From the Publisher

A belated Happy New Year to everyone in – or associated with – the toy community. I hope you all had a marvellous Christmas, that your batteries were well and truly recharged over the festive season, and you are ready for whatever 2025 might throw at us. Judging by the events of the first few weeks of 2025, it certainly looks like we are in for another quiet one (not)….!

Here at Toy World, we fully embraced the ‘New Year, fresh start’ mantra this year – we moved into our new office on 2nd January. We’re only just down the road from our previous home – the new address can be found on the Contents page. Thankfully we managed to get ourselves settled in before the madness of Toy Fair Season kicked in – and by the time you receive this issue, the shows will be in full swing.

To give everyone a little extra lift going into Toy Fair Season, there was some encouraging news from Circana, which I’m sure you will know all about if you subscribe to their data reports. The topline – and very welcome - news is that the widely anticipated late festive sales surge did indeed materialize here in the UK. According to Circana, Week 52 toy sales (including the three days before Christmas) grew by a whopping +51%, helping the overall December number to hit +5%, making it the best performing month of the year. Unfortunately, the slow sales in January, October and November still meant that as a whole, 2024 was down -3.7% in value – but I think we all saw that coming. Thank goodness the Week 52 figures mitigated the decline significantly.

Of course, within those over-arching numbers, there were undoubtedly winners and losers – and given the year we had, I suspect some of the swings might be quite brutal. Nevertheless, I am going to stick with the perspective that it could have been a whole lot worse, were it not for the big finish that is being reported. Christmas 2024 certainly went down to the wire, and it tested the nerves and resolve of every supplier and retailer, but at least it seems to have come good in the end. All things considered, I’m seeing the glass as half-full rather than halfempty.

So now, it’s onwards and upwards as we dive headfirst into 2025. Whatever happened last year is in the past. We can only look forward towards next Christmas, as the selection process starts all over again. And this year, more than ever, I believe it’s going to be important for retailers of all sizes to differentiate and find lines that are not stocked by everyone else. Hopefully we can help to bring a host of fresh ideas and opportunities to your attention over the coming months, as we start to share all

the fantastic new lines we’ve seen in London and Nuremberg. This issue also takes a look at the shows taking place in the second half of Toy Fair Season – Spring Fair and the New York Toy Fair. Both events have their place in the calendar: Spring Fair offers retail buyers the chance to see some different suppliers, many of which operate outside of the mainstream toy channel. With these companies often offering a more generous margin than the larger toy companies, unearthing a gem or two at the NEC certainly helps to balance the overall margin mix. And then, right at the end of February, the New York Toy Fair brings the early year show season to a close. This year, the show returns to its New York heartland after skipping 2024 – and it also returns to Q1, after a brief flirtation with a Q4 event back in 2023.

With the opening of the new toy building in El Segundo later this summer, the US Toy Association has clearly decided that, moving forward, the best place for a Q4 event is Los Angeles rather than New York. I guess the ‘if you can’t beat them, join them’ approach won out in the end, after several years of debate over the optimal strategy for the US trade show landscape.

It will certainly be interesting to see where this leaves New York in future, but for now, our trip to the Big Apple will bring Toy Fair Season 2025 to a close. Prior to that, the Toy World team will be heading to Birmingham for Spring Fair. For inspiration on which stands to check out when you get to the show, you can read our special preview of the Kids, Toys & Play sector, which starts on page 54.

And once all of these shows are done and dusted, retailers’ selections will subsequently be fine-tuned and firmed up over the coming months. Toy World will carry on sharing details of the most exciting new product launches while selections are being finalised, so suppliers can continue to showcase their hottest new introductions and keep them front of mind with buyers when all of the shows are in the rear-view mirror.

If you want to catch up with the Toy World team at either Spring Fair or the New York Toy Fair, feel free to drop us a line – our email addresses are on the Contents page, and I am sure we can squeeze a few more meetings into our busy schedules at both events.

The next issue of Toy World will be published at the start of March, when selections will be in full swing, and many of the key decisions will be in the process of getting locked down. In the meantime, keep an eye on our website and newsflash service for all the latest news and announcements from the shows.