experiences in a safe environment, keeping the industry connected during a challenging period.

AsmoFair offers retailers the opportunity to book virtual meetings with Asmodee for a closer look at the company’s must-have products for 2021, including the latest from the Dobble and Pokémon Trading Card Game ranges. This edition of the event, the third, now includes a virtual, 360-degree walkthrough tour of a fully built show stand, giving buyers a unique perspective on product selection.

Meeting slots can be booked in at asmofair.co.uk, with weekend and weekdayevening slots also available to make it as convenient as possible to attend. Further details of spotlighted products will be announced in due course.

Headu has announced that it has appointed Peterkin UK, a division of Toy Brokers, as its UK distributor, effective from the 1st January 2021.

Headu Srl was founded in Italy in 2017 by Franco Lisciani and Gian Maurizio Basciano, and is now distributed in over 35 countries.

Headu designs fun, high quality games, books and apps to help teach children essential skills using an innovative teaching method.

Gian commented: ‘’We are looking forward to working closely with the teams at Peterkin & John Adams. Our decision was reached in order to improve the servicing to all our customers and in Peterkin we have a partner who has the infra structure, the expertise and who shares our goals to continue growing our brand in UK.’’ Simon Pilkington, group managing director of Toy Brokers, added: “Headu is an innovative project that aims to develop a child’s multiple intelligences. During the learning process and while building skills, children use their brains in different ways, as if drawing on different sets of ‘intellectual resources’. We look forward to a long- term relationship with Franco & Gian Maurizio and to build upon the excellent work already achieved here in the UK.”

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News Obituary: Ian Cuthbert Ian, a much-loved and respected industry veteran, passed away in October at the age of 61 after a very short illness.

Ian spent many years in the toy industry, where he occupied key roles on both the retail and supply side of the industry.

Born and bred in Lancashire, Ian spent much of his career in the North West, including stints in retail and at HTI and Sambro. He was widely recognised as an astute judge of toy product – a toy man through and through. Ian also worked with the Toymaster team in Northampton as product selector, before moving back to the North West to join HTI. HTI chairman John Hutt had this to say: “The whole team at HTI are so sorry to hear the news of Ian, he was part of the HTI family for over a decade. Not just a colleague, but a friend to many, he will forever be remembered for his way with words, being the go-to person for poems and verses on special occasions including an ode to Christmas at HTI which we still have; it certainly made us smile. His words will live on for all of those he created poems for.”

Former HTI colleague Andrew Copplestone also spoke warmly about Ian: “I’ve known Ian for 25 years. He loved the toy industry, he loved the people and had a million stories about the behind the scenes activities that make the toy industry what it is. It was the generosity of his time that impressed me most. He was fantastically organised and always had time for everybody. I remember Ian with lots of laughter, lots of fun times and one of the most connected guys I know.”

Many other toy industry figures also got in touch to pay their respects to Ian, including fellow buyer Andrea Gornall, Nikki Samuels, Toymaster’s Paul Reader and former HTI colleagues.

Our thoughts are with his wife Mandy and his three sons at this sad time. As John Hutt perfectly summed up: “A truly memorable person, he most certainly won’t be forgotten.”

Simba Dickie Group to acquire majority stake in Exit Toys Exit Toys, a Dutch enterprise that develops and sells outdoor toys and allied products in the international market, intends to sell the majority of its shares to the German toy manufacturer Simba Dickie Group. This collaboration fits both the Dutch and German company’s strategy; the companies, which together account for a turnover of more than 730m euros, want to further increase their international footprints in the outdoor toys segment. The transaction, that has been supervised by Marktlink, is subject to the approval of the German competition authority and detailed terms remain confidential.

Exit Toys was founded in 2011 by Leopold van Os, Marcel Dijk and Stijn Driever. In less than 10 years, the developer and distributor of outdoor toys has grown into an international player. The company has 35 employees and a turnover of approximately 30m euros, of which 75% is made up across international territories. Exit Toys sells its products via major European retailers and e-tailers.

The Simba Dickie Group reported a turnover of 702.3m euros in 2019. The company has over 3,000 employees and a toy product range consisting of more than 4,000 items and 20 brands, such as Smoby, Steffi, Majorette and Eichhorn. Over the few past years, the group has expanded its product and brand range by selectively acquiring other companies.

Mattel’s Sanjay Luthra reaffirms commitment to toy retail partners Toy World caught up with Sanjay Luthra, managing director EMEA at Mattel, to find out how the company is doing all it can to help its customers during this crucial period.

Sanjay noted that this year has been a learning curve: “Every day you find new ways to live your life – personally and professionally. Of course there have been challenges, but the toy industry has coped admirably with everything that has been thrown at it this year.” The same could be said of Mattel: the EMEA operation headed up by Sanjay posted an 18% increase in gross sales during the last quarter, growing at twice the rate of the broader toy market. This growth came on top of a 10% increase during the same period last year.

Sanjay believes that getting closer to its customers has been key to Mattel’s success: “We have said to all of our customers, whether you have a problem or you have an opportunity, please make us your first call. This year, it has been more important than ever to have strong relationships, and to work together closely to get accurate numbers: joint forecasting is important, we’re all in this together.”

As well as enabling the company to accurately predict sales numbers to help manage its stock-holding situation, the close working partnerships with retail partners have extended to helping – in Sanjay’s words – “to keep the magic alive, boosting the customer experience, both at retail and on digital channels.”

Sanjay is very much a ‘digital native’, with an innate understanding of the online channel and a passion for what it can bring to the overall toy market. So, it is no surprise that Mattel’s digital presence has been strengthened considerably since he took the reins. However, there is also a consumer perception that online shopping should ‘do more’ and deliver aspects of the offline experience that parents still crave – a topic Sanjay is keen to address with toy retailers moving forward, to help them become stronger in the digital arena, whether it’s click & collect, future bookings instore or the whole omnichannel experience.

With consumer attitudes changing, this year has vividly illustrated the importance of companies remaining flexible and nimble. Sanjay concludes: “We have been continuously re-evaluating what may happen between now and Christmas. We’re well-stocked and we’ve invested heavily for Christmas to make sure our customers continue to enjoy strong sales over the coming weeks.”

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S N O E D RI

01626 835400

sales@wiltonbradley.co.uk

www.wiltonbradley.co.uk

Industry Moves AIS buying group appoints Sue Kemp as managing director The Associated Independent Stores (AIS) group, based in the Midlands, has appointed Sue Kemp as its new managing director as part of a wider transformational agenda.

AIS is the largest independent non-food buying group of its kind in the UK and Ireland, providing members with access to major brands in a wide variety of merchandise categories.

Sue brings more than 30 years’ experience to the AIS team, following Sheila Cooper’s retirement after 40 years with the company. Now taking the helm at AIS, Sue’s vast experience will come into play at a crucial time of evolution for the business as she provides leadership, supports staff and clients, and ensures targets are achieved.

The appointment forms part of a wider transformational plan for AIS, with Sue taking the business through an exciting period of change. The group is set to become more commercial and customer focused, and Sue has already kicked this off with the creation of a new Furniture and Home division. This is the first in a number of changes to strengthen the group’s offering and enhance value and choice for its members.

Sue’s expansive experience in retail and customer-focused industries, such as Merlin Entertainments and Marks and Spencer, as well as her engaging and people-focused approach, led to her being selected for the MD role.

Wilton Bradley expands sales team with new appointments

Pete Minch

John White

Following a summer of record-breaking sales, the sales team at Wilton Bradley continues to grow with two new appointments. Pete Minch and John White both join the team in the roles of national accounts managers.

They will be responsible for the company’s development plans and will report to sales director, Ross Bradley.

Pete brings with him vast experience of the toy and nursery industry, having spent the last seven years working with Hasbro and most recently Artsana UK. He commented: “I am delighted to be joining Wilton Bradley at such an exciting time for the company. I have been really impressed by the range and quality of products within the portfolio, and also the exciting marketing plans in place to support even further success across the brands moving forward.”

John joined the toy trade in 2004 at Mattel, where he worked until 2015. In 2016, he joined Magformers, assuming responsibly for growth in the major retailers. For the last two years John has been sales director at KD Group UK, launching new brands into the trade with great success.

Claire Newman

Andrew Johnson

Nicola Travis

Amy Coutts

8th Wonder bolsters team as company grows

8th Wonder has strengthened its team with four new appointments, following a year of substantial growth.

The new hires expand the team to 50 people.

Clair Newman joins as merchandise manager to head up the company’s merchandise team. Clair comes with a wealth of experience, having spent over 15 years at The Very Group.

Andrew Johnston also joins Clair in the merchandise function. Andrew has extensive toy experience and joins 8th Wonder from Matalan.

Nicola Travis joins as packaging manager, heading up the packaging team. Nicola joins from HTI and has over 10 years of licensing experience.

Finally, Amy Coutts joins as lead sales coordinator. Amy has 10 years’ worth of experience in toy industry and has also joined from The Very Group.

Sequin Art welcomes two new directors Sequin Art has promoted Gemma Asplen, previously general manager, and John Sutton, previously head of sales, to lead the team and drive growth in their new roles as directors.

Sequin Art is a family run business in its second generation. It was founded in 1962 by Stuart Marcus and since then has developed into an accomplished business that exports Sequin Art, Painting By Numbers, Diamond Art and other craft kits worldwide. The company produces over 1m units in its purpose-built facility in Norfolk every year.

John’s experience includes over 25 years with global retailers. Creative and trend driven, he has previously handled multiple national accounts within the craft trade and brings a wealth of experience to his new role.

Gemma’s past experiences include various managing roles at leading UK supermarkets. With a passion for results and fresh energy, Gemma will focus on accelerating production and enhancing operations in her new role.

Gemma commented: “Sequin Art relies heavily on its people to deliver a first-class service to our ever-expanding customer base. I know that we will all continue to rise to the challenges that lie ahead for 2021, and I hope that my dedication, and that of my colleagues, will drive us onwards and upwards for both the short term and much further into the future.”

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COMING 2021

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sales@wiltonbradley.co.uk

www.wiltonbradley.co.uk

Marketing World Hasbro’s Nerf brand announces Premier League collaboration Hasbro has announced a ‘media first’ collaboration between Nerf, Arsenal and Chelsea, to support the launch of its Nerf Ultra One Blaster.

The short-term content partnership, devised, brokered and executed by MediaCom’s specialist Sport & Entertainment division, is the first time that two Premier League clubs have collaborated with a brand on a short-term project.

The content, released in mid-November, will see leading players from the two Premier League London rivals participate in the ‘#NERFUltraChallenge’.

England internationals Tammy Abraham and Mason Mount, alongside US Soccer’s Team Captain Christian Pulisic, took part for the Blues, facing the Arsenal trio of England’s Bukayo Saka, Scotland’s Kieran Tierney and England U21 record-breaking goal scorer Eddie Nketiah.

The challenge features the players facing off in a series of fun Nerf challenges showcasing the unique attributes of the Nerf Ultra One Blaster, which features ground-breaking Nerf Ultra darts, the furthest-flying Nerf darts ever. The resulting content will be distributed on Arsenal and Chelsea’s social channels, which have a combined following of 187m, as well as through paid social and influencer work, with a supporting partnership with football media network COPA90.

Hasbro says the innovative collaboration will allow the brand to drive awareness and social buzz before peak sales moments. Alongside the main challenge, exclusive behind-the-scenes content will also be produced.

The campaign launched on the 10th November and will be followed by a second phase this month, ahead of the much-anticipated Arsenal vs. Chelsea match on Boxing Day.

Tomy and Drumond Park invest in Sky partnership With over 100 years of combined games experience, Tomy and Drumond Park have announced a brand-new partnership with Sky to build on their success in the adult and family games category this Christmas.

The partnership sees a six-figure investment and includes a series of TV adverts across Sky channels, video on demand and digital campaigns via Sky Advance, reaching an estimated 19.7m viewers across the nation.

The animated adverts run from 26th October to 21st December and kicked off with Drumond Park’s newest launch Sketchy, continuing with additional campaigns featuring Logo 2, Drumond Park’s number one adult game, Articulate and Rapidough, all featuring voiceovers by Harry and Jamie Redknapp.

Mary Wood, general manager UK and International at Tomy, commented: “We’re delighted to be working with the Redknapps to continue to grow our brands and increase our fanbase across the nation. The partnership with Sky will offer us a fantastic platform to really help drive demand during the peak Christmas period across four of our hero games for 2020. The Redknapps bring their wit and charm to the advert like no other and we can’t wait to see people’s reactions to it.”

Tomy continues to invest significantly to support Tomy and Drumond Park games through PR and digital channels, in line with consumer behaviour and trends, but will also look to ensure consumer reach at every touch point.

For more information on Tomy and Drumond Park, visit uk.tomy.com.

The Viral Group’s campaign for Oh! My GIF hailed a success The Viral Group recently partnered with Moose Toys to launch new collectible brand, Oh! My GIF, across the UK and US, finding the best influencers and platforms to engage with its core demographic and help drive sales across both territories.

As part of the campaign, Moose Toys wanted video content from influencers which highlighted the features and collectability of the product and to raise awareness of the launch in order to drive UK sales among its target audience. The primary market for the product range is Gen Z/Gen Alpha girls and boys in in the UK aged 6-12 years old.

Using bespoke Influencer Hub software, the Viral Group was able to search, both within the UK and internationally, for relevant influencers with a UK audience strong enough to fulfil the brands objectives.

Piper Rockelle created a YouTube Integration, producing engaging content which appealed to her fan base. To support this activity, Piper also published Instagram stories which included a swipe up link direct to the retailers site.

The campaign was a huge success, Viral Group told Toy World, hitting the right audiences across YouTube, Instagram and TikTok; Piper’s YouTube content generated over 2.9m views and 22.2m impressions and counting, whilst her Instagram story reached over 140,000 users.

More case studies across Viral Group’s portfolio can be found at viral-group. com/case-studies. For more information, email laura@viraltalent.co.uk or call 01202 555655.

Toy World 18

Opinion

Christmas comes but once a year, but it’s getting later on TV As we all start to enjoy Christmas TV programming, Jonathan examines how advertisers can capitalise on that festive feeling and create Christmas marketing magic.

W

hat signals the start of the Christmas season for you?

Maybe it’s the clocks going back, or late night openings at retail (in years gone by at least). For many, myself included, it’s the change in advertising message from familiar brands that kick-start the Christmas experience. For years, Coca-Cola seemingly “owned” this message with its “Holidays are coming” series of commercials, and while that message still endures today, it has undoubtedly been usurped in the UK over the past decade by John Lewis.

Comparing the two search terms on Google Trends (October 11th-November 3rd), the peak search volume for John Lewis was 20 times greater than that of Coca-Cola. But this should come as little surprise, given the huge sums invested to establish John Lewis as the driving force behind Christmas messaging, both in terms of building the emotional creatives and the investment in advertising space. For all the excitement that is generated by PR beforehand, it is the investment in the advertising that catapults the messaging into the public consciousness, as demonstrated by 2019’s spike in searches on the date of the first airing, itself a 20 fold increase on the preceding weeks.

This, in turn, has sparked other major retailers attempting to wrest the crown from John Lewis, to varying degrees of success (including a new entry in 2020 from Disney’s ‘From our Family to Yours’).

For brands, the competition between retailers to “own” Christmas is a positive thing. The pressure is on brands throughout the year (especially in the toy space), through their own advertising, to help deliver footfall to store or visits to online. However, when it comes to Christmas and initiating that purchase cycle, retailers have a lot of responsibility when it comes to consumer mindset. Arguably, toy brands are more reliant on this retail war than other categories, with fewer creative resources available. When was the last time you saw a Christmas specific toy brand ad for example?

The problem is that this creative messaging has arrived later and later over the past few years.

Last year’s John Lewis entry, Excitable Edgar, did not arrive until 14th November. The 2020 edition was released online on 13th November this year, and the opening episode of I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here on Sunday 15th November hosted

the TV premiere. The good news for toys is that Smyths traditionally moves earlier than John Lewis et al, with Oscar already on our screens from early November 2020. However, the importance of John Lewis’ campaign cannot be underestimated – in 2019 it reached 75% of all Housewives with Children. So why is it then that Christmas marketing messages are being delayed?

You could point to the increased emphasis on Halloween in the UK, drawing both shelf space and spend away from Christmas. At the other end of the spectrum, the conundrum that is Black Friday has undoubtedly influenced the timeline in years gone by. It remains to be seen though how influential Black Friday will be in 2020, due to the early sales the market has been experiencing. This was picked up by Giraffe Insights as early as February this year when 50% of parents responding to Little Voices agreed with the statement “I plan to start buying children’s presents for 2020 earlier this year”.

However one other factor to take into consideration is ensuring that Christmas TV campaigns have a viable platform to launch with.

With X Factor no longer on our screens, there are fewer tentpole TV moments around which to build a campaign, so advertisers are forced to wait. Mainstream brands are reduced to choosing between I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here, The Great British Bake Off or Gogglebox, each coming with their own premiums as sales houses raise the prices on these shows to protect their yield in a declining market. The rate card cost of running a 30” spot in the opening show of I’m A Celeb was listed as £350-400k – although this comes with the justification of reaching an expected 10m+ adults in one go, something which any other media platform would find impossible to achieve.

However, for the vast majority of brands, building Christmas specific messaging and utilising these types of spots is too rich a strategy.

How then can advertisers capitalise on that Christmas feeling?

It’s important to understand that, as the mindset of the general population changes, so too can targeting for toy brands. Making use of low cost children’s media prior to this point will provide the highest returns and lay the foundations for Q4 success. However, the deeper we go into Q4, parents and gift givers need to be a bigger focus than ever before, especially as a result of the pandemic. Giraffe Insights reports that

Toy World 19

Jonathan Chambers Director of AV Investment, Generation Media.

Tel: 0207 307 7906 Jonathan.Chambers@generationmedia.co.uk

between February and September of 2020, in-store marketing’s influence on children’s toy purchasing decisions fell from 55% to 37%. With children spending less time in bricks and mortar retail, attention must be turned to those with the power to purchase online.

There is an abundance of highly effective means of driving conversion online, which we cover with our GM Checkout programme, but there are also opportunities to generate valuable awareness on traditional broadcast TV. Prime time shows such as Phillip Schofield’s How To Spend It Well At Christmas offer the perfect opportunity to raise profile with audiences in the correct mindset, at a fraction of the cost of the aforementioned I’m A Celeb. And beyond that, family movies play a fundamental part in the scheduling of most major channels, which from November onwards take on a more festive feel. These offer a dual viewing opportunity to reach both child and gift giver at extremely low cost, and will provide incremental coverage to campaigns that has been lost due to the fragmentation of children’s viewing habits.

The good news is that we are also seeing growth in these opportunities. Against the backdrop of double digit decline on the children’s commercial channels, many family movies are growing their audience year-on-year. For example, Nanny McPhee consistently generates a strong audience for ITV2, and its audience in 2020 has been 87% higher than that of October 2019 for 4-9 year olds (to the end of October).

2020 has heavily impacted the “normal” campaign cycle for many brands, but thoughts should already be turning to Christmas 2021.

Predicting the purchase cycle for 2021 will be difficult, but not impossible. Especially when there are more tools at our disposal than ever before to influence that cycle, and to ensure you capture your own piece of Christmas marketing magic.

Opinion

Which toy trends do we predict will be big next year?

KidsKnowBest is a leading kids digital media agency, and in this month’s column, Lydia Mossahebi looks at what the future holds and what can we expect from the buying behaviours of families moving into 2021.

A

s we come to the end of 2020, it is time to take stock of what has been an extremely unusual year, and one with monumental shifts in consumer behaviour that could linger for some time. At KidsKnowBest we engage with thousands of kids and families monthly for research and to give us insight into how attitudes have shifted. As we move into the new year with more potential restrictions and cycles of lockdown, we can see how these patterns will repeat and what this means for brands and retailers, especially in the way they engage with consumers. It will be key for toy companies and brands to keep in mind the challenges families are facing, and how to produce play experiences that meet kids’ needs.

We’ve identified four of these family needs and subsequent areas with potential for growth.

Entertaining kids indoors As we’ve all become seasoned pros at staying home, a big challenge remains; how to keep kids entertained while indoors all day. This has been especially relevant as we move into a winter lockdown. Toys that have opportunity for innovation and creativity are the ones that can build a market in this space. Disposable makes, bakes and crafts increased in sales over the first lockdown and, as the problem is still there, so is the potential market. It will be important to focus on repeatability; when families and kids are going to get through kits and projects quickly, how do the products create a space for innovation within them and how easily can then be started again?

Different age play More time at home has meant kids have spent less time playing with their peers and more time playing with their siblings. With this comes the challenges of creating play experiences that have universal age appeal. From our research, we’ve seen Monopoly and Uno as standout popular board games played with the whole family. With toys, brands such as Lego and Playmobil also have appeal for cross-age play: they can involve young kids who may not necessarily be able to play fully, but can still join in with the fun and shared experience. Meanwhile they provide enough of a challenge for older kids. They can be played many times over as the outcome is never predictable and the play has enough variety to keep it engaging.

These principles can be applied to other markets too; video games such as Roblox support creative play at different levels of expertise, which means siblings are able to enjoy the game together while playing at their own level.

Supporting active play indoors Over 1.1 million kids in the UK do not have access to a private garden, and this disparity really stood out during the first wave of lockdown. Now is the time to look at ways to create active play opportunities indoors. From our research, kids spoke to us about how much they missed the chance to move around and be active, including Oscar, aged 6, who told us he missed playing outside so much that he’s “running around indoors like Nelly the Elephant making lots of noise!”. In fact, you just need to look at Joe Wicks’ YouTube series or the prolific rise of TikTok dance crazes to see how much kids enjoy getting active at home.

The opportunity is to help channel some of that energy into play and build brand loyalty.

It’s not just products like Nerf Blaster that do this; movies and TV shows can also help. We found shows that create social moments, with lots of opportunity for co-viewing, can encourage active and sibling play indoors. Just think about when you see kids running around pretending to be the characters they see on screen. It’s an especially prominent reaction to superhero brands, as kids will play in highly physical ways that involve running, jumping, climbing, hiding and pretending to fly. From a research project we ran for Entertainment One and Hasbro on PJ Masks, we saw repeated episodic content within the context of a show can kick start the narrative of a kid taking up physical play with a toy. In addition, the shows that have a mix of older and younger characters and repeatable locations help kids to bring the storylines into the real world and engage in active play within their homes.

Helping kids relax Finally, the last challenge we identified for families is how to help kids relax and manage their mental health. As anxieties about the outside world have become more tangible, our day-to-day lives have drastically changed and coping mechanisms have altered: we all need more support to manage our emotions and kids are no different. Cosmic

Toy World 20

Lydia Mossahebi editorial director, KidsKnowBest.

Kids Yoga, which began posting videos in 2012, was already achieving an impressive 100,000 views a day before the pandemic. By late March, after the UK entered lockdown, its daily viewing figures had soared to around a million. Headspace Kids partnered with Sesame Street this year on new animated shorts designed to teach kids the fundamentals of mindfulness, meditation and emotional learning. Since April, the first video has over three million views. The need and appetite is there for toys and games that build mindful and relaxing experiences for kids.

We know circumstances may remain unpredictable for a while and it can be tricky to see how the landscape of 2021 might look, but what we do know is that kids and families will still need to be entertained and supported. By looking at what we learned from how families responded to the difficulties of this year, and what became important, we can go into 2021 with a renewed focus on where the opportunities are to make real and welcome changes.

www.kidsknowbest.co.uk.

Opinion

The girl from Aunty -

setting up online

Following toy buyer roles at The Toy Store, Daisy & Tom and Harrods, Sam Muxworthy has recently returned from a stint in Dubai working as the buying manager for Majid Al Futtaim operating Lego Certified Stores and American Girl stores across the Middle East. She describes her experience of setting up Love From Aunty, her first foray into eCommerce.

I

’ve always struggled with work life balance, regularly being in the office until gone 10pm.

Converting my living room into a storage facility for my burgeoning online children’s gift shop is not helping with that. Like so many others in retail, my buying career came to a screaming halt this year. I moved to the Cotswolds - that hotbed of head office retail jobs - two weeks before the first lockdown. The job I had lined up pushed the start date to June then ghosted me altogether. I have aggressively stopped following them on Instagram.

Buyers have such transferable skills. We’re analytical yet creative. Can predict trends, forecast and manage a P&L. We get involved with marketing and branding, accounts and customer service; the perfect skill set to start your own company. So that’s exactly what I did, from an ironing board and armchair in lieu of a desk. To utilise John’s most overused word of 2020 – I pivoted.

My successful uncle gave me two pieces of advice for starting a business. Firstly, he said you don’t need all the bells and whistles – and he is right. My last company was privately owned bu,t had it been public, it would have been around 250th in terms of global revenue. I had an A3 colour printer next to my desk, access to a graphic design team whenever I needed it, there was a swing in the free staff canteen with food provided by the hotel next door.

No wonder I never left the office! When it’s your own money, it makes you think differently. If you don’t need it, don’t spend your future profit on it.

His second piece of advice was to have a fixed amount of money you are willing to invest - and stick to it. Be prepared to lose this money. Clearly, he has never tried to build inventory for Q4 with no credit terms during a global pandemic. I was pleasantly surprised by getting credit from the start with some suppliers; it shows the support in the UK toy industry. By comparison, I am still baffled that some vendors, that I previously considered progressive, won’t let me place an order without a bricks and mortar store; The Blockbuster Video school of marketing.

At the time of writing, I have been trading for two months. I am in the top 4% of Shopify websites that launched at the same time, in terms of traffic.

I now spend most of my day processing orders and delivering them to the Post Office in grey sacks. I thought it would take months to get any traction, but am now scratching my head as to what the eCommerce managers were doing in some of my previous companies. Here is what I have gleaned from the last couple of months:

• Be agile because you can. No more seasons, no more range sign offs. See a gap in your range? Find the product and plug the gap. See an exciting new product hit the market? Get it on your website now and share it on your socials. Be first. But remember Open To Buy and planning; you’re not an animal.

• Pay carriage. Up until this year I have never paid for supplier deliveries in my life.

Being overstocked when money (and shelf space) is tight is way worse than paying £7 extra for a delivery.

• It’s amazing what you can learn about website coding from YouTube. 20 years working in head offices and building a network of skilled friends has certainly helped too. To get a custom font uploaded on my site, my front-end coder buddy, Natasha sent indecipherable code to me via Facebook Messenger from Dubai to input. I received logo advice from my branding friend in Tokyo. She advised not to use too many colours as it’s expensive to reproduce plus get the HEX details. Up until then, I thought HEX was something from Harry Potter, but it’s actually an online colour reference similar to a pantone. She also asked how the logo looked in situ.

Creating mock-ups was something I would never have thought of, so cut to me hand drawing onto Amazon Prime boxes (see above point about not needing bells and whistles), no fancy packaging samples for me!

I ended up making a lot of changes, so very worthwhile.

• Take a course. My studies are so out of date compared to the SEO, keyword search, pixel and CBO knowledge required now to get the most out of your ad spend. Don’t worry, I didn’t know what any of that meant three months ago either. There are so many courses out there. I love being part of the E-com Growth Hub, a group run by Amanda Perry from Sheffield. The best £120 I have ever spent - and that includes punishing my staff discount at Harrods for ten years.

• I rate Klaviyo for email marketing, Starling for business bank accounts, Shopify for websites, eBay for shelving and printers and Canva for creating great graphics with no skills required. If you’ve got this far, I’m assuming you know about cash flow, P&L and margins.

Toy World 21

Sam Muxworthy

If not, stop what you’re doing and make sure you’re going to actually make money. I wrote a detailed business plan at the start, which helped form my ideas and work out my strategy.

• Finally, register for Google My Business to get a Google presence from the beginning, and be aware that 80% of orders come through PayPal which doesn’t pay out for the first three weeks when you start a new business.

You know, when you’ve spent every penny and are desperate for cash? Really helpful, PayPal.

Sam’s website can be found at

www.lovefromaunty.co.uk.

Licensing World Kidicraft introduces new 3D Harry Potter puzzles Kidicraft has unveiled its new 300pc Prime 3D Harry Potter puzzles. Six new designs have been introduced, featuring popular characters Harry, Hermione, Ron and other scenes from the magical Harry Potter films.

The 300 pc puzzles are 46 x 31 cm and are made using the latest Prime 3D lens to give great depth and movement to the image.

As the puzzles market continues to boom, Kidicraft has taken steps to expand its puzzles offering. Roy Greenwood, director at Kidicraft, explained: “We have successfully increased our ranges throughout this year, including the move into traditional 1000pc puzzles. Added to that, our new 2021 products are already in production and will be available in January. As a company, we are proud to continue our focus, which is to give retailers great, eye catching products, good margins and great service.”

Details of the new 3D Harry Potter puzzles, and all of the ranges on offer from Kidicraft, can be found on kidicraft.com.

Retailers wishing to discuss placing orders can contact Kidicraft on 01282 505988 or email sales@kidicraft.com.

Tomy and Universal partner on Sing 2 toy line Tomy International has announced a collaboration with Illumination and Universal Brand Development to introduce a line of toys based on characters from Illumination’s upcoming animated motion picture, Sing 2, currently set for release on 22nd December 2021.

The product line will comprise innovative toys including collectible figures, feature plush and a role-play game.

“Audiences everywhere have already fallen in love with the relatable characters of Sing, and we’re looking forward to bringing them to life and into playrooms,” said Tomy’s Morgan Weyl, director of global toys. “The Sing films are about overcoming obstacles and pursuing dreams, so we’ve created a musically-infused toy line that will help inspire the next generation to shoot for the stars, no matter what challenges they may face along the way.”

“Our filmmaking partners at Illumination continue to deliver dynamic characters and storylines that bring joy and smiles to audiences across the globe, and we’re excited for the worldwide debut of Sing 2,” added Joe Lawandus, senior vice president and general manager, global toys and hardlines, Universal Brand Development. “We look forward to collaborating with Tomy on an all-new toy line that will bring the franchise’s signature comedy and hit music into the hearts and homes of fans worldwide.”

Jazwares named global master toy partner for The Smurfs Jazwares has partnered with International Merchandising Promotions & Services (IMPS) to become global master toy partner for The Smurfs.

As the global master toy manufacturer for the franchise, Jazwares will create a toy line reviving the franchise for today’s generation. The Smurfs collection is set to hit retail in 2022.

The Smurfs toy range will include plush, figures and playsets featuring the tiny blue characters and their mushroom village that fans of the classic franchise will immediately recognise.

“The Smurfs is an evergreen franchise with a rich history and timeless values that has ignited children’s curiosity and creativity for decades,” said Laura Zebersky, chief commercial officer at Jazwares. “We are looking forward to working with IMPS to create a toy line that appeals to today’s kids while also capturing the nostalgia that other generations feel for the brand.”

Jazwares continues to grow through the development of new products and the strategic acquisitions of companies like First Act, Russ Berrie, Zag Toys, Wicked Cool Toys and Kellytoy. With over 20 years of design, development and manufacturing expertise, Jazwares’ progressive focus on identifying new trends and transforming them into high-quality products for consumers of all ages continues apace.

Toy World 22

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NPD Insight

2020 - what a year!

Moneeba looks back at how the toy market has fared over the past year and looks ahead to how the festive trading season might be affected by the latest lockdown measures.

I

f someone had told me at the beginning of the year that I would be writing this article whilst in a national lockdown to help fight a global pandemic, I would never have believed it.

Reflecting on this year, it’s hard not to think about the lives lost and impacted by the Covid-19 virus. For the overall UK toy market however, things have not been so bleak. Sales have benefitted from parents and children spending more time at home and the industry is operating in a market worth over £1bn so far and growing by +8% year-on-year up to week 1 November. Europe has shown a slightly more polarised view, with southern regions such as Italy, Spain and even France struggling while brick and mortar stores were closed and northern regions such as Germany performing well because of the strength of the online channel. Overall, the European market is up +3% YTD Sept-20. With just six shopping weeks left before the end of the year at the time of writing, one thing is for certain - Christmas this year is going to be like no other that has gone before. Customers have been encouraged to get organised and shop early to avoid the Christmas rush but what does that mean for the UK toy market? It has proved relatively resilient so far and has grown more than twice as fast as the European market, so a positive finish for the year is anticipated, but how positive?

Q4 got off to a strong start with October 2020 up +9% versus the same period last year. Consumers reacted to the shop early message and growth for the month was driven by Construction, Games & Fashion Dolls. Building Sets was the top gaining category for the month, adding just under £8.5m to the market, while Fashion Dolls and Accessories added a further £5m. We usually see the Games category pick up in November and December; after enjoying such a

strong performance during Lockdown 1, the category has started its seasonal pick up early and continues to add value to the market. Family Board/Action Games gained £1.5m for the month, while both Children & Adult Games also showed growth. Consumers were not only shopping early but were buying higher priced items than they did in October last year, with growth across all price points over £30 in October.

The £100+ price point has also grown by +48%, largely driven by Building Sets and Fashion Doll Accessories.

The £50-£100 price point has grown by +36% and £30-£50 by +43% versus the same period. There are also more items priced greater than £50 in the top 100 items this month. October 2020 saw 27 items priced at £50+, versus 15 in October 2019.

Looking at the other end of the spectrum, lower price point items have not been quite as successful this year. Collectibles now account for 10% of total toys and are worth just over £140m, but we have seen this sector decline. Nearly a quarter of sales have been lost this year due to impulse purchasing and footfall being impacted by the closure of brick and mortar stores. However, as we headed into Lockdown 2, the average number of collectible items on range did increase, as supermarkets continued to trade.

In Q3, for example, the grocery channel range for collectibles increased by +20%, and the UK showed the second highest collectibles share in Europe. Last year, lower price point items were key for the last couple of weeks of the year, as parents shopped for stocking fillers for Christmas and added £55m to the last two weeks pre-Christmas. Assuming we come out of lockdown as planned in December, this sector will hopefully pick up again as it was doing before heading into Lockdown 2.

Item Progression

Fashion Dolls have been a consumer favourite postlockdown, with the subclass gaining £2.5m, making it the No.2 top gaining subclass for this Total Licence month. Selling over 17,000 units, L.O.L. Surprise! O.M.G. Remix Doll Asst #132 #4 MGA’s L.O.L. Surprise! O.M.G. Remix Doll has climbed 128 places, ranking No.4 in the total market for October. Retailing at an average price of just under £40, the item alone has generated a total value of £688k and increased distribution by 26 percentage points. A Dream Toys finalist, the success of the O.M.G. Remix Doll has also made it the No.1 new item this month.

Toy World 24

Moneeba Baloch

Account Manager, UK Toys, Euro Toys

During the month of November, with non-essential brick and mortars stores closed in England, there will naturally be a shift to online sales, as there was with Lockdown 1. The first half of the year saw online grow by +78% and we can expect continued growth from this channel for this peak season The online channel will continue to be key for the market, with Black Friday taking place during lockdown and Click and Collect is extended to more retailers.

The toy market has performed better than we could have ever expected this year and has remained resilient. Historically, we know that December accounts for a quarter of annual sales, so the full year performance may yet change a lot from our current +8% trend. Based on where we are at the moment, if the rest of the season remains flat, we will still finish the year on a positive trend. We’ve seen consumers re-discover toy favourites this year, such as classic games and construction items – all key items for this Christmas period. The challenge now is to continue the success into 2021.

To monitor what’s happening in the ever-changing toy market, NPD collects point-of-sale information from all major toy retailers. This information, combined with our analysts’ industry perspectives, delivers a comprehensive view of what’s selling and where. We also field over 12m consumer surveys annually to help industry leaders understand why consumers shop where they shop and why they buy what they buy.

For more information visit www.npd.com. Follow NPD on Twitter @npdgroup.

Top Gaining Subclasses – October 2020 Top Gaining +9% growth inTop Oct driven

by Construction, Fashion Dolls Games Gaining Subclasses – &October 2020

Subclass Post Lockdown

+9% growth in Oct driven by Construction, Fashion Dolls & Games Value Gain £K

Standard Building Sets

£8,480

Value Gain £K

Fashion Dolls

£2,565 Standard Building Sets Fashion Accessories £2,487 Fashion Dolls Family Board/Action Games £1,550 Standard Building sets has added over £8m Fashion Accessories to the market this month. With the help Action Figures £1,225 Family Board/Action Games of some strong licences, this category has Children's Games £996 grown by a third. The top gaining licence Action Figures in this category is Super Mario Brothers; Large Dolls & Acc £900 Children's Games the Lego line has added £1.2m for this Electronic Entertainment £875 month alone. We’ve also seen the Star Large Dolls & Acc Playground Equipment £795 Wars, Lamborghini and Avengers licences Electronic Entertainment perform well. The Fashion Dolls category Skates/Skateboards/Scooters £768 has also been successful this month, as has Playground Equipment

£8,480 £2,565 £2,487 £1,550 £1,225 £996 £900 £875 £795

Fashion Accessories. Higher priced point Skates/Skateboards/Scooters £768 items such as Mattel’s Barbie Dream House Source: The NPD Group | Retail Tracking Service | Oct 2020 and Hasbro’s Frozen II Castle have helped this category gain £2.5m this month. We’ve Source: The NPD Group seen Games categories come through as top but also and someconfidential of the smaller Outdoor subclasses like Playground Equipment and Skates, Skateboard and Scooters.

Consumers continue to Tracking Se The NPD Group, Inc.gaining, | Proprietary 1 | Retail shop for Slides and Trampolines, which were popular items during lockdown, another high price point category helping the market growing this month. Skates / Skateboards / Scooters is adding growth to the market, as great innovation in the category MGA’s Viro and MV’sand Nerfconfidential Blaster Scooter add incremental value to the subclass.

Thesuch NPDasGroup, Inc. Rides | Proprietary

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Talking Shop

Open- hearted Faced with ever-changing challenges, independent toy retailers around the UK continue to demonstrate their flair for problem-solving, adapting their businesses to make sure customers can get hold of toys for Christmas. Lisa Currie spoke to several indies to find out how they are coping before, during and after the latest lockdowns.

Nicky Tossell - Youings, Barnstaple

A

lthough we saw a drop in sales over the October half term compared to previous years, business has generally been steady. A lot of our local customers are shopping with us which is really great to see.

Local customers are definitely shopping early for Christmas and we brought our Christmas Club forward as a result. This is where customers can reserve products for an initial 20% deposit, then pay in instalments while we store their items free of charge. As always, we match every high street price as best we can, so our customers know they are receiving good value.

We normally start the scheme at the end of September, but moved it this year to the beginning of the month to give our regulars maximum opportunity; most lines are in stock then for the Christmas period. The Christmas Club has had a very good response.

November and December are the two biggest months of the year – 75% of our turnover is in these two months. Going into lockdown at that time was not ideal, but we have a click and collect service in place to keep business going. Our staff will be in the shop from 9th November to take over the phone or via email. I have also considered phoning Boris Johnson to tell him we are essential at this time of year – Father Christmas needs us!

I have been in toys for 30 years and another lockdown is hard to take for any small retailer. At least this time round we were more prepared, and staff were up to speed. We carried on giving the best service we can, in person, up until we closed, then kept our fingers crossed that we would reopen on 2nd December as planned.

It is hard to know what December will be like this year, but I’m hoping that consumers will come out to the high street to shop in the final weeks before Christmas and hope for a decent month’s trade. However, this year has taught us that we have to adapt to different scenarios as they come along, and we remain ready to do that.

We don’t participate in Black Friday, but we run offers right up until Christmas, as long as the stock lasts. A deal on the Playmobil Back to the Future car, with free figures with each purchase, has been very popular. We also gave Toymaster bears away to every customer over October half term week.

Lego has been a fantastic seller this year, both the smaller sets and the high-priced sets, such as the Lamborghini model. I think the goal for consumers this year has been to find products that can involve the whole family, and Lego fits the bill perfectly. As well as Lego, puzzles have been flying off the shelves. I have made sure to get plenty of family games and puzzles in stock for Christmas as I’m sure they will continue to be very popular.

I hope people will support their high streets this year, especially over lockdown if indies are still able to keep trading using alternative methods. We really need people to know that we have great ranges at good prices. Although many people have embraced shopping local, come December the weather can put them off venturing out and social distancing will limit the number of customers we can have instore. We will hope for the best and manage things as best we can. 2020 has been a challenge but we are all in this together and we will get through this together.

Justine Elliot - T hornton’s Toymaster, Chippenham

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usiness has been holding steady and in the last week before lockdown, sales increased significantly. Once people realised shops would be closing, they were very keen to get some Christmas shopping done instore whilst they still could.

There was definitely a trend to shop early this year.

We were warned by several companies that they may not be able to get stock in late November/December, so we purchased stock earlier than normal as a result.

Lego, Schleich and jigsaw puzzles have been performing strongly recently. A lot of people took up

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jigsaws during the first lockdown and have evidently carried on over the last few months. No doubt this will continue as the second lockdown begins. Playmobil has been a top seller for us throughout the year. We moved to bigger premises a year ago, which meant we could expand our offering. 2020 will be our second Christmas

Talking Shop at the new place, and many of the key lines that we introduced for the first time last year are performing even better this year. Sales are good across the board.

Over the most recent lockdown, we have been offering a call and collect service from the shop. People can place an order and make a card payment over the phone, before safely collecting from us. This is the first time we have offered the service, posting images of our stock on our Facebook page to show customers what’s available. This keeps the shop front of mind, even if

our followers don’t place an order there and then, the goal is for people to remember us. Keeping in touch with our customers over lockdown is key. People have made an effort to shop locally this year and we trust that the increased pool of customers and our social media activity will mean this support continues.

This time round we felt more prepared for the lockdown and the reopening, with measures already in place. When we are allowed to reopen, we will be ready

with a full team of staff and look forward to seeing all our customers in person again. We pride ourselves on offering a very flexible and individual service to our customers and have continued to do so as best as we can whilst shuttered.

Normally December is the busiest time of the year when we sell a lot of our big-ticket items, so we are keeping our fingers crossed for an upbeat final trading period.

Andrew Olley - C ity Cycle Centre, Ely, Cambridgeshire

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e bill ourselves as “more than just a bike shop” – City Cycle Centre is actually a successful department store with a thriving toy department. Business before lockdown went tremendously well, especially over October half term - it has certainly exceeded all of our expectations, given conditions this year.

Our plans have been constantly changing due to how uncertain the climate has been. When it looked like a lockdown was likely in October, we began to rethink our plans for the run up to Christmas, and then a lockdown was introduced on 5th November. The main challenge has been getting hold of enough stock to keep up with demand. Takings have been significantly up the whole time since we reopened after lockdown in the summer, which is brilliant.

From the interaction with customers on our social media, it’s very clear that there is still a preference to shop locally. Where we are based, there is a strong sense of community and our social media channels lend themselves well to maximising that. We managed to increase our followers and contacts during the first lockdown, when we were offering local deliveries, and this relationship with our customers has proved a real asset.

Over the November lockdown we continued to trade using click and collect and our free local delivery service once more. The support online and in the shop over the

last few days before lockdown was colossal and we hope this continues. Speaking to customers on the shop floor certainly gave us all hope; they were all full of praise for the shop and were doing their absolute best to visit us before we shuttered.

We approached the second lockdown feeling much more prepared and could step straight into the lockdown routine that was established previously. We felt we knew what we were doing and how things would work moving forward, and more importantly our customers knew what to expect from their local toy shop. Reopening this time round should also be easier since our social distancing measures are already in place and will not alarm customers, who are used to the new way of shopping nowadays.

Looking at the ranges we sell, Jigsaws have been phenomenal sellers, a top category for 2020. Soft toys have also been a top performer, as well as items that offer good value for money. This year especially, money is tight for some people, making items with lots to offer at a decent price point a desirable choice.

I am not a great believer in Black Friday, as it tends to benefit larger online retailers rather than local indie shops like us; we prefer to run our own events and promotions. In October/November, we ran an offer with Sylvanian Families whereby customers that spent a certain amount received an additional free item. Where we can source lines with a decent margin, we organise

our own promotions and, in this way, compete with the nationals. This is the kind of promotional activity that we prefer to operate, especially if we can run some kind of competition alongside it on social media.

Amidst the ‘doom and gloom’ dominating the national press, it’s important not to forget the positive outcomes, such as the support given by shoppers to local businesses over recent months. Indies located in towns and small cities are in a unique position right now, and that’s something to feel good about.

Andy Tipping - M arlow Toys, Marlow

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e have experienced up days and down days, but overall, business has evened itself out. Public confidence keeps changing, with people staying in one week and going out the next, depending on what they have read in the media. On the whole though, trading has been very positive; I think the public has more confidence in local businesses. Before the November lockdown, they were reluctant to travel and chose to shop locally as far as possible – great news for indies like us.

Over September and October, we were in contact with manufacturers who all recommended that we bring Christmas stock in earlier this year, given the uncertainty of the current climate. Some suppliers were worried about stock being exhausted as early as November, following prolonged closures and disruption during lockdown. We followed their advice and are well prepared for the final weeks of 2020.

From October half term, bigger purchases started to be made for Christmas – so we were glad to have brought stock in early. Customer feedback confirmed that many were shopping early in case businesses had to close, which proved to be the case from 5th November, and to make sure they got hold of the right product in case of stock shortages.

To encourage and help those doing Christmas shopping early, we have run promotions on selected lines from half term onwards. Banners in the shop windows show customers what is on offer and we have chosen key lines with decent price points, some of which are now half price. Promotional items include Crazy Slime, licensed Frozen items and How to Train your Dragon plush. Schleich animal figures are very popular with our customers, and we are renowned for our large offering instore. In general, spend has increased on products priced below £30.

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Over lockdown, we are trialling a part time phone and collect service, and will see how that goes. We will be using our social media platforms and the shop window to advertise this and keep customers informed; also posting photos and videos of the shop fixtures on our Facebook page to help. We will expand to longer hours for phone and collect if the demand is there.

We appreciate the updates from Toymaster via memos and videos and the general feel seems to be that there will be a steady rush instead of one massive peak this Christmas. Although there is steady spending already, I still anticipate an uplift nearer to Christmas, especially after the November lockdown.

When we reopen (hopefully) in December, we will have to limit customer flow instore, which will make it harder to accommodate the usual influx in the run up to Christmas, and we will have to manage queues effectively.

However, as customers want to shop local, they are happy to accommodate these limitations and I am hopeful for a positive Christmas for independent retailers.

We wait in anticipation to see what will happen and keep hopeful that retail won’t be too impacted going forward. It is all about trial and error when living in the current climate and a lockdown, but from the interaction on our social media with the local community, the mood looks positive, which can only be a good sign for Christmas trading over the coming weeks.

indie viewpoint Victoria Simpson-Forrest - Forget-Me-Not Toys and Books, Culcheth, Warrington

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usiness has been steady recently. I feel incredibly fortunate that I sell products that consumers want at this time of year; people will always treat their children with toys, or buy books and adult jigsaws. I have built up a very loyal customer base over the years, who have continued to support our business, which has helped enormously over these difficult months. Retail can be tough at the best of times but despite the uncertain climate, I am pleased to say we have been doing well.

Warrington was moved into Tier 3 on 27th October, as part of the UK government’s coronavirus tier system. Not long after this, it was announced that England would enter a second national lockdown from 5th November. All of these changes have been quite difficult to manage and don’t help our customers feel very secure or confiden shopping, some even as early as August. In response, I adjusted my plans by increasing stock levels and getting Christmas stock in sooner this year.

This proved a good move, as customers started early with their preparations for Christmas - aware that things could change significantly at any time, which was the case come November.

I stock traditional toys and brands such as Orchard toys and games, Lego and a variety of jigsaws, which were all selling well before lockdown and should continue to do so in the run up to Christmas; evergreen items like this are always popular and highly sought after.

Over lockdown, I will be using my website and social media to keep business going. I do have the option of an ecommerce site, and I spent some time before lockdown getting that up and running. I will be taking telephone orders and offering promotions on Facebook and Instagram. The main aim will be to keep things ticking over and make sure people remember us and don’t resort to using platforms like Amazon for all their Christmas shopping.

On the plus side, we are certainly better prepared than we were for the first lockdown in March. We have been through this before and know what to expect now. One of the biggest difficulties last time was not knowing when the lockdown would end, and we had to take things week by week. This time we have an end date to work towards. In the meantime, we will do all we can to get our name out there, keep business going and get ready for what will hopefully be a good December.

It is difficult to predict exactly how December will look in terms of business. The weekend before lockdown 2 felt like Christmas with regard to footfall and sales – so it is possible that we have experienced the main peak in Christmas trading, and the rush may drop off. Personally, I expect people will continue to shop throughout the season and shoppers will still be coming in for last minute gifts in December.

We sold a huge amount of games in December last year, and that market should return when we reopen. More consumers are shopping local which should continue right up until Christmas, as customers spread out their purchases. I hope it will, as that will give the high street a boost, after what has been a tough year for retail in general.

We are running our annual Christmas Toy Appeal again this year, which is organised by our local councillor through the Borough Council. The community is always very kind and generous - I start the donations off and it just snowballs from there. I feel it is an especially important initiative to have in place for local children, after the year some families have had.

Mark Buschhaus and Stephen Barnes Toy Barnhaus

Next slide please, and trampoline, board game and playset…

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his column was intended to be a year in review, wrapping up our columns for this year. It’s unlikely that 2020 will pan out as usual though – although it will be a year we will never forget. We were certainly not envisaging a four- week lockdown in November. Saturday 31st October will go down as a Halloween to remember, and a horror show for our business! We waited from 4pm for the big announcement and were still waiting nearly three hours later. We then had “death by graphs” for an interminable half hour, before the announcement finally arrived with the news we did not want to hear, a four-week closure in November - our second busiest month of the year.

It quickly dawned on us just how much planning it was all going to require. However, it also gave a rocket-boost to trade from the very next day, and the four days of November before we closed balanced the first 10 days of November. However, to lose the rest of the month, including Black Friday weekend, was a bitter pill to swallow.

Like many of you, we had already built up a vast amount of our stock for Christmas.

However, there is only so much we can handle via our online platforms, and there are only certain products that sell well online. The big question was whether we should carry on taking in stock or stick with what we already had. We have continued to take in selected lines, as the looming issue of a potential no-deal Brexit could hamper supply going into 2021. Looking on the bright side, one of the positives compared to the previous lockdown is that cafes are still open for takeaways, so we have still been able to get our bacon rolls in as we process stock and deliveries.

As business owners, like so many of our readers, it has been a really tough year, continually having to react to changing circumstances and deal with so many different challenges.

The biggest issue for us currently is not knowing (yet) whether we will definitely re-open in December, and that is an absolute deal breaker for us. Hopefully by the time you read this, there will be good news and we will all be trading again…

To keep us going through the lockdown, our main focus has been trading online through marketplaces. In the first lockdown, where we were starting our online business from scratch, it was quite tough initially, getting everything set up. This time, we have been able to expand our capacity and range of products, while taking advantage of opportunities on products that are in short supply. We have also advertised ring and collect and home delivery through selected stores. The take-up for this has not been massive, and this is mainly due to people staying away from shopping locations. But this is good news, as it means people are following the lockdown rules, and hopefully the situation will improve.

We are already planning for December, when we will hopefully re-open; how many staff we will need and how the online services will continue. The extra mobile tills we have introduced, in our larger stores, mean we can serve customers quickly and allow other customers in. We know those last 22 days will be critical, and we will do whatever we can to ensure we maximize sales during this time.

Looking forward to 2021, we hope that it will be far less eventful than its predecessor. We hope all our readers are able to take time after the rush and enjoy Christmas with their families as best they can! Take care everyone.

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Special Feature

The Entertainer

Project partnerships In mid-October, The Entertainer made not one but two major announcements, followed up by yet another in early November. The first was that it was behind the surprising return of toy departments to Debenhams. The second was entering into an exclusive trial partnership with Asda to take over the running of the grocer’s toy departments, and the third was Early Learning Centre joining M&S as a new guest brand. Toy World sat down with founder and executive chairman Gary Grant, as well as deputy chairman Duncan Grant, to find out how these partnerships came about, and what they might mean for the wider Entertainer business.

Gary Grant

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Duncan Grant

n early February, news emerged that Debenhams was planning to ditch its toy departments and lay off its toy buying team.

Fast forward eight months, and you can forgive our surprise when an email dropped into the Toy World inbox regarding the new Toys at Debenhams departments, opening just in time for Christmas. Speculation was rife about how this had come about, without the buyers

left to curate the ranges, but an overnight tip-off saw Toy World reveal the full story the following morning – The Entertainer was behind the move.

“We’d actually been talking to Debenhams for over a year,” explains Duncan. “As with so many plans, the intention was to kick things off much earlier, in March 2020, but the pandemic kicked off instead and everything was put on hold. Plans were dusted off in the second half of the summer, when it became clear that Covid would be with us for a while and we just needed to crack on with things, and the agreement was finalised in September. To be honest that was a little too close to Christmas for our liking, but it does go to show the hard work and effort both sides have put into getting things in place in time for the festive season.”

Duncan says the initial results of the partnership are already very strong, and that the specialist department store retailer is delighted with how its toy sections are performing; at the time of writing, sales were already well above expectations. In the short term, The Entertainer is focused simply on providing consumers with an attractive assortment of toys to choose from

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until Christmas Eve, both via the Debenhams departments and its online channel, but longterm, the aim is to be trading in all Debenhams stores indefinitely. The risk of cannibalism is low, as The Entertainer sees things. While the Debenhams consumer might not be an altogether different shopper to that of The Entertainer, their mindset is arguably different; if you’re browsing a multi-category store then it’s unlikely you’re out to buy lots of toys, whereas The Entertainer shoppers most likely are. What the Toys at Debenhams departments aim to do is trigger shoppers’ impulses to pick something up then and there, be it as a set-aside gift for later in the year or something to take home to a child or grandchild the same day, making any purchase made in Debenhams, rather than at The Entertainer more of an incremental one. NPD data shows that when consumers are presented with more opportunities to buy toys, the size of the toy market grows – suggesting that Toys at Debenhams’ sales won’t be ‘instead of’, but ‘as well as’.

“We are tracking this so we can understand if there is any switching of sales, but there’s

currently no evidence of that happening,” notes Gary. “What we have noticed is that there’s a different product profile selling on the Debenhams website compared to ours. It’s also worth noting that NPD shows we have a market share of roughly 10%, meaning there’s 90% of the cake out there that we’re not eating. If our market share was 30% then the risk of cannibalisation would be greater, but there are a lot of people without an Entertainer store in their area, while there are a lot of branches of Debenhams in towns where there aren’t Entertainers. It should work really well.”

While most Toy World readers could appreciate the logic behind The Entertainer’s tie-up with Debenhams, news of the Asda partnership raised a few more eyebrows. The move is the latest in Asda’s ‘test and learn’ partnerships strategy, which aims to introduce complementary brands popular with shoppers to the store.

The coronavirus pandemic has caused the supermarket to accelerate its plans following shifts in consumer behaviour, with the belief that shoppers are looking to complete multiple shopping missions on one trip. The jewellery and accessories retailer Claires was brought in last year; this year, The Entertainer joins Greggs, musicMagpie, B&Q and Fragrance Point.

“Toys is a big category for Asda, so this wasn’t a decision taken lightly,” says Duncan. “We’d been in discussions with the team since the beginning of the year to see what we could do, and whether an Entertainer offering would be comparable to or better than - the current in-store range. Based on these talks, we all feel that introducing an Entertainer department into Asda will improve its toy proposition.”

The Asda deal, which kicks off in February within five trial locations (which are TBC), marks an evolution in The Entertainer partnerships, in that it’s a brand collaboration rather than a curated range on behalf of someone else (as is the case with Debenhams, for example). As the concept will be flying under The Entertainer flag, the experience must be that of The Entertainer brand. Pricing will be consistent across all The Entertainer channels, be they Asda aisles, The Entertainer stores or The Entertainer website, and promotions will likewise be carried across.

Customers can be reassured that any deal they see at Asda will be the same at The Entertainer, and vice versa. What might well differ will be the ranges themselves. The Entertainer aims to bring “all the best” of its offering to Asda, including exclusive items, but will also consider bringing in new options, specifically tailored to Asda customers, that wouldn’t appear in an Entertainer store at this point in time. The team is currently working through all of this with Asda to understand what the strongest proposition is.

The Entertainer will also be putting its toy knowledge directly onto the shop floor in the form of trained Entertainer staff members from Monday to Saturday. The staff will advise customers on the best toys and games for their needs, and will also help run

events, demos, character appearances and more, Covid notwithstanding. The Entertainer staff won’t work on Sundays, in line with the company’s Sunday-working values; instead, they will ensure the toy area is fully stocked and immaculately presented when they leave work on a Saturday night, ready for it to trade unmanned on Sundays. The Entertainer’s values will also be reflected in the product assortment stocked within the Asda stores hosting The Entertainer toy sections, so while Asda itself remains free to range anything it likes across the wider store footprint, only those brands The Entertainer would be happy to sell in its own stores will appear in the toy aisles. Duncan is keen to emphasise that shoppers can expect the full Entertainer experience when they visit an Asda with an Entertainer toy aisle. He says: “Consumers will experience a much greater sense of place; these aisles really will feel like you’re in The Entertainer environment. Not just the same shelves with the same toys, but the atmosphere and fun of The Entertainer too. Our approach marks a real step change for Asda’s toy section.”

Duncan adds: “We’ve had some really supportive feedback from the trade. Once the news broke, Stuart [Grant, group sourcing director], Geoff [Sheffield, buying director] and Gary were inundated with positive communication from the trade, be that suppliers, buyers, licensors etc. We feel that this is a really exciting project. Supermarkets traditionally have been more focused on servicing demand, whereas a good toy shop should inspire and inform, show consumers what the toys have to offer and help them make the best possible individual purchasing decision. We think that we can do that within a supermarket environment, and that’s why we’re all so excited. Stuart makes himself very accessible to suppliers, so if there are people

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out there that want to talk to us specifically about the Asda opportunity, then do get in touch ASAP – range planning is well underway.”

Both Duncan and Gary feel strongly that the Asda partnership is a big opportunity for the toy trade, and not – as some may assume - a threat.

Done well, it will grow the size of the ‘toy pie’ for everyone and will allow The Entertainer to showcase brands in a way that works for supplier and retailer alike. Boxes will be brought to life on-shelf, attracting the attention of customers who may not have otherwise noticed them, and securing additional sales – not an approach that supermarkets are generally known for.

Duncan says Asda has been ‘visionary’ in this regard: “Asda is a big and well-established toy retailer in its own right, and the attitude of its toys team towards this partnership has been amazing. Whilst the in-store proposition will be an Entertainer one, and will remain in line with our values, we’re absolutely taking on board the feedback and input from the Asda team, because it really understands its customers and knows what works. Some middling sellers at The Entertainer might be best-sellers at Asda, for example: we need to leverage that knowledge and hit the ground running.”

Clearly the latest partnerships with Debenhams and Asda have been keeping Gary, Duncan and the rest of the team busy behind the scenes, but how is the wider business faring?

Echoing the trend other retailers are seeing in the current Covid-19 environment, The Entertainer is experiencing marked differences in like-for-like turnover between city centre stores and those in smaller communities. In areas where a large proportion of consumers would ordinarily arrive by public transport, footfall is down.

Special Feature

Bluewater, for example, although similar to other large shopping centres, is often travelled to in private cars; shoppers’ apparent preference for driving themselves, rather than depending on a train or bus, is reflected by the performance of those stores that lend themselves to private transport. And while footfall is down at larger stores, smaller ones are trading up, thereby balancing the scales.

Recent lockdowns have caused some disruption; the 17-day Welsh Firebreak, which ended on 9th November, left The Entertainer (and all other non-essential retailers) unable to trade via click & collect, while the six-week Level 5 lockdown in Ireland – which has become one of the strictest in the world – is due to end 2nd December, the same day England hopes (at the time of writing) to lift the four-week lockdown which came into effect on 5th November.

With some £500m in sales taking place during November, the timing of the English lockdown means more sales could theoretically be lost during those four weeks than were lost during the first lockdown, which lasted three months.

That said, having caught up with Gary on the Monday before lockdown came into effect, the three-day notice of non-essential retailers closing resulted in a massive rush on shops and surging online sales. Despite the chain’s Welsh stores being closed at the time, and its Scottish locations performing as usual, the business took twice the number of sales by 2pm on Monday 2nd November than it did on the same day last year across its entire store portfolio. “Across Saturday night and Sunday, our online sales were up +400%,” Gary told us. “We came in to find probably the biggest number of orders we’ve ever faced on a Monday morning, even following a Black Friday weekend. In-store traffic was massively up too, and our click & collect service, which wasn’t available to us in April and May, also saw demand skyrocket.”

The Entertainer is one of the retailers which has been pushing a ‘shop early’ message the hardest, which it says it not a cynical ploy to bag more sales, but a genuine safety issue. December turnover for the toy market is traditionally around 24% of the year, according to NPD figures; if

The Entertainer

October and November sales ultimately move to December and take place in-store, the challenge of keeping both customers and staff safe will become even greater, Gary warns. On the subject of online sales, he adds: “We’ve significantly increased our website packing and dispatch capacity, but external courier capacity is beyond our control. We know what our capacity is for the rest of the year, how many packages we can send each day between now and Christmas, and there’s room for growth, but if consumers think they can do all of their Christmas shopping online this year, the numbers simply won’t work.”

Gary says that while Covid is causing uncertainty, it’s also creating opportunities to grow and improve the business over the coming year. Opinions on how long the pandemic may last vary wildly, but most accept that the virus is likely to be with us for a while – and this will change the face of retail. With stores operating at various levels, the team is watching and monitoring the market closely, and while discussions with landlords on potential new opportunities continue as they always have, plans for further expansion are tempered by caution.

Assumptions on the levels of turnover that drive affordability, once costs are applied, are expected to be a ‘little subdued’, and Gary says now is not the time to take risks. That said, he adds, there are areas all over the country where The Entertainer would thrive.

“We have a number of strings to our bow, don’t forget. We bought Early Learning Centre in early 2019, and our original goal was to develop the concept through Mothercare, which at the time was a fantastic relationship. We could have taken our toy expertise into Mothercare the same way we have with Asda, but as we all know, that route to market is now closed. We’re now exploring other ways of bringing ELC back to the UK market. At the moment there is one designated store-in-store concept in our Birmingham Bullring store, and we’re running various ELC product packages in Entertainer stores, from very tight to quite broad depending on the size of the store. We also have the popular ELC website elc. co.uk, which also features a limited selection of third-party Entertainer ranges.” “I think it’s

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very much a case of ‘watch this space with ELC,” Duncan interjects. “We have got big plans – and you’ll be the first to know.”

And among the first to know Toy World was, when news broke in early November that ELC has joined M&S as a new guest brand. The tie-up will see ELC provide a range of toys on the M&S website and app to sit alongside kidswear and gifting ranges for Christmas. The curated range includes several ELC own-brand items and also includes many branded toys including Peppa Pig, Playmobil, Happyland and Paw Patrol. Gary says: “To relaunch ELC with a retailer of the calibre of Marks & Spencer is an amazing opportunity.

It has an incredible database, with around 8m people on it, so we are really looking forward to seeing this new partnership flourish in the run-up to Christmas.”

Internationally, there are more than 300 stores across The Entertainer and ELC, and new locations in new markets have continued popping up despite Covid-19 disruption. Malaysia will be opening the first of several new stores soon, while Gibraltar and Greece, emerging markets with huge customer demand, have also welcomed The Entertainer stores this year. Business strategy differs little from the UK to internationally, with ELC partners ‘inherited’ via the acquisition now ranging The Entertainer products, and vice versa.

The aim is to create a complementary, cohesive brand offering across multiple touchpoints, and to create a strong pipeline of stores and product across the globe.

As widely reported upon this year, the cancellation of international and domestic trade shows has left a void to fill. Gary jokes that his buyers have spent so long looking at Zoom screens they ‘now have square eyes’. The day before we spoke to Duncan and Gary, 200 Entertainer store managers joined the company’s virtual Retail Live 2020 Conference, while Geoff and Stuart, along with Mark Whittle (head of buying) have spent many a day in virtual previews since the pandemic began. Gary also tells us that significantly more samples are now arriving at The Entertainer’s Amersham HQ from the Far East, allowing the buying teams to get hands-on with new product. Gary says: “While the loss of the shows is obviously a great shame, it won’t stop us expanding out ranges in a timely way. We still have customers who want to buy inspiring new product, and if the shows aren’t going ahead then we just need to find another way.”

Despite the pandemic, the lockdowns and changing consumer shopping habits, The Entertainer remains in a strong position. The future in general is unpredictable, notes Duncan, but by remaining flexible and responsive to market conditions the retailer will be able to ride out the storm. He adds: “The key for us is balance. We don’t rely entirely on only one thing or another. We saw a vast increase in eCommerce during lockdown, for example, while our store sales were zero due to lockdown, our smaller stores are balancing our city centre ones, and our international presence and partnerships are a real strength of ours too. While it would be difficult to have any firm plans for next year, in a time when even the best laid ones are being ripped up regularly, we feel our varied approach stands us in very good stead for 2021 – come what may.”

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Company Profile

8th Wonder

Working wonders Lisa Currie spoke to 8th Wonder’s senior business and product development manager, Andrea Gornall, and sales and marketing director, Louise Tyrer, to discuss the company’s expansion plans moving forward, following a year of strong growth across its licensing portfolio and own brands. come with its challenges, like adjusting to remote working and having to do all of our previews online, via Zoom and Teams. But through it all, the team has been fantastic and really flexible. All of our spring/summer previews were conducted virtually, we have taken steps to support our growth plan and invested heavily in domestic stock for autumn/winter 2020, which will help us end up where we have forecast. We’ve backed strong performers and evergreen properties like Paw Patrol, Hey Duggee and Bing heavily, to support both our existing retailer partners and new partners coming on board.”

Andrea Gornall

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Louise Tyrer

hough 2020 hasn’t exactly panned out to be the year we all expected, 8th Wonder - which specialises in the design and manufacture of character plush, wooden toys, and nursery and gift products for the global toy market - continues to thrive in its 23rd year as a business. The company has adapted to the challenges presented by the pandemic and is ending the year with a raft of new licensing deals, successful Q4 launches and a strong portfolio lined up for spring/summer 2021.

Having already recorded 40% growth this year (at the time of writing), the company is expected to be up by nearly 70% by year end.

“We have had a fantastic year, in fact our best year yet,” enthuses Louise. “Of course, 2020 has

As part of its expansion plans, 8th Wonder has strengthened the team this year with 12 new appointments across both the China and UK (Wigan) offices, to include new designers, merchandise management, PR and quality roles. Andrea Gornall joined the company in May, transitioning from her role as toy category manager at the Very Group, owner of Shop Direct, and has since helped the company to grow its licensing presence significantly, to include a raft of high profile names covering a wide array of sectors.

“We have been reviewing the structure of the business and looking at our ambition and growth plans over the last few months,” explains Andrea.

“Whilst the company has been in business for 23 years, licensing is something we have only really been doing over the last 2-3 years, and this year we have taken on an additional 10 new licences, which is fantastic. We are now working with many different licensors and have launched a selection of new licensed ranges this autumn/

Toy World 34

winter, bolstering our already strong portfolio.

Current releases include our new Paw Patrol wood and plush ranges. New licences in the pipeline for spring/summer 2021 include a partnership with Little Tikes in the role play market, and with Paddington for plush and wood, plus the likes of L.O.L. Surprise!, Minions, Jurassic World and Battersea.”

8th Wonder’s vast portfolio of licences has widened the pool of buying teams and retail outlets that the company can engage with, Andrea notes.

With more partnerships and licensors on board, the company has opened up new departments, such as games, as well as strengthening its position across the pre-school, roleplay, boys’ and girls’ sectors. Its presence in the novelty and gift division is also making waves, with Friday Night Dinner joining the licensed line-up for spring/summer 2021, a portfolio which already features Only Fools and Horses, Mr Bean and the Inbetweeners.

“We are talking to a wider audience with these new additions,” adds Andrea. “We are expanding, giving our sales team not only a wider remit, but more opportunity to enable us to grow moving forward. We are looking at lots of different types of marketing, divided into four different strands to aid our ambitious growth plans for next year.

We are looking at spending more of our marketing budget across digital platforms, as well as working closely with our licensors on marketing events, and retail partners to be part of their trade marketing events. From an advertising point of view, we are looking to boost our advertising in both the toy and gift trade press, to cater for products that cover

both sectors – the main goal is to get the eyes of the buyers on our products, as well as consumers.”

With the focus shifting heavily into digital marketing for at least the early part of 2021, whilst the UK grapples with the impacts of Covid-19, the company is now seeking agencies to work with to develop its marketing plans. The company is also working hard to make changes to its own showroom in order to maximise its capabilities.

Louise told Toy World: “The goal posts are changing all the time with what we can and can’t achieve, and we have explored many different options for getting our range across to buyers going forward. Of course, it will depend mainly on whether we can travel or not, but we have invested substantially in our showroom and in technology, so that our ranges will come across in the best possible way to buyers, because we still believe that seeing the product in detail is really key. Ideally, we would like to take the showroom on the road, to different hotels and locations, and invite buyers in, if that is possible. Preview plans are a moving target at the moment though – in the current climate, it’s all about being flexible.”

The company has been able to call on Andrea’s extensive expertise in buying and selecting product ranges from her previous roles. “What we’re trying to do is bring a Teams or Zoom preview to life in the right way,” Andrea explained.

“We’ve got to make our space a safe environment and we are heavily invested in doing that, but for now the priority is bringing our products to life for the buying teams – some of them are power-pointed out and missing the touchy-feely experience, so we’re working on ways to modify this.”

As plans for a productive 2021 get underway, talk turns to the fast-approaching festive season.

Although this year’s holiday season has certainly been unique, 8th Wonder has harnessed the opportunities presented over the last few months and launched plenty of new additions in time for Christmas, including Hey Duggee plush chairs and new products across other core properties such as Bing and Paw Patrol.

“We have launched 50 new lines over autumn/ winter, which have all experienced a really strong start,” comments Louise. “In this climate, both children and parents have reverted to seeking traditional play patterns. In essence this is perfect for our business, because we are all about traditional toys and sustainability, particularly within our wooden offering. This year I think the products initially forecast to do well aren’t necessarily the ones that are performing; back in March a lot of the retailers and buyers were furloughed and it was a difficult time for businesses to get estimates for autumn/winter.

Indeed, it was a bit of a guessing game for us on what would perform so, domestically, we have continued to back evergreen licences that we know work. One thing for sure is that Christmas won’t be cancelled, so we will make sure we support our retail partners, whether that be online or in store, by getting stock out to them and getting our message across to consumers in the best possible way.”

“By the end of the 2020, I am positive that we are going to hit our targets and report a successful year, despite things being a bit ‘doom and gloom’ for everyone personally,” adds Andrea. “For me, seeing the results of everybody’s hard work will be

Leading the way in toy safety, quality and sustainability To learn more about UL’s services and for questions and doubts about Brexit, contact toys@ul.com or visit CRS.UL.com.

UL and the UL logo are trademarks of UL LLC © 2020.

a satisfying end my first leg at 8th Wonder.”

to

With a promising end of year to look forward to, Toy World asks what the next step will be for the company, as the start of a new year and trading period beckons, and new partnerships and plans gear up for mass market activity.

“We are talking to additional licensors at present and we hope to have some exciting new announcements in the not too distant future,” explains Andrea. “For autumn/winter 2021, we are confident there will be lots more to come, not only building on existing great brands and those launching in spring/summer, but also introducing additional new ranges ready for autumn/ winter 2021. Everyone has worked so hard and has adapted brilliantly to a new way of working with retailer partners, and that alone is great accomplishment.”

“The top message from 8th Wonder has always been on match value,” concludes Louise. “What retailers get from us is fantastic quality at a great price, with strong licences in the mix. We are excited to launch key brands and see the growth moving forward into some of the other new licences we have signed up – bring on 2021.”

For enquiries and more information on 8th Wonder’s product ranges, readers can call 01942 829 811 or visit www.8thwonder.co.uk.

Special Feature

IMC

Taking IMC to another level

Having joined IMC Toys in late 2019, UK country manager Sue Barratt is now overseeing an exciting period of change for the company – a new team, a new office, new products and new development directions for its leading brands. Toy World publisher John Baulch, and editor Rachael Simpson-Jones, sat down with Sue (via Zoom, of course) to find out more.

I

MC has witnessed a considerable amount of change in a short period of time. Going back just a few years, its toy portfolio comprised 60-70% licensed lines, with the bulk of the remainder made up of the interactive plush brand Club Petz. Nowadays, its line-up looks quite different. IMC’s standout doll brand Cry Babies launched in 2016, marking the company’s transition in product and brand direction, away

Sue Barratt

from licences and into own-IP brands. Fast forward to 2020, and the IMC transformation is in full swing.

“Spain was keen to move the office from York to a more central location,” explains Sue. “Covid definitely made the move difficult. I spoke to the team in February about the move, and we had started discussing amicable redundancies with those that didn’t want to move with us, which was the majority of the team - and then lockdown happened. We couldn’t move the old office, we couldn’t open the new one, we couldn’t recruit new people, and the team members that had decided to leave us couldn’t go for interviews elsewhere either! We managed to move into the Oxfordshire office in May, and closed the old one , but because of the unique situation we’ve had this year, we’ve still had a couple of people working for us remotely in York. This has worked out well for all parties.

Our finance team also remains in York; there’s a vast amount of experience there, and we don’t want to lose it.”

When Sue joined IMC just over a year ago, turnover was down on where it had been in the past, and she was tasked with driving the company forward – no mean feat for anyone coming into any business at any time, pandemics notwithstanding.

Nevertheless, Sue has done just that, despite the added disruption caused by the move. The (largely new) team was able to enjoy a few weeks in the new

Toy World 36

office before the worsening infection numbers in the UK necessitated another home-working order. John Gray, who previously held positions with Mattel, Mega Brands, Spin Master and MGA, started on the inauspicious date of 23rd March as operations & logistics manager, joined by account manager Kate Pettit, but senior appointments in account management and marketing had to be made during lockdown. Lisa Cox, who has held roles at Flair and Alpha, joined in August, and Kerry Tarrant, who was also at Alpha, started just a few days before our interview with Sue. With the sales and marketing teams now up and running, attention can turn to the evolution of IMC’s product development.

“We’ve had some great success this year, but now the challenge is to stay ahead of the curve and maintain the momentum,” says Sue. “Our Girls portfolio is really strong. Cry Babies is in its fourth year, and if we track all the data from our customers, we’re up +60% YOY. NPD has us at +23% and puts Cry Babies as the No. 1 Special Feature Nurturing Doll brand, but if you add in the customers that aren’t tracked by NPD, the picture looks even better. Next year we have some significant new developments coming through on Cry Babies, not just new characters from the series but totally new play patterns and features that fans will be really excited about. VIP Pets launched this year and has been incredibly successful.

Development for next year is ongoing, with plenty

“The TikTok campaign for VIP Pets was really successful, and we’re now working with Playtime and Generation Media to pin down where we should go next with our marketing,” adds Sue. “TV is still important, but there are a lot of other platforms where we can put product in front of consumers. We’ve done a lot of digital work with Smyths, for example, driving traffic to its website via our online content. As a business, it’s fair to say that we’ve moved from what was arguably an old-fashioned approach to content and marketing, and a portfolio of licensed walkie-talkies and helicopters, to some truly innovative product with strong content to back it up. The message we’re keen to get across to retailers is that we’re now a very different IMC to the one they may previously have been used to. We’ve got new offices, a new team, new product, new content, and new, totally fresh marketing plans that will drive product sales like never before.”

to look forward to. We’re also up +24% YOY with Magic Tears, the miniature versions of Cry Babies, and Bloopies, our bath line, is up +20% too.”

The main driver of IMC’s success in recent years has been its animated content strategy.

The company’s YouTube channel, Kitoons, is growing all the time; globally, it boasts 4.2b views and over 4.5m subscribers. The channel has delivered a major advantage for IMC this year, as global lockdowns continue to cause ever-higher consumption of online content across the globe.

Before September, the animated series were also on mainstream TV in all markets bar the UK, despite there being much more English-language content available than there was Spanish or Italian. To rectify this, a new partnership has launched with Nick Jr. which has brought all IMC’s animated Cry Babies Magic Tears content onto the TV channel. Airing daily, four or five times a day, each episode is followed by an advert which shows kids and their parents where they can buy the toy versions of their favourite characters.

IMC’s product development is also interesting in that everything starts with the animated content and leads on from there, not the other way round, a strategy which resonates with kids and offers a tangible point of difference to other kids’ properties.

For Sue, IMC’s success in the challenging Collectibles category is also down to yet more changes the company has made this year. IMC appointed Generation Media as its media agency in April, a move with has resulted in a really strong return on the company’s investment.

Sue says IMC is extremely happy with Generation Media’s performance, and also its advice in other areas away from TV advertising, such as digital content. Playtime PR was also named IMC’s retained agency at the start of 2020, and has ushered in new campaigns such as the viral VIP Pets TikTok campaign many readers will have read about online. Developed in partnership with Fanbytes, this ultimately clocked 5.7m views and achieved double the click through rate predicted at the outset of the campaign.

Heading into 2021, Sue is hugely enthusiastic about what’s on the agenda for IMC. The new Cry Babies range has been previewed by several major retailers, with really positive feedback, and significant expansion is on the horizon for VIP Pets, off the back of the brand’s success this year. New products will hit UK shelves in spring/ summer, bolstered by a rapidly expanding distribution model that will better serve more retailers across a wider range of price points, from pick-up items through to higher ticket toys ideal for the autumn/winter period. Bloopies Fairies will also make its debut, following resoundingly positive retail reaction thus far, and Magic Tears welcomes new product and characters that Sue says will move the brand into the next level of play value. “We’re making sure that added play value is at the heart of all our development at the moment; more accessories, more things to discover, more stuff to do,” she says. “The blindbag reveal experience is still desirable, and it does engage kids, but the play after that is what’s most important to IMC. You’ll see this commitment to play value even more in our new ranges for 2021.

Let’s face it, you don’t always get good feedback from previews, but we’ve been blown away with the response to the products we’ve been showing, and we can’t wait to roll them out.”

IMC is also looking at moving into other categories, taking its knowledge of the Girls category and applying it elsewhere.

Sue tells us that several Boys concepts are in development, while there’s further

innovation coming through in the interactive plush category too. IMC is also introducing an existing line which has been successful in Spain and Italy to the UK marketplace in 2021, supported by targeted marketing activity. With IMC on course to end 2020 +45% up, approximately one year ahead of its forecasts, the company has plenty to carry it through into what will surely be another successful year.

“It’s a nice place to be, and Spain is very pleased,” Sue tells us. “It’s interesting; Spain and Italy were ahead of the UK in terms of lockdowns, and a lot of our knowledge on how to deal with the situation here stemmed from them. There was a lot of communication throughout about what was happening in the different markets across the world, and this has helped us remain strong as a global business. I think I’ve previously spoken about how tough April and May were for us, as IMC isn’t in the categories that were seeing the huge demand during lockdown, but lockdown 2 doesn’t feel as severe as it was the first time, and retailers have learned how to keep their businesses going despite the closures and changing shopping habits, making the best of a bad situation.”

Challenges remain, however. Black Friday took place on 27th November, accompanied by the usual questions surrounding stock availability (and this year further complicated by logistics pressure), and we’ve heard plenty on the problems a last-minute Christmas rush will pose for suppliers and retailers alike. These are hurdles that all companies will have to overcome, however, not just IMC, and as Sue rightly says, stock shortages are a better class of problem than poor sales.

Looking forward, and taking into account those retailers not tracked by NPD that IMC works with, Sue is confident IMC’s Top 50 ranking will improve significantly in 2021 – and with the new product coming through, the strength of her new team and the marketing and content plans in place, who can blame her.

Feature

Show Off

Even if the shows are off...

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we can still show off your products

Show on and show forth

With the absence of early 2021 trade shows, Toy World spoke to suppliers from across the industry to find out how they are preparing for the upcoming season and what plans they have in place to showcase their new ranges.

A

lthough the cancellation and postponement of early 2021 trade shows, including the Hong Kong, Nuremberg and London Toy Fairs, is disappointing to those of us who look forward to meeting face-to-face each year, the toy industry remains as resilient as ever, with preparations underway and innovative ideas in place to get products in front of the eyes of buyers next year.

“We have been Zooming, Teaming and doing all manner of virtual presentations throughout the year, and I expect that previews will continue in a similar vein moving forward,” says Phil Ratcliffe, commercial director, Tandem Group, owner of MV Sports. “The toy fairs are an opportunity to showcase new product in the flesh for the first time, and in our category the real thing always looks and demos better than an image or concept drawing. However, in the absence of toy fairs, we hope to do something with a little more razzamatazz nearer the time to showcase our product.”

Businesses have been heavily reliant on digital tools this year in order to stay in touch; no doubt, as Phil says, this will be the way forward for at least the earlier part of 2021. Already this year, many toy companies have tried new methods to temporarily replace face-to-face meetings, with digital presentations, online showrooms and virtual trade fairs all providing opportunities to put products in front of retailers. Virtual platform Show Cloud adapted to help suppliers communicate with customers, both on a domestic basis and across the globe – you can read more about the way Show Cloud has evolved on page 53.

Additionally, following the cancellation of the Spielwarenmesse January show, Rubie’s opened the digital doors to its permanent Nuremberg

showroom, with plans to repeat the event early next year. “With the Virtual Showroom, we are bringing the same tailored personal showroom experience our customers are used to when they visit our Nuremberg venue, from the comfort of their home or office,” explained Graham Gardiner, general manager EMEA, Rubies. “We are adapting the way our business operates to respond not only to the current crisis, but also to be at the forefront of long-term trends and adapt to the shifts in consumer behaviours.”

Suppliers and retailers alike have quickly got to grips with this new way of connecting, but with Christmas fast approaching and attention turning towards a new year, we asked what the main challenges will be when piecing a virtual showroom together and how suppliers will combat potential setbacks and offer something different when exhibiting through a screen.

“Not having the in-person shows has definitely been a bit of a head scratcher,” comments Laibond Cheng, president of sales and marketing at Nikko Toys. “Online meeting spaces have become the platform for us to showcase newness to our partners, but the real challenge has been conveying just how exciting our innovations are on the small screen. It’s difficult to gauge the size, speed and performance of an item through a pixelated and choppy screen share, but we’ve largely overcome this by spending what would (in a normal year) have been show prep time on creating sizzles and videos, demonstrating our great features and functions. We’ve been sending videos all over the world to our customers and partners, and have focused on shifting our tooling timeline forward, so that we can get working samples into our partners hands as soon as possible. Before 2020 becomes hindsight, we’ll have sent out pre-production samples to all of our

Toy World 38

customers, and that is what will be the key for us as we dive deeper into the trade show season.”

With a variety of new additions across its outdoor portfolio and other toy lines, Wilton Bradley has also been busy creating its own ‘Video Launches’ for all of the company’s new and key product lines ahead of trade show season, among other strategies that will ensure the company enjoys an upbeat start to the year.

“We think that the current situation creates more time for families to spend together and we have some great products for staycations and creative entertainment across arts & crafts, outdoor sports and toys,” says Wilton Bradley’s sales director, Ross Bradley. “Our new ‘Video Launches’ allow the buying team the opportunity to show their knowledge and reasoning behind the new ranges and direction. Plus, with a big shift towards online retail, we are also trying our best to support our partners who are having to adapt their business. Ensuring that our retailers are receiving stock in a timely manner to meet the uplift in consumer demand is key to our ongoing relationships.”

As we look ahead to another vital season for the toy trade, Toy World is keen to support companies by offering a platform for them to unveil new ranges throughout January and February 2021 with our comprehensive ‘Show Off’ features. As well as showcasing product, companies can reach retail decision makers with key information about their new ranges. Anyone wanting to get involved in the next instalment, in the bumper January issue, should contact the team ASAP. Over the next few pages, Toy World showcases a selection of new products and ranges that would have been exhibited at the Hong Kong and Nuremberg trade shows, in the latest ‘Show Off’ feature.

Perfect for Domestic & International business

Show Cloud®

The integrated Virtual Showroom + CRM Platform for the Toy industry Your BUSINESS CONTINUITY solution for remote previews and cancelled or postponed Trade Fairs NEW FEATURES Include

 Live calendar for booking appointments  Live Stream presentations with 24/7 playback  24/7 VR Showroom Tours with product information “hot spots”

    

360 degree product / pack turnarounds The Perfect Pitch video presentations Live “in document” video presentations Video messaging Live Chat

Developed by the Toy industry, for the Toy industry Used by over 7,500 Toy professionals in 103 countries

BOOK A DEMO Via www.showcloud.com

hel lo @ s h owcl o ud.c om

www.showc l oud. com

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Hy-Pro

01582 670 100 | www.zincsports.com

Hasbro

0208 569 1234 | www.hasbro.co.uk The Monopoly Bid game from Hasbro is a game of chance, luck and strategy as players bid in blind auctions, pay with money cards, steal properties with action cards and change their luck with wild cards. Played in rounds, everyone gets a chance to host an auction. When it’s time to bid on a property, players choose how much money they want to risk.

Everyone then shouts, “1, 2, 3, Bid” before laying their money cards down. The player who bids the most money gets that property. Players need to collect three property sets to win. The Monopoly Bid game is a great choice for game night, parties and as an indoor activity for kids aged seven and above.

Nerf Ultra blasters have advanced design and performance to deliver extreme distance, accuracy, and speed. They include ground-breaking Nerf Ultra darts; the farthest flying Nerf darts ever, featuring an innovative flight tip Aerofin technology and Nerf Ultra foam. Fans can take their game to the next level with Nerf Ultra blasters and darts. Nerf Ultra blasters work only with Nerf Ultra darts.

The Nerf Ultra Two motorised blaster features fast-back reloading. The six-dart cylinder is open at the back, so players are able to see when they need to reload their blaster. They simply hold down the acceleration button to power up the motor and press the trigger to fire one dart. The blaster includes six Nerf Ultra darts that are compatible only with Nerf Ultra blasters. Darts fly up to 120 feet (36 meters).

UL

01256 312100 | CRS.UL.com UL supports the toy industry by providing services and information to help companies navigate the global marketplace. It supports the delivery of safer, more sustainable products that consumers can trust, offering a full portfolio of services to address the evolving global market needs.

UL’s comprehensive suite of services for toys includes safety testing to global standards, quality assurance inspections, certification services, responsible sourcing and solutions that deliver critical business intelligence. In particular, UL’s advisory and training services address several business needs in order to help ensure safety for toys on the shelves in all target markets.

In order to offer stimulating and appealing toys, manufacturers must take into consideration the development, interests and social influences at various ages and stages of child growth for safe product use. UL human factors experts can help determine the most accurate age grading of toys on the basis of aspects such as cognitive and motor abilities, as well as play behaviour and interests.

In addition to age determination, UL’s advisory services include safety assessment, human factors analyses, regulatory evaluation, label review and recall analyses.

Customers can turn to UL for the knowledge they need as they position their businesses in an increasingly competitive landscape. UL can help provide the tools and information necessary to navigate market risk and complexity and advance the responsible development, production, marketing and use of safe toys globally.

UL has actively worked in the development of international toy safety standards and is staffed with global regulatory and resource teams based in Europe, the US and Asia. Through its rigorous research efforts, UL can keep individuals up to date on changes happening in the toy industry to help ensure ongoing adherence to compliance requirements.

Thanks to its expertise and accredited state-of-the-art global network of laboratories, it helps toy manufacturers verify compliance with regulatory requirements and brand specifications for the toy industry.

To find out more about UL’s solutions and service portfolio, readers can visit the website, contact UL.CRSenquiriesUK@ul.com or call 01256 312100 to arrange a virtual meeting.

Toy World 40

After the events of 2020, everyone will be more conscious than ever of how they commute to work.

Zinc has introduced its brand-new Eco commuter scooter range, with a focus on greener, cleaner and safer travel.

At the forefront of the new lithium-powered range is the Eco Max, which travels up to a range of 20km in just one charge with top speeds of 24km per hour. Three speed options ensure the rider is in control of their ride.

The Eco and Eco Plus can also travel up to 24kmph, and have a varied range depending on model, opening up the market to all consumers no matter their budget.

All of the Eco scooters feature an LCD screen which displays speed, speed mode and battery level. Both scooters boast a sleek design that folds away for easy storage, and rapid charge time makes them ideal for the daily commute.

Domestic stock of the brand-new e-scooter range will be available from July and retailers are invited to trial the range with direct dispatch available via Hy Pro’s partner, Swag Distribution.

With a continual focus to keep the brand aspirational and accessible, Zinc’s new offering is suitable for a range of abilities and budgets. A full complement of children’s scooters is also available, so kids and parents can travel together. The range includes e-scooters, kick scooters and stunt scooters, catering for all preferences. Available domestically, the E4 is an ideal first electric scooter for kids aged five and above and can travel up to a distance of 5km on a single charge, at speeds up to 8 kmph. The ‘Push and Go’ accelerator makes it easy for kids to join the commute.

TRAVELS UP TO 4 MILES ON A SINGLE CHARGE

QUICK CHARGE IN ONLY 3 HOURS

TRAVELS UP TO 4 MILES ON A SINGLE CHARGE

QUICK CHARGE IN ONLY 3 HOURS

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Nikko Toys 07966 531 577 | www.NikkoToys.com Quality, innovation, and performance are the cornerstones of the Nikko Toys brands, and nothing exemplifies these values like the latest offerings from Nikko: Road Rippers and Machine Makers. Having won Toy of the Year awards in both Belgium and the Netherlands in 2020, Nikko aims to continue to excel, and has registered new patents across the globe. New innovations coming in 2021 include cars that climb, rides that drift and vehicles with velocity.

Nikko RC will be launching seven brand new assortments backed by TV, pre-roll and digital around the world. With show stopping features and powerful performance, the Nikko RC line will feature items from pre-school to pre-teen and beyond. Exciting additions include the new VaporizR XT, an update to the all-terrain action hero, whose performance remains unparalleled; and the Rock CrushR RC, a new trail shredding monster with patented wheel technology to climb beyond the conventional.

With Road Rippers, the focus is on fun. The 2021 line-up includes nine new assortments. Plus, with new media partnerships, Nikko will be launching these lines with gusto. New items like Snap ‘n Play Monsters Attack will allow kids to mix and match the armour and weapons, using them on both monsters and vehicles to build their own battles. New vehicles in the range include the Afterburner with twin turbine engines.

Joining the Machine Maker range is the brand-new Farm Fleet, which lets kids mix and match to create their own vehicles, promoting STEM powered play.

With the cancellation of the upcoming trade fairs, Nikko looks forward to digitally meeting its partners to share the latest ranges it has been working on for 2021.

Simba Smoby Toys UK 01620 674 778 | www.simba-dickie-group.de/en In the absence of early international shows, Simba Smoby Toys UK presents a new wave of cross-category releases, offering something for all buyers and retailers in 2021.

Simba Smoby Toys UK’s trusted Smoby brand has a large collection of playhouse real estate for tots, as well as a raft of ride-ons, and more in the outdoor category.

Smoby’s market-first plastic Teepee features a simple design and a neutral colour palette, with a modern, Scandinavian appeal. It evolves as children grow, transforming in height from 159cm to 183cm, making it suitable for kids aged 2-10 years old. The Teepee can be pitched both indoors and outdoors, thanks to its UV resistance and sturdy foundations.

The new Garden Playhouse brings the natural world into the role-play world. It comes complete with 15 accessories, including guttering to filter rainwater and fill up a water butt, a watering can, a plant trellis and a detachable worktop. Sturdy and secure, the Garden Playhouse is UV resistant and ideal for little ones aged two years and above.

Another brand going from strength to strength is Steffi Love, with a new line-up of dolls and blister pack outfits for spring.

With Steffi’s fully articulated body, youngsters can dream up hours of imaginative play. The Steffi Love Baby Doctor pack comes complete with a face mask wearing Dr Steffi doll and a cute baby doll with colour change feature, where kids can use warm water to wash away baby’s fever. The Steffi Love Koala pack sees Steffi dressed in her safari outfit.

New for Steffi’s younger sister, Evi Love, is the Glitter Mermaid 3 assortment, plus more Evi dolls to collect, including Evi Love Monkeys; featuring Evi’s expedition outfit and complete with a backpack and binoculars, the pack includes two baby monkeys.

For more information about the Q1 2021 collection from Simba Smoby Toys UK contact sales@sisotoysuk.com or call 01620 674 778.

Casdon

01253 608 428 | www.casdon.com Whilst children have been confined to their homes, with interaction with friends or extended family restricted, imaginative play has been an important source of entertainment. To keep young minds active, Casdon continues to bring internationally renowned household names to the playroom.

Little ones can help their parents have the garden looking ship shape with the Flymo Lawn Mower. The Flymo features a foldable handle for easy storage and a mechanical click when the mower is on the move. It also features the iconic orange base.

The Casdon Dyson Cord-Free vacuum is a direct replica of the life-size Dyson and has been specifically designed to be true to life, right down to the last detail.

The model features working suction, spinning beads and realistic sounds.

Another favourite, the Dyson Ball, is based upon the latest ‘ball’ model of vacuum cleaner in the Dyson catalogue, and has working suction and a twist & turn action, just like the real thing.

Each collection comes with a heritage and quality that parents trust. For more information, email roger@casdon.com.

Toy World 44

Creator of natural, educational children’s toys for over 50 years, Guidecraft emphasizes the importance of open-ended play, the beauty of loose parts, and the significance of hands-on learning through children’s connections to nature. Through a range of toys that are authentic and nature-based, Guidecraft enriches children’s lives through creative play that encourages them to use their imaginations in the classroom and beyond.

As part of the 2021 product launch, Guidecraft has expanded their natural play collection with items such as Little Pavers, Tabletop Notch Blocks, and Big Branch Block Builders. Each feature a unique material and design to provide children with opportunities to create lasting connections with nature and the world around them.

Little Pavers

Big Branch Blocks Builders

Tabletop Notch Blocks - Western

www.guidecraft.com

Sale Rep: Lorna Smith (EMEA) Email: lsmith@guidecraft.com

Phone: +44 (0) 7725833273 Skype: lorna.smith966

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01491 826 500 | www.rubiesuk.com Even though it can’t physically showcase its upcoming product releases in person, Rubie’s is moving with the times by encouraging customers to book a virtual tour of its permanent Nuremberg showroom in the new year. Private Virtual Showroom viewings with brand specialists will provide buyers with an innovative experiential approach to remotely researching, interacting and placing orders from Rubie’s expansive portfolio of global licensed brands.

The company continues to bring fans all the latest characters from the worlds of Disney, Marvel, Warner Brothers and more. On Marvel, Rubie’s has announced exclusive designs for more action-packed movies including the launch of Black Widow, alongside the introduction of Sheng Chi and a new breed of galactic superheroes in The Eternals.

Hailing from the same studio as Frozen and Moana, Disney’s next big animated movie, Raya and the Last Dragon, has sparked plenty of excitement among fans. The Raya and the Last Dragon costume for children is expected to gain similar traction among kids to that of other recent Disney releases. Nostalgia is also on its way thanks to Rubie’s new jersey designs for the revamped live action movie Space Jam: A New Legacy, which stars favourite characters from Looney Tunes as well as the basketball star LeBron James. The DC Comics stable will be kicking off the new year with the highly anticipated Wonder Woman 84, currently set for release on Christmas day 2020.

Rubie’s has already released its adult and childrens’ The Mandalorian costumes based on the hit Disney+ series. Just like the show, the costumes have been very popular and demand for the range is high.

Little Kids Inc 07580601259 | www.littlekidsinc.com / www.wickedbigsports.com

Funko

020 3376 3223 | www.funko.com

Little Kids Inc offers a full range of outdoor seasonal toys, including the Fubbles and Wicked Big Sports brands.

Little Kids joined the bubble scene over 30 years ago, with its Fubbles No-Spill bubble toys.

Kids can tip them over, drop them and turn them upside down without any spillage. Perfect for pre-school children, the No-Spill Bubble range offers a variety of sizes and price points.

The Fubbles product line also includes solution in 16 fl. oz, 32 fl. oz. and 64 fl. oz. sizes, as well as bubble wands, hand-held motorised bubble blowers that come in a variety of styles with features like lights and sounds, and motorised machines that blow endless streams of bubbles.

Most recently, Little Kids launched Bubbles-on-the-Go; a new bubble pouch that is ideal for on the go activity by being perfectly sized to fit into any purse or travel bag.

Little Kids also holds a portfolio of licensed bubble and water toys, featuring Paw Patrol, Blue’s Clues and You, Nickelodeon Slime, Disney, Marvel, Peppa Pig, PJ Masks and Sesame Street.

Wicked Big Sports puts a twist on classic backyard games. Perfect for summer-time family fun, this range of backyard games appeals to players of all skill levels.

For more information about Fubbles and Wicked Big Sports, readers can contact Rachel Atkinson at ratkinson@littlekidsinc.com.

Funko has launched Snapsies, a diverse and creative product line and the brand’s first ever toy range. The range will be hitting the UK first.

With Snapsies, Funko is launching a toy kids can engage with, giving them the unique opportunity to create their own custom characters, making each Snapsies creation truly individual and personalised to its owner.

With 18 characters to collect, each Snapsies comes in a capsule which kids will need to open to find out which one they’ve got. Packed with a range of animal favourites including unicorns, hedgehogs and goats, the new and innovative toy comes complete with 11 pieces.

The brand-new snap-and-match technology allows kids to add ultimate customisation to their Snapsies, giving them a chance to get creative and define the names, backstory and looks of their very own Snapsies collectibles.

The first edition to hit UK shelves has so many possible combinations for fans to come up with.

Snapsies not only champions every child’s freedom to be a unique individual, it also promotes friendship and creativity, with an incredible range of different looks to work with.

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Sh w off Panini

01604 877 888 | www.clickdistribution.co.uk Panini is tipping its Premier League 2021 Official Sticker Collection to be one of the most anticipated collectible launches of the year. Last year, the company successfully breathed new life into its Premier League stickers through a combination of the high-quality design and production that Panini is known for, supported by a multi-faceted marketing campaign which targeted both the core kids demographic and older collectors looking to re-live their childhoods.

Set to take things up another level, Panini says its UK design team has surpassed itself with the level of detail and care that has gone into the creation of the new collection, which launches in December, and has been working closely with the football body to ensure the collection offers everything fans are looking for. The marketing campaign behind the launch will be high visibility, with free sampling of the 100-page album provided across the UK and Ireland. Once again, Panini will boast the heaviest TV, radio and digital campaign in the category, bolstered by another national newspaper promotion.

Panini will also re-run its popular Panini Classroom Challenge.

The collection of 642 stickers features all of the league’s top names and rising stars, with shinies and special stickers to find. This year’s collection features more facts, stats and analysis than ever before; all 20 Premier League teams are included, with spreads dedicated to each club featuring their kits, crests, and their manager’s Premier League record. All the stats about each player are also featured on their individual sticker, while dedicated pages cover the Premier League’s most elite players.

The collection will be on sale in stores from 10th December. Retailers should contact Click Distribution for all stock queries. Call 0330 123 2559, email click@clickdistributionuk.com or visit www.clickdistribution.co.uk. Point of sale packs containing posters and shelf talkers are available on request via Click.

Guidecraft

07725 833 273 | www.guidecraft.com Creator of natural, educational children’s toys for over 50 years, Guidecraft emphasises the importance of open-ended play, the beauty of loose parts and the significance of hands-on learning through children’s connections to nature. Guidecraft toys enrich children’s lives through creative play that encourages them to use their imaginations in the classroom and beyond. As part of the 2021 product launch, Guidecraft has added even more toys to its natural play collection.

Children can use Guidecraft’s large, translucent weaving toy, Discovery Frames, to experiment with concepts like layering, patterning and abstract expression. The set includes twine strings to use with square, triangle and circular frames featuring notches and holes. Creative play is enhanced with the layering of found loose parts to further children’s organic connections. Double-sided concept cards also provide inspiration for educational lessons that integrate with imaginative, natural play.

Little Pavers, a weighted construction toy intended to increase the authenticity of a child’s open-ended building experience, will also be available in 2021. This 60-piece set allows children to incorporate hexagonal miniature pavers into unique architectural builds while practising stacking and patterning. Children are encouraged to integrate natural, loose parts and Little Bricks (released in 2020) into nature-based, constructive play time.

Interlox Leaves, a new addition to Guidecraft’s line of interlocking construction toys, will also be included in the 2021 launch of new products. A subdued colour palette inspired by cool ocean blues, grassy greens and warm oranges, and the recycled plastic material, will further enhance a child’s connection to the natural world. Children aged two and above can get creative inspiration from double-sided concept cards and create kaleidoscopic builds reminiscent of patterns in nature with notched, seed-shaped pieces. They can also incorporate light play into hands-on construction activities for even more explorative possibilities.

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Schleich

01279 870 000 | www.schleich-s.com/en From January 2021, new Farm World playsets will be added to the collection, offering little ones play patterns straight from the box. The Sunny Day Mobile Farm Stand comes complete with poseable farm workers and Poppy the horse, as well as a wide selection of food and shop accessories. Also new for the range in 2021 are domestic pet figures and larger farm friends, including the Llama, the Highland Bull and the Sorraia Mustang Stallion.

The company will also be expanding its Wild Life offering for all natural world enthusiasts, with the arrival of new figurines including the Manatee, Platypus, Warthog, Desert Fox and more.

Schleich’s bayala world will continue to grow in 2021 with six new glittery unicorn foal figures to collect. The mini figurines come wrapped in pouch packaging and are presented in a 24-packCDU for pocket money appeal.

Furthermore, there will be eight new horses launching in Horse Club next year, including the Pura Raza Espanola family. In the prehistoric world of Dinosaurs, the company will launch five new figures, including the classic Brontosaurus.

The mythical world of Eldrador welcomes the upcoming launch of the Rock Beast, Shadow Panther and other new creatures.

The Schleich portfolio will be supported with extensive retailer support and PR and marketing campaigns for 2021. For more information email schleich@schleich-s.co.uk.

STICKER

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Video available

Contact: Malcolm Cook

malcolm@mc-international.co.uk Mobile: +44 (0)7770 68 88 58

www.hauck-toys.com

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Funville

+852 3963 9824 | www.funville.co.uk

Funville has a history of creating long-lasting, value driven brands, and the Funville Game Time brand offers numerous classic games titles at attractive prices. Its new 3D Snakes & Ladders and Hungry Dinos titles reinvent and refresh classic gameplay with the high standard of quality and detail consumers would expect from a company with Funville’s heritage.

For 2021, Funville is bringing brand-new and exciting action games to the market. Dunk 4 is a fresh take on a classic and highly competitive game. Players shoot balls into miniature basketball hoops in an attempt to be the first to line up four balls of their colour and win the game. In Slime Surgery, kids must remove the space pieces embedded in the slime Alfie the Alien; but if a surgeon upsets Alfie, he will wake up and start shaking.

Funville’s 2-in-1 Sketching Station has a whiteboard on one side and a sketcher on the other. The product folds neatly into a handy carry case, so young artists have somewhere to store and transport the included accessories.

Strong social and digital support is in place for 2021 across the Funville Game Time range, and this support will continue as more titles are added.

With many other brands and ranges available outside of games, including outdoor, plush and role-play, readers are invited to contact info@funville.co.uk for more information.

Hauck

07770 608858 | www. hauck-toys.com Launching over 30 new products for next year, Hauck is adding new introductions to both its ride-on line-up and its ever-popular doll pram, stroller and accessory range.

Joining Hauck’s existing range of top selling go-karts, toddler ride-ons, balance bikes, trikes, battery operated cars and wagons are two new go-karts designed for pre-schoolers aged 2-4 years, and two go-karts for the 4-8 age range. For older kids, there are new Tornado and Batman go-karts. Finally, the new Skootie is a transforming 2 in 1 scooter for boys and girls aged two and above. It features lean to steer technology which promotes a child’s coordination and motor functions.

Hauck ride-on toys are designed and engineered in Germany and feature rugged steel frames, powder-coated to withstand the weather, as well as tool-free adjustable seats to cater for growing kids, and patented automatic chain tensioning. Each ride-on comes in sturdy eye-catching retail packaging.

Alongside Hauck branded items are popular licensed brands, including Batman, Nerf, Paw Patrol and Hello Kitty. An efficient UK-based after sales service ensures peace of mind.

My World Baby and My World Pet are two new additions to the company’s doll and plush portfolio. Each creates a complete nurturing environment where children can love and look after their favourite dolls or soft toy pets. Everything is included to ensure hours of caring playtime fun.

Unicorn Heart is a new and exclusive fabric. The range features dolls prams, strollers, beds and a highchair/swing.

The ever popular up-scale I’Coo range is enhanced by the introduction of the Boston 2-in-1 pram. This appealing doll’s pram boasts a moulded body, which is also a detachable carry cot, as well as adjustable handle height, swivel front wheels for easy manoeuvrability and a beautiful new fabric.

For further information, contact Malcolm Cook (sales manager UK and Ireland) at malcolm@mc-international.co.uk or on the number above.

Flair 020 8643 0320 | www.flairplc.co.uk Inspired by hit YouTube channel, Kids Diana Show, Flair Just Play has teamed up with pocket.watch to bring to the market a Love, Diana role play collection. The range includes a backpack modelled on the one Diana wears in the show, which comes with everything needed for a Love, Diana adventure - a transforming wand hairbrush, an interactive phone and a map to help navigate the Land of Play. Fans should also watch out for the Surprise Deluxe Trunk, the Light-Up Bubble Wand, which produces bubbles just like Diana’s, and the Love, Diana Mini Mystery Trunks.

Continuing with role play, Flair will be launching two new lines from Minnie Mouse. The Minnie Mouse Picture Perfect Camera comes complete with fun lights and sounds effects, as well as a chain to make it wearable. Disney fans will also enjoy the wearable Minnie Mouse Phone Set. From franchise favourites to collectable crafts, the Sneak’Artz range offers 24 mini shoe styles to collect and design; each Sneak’Artz Shoe Box comes with one shoe, washable pens, charms, a sheet of stickers and an attachable key chain.

The Sneak’Artz Bumper Set includes two shoes, washable pens, stencils and an exclusive spray can, plus charms and stickers to accessorise the designs.

Other spring/summer introductions include additions to the Doc McStuffins collection, new customisable craft kits from Jelli Rez, and more characters to collect from I Dig… Monsters.

For more information, email sales@flairplc.co.uk.

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Sh w off KAP Toys 01635 255725 | www.kaptoys.com KAP Toys will be sharing the successes of 2020 and the new introductions for 2021 with a select group of retailers (readers should contact the company to get involved).

The Yume Toys range of plush, headlined by officially licensed Harry Potter product, has developed core lines such as the Harry Potter Sorting Hat, which remains a top seller going into its 4th year. This is supported by a collectible range of plush characters and heroes from the movie Fantastic Beasts. To enhance the offer, Yume also developed an award-winning collectible range – Harry Potter Magical Capsules. Series Two brings even more excitement to the range, and is expected to perform just as well and generate even more repeat purchases.

KAP Toys offers a host of great products from around the world and the company is proud to distribute Kid Made Modern, an on-trend and fashionable arts & crafts line which a number of retailers picked up in 2020. The range includes the ever popular, colourful Rainbow Craft Kit. KAP also distributes IQHK’s LEGO range, which has been well received by retailers for autumn/winter 2020; the company intends to have much broader distribution in 2021.

In the ride-on category, KAP is continuing its partnership with Falk, providing JCB Tractors and Excavators. It also has its own development in Clever Trike and some cool innovation in battery powered ride-ons.

For sales enquiries and to find out more about KAP Toys’ full range of products, call 01635 255725.

Brainstorm Toys 01200 445 113 | www.brainstormltd.co.uk Brainstorm will continue to expand its range in 2021, with new STEM toys joining the portfolio. Night Sky will let children transform their bedroom into an outer-space light spectacular by projecting images up to 3.5m wide on their ceilings. The motorised projector creates rolling images of the solar system with nebulae background, constellations, moon images and a stunning starlit sky projection. Children can use the secret code included with the Night Sky to unlock solar system facts on the Brainstorm website.

This year, many children have enjoyed chemistry experiments at home.

New for 2021, the Light Up Crystal Lab will teach kids how to make three beautiful crystals that can be displayed on a unique pyramid. An LED light that can cycle through seven different colours makes the pyramid a unique nightlight.

Wilton Bradley 01626 835 400 | www.wiltonbradley.com Wheeled toys have long been a specialism at Wilton Bradley, which has many years of experience in developing premium products. The Xootz brand was completely refreshed last year, centred around themes of ‘attitude’ and ‘breaking boundaries’ and supporting Wilton Bradley’s mission to inspire and encourage kids to get outdoors and have fun.

The Xootz Comet Electric Go Kart lets kids pivot, spin and drift. They simply put their foot on the throttle and turn the wheel to make cornering more thrilling. A high-torque, maintenance-free hub motor, powered by two rechargeable 12V batteries, delivers speeds of up to 16km/h for an adrenaline fuelled ride. Staying safe and in control is essential, and the Comet comes with a two-speed setting, a seat belt and automatic braking function to fulfil these criteria.

Available in a stealthy black exterior with white Xootz detailing and alloys, the Xootz Comet Electric Go Kart takes karting up a level.

The Xootz BMW X5 Electric Ride-On comes with an MP3 player with AUX input. Beneath the bonnet are two motors which are powered by the rechargeable 12V battery. A three-speed drive and reverse gear lets little ones practise their driving in the ultimate driving machine. The ride-on also includes a remote control to let parents take control, should the rider be too young to take the wheel. Ideal for indoor or outdoor play, the Xootz BMW X5 Electric Ride-On will make light work of carpet, garden terrain or smooth tarmac, thanks to its four wheel independent suspension.

Every product in the Xootz e-range includes a manufacturer warranty and complete aftersales service from Wilton Bradley’s in-house customer support team.

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Show Cloud

Special Feature

Head in the Clouds Virtual platform Show Cloud has continued to evolve, helping to support suppliers and retailers to navigate the challenges presented by the current working environment. John Baulch finds out about the new features that have been added.

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e first introduced Show Cloud to readers of Toy World back in the summer. The online showroom, which was developed by UK toy industry doyen Chris Jones and his business partner Ian de Kretser, is the perfect platform to help toy companies deal with many of the challenges presented by the current virtual trading climate. In essence, Show Cloud helps suppliers to maximise opportunities in a world of virtual selling, enabling buyers to buy, sellers to sell and brand managers to manage brands. The platform is information rich – it provides users with practical applications, as well as data and analysis which helps progress sales discussions. Furthermore, it is both versatile and flexible – Show Cloud can be personalised for each customer.

As the year has progressed, Show Cloud has demonstrated its flexibility by incorporating a host of new features which allow suppliers and their teams to work more productively and efficiently. I caught up with Chris and Ian to find out more about the new additions to the platform. Chris points out that one of Show Cloud’s strengths is that it is a one-stop shop for the new virtual way of working: “The platform enables the whole team to come together in one place. In some cases, people have started working for a new company and have never been to the office or met their team members in person, yet alone seen the range in the flesh. New starters can at least familiarise themselves with the range and brand architecture, including pricing, as it is all housed in one place.”

However, Show Cloud really comes into its own when it comes to external communication, and some of the new features have enhanced its ability to help suppliers to communicate with their partners, both international and domestic. For example, the site now allows suppliers to send video messages to customers, working on the basis that some things can be communicated more effectively via video than a written email. Furthermore, whichever new technology is favoured by the supplier (Teams, Zoom, Blue Jeans or one of the myriad competing platforms), any of them can be accommodated into the Show Cloud platform.

With trade shows cancelled and face to face previews and meetings continuing to prove difficult to arrange, many suppliers have been looking at how best to demonstrate their new lines to customers, and according to Chris, Show Cloud has several valuable options to facilitate this: “The most important customers need one-to-one presentations, but with suppliers needing to preview a large number of customers, it is not always easy to fit everyone in individually. So, we have incorporated a live stream area into the platform, enabling suppliers to pre-record an event and then invite their customers to view it at their convenience. This saves valuable time, as well as helping to include customers in different time zones, who can watch the presentation whenever it suits them.”

Even when trade shows return, the ability to be able to live stream from a stand may well prove beneficial, especially with accounts where some members of the buying team travel to the show, while the wider team isn’t present. This facility also preserves the secrecy that is so valued by many of the larger toy companies, by preventing the presentation from being shared far and wide.

Another new feature that helps to replicate the trade show experience is the Virtual Tour option, explained by Ian: “Customers can click on a product to bring up more details. They can even rotate a product to get a better view. Of course, it’s not the same as picking it up, but it’s a huge improvement on a static image. It can also give you a good idea of the size and scale of a product. You can also use animated gifs to bring the product to life or record video from the screen, which can be dropped into emails sent from Show Cloud. It all adds up to being able to market products to customers in seconds, rather than days.”

With the ability to book meetings or order samples through a conversation with a bot programmed to ask key questions, the platform also allows Show Cloud users to work around the clock, without having to jump on a phone or skype call at all hours of the day and night. And as ever, trackability is key: suppliers can send out a preview and see exactly which lines each individual customer is interested in, allowing them to follow up with tailored information.

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As the key autumn winter selection period begins, suppliers have to contend with a unique set of challenges over the coming months, but this is where Show Cloud really excels, as Chris outlines: “Ultimately, Show Cloud is a very affordable business continuity service, offering significant productivity and cash savings. It is there as a support vehicle throughout the year, but it really comes into its own during preview and Toy Fair Season. Many companies are looking to reinvest some of the money they have saved through Toy Fairs being cancelled to help them stay in touch with their customers – and this is exactly what Show Cloud does. In the past, the platform has focused on supporting companies across the international market, but we are now receiving requests to offer a domestic service to help replace the gap left by the London Toy Fair.”

If you would like to find out more about Show Cloud and how it could support your business, Chris and Ian would be delighted to demonstrate the platform to interested toy companies and highlight what it can do: to learn more, simply book a demo at

showcloud.com

Retail Profile

Mastermind Toys

Mastermind Toys Holiday shopping

all wrapped up Mastermind Toys started out as a single 300 square foot store in 1984 selling educational software for home computers; nowadays, it proudly calls itself ‘Canada’s Authority on Play.’ It’s the nation’s largest specialty toy and book retailer, with 68 locations coast-to-coast, and this year has been nominated for a TAGIE award in the Most Innovative Retailer category. Rachael Simpson-Jones spoke to CEO Sarah Jordan about how the Canadian toy market is faring as we enter December, how Mastermind Toys has adapted to the challenges of Covid-19, and what kind of holidays the country expects this year. toy industry will indisputably play a huge role in bringing joy to kids and families across the globe this festive season.

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ith the UK reporting increased toy sales of +6% YTD, and the US revealing +19% growth in the first three quarters of the year, it’s little surprise that the Canadian toy market is also faring well, with sales up +12% from January to September despite Covid-19 disruption and lockdown restrictions. The 2020 holidays will arguably look quite different for many this year, depending where they are in the world and their country’s coronavirus measures, but the

Heading into December, Sarah tells me, there can be no denying that 2020 has been a difficult year, but at Mastermind Toys the message is very much one of cautious optimism and positivity.

“We take play very seriously, because we deeply believe that play is kids’ work, and that the world is better at play,” Sarah explains. “Mastermind Toys’ ‘Why Kids Play’ model provides the foundation for curating every toy, game, puzzle and book we sell in our stores and online. However, we’re also so much more than a childrens’ toy and book store; we’re a place of discovery for kids, as well as kids-at-heart.

This year, families have spent more time together, new traditions have been created, and communities have come together like never before.”

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Mastermind Toys continues to look for ways to provide a shopping experience that’s both safe and fun. Sarah joined Mastermind Toys as CEO in January with the intention to tell the retailer’s story and purpose, highlighting to Canadians exactly what it is that makes it so special. She explains: “It’s in our DNA to be the best toy curator out there, not only because we have the best products but because we believe play is essential. We get precious few years in which every day is an opportunity to discover something new, so everything we do aims to create a twinkle of wonder. At Mastermind Toys, we know that childhood only happens once, and the years go by fast, so we sweat the details to make sure every toy and book we offer counts.

Our curators are industry leading merchants, and follow our ‘Why Kids Play’ model to select products based on age and stage. They represent the leading

told my team to be bold and scrappy, which was my way of giving them permission to fail. When you innovate, and try to pull something off in days or weeks that was supposed to take months, you have to encourage people to dream big. The team has rallied behind this, and it’s taken both our creative and our toy curation to the next level. Not a lot of people know that our creative team is based right here in Toronto, and designs everything down to the signature wrapping paper customers can have their presents wrapped in. This is just one more of the myriad things that set Mastermind Toys apart.”

thinking on development, education and play patterns in the industry. Our signature wrapping paper, designed by our in-house creative team, tells gift-recipients that their present has been selected with care from Mastermind Toys. When I joined, I knew I wanted to elevate these points of differentiation, while adding more ‘swagger’ to the Mastermind Toys brand.”

Coming into the company, Sarah also knew that Mastermind Toys needed to build out its digital experience, bringing the wonder kids feel within its stores to the website. The retailer has renovated space in its head office, creating a fun and interactive content creation studio called the Mastermind Toys Playroom. It is here that employees create the retailer’s Holiday Helper videos, unbox the latest products, and shoot the creative used in Mastermind Toys’ holiday gift guide. Sarah is also placing a major focus on creating a ‘customer obsessed’ culture; she’s passionate in her belief that employee experience drives customer experience, and that success therefore begins by treating employees as your best customers. Though disruptive, the pandemic has helped accelerate the plans Sarah had for the business, all of which were earmarked to be actioned this year anyway, and she believes that the steps taken to cement Mastermind Toys’ reputation as ‘Canada’s Authority on Play’ have been critical to its success in 2020.

When the pandemic struck, Sarah took the decision early on to close all 68 Mastermind Toys stores, before the Canadian government mandated store closures. This, she says, was done to safeguard both employees and consumers as soon as possible.

As a destination for everyone from kids to expectant mothers and elderly grandparents, Sarah and the rest of her team felt strongly that they had to lead the way on closures, despite the lack of a contactless kerbside pick-up experience to fall back on, or the overhaul of the website being completed. Thanks to an agile and nimble team, Mastermind Toys was able to transition its business online with remarkable speed. The website was perfected, contactless kerbside pickup introduced, and the retailer’s buy online with pick-up in-store service was widely advertised, allowing customers to ‘choose their own adventure’ and Mastermind Toys to meet them in the channel of their choice.

Sarah explains: “I woke up every morning and

When its stores reopened, the retailer had established clear guidelines for how consumers could shop safely. Parent-and-child friendly signage has been introduced that taps into the magic of each store; three scooter lengths is offered as a measure of good social distancing, while appropriately festive reindeer footprints on the floor turn even waiting in line into a special moment.

Like many other retailers, the pandemic and subsequent store closures resulted in major growth online for Mastermind Toys, with triple digit growth in digital sales. Since reopening its stores, footfall has been down, but basket size and spend is up as parents look to outfit their back gardens as recess areas and driveways as art galleries, and to celebrate the holidays and source ‘elf-approved stocking stuffers’, as Sarah calls them, ready for the festive season.

“As part of our customer-obsessed mindset, a lot of this year has been about listening to our shoppers and keeping the customer experience at the heart of what we do,” Sarah explains. “What makes us so special is the wonder we provide in-store, from our demos to our toys-in-action, but these larger than life moments have been removed as part of our commitment to ensuring the health and safety of our customers and employees. To fill the void, Mastermind Toys has reinvented the customer experience in new and exciting ways, such as the Woo-Hoo headquarters for faster service in-store, and a partnership with a noted Canadian designer on a limited edition 2020 holiday gift-wrap.”

Mastermind Toys has a 36-year heritage in Canada and believes its relationships with suppliers and partners are key to maintaining this. Products selected tie into the retailer’s philosophy that ‘Play is Kids’ Work’, and its vendors share those beliefs.

Sarah says that transparency has been key when communicating with suppliers this year, having recognised that everyone, big and small, is facing challenges as a result of the pandemic. Mastermind Toys’ strategic retail partnerships have allowed it to continue providing joy and wonder for Canadian families. Suppliers have also been co-creating with Mastermind Toys, going beyond simple ideas for the toys, games and books that will work best, working with the retailer on news ways to communicate with customers and engage with them on social media.

Echoing toy retailers in other parts of the world, Mastermind Toys has been driving a shop-early message this year via its ‘Holiday Headstart’ deals and exclusives, as well as its ‘Holiday Helper’ hints, which have been pushed out via social media platforms including Instagram. Canadian consumers are on board, and have been buying their gifts earlier than ever in response to the pandemic uncertainty.

“The holiday season will be different this year, but our mindset for the season, and also the theme of our coveted gift guide, is that there’s still ‘So Much to Celebrate.’ We’ve leaned into the idea that

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celebrations don’t need to be extravagant events; they can be as simple as the moments when a child opens a gift that inspires them, makes them laugh, or opens their eyes to a new way to play. Gifting will be an important part of the holiday, so we’ve made it easier than ever for our customers to shop for everyone on their list. Shoppers can send gifts across the country via our buy-online, pick-up instore service, which also includes gift-wrapping.”

A hugely enthusiastic, energetic and optimistic leader, Sarah cannot emphasise the importance of her customer-obsessed mindset enough. When asked what advice she’d want to impart to other retailers, she replies: “Co-create with your teams in your warehouse, your stores, your head office; there is feedback and insight around every corner that can totally change the way you show up for your customers and lead to real innovation. Families are reinventing the way they work, live and play, and retailers need to be constantly adapting to this new normal.”

She adds: “When we reflect on 2020, we’re incredibly proud of the way that Mastermind Toys and Canadian families alike have reimagined togetherness and play. We have so much to celebrate, and we’re grateful for every chance to embrace family milestones and holiday traditions, both old and new. This year more than ever, we hope that Canadian families find new wonders to celebrate in their lives, and we hope Mastermind Toys will continue to play a role in bringing joy to families this holiday season.”

All of these companies will not be sending out Christmas cards this year. Instead, they have generously supported the Toy Trust by donating their Christmas Card budget to the Industry’s charity.

The Toy Trust makes a real difference to children’s lives everywhere all year round and has raised in excess of £6.3 Million.

www.toytrust.co.uk

Opinion

Let’s speak truth here... Letter from America perspective from an Indie After 20 years working at A. C. Nielsen/D&B Research Company, Richard Derr opened the first Learning Express Toys franchise in 1996 in the Chicago area, and then became a sub-franchiser, opening nine more stores. Although leaving the corporate environment behind, he has combined his expertise in data and numbers with a passion for the toy retail space. This month, he takes a look at the challenges of the Christmas season for indies in the US.

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hristmas is on its way and will obviously happen, but the opportunities to maximize the season have diminished slightly. Why? While the scientists and doctors urged us Americans to stamp down the virus during the summer months, we did not. We can blame many factors, including political, but the fact is, the scientists were correct. The fall season has brought many more Covid cases and they are spiking; heading to all-time highs which make shoppers, as well as shop owners and their teams, nervous. The situation has meant shortened hours, limitations on crowds and an overtaxed online operation for those of us who are not up to the likes of Amazon, Walmart and Target. Add in shipping delays and escalating costs, and margins are eroding faster than hoped. Whether this could have been avoided is a moot point now. We are all facing challenges, and as November/December represents approximately 30—35% of annual sales for a toy store, many rely on this period to propel them into the following year, as well as pay themselves a decent wage at year end.

Don’t get me wrong: you will read in the press how great the toy business will be this holiday and we (the stronger Indies) will undoubtedly survive - but based on muted volume. What was an exciting summer/fall when we reopened has turned to a more cautious and uncertain period, and for some, there is anger as well. But the divide is real; the big guys and powerhouse online sellers are fuelling this growth as people stay home, don’t gather but still send gifts to relatives and friends out of town. The virus has exposed this divide even more, and in my opinion has hastened the decline of indie toy stores. Yes, there is still a niche market of fantastic multi-channel independent toy stores in the US, but you can count them in the hundreds rather than the thousands.

Divide hundreds by 50 states and that doesn’t leave many in places like Montana, Oklahoma and Arizona.

Consumers there are simply forced to buy from Amazon or a big box.

My prediction for US independents is still a flat to single digit increase in the 4th quarter over 2019, and approximately a -10 to -15% decline for the entire year 2020.

So, I leave you with only one way to view the future: adapt, double down on your local niche position, be thankful for the blessings we will bring families and children this holiday season. After all, we have remained healthy, provided for our team members and, with the help of our vendor community, continue to delight so many kids. This, my friends, will never stop -with or without a virus. It’s encouraging that one of our top sellers right now is a Floor Floatie by Good Banana, shaped like a rainbow – the symbol of hope in these troubling times.

Richard can be reached on LinkedIn or by email at LE45@sbcglobal.net.

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Omni Alliance

Company Profile

Expand into the US market with Omni Alliance California-based Omni Alliance, which offers turnkey solutions to help companies penetrate the United States consumer products market, believes the current strength of the region means there has never been a better time to grow the global footprint of a toy business. Toy World spoke to CEO Mark Weiner to find out about the services on offer, and what companies can expect from a partnership.

First of all, can you give us a little of the history of Omni Alliance?

I have been in the toy business since childhood: I attended my first toy fair at 10 years old - I was lucky to have a father who owned a small chain of toy stores in the greater New York area. I founded Omni Alliance in 2014 because I wanted to use all I had learned since I was a boy; my consumer products background, my successes in the toy business, and my most recent success with our company Streetsurfing. For the first time in my career, with globalisation changing the landscape for consumer product companies, I could see how relatively easy it was to expand brands and product lines into other countries with the right approach and partners. I knew I could help companies grow exponentially by helping them increase their market size.

What does Omni offer toy companies as a service provider?

Omni is a complete, turnkey solution to sales and marketing. We manage all your sales and marketing activity in the US at a fraction of the cost of setting up an internal sales and marketing division, and we run your company with the same level of commitment as if it were our own. From strategising brand management, marketing, eCommerce and bricks & mortar sales to social media, PR, inventory management, packaging and product development, we make it easy to expand into the USA. Omni Alliance can help expand a company’s Amazon and eCommerce sales, get products into the chain stores and then drive sellthrough. Once the merchandise is on the shelf, we utilise all our marketing tools to make sure your product sells, creating re-orders and getting the retailer to increase the number of SKUs they are carrying.

How has Omni’s expertise helped other brands?

We have had great success with clients in the toy

business, as well was other types of hard goods. We have helped promote their brands in the US by collaborating on all aspects of marketing, including messaging, packaging specific to the US market, videos etc., all the while with a major focus on driving sales and building brands. In the toy sector, we have recently developed some successful new products which have won numerous awards from the toy industry, as well as creating millions of dollars of additional sales for the client.

Why do you feel expansion into the US market is such a safe bet at this time?

The toy business in the US in 2020 is up over 20%, and Omni’s toy activities are up over 60%. Without question it looks like this trend will continue into next year. Due to our success in the toy business, we have established stronger than ever relationships with the buyers. Also, Amazon is growing exponentially. As a result, we are very focused on bringing European and UK toy companies to the US market. We want to pick a few companies that we feel are perfect for the US market and work with them to build a very successful and profitable US division for their companies.

Heading into 2021, have the events of the past year resulted in Omni upscaling or refreshing its services?

We have expanded our Amazon team and intensified our efforts. We make a point of keeping up with all of the services and possibilities Amazon offers, while maintaining an extremely strong bricks & mortar programme. We have expanded our sales force and we have also been redefining our comprehensive go-to market

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strategies, focusing more on digital success and enhancing the use of digital marketing in driving sales when products are on the shelves.

What can companies looking to work with Omni expect from such a partnership?

A partnership with Omni promises a team and a network which companies can count on to properly implement and operate a US division. We keep a keen eye on profitability and an exceptional focus on opening chain store accounts, managing all aspects of the sales and marketing process.

We are instrumental in helping companies set up operations in the US.

How should interested companies get in touch?

Interested companies can contact Manny Armesto, our business development specialist, at

manny@omniallianceinc.com.

Q&A

f

Mattel

That’s so

extra!

Toy World spoke to Kelly Philp, Mattel UK marketing director, to discuss a brand-new launch for the Barbie brand, Barbie Extra, launching this month, just in time for the gifting season.

elements such as confetti, silver holographic foil and various distinctive fabrics.

Barbie Extra will be a hot new arrival for Christmas, launching on 1st December, having been available for pre-order from 16th November.

With the new range set to hit the UK marketplace, Mattel’s Kelly Philp told Toy World what can be expected from the new range and how Barbie Extra lends itself to the brand’s messaging.

What was the thinking behind the launch and what does the new range aim to achieve?

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ccording to NPD, 2020 has been a bumper year for Barbie; it was one of the top performing properties during the first three quarters of the year, while the brand was represented in the prestigious DreamToys Top 12 Toys list with the Barbie 3-in-1 DreamCamper. Having celebrated its 60th anniversary last year, Barbie continues to innovate with new launches and collaborations that seek to show girls they can be anything.

This month sees the launch of a brand-new line for the iconic Barbie brand. Barbie Extra lets girls dial up their self-expression through fashion, by showing them anyone can be a trendsetter.

Suitable for ages three years and above, the new dolls are posable, with 11 points of articulation and come with 15 premium accessory pieces. Every doll in the new range includes ‘extra’ pets that match each doll’s unique personality, including a pet poodle and pet pig. Even the packaging fits the on-trend ‘extra’ theme, by featuring unique

The launch of the new Barbie Extra doll line expands the brand’s presence in the fashion doll category. Each Barbie Extra doll rocks their own individual style which is playful and over-thetop, with unique, diverse looks. When it comes to fashion, Barbie Extra has a ‘more is more’ attitude - even their pets are extra.

Both the dolls and packaging are eye-catching and embody everything that is fun; glitter, gummy bears, emojis, bright colours and iridescent shimmer, bringing ‘extra’ vibes wherever they go.

With all of these features, Barbie Extra aims to promote self-expression and fashion fantasy play.

What can you tell us about marketing plans for Barbie Extra?

We will be launching Barbie Extra with a huge pre-Christmas TV campaign, as well as top tier girl influencers, mum influencers and a significant spend on YouTube. Girls will also love the new original Barbie Extra song and music video that perfectly reflects the energy of the brand. We are also targeting mums on social media with some

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break frame new assets that will disrupt newsfeeds and grab attention, to show these incredible new dolls to a consumer audience in the run up to Christmas.

Barbie has had a fantastic year; how will this new launch continue to drive the brand’s success?

Barbie has been on an incredible upward trajectory over the past few years, and we have seen even further growth in 2020 with our amazing product range and robust marketing plans. We are proud to be the number one fashion doll and the number two toy property in the market YTD, with POS up significantly YTD - and we have seen growth in every segment. New launch Barbie Extra will connect with older girls who love the selfexpression that the fashion world brings.

fresh FRESH THIS MONTH:

Each month Fresh sets out to find the latest products that will have toy retailers reaching for the phone.

In December we have new releases from: A.B.Gee, Bandai, Character Options, Flair, HGL, IMC, Jazwares, Panini & Zuru.

Heroes of Goo Jit Zoo Character Options 01616 339 800 www.character-online.com

Character Options’ Heroes of Goo Jit Zu is new for spring/summer 2021. With seven new Dino Power Heroes to collect, the company says this international brand will go from strength to strength next year.

Every Heroes of Goo Jit Zu Dino Power character has a unique mess-free goo filling with a different texture and feel. Kids will enjoy squeezing the different fillings: stretchy, gooey, squishy and even crunchy. Stretching up to three times their size, the figures are more durable now than ever before and will always return to their original shape. These prehistoric characters also feature Chomp Attack jaws to add to the battle play.

In addition to the single Hero packs, new Heroes of Goo Jit Zu Dino Power Versus Packs will also launch this spring. Designed to offer battle play straight out of the box, each pack features two exclusive characters. Kids can choose from the Volcanic Rumble Versus Pack, which sees Chomp Attack Blazagon take on Water Blast Redback, or the Arctic Showdown Versus Pack, with Chomp Attack Tyro pitted against Water Blast Gigatusk.

The Heroes of Goo Jit Zu cartoon can be checked out on YouTube, following the heroes as they fight to save the day. The new Goo Jit Zu line from Character Options will benefit from substantial PR and marketing support for 2021.

Value Christmas Stockings HGL 01416 132 525 | www.tobar.co.uk

To cater to the current challenging trading conditions, HGL has come up with a clever idea that will enable consumers to buy stocking fillers without having to worry about spending time selecting single items, whether shopping online or browsing instore.

The Value Christmas Stockings are designed to make it easy for retailers to sell pocket money items without fuss. Packaged inside each traditional red and white stocking is a collection of 15 toys that have been carefully selected to appeal to boys and girls in different age categories. Customers can choose from stockings for an older boy, younger boy, older girl and younger girl.

Each stocking is sealed with a festive hang-tag, all ready for the great reveal on Christmas morning. The packs offer fantastic value and will provide an essential festive time saver for busy gift givers.

Available to order in packs of six, full details of the content in each Value Christmas Stocking are available from www.tobar.co.uk.

Hello Kitty Tamagotchi

Bandai UK 020 8324 6160 | www.bandai.co.uk Bandai UK’s Tamagotchi has joined forces with the iconic brand Hello Kitty. The newest Tamagotchi model from Bandai will let Tamagotchi owners use Hello Kitty to help them raise and nurture their tiny pet. It’s everything that is familiar to people who have played with Bandai’s past virtual pet gadgets, but with the added cuteness of Hello Kitty.

Suitable for kids aged eight and over, the Hello Kitty Tamagotchi comes in two different shell styles – Hello Kitty & Favourite Things. The white shell is adorned with Hello Kitty’s red bow and whiskers, while the red shell features Hello Kitty’s Favourite Things.

Kids can raise their Tamagotchi from egg to baby to adult, feed their Tamagotchi Hello Kitty treats like apple pie and milk, and get Hello Kitty to clean up the mess that Joey, her best friend, makes in the Tamagotchi character’s space. There are seven adult characters; how kids rear their pet will determine which adult they end up with. Particularly good ‘parenting’ skills may even be rewarded with a surprise character.

Hello Kitty Tamagotchi offers great onthe-go entertainment and features two mini games – Piano Game and Balloon Game – as an added bonus.

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fresh New VIP Pets Mini Fans

IMC Toys 01904 720 908 | www.imctoys.com IMC Toys announces the Q1 launch of VIP Pets Mini Fans, an extension to its range of VIP Pets collectibles. There are six Mini Fan squads of VIP Pets ‘super fans’ to collect - Pinkilicious, Disco Divas, Queen Ladies, Fantasy Club, Dream Team and Rainbow Surfers each accompanied by their favourite VIP Pet doll. There’s also a rare character to collect called Coco, the president of the fan club.

Just like their idols, the Mini Fans share a passion for hair. Each comes with a heart-shaped comb capsule, packed with six surprise accessories. Kids can simply pop the capsule in water to reveal a rainbow trail, and then open the capsule to discover the accessories and style the Mini Pets’ extra-long (20cm) hair. Just like the VIP Pets, the Mini Pets all have different hair, hairstyles and accessories.

For more information, contact info.uk@imctoys.com.

Premier League Adrenalyn XL Plus trading cards Panini 01604 877 888 | www.paninigroup.com

Panini has launched this much anticipated update to the Premier League Adrenalyn XL 2020/21 trading card collection, which hit shelves in the UK and Republic of Ireland on Thursday 19th November, featuring all of the big 2020/21 season’s player transfers.

Premier League Adrenalyn XL Plus features 200 new trading cards plus six limited edition cards to collect, which fit inside the main binder with the rest of the collection.

Premier League Adrenalyn XL 2020/21 is the top selling collectible on sale in the UK and Ireland market and the only official trading card collection of the Premier League.

Multipacks contain five packets plus one of four limited edition cards, and are priced at £5. Trading card packets, which include six trading cards and one unique QR code leaflet (which unlocks a free digital ‘Plus’ packet on the Panini app), are £1 each. The Plus collection features brand-new subsets and more special cards, including four new Golden Baller cards.

Rainbocorns Puppycorn Surprise Zuru 01604 401 719 | info@zuru.com

Hitting shelves in the UK and Europe for Q1 2021, Rainbocorns Puppycorn Surprise is a continuation of the award-winning Rainbocorns brand with an all-new spin. The latest series comes in a bright teal reusable egg, with on-theme puppy ears giving a hint into the puppyfocused unboxing experience. Kids can simply hatch open the eggs to reveal seven surprises including all new Puppycorn plush characters, a Scratch ‘N’ Reveal Hearts, Scratch ‘N’ Sniff Stickers, Boo-Boocorn Puppies & collectible eggs, Puppycorn Poop and a Collectors Guide.

There are seven Puppycorn plush to collect including a Dachshund, Pug, Dalmation, Poodle, Labrador and Husky, as well as a rare ‘best in show’ Bulldog.

Rainbocorns Puppycorn Surprise will be supported by a strategic PR and marketing campaign, including global television commercials, plus digital and social media content across all channels.

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fresh

Doc McStuffins

Flair 020 8643 0320 | www.flairplc.co.uk Doc McStuffins is stepping back into the spotlight for 2021 with cute new additions and range refreshes.

Bolstered by four seasons of content now available on Disney+ and increased engagement on YouTube, the Doc McStuffins Wash Your Hands Doll is dressed for the part. Coming complete with a face mask, the 11” Doc doll talks and sings a song about washing your hands. Also available for spring/summer 2021 is a Light Up Microphone that will allow children to master a series of other tunes from the series, and a five-piece Doctor’s Dress Up Set, complete with Doc’s coat from the show. The Doc McStuffins range benefits from a full package of marketing support for spring/summer.

Other new introductions across the Flair and Just Play portfolios include the Love, Diana role-play collection, customisable craft range Sneak’Artz, and new role-play lines from Minnie Mouse.

For more information, please email sales@flairplc.co.uk.

Pirate ship sand and water table A.B.Gee 01773 570 444 | www.abgee.co.uk

A.B.Gee saw huge demand for outdoor toys this year and expects summer 2021 to go from strength to strength. A.B.Gee’s Pirate ship sand and water table has been created for boys and girls in a sturdy and fun design. The sand and water table comes with 20 accessories that will encourage messy play, sensory development and creativity. Kids can fill the crow’s nest with water and watch as it falls onto the green wheels below, sending them spinning. They can use the scoop cup, spade or strainer to keep the big boat topped up with water and watch the little boat float around, while sand designs can be created using the turtle and anchor moulds. This play table is compact, making it ideal for travelling, and the accessories are designed with easy grip for small hands to use with ease.

Squishville

Jazwares 020 3598 5119 | www.jazwares.com Jazwares is building on its successful plush brand Squishmallows with the launch of an all-new colourful and squishy brand extension called Squishville, debuting at UK retail from this month.

The squeezable range will expand the universe of its globally beloved Squishmallows brand by introducing the UK’s first all-plush play sets.

The new Squishville play sets and accessories will give kids the opportunity to extend their play pattern with an exclusive new line of 2” mini-collectible plush and an imaginative range of environments, play sets, vehicles and related accessories, in a variety of price points. An assortment of over 120 characters will be available by summer 2021, including rare minis to fuel collectability, with a huge new set of characters to follow in autumn 2021.

Jazwares will market the toy line through its global distribution channels across mass market, gift, specialty and toy retailers and supermarkets. A strong roster of retailers in the UK is already lined up to stock the products this Christmas.

A national marketing campaign will include TV sponsorship on Channel 5 Milkshake! in December, followed by dedicated social content, digital advertising and a national PR campaign that includes endorsement from high profile parenting influencers and celebrities.

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Special Feature

IETP Year Review

The Ethical Toy Program looks back on 2020 Despite the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic, the ICTI Ethical Toy Program has continued its important work in ensuring the welfare and safety of toy factory workers, writes CEO & president Carmel Giblin in this exclusive piece for Toy World.

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s the end of 2020 is fast approaching, it’s a good time to reflect on the past 12 months as well as look to the future. This was not the year any of us planned; indeed, it has turned out to be one of the most challenging many of us will ever have experienced.

Covid-19 has been incredibly damaging. We’ve all seen too many announcements of job losses, business and store closures, and everyone’s work and personal lives have been impacted. But difficult times often bring out the very best in us, and I believe there is plenty to be positive about moving forward.

At the ICTI Ethical Toy Program (IETP), we quickly assessed the impact of Covid-19 on our operations and engaged with our members to understand their needs. We responded with new ways of working, focused on removing the risk of supply chain disruption, and helped our members adapt to the changing business environment. Businesses able to respond and adapt quickly to unplanned events are the most resilient; in 2020, IETP showed its resilience and its value to the toy industry globally. Whilst responding to Covid-19, we also kept our focus on the long term, and as a result we come to the end

of 2020 with confidence and positivity about what lies ahead.

We’ve all adapted to new ways of working. Our days are now filled with Zoom, Skype and other forms of virtual meetings. These tools have kept our businesses operating effectively and have also shown us that we can work successfully in different ways. I know we all look forward to the day when we can meet in person again - when we can visit the various toy fairs, company showrooms and our customers - but I think we will do so with more thought. Covid-19 and the associated restrictions have shown us how to reduce our operating costs and our carbon footprint. As a not-for-profit, IETP’s ability to achieve results with limited resources is in its DNA, and this ability has been a fundamental part of our success this year. We focused on our shared priorities, based on the industry’s needs and workers’ well-being.

Special measures to support factories and buyers Supporting our factories through their response to Covid-19 has been one of those shared priorities. Companies rely on their supply chain partners to ensure they have product to

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sell. Factories and the workers producing goods are the most critical of assets. Back in February, when Covid-19 first occurred in China, everyone was rightly concerned about the impact on product availability. This concern was shared across every sector and geographical region.

China is not only the No.1 manufacturing country for the global toy industry, it’s also where more than 80% of IETP factory members are located.

In April, as the virus spread, more than half the world’s population faced some form of restriction on their daily lives. Beyond China, travel restrictions and other measures to manage the spread of Covid-19 disrupted business operations in other toy manufacturing countries including Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia. IETP responded by announcing that factories with a

valid certification could have their certification extended. This short-term change in policy removed the risk of supply chain disruption at the most critical time.

As well as factories globally, many brands, retailers and licensors were also facing unprecedented levels of business disruption.

For some, this meant cutting costs to manage financial losses, while others saw their business grow significantly (and beyond plannedfor projections). Both scenarios have meant businesses have had to adapt and change their operations. Changes implemented in 2020 will, I believe, be the basis for continuing operations in 2021 and beyond.

In addition to providing continued assurance for buyers, we shared advice on how to maintain responsible purchasing practices in unprecedented times with our guide: “Purchasing Practices Guideline for COVID-19”. In all industry sectors there has been criticism of buyers cancelling orders or changing payment terms – some of which was unavoidable as companies struggled to survive. Factories told us they understood that their customers were in difficult times too, but what they asked for was more communication. If buyers shared their challenges with their suppliers, then solutions could be developed that benefited both parties.

When communication was effective, we saw many positive outcomes. When it was absent, we saw the negative consequences too.

New and adapted services lead programme expansion While IETP has always provided certification, assessment, capability building and monitoring tools, supporting brands, retailers and manufacturers in achieving their responsible sourcing aims and improving standards, this year we expanded our services to meet rapidly changing needs.

In July we launched the Social Impact Assessment (SIA) Program. This was developed in response to requests for cost efficient and effective licensor, publisher and sub-contractor oversight. SIA assesses the effectiveness of the management system in place to ensure workers’ rights and workplace conditions. It provides a verified score as well as a suggested improvement plan where appropriate. Assessments have been completed in the UK, USA, Europe and the Middle East. More details on SIA can be found on our website, www.ethicaltoyprogram.org IETP’s factory certification programme also grew globally in 2020. The number of factories certified in Vietnam increased by 20% this year, and we certified factories for the first time in Laos, Cambodia and Mexico too.

Supply chain diversity was a frequent topic of discussion when we spoke with the industry, perhaps becoming more of a priority due to Covid-19. IETP has been working with global partners to offer informative webinars and summits for members on sourcing from Southeast Asia and India, helping those who seek to understand both the opportunities and challenges in these regions as they develop their strategies and consider expanding their sourcing. These virtual events provided more than 500 global attendees with insights into the opportunities at a country-by-country level, including the support available to help them in each region, an overview of the regulatory

environment, tips on how to get started or what to do next, and an update on the impact Covid-19 is having in these countries.

As we welcome more factories to IETP, we have further expanded our team to ensure new factories are supported and can succeed.

Feedback from new participants is hugely positive. One factory manager, following an on-site visit, said: “Thank you for sharing detailed requirements and best practices from other businesses with us. The training not only explained IETP’s standards and concept behind but also suggested an applicable implementation plan. We gained a lot from the IETP visit.” This sort of feedback is frequently received, demonstrates the added value factory management receives from IETP, and is a clear differentiator from other compliance programmes.

In 2020 we increased factory participation in training by 18% versus 2019, despite Covid-19.

Increasing the knowledge of factories in maintaining compliance improves the stability of the supply chain and therefore the confidence of buyers that their suppliers can deliver. Training on responsible recruitment and modern-day slavery was very well received, with 97% of attendees telling us they found the training useful.

With more than 15 years on-the-ground experience providing effective support to factories, we have helped our industry become more resilient and better able to leverage new opportunities for future success. Another example of our programme development in 2020 was the launch of the new Remediation Program.

This is an enhanced version of the existing Probation Program. It provides bespoke solutions for factories based on their needs, challenges and capabilities. It also aims to elevate suppliers’ performance on social compliance management, reduce the number of audits needed, and empower them to permanently resolve challenging issues through effective technical support. Over 90% of factories that completed the Remediation Program have successfully rectified their non-compliances.

We also reviewed our termination policy in 2020. Retaining the ultimate sanction programme termination - is important for the credibility of our programme, but it should be used only as a last resort. It is far better that a factory remains with IETP and is supported in its efforts to improve. Buyers can easily check the status of their factories through our Connect platform.

Continuing our commitment to worker wellbeing Toy World recently published an update on our Family Friendly Spaces programme, which

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enables children and parents to spend time together during the school holidays. Despite Covid-19, I am delighted that the programme continued in 2020. Supporting workers beyond the basic expectations of most compliance programmes has been a valued development of IETP’s work and is now a core element of what we do. These programmes deliver positive impacts directly to children and their parents, and also to the factories and their buyers. Improvements in worker attraction and retention, and reduced quality issues, deliver economic business benefits and provide a stable and motivated workforce.

You can read more about our ambition to do more in 2021 in our 5 Year Impact Report, which is available on our website.

Looking forward I think we are all looking forward to 2021.

Hopes of an effective and accessible Covid-19 vaccine are high, important events should be back on the calendar, and the prospect of seeing family, friends and colleagues again in person is a bit nearer to a reality – we hope!

At IETP, the team and I are committed to building on the achievements of 2020. We will continue to grow participation in our programmes globally, expand our category coverage, and deliver new services to meet your needs. As a not-for-profit, our commitment to responsible investment continues, as well as to always deliver on the needs of those we serve; the workers, the factories and the buyers.

I’d like to wish all readers a successful Christmas sales period, happy holidays, and my very best wishes for the year ahead. I look forward to working with you all.

To find out more, visit www.ethicaltoyprogram.org or email us - info@ethicaltoyprogram.org

Allegedly

A few people got very excited recently when a random tweet suggested that Woolworths might be making a comeback. Quite a few media operations got taken in – perhaps because it wasn’t April 1st, it didn’t occur to them that the whole thing might be one giant hoax? To be fair, the signs were there for all to see: Very owns the Woolworths name, why on earth would it license it out to a business it had no control over, yet alone one which was proposing opening only “2 or 3 stores.” Perhaps the clincher was that the post misspelt the Woolworths name – not once, but twice in a single tweet. I appreciate that people are keen to read some good news at the moment, and there is an abiding fondness for Woolworths – even after all these years, it still has a place in the nation’s heart. But the world has moved on, perhaps we should celebrate what we have - there are many fine toy retailers which the kids of today will reminisce about in decades to come. Anyway, you wouldn’t even want to nick the pic’n’mix at the moment, when you have no idea who has been diving in before you. Let it go people…

It has been confirmed that most standalone Argos stores will effectively be phased out over the next four years, with 420 earmarked for closure

by March 2024. Overall, 3500 jobs will be lost at Sainsbury’s, which is a huge shame, although Argos’ strong performance during lockdown – when sales increased despite stores being closed - suggests that the store estate is no longer a key driver of Argos sales, making the move somewhat inevitable. Argos wasn’t the only retail operation to announce the loss of a large number of jobs last month: John Lewis announced that it will be making 1500 head office staff redundant - although I am going to say what many of you are thinking… if they are letting that many staff go, how many people did they have working there in the first place…

Sainsbury’s made headlines for a second time last month, after unveiling generous dividends would be paid to shareholders, after the retailer had pocketed £230million in business rates relief. The combined value of the final and interim dividend was…. you guessed it, just over £230million. And there you have the intrinsic flaw in the system laid bare in all its glory…

Global toy show organisers have already started to firm up dates for their 2022 shows. The London, Nuremberg and New York Toy Fairs will be returning to their traditional January / February slots in 2022, although there is a potential twist with Nuremberg; for 2022, the Spielwarenmesse is seriously considering moving the show forward a day, so that it will run from Tuesday – Saturday rather than Wednesday-Sunday. Assuming the proposed change is approved by the regulatory board, I suspect it will find favour with the majority of UK and international exhibitors and visitors. The scheduled dates would see London take place from 25th – 27th January, while Nuremberg would run from 1st-5th February. The new date configuration would mean that there would be one less day between the two shows, but this would still give exhibitors and visitors sufficient time between the events to avoid any undue inconvenience…

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Meanwhile, the postponed 2021 Nuremberg Toy Fair has been penciled in for 20th-24th July. There has been plenty of lively debate about the new date on our social media feeds – inevitably, some people are in favour, while others have reservations about the effectiveness of a toy fair in the summer months. Indeed, it will be interesting to see how it all pans out with each of the postponed toy shows (a quick recap - Hong Kong Toy Fair has moved to a proposed date at the end of April, while New York has optioned a date at the start of May). Naturally, the first major hurdle is whether the prevailing virus situation allows any of the events to go ahead – should that hurdle be cleared, we can debate the respective merits of the new timeslots to our hearts’ content…

By contrast, the London Toy Fair has joined the Australian Toy Fair in skipping a year and going straight to 2022. In the case of the BTHA, it has also declined to organise a digital event to compensate.

There has been a bit of low-level grumbling about that, but I can completely see why the BTHA has chosen that course. We’re all replacing physical meetings with digital ones, but what is the role of a toy association or exhibition organiser in facilitating these meetings…can’t they just as easily be arranged directly between buyers and sellers? Setting up a brand new digital event would presumably involve considerable investment in cash and peoplepower terms, and there is no way to amortise the investment - money, time or resources - across multiple events, as Festival of Licensing organizer Informa did this autumn. In my humble opinion, the BTHA has done the sensible thing and left it to suppliers to sort out their own retail zoom meetings. Admittedly, I feel for new or smaller players which don’t necessarily have the same established retail relationships – the shows offer them a valuable platform, and they may potentially find it harder to secure digital meetings. But on balance, I believe the BTHA is right to focus on what it does best…

Many specialist retailers have sensibly turned to e-commerce during lockdowns, yet Amazon has recently been hit with anti-trust charges, after being accused of systematically collecting data from independent companies and vendors and using it to gain an edge over them. The only surprise is that it took EU regulators two years to come to this conclusion – I would have thought it fell under the ‘blindingly obvious’ category of things Amazon has been up to, although I should probably point out that Amazon has denied any wrongdoing, insisting that “no firm cares more for small businesses.” This comment prompted some choice replies on my LinkedIn feed – I particularly liked the observation about Amazon levying “baseless fines” on its vendors which have to be fought on an individual case-by-case basis (one small company owner claimed she had successfully won 50 cases in the last few weeks alone!). Not the way companies generally treat customers they “care” about, surely?

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM THE TOY WORLD TEAM

disclaimer – picture taken in less socially distanced times

We wish you all a happy (and safe) festive season.

Thank you for your amazing support in this most unusual year – it has been truly appreciated.

Roll on 202 20211 – here’s to a year to remember…for all the right reasons.