Toyworld aug 2015

August 2015 volume 4 issue 11

August 2015 volume 4 issue 11

The business magazine with a passion for toys

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The Team...

CONTENTS August 2015 volume 4 issue 11

John Baulch

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

Emily Ansell Elfer

30 Stationery

42 Wooden toys

Deputy Editor emily@toyworldmag.co.uk 01442 502 407

Daniel Rich

Editorial Assistant daniel@toyworldmag.co.uk 01442 502 406

News

Opinion

Features

05 From the Publisher

20 NPD Column

28 Retail Profile: Hamleys

08 News

22 Lutz Muller Column

30 Stationery

16 Marketing World

25 Talking Shop

40 Company profile: KD UK

18 Licensing world

38 Touching Base

42 Wooden toys

50 Viewpoint

52 Science and nature toys

82 Allegedly

61 Retail Profile: Argos 62 Plush

Mark Austin

Advertisement Manager mark@toyworldmag.co.uk 01442 502 405

74 Autumn Fair Preview

Contributors David Ripley | Jim Hawker | Mark Buschhaus | Stephen Barnes | The NPD Group

Graeme Thomas

Production Manager graeme@toyworldmag.co.uk 07792 889 919

52 Science and nature toys

62 Plush

Anita Baulch

Circulation Manager anita@toyworldmag.co.uk 01923 711 439

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T from the publisher

John Baulch - @Baulchtweet

he year is rushing past at its usual rate of knots.

As I write this column, suppliers and retailers alike are poring over the newly-released Argos catalogue; spring summer previews have commenced in showrooms across the country; major retailers have started heavily discounting outdoor toys and I’ve just been watching footage of Philip Schofield being hit in the face with a cream pie in the name of promoting toys. Yes, it’s that time of the year when we cross the Rubicon and leave the gentle waters of the first two quarters behind for a full-on, headlong rush towards Christmas.

This month’s NPD’s column reviews the toy market’s performance in the first half of the year and - spoiler alert- the good news is that the numbers are better than anticipated so far. Even more encouragingly, eight of the eleven supercategories are showing an increase, and on the retail side, the growth is reported to be broadly the same across all channels- grocers, specialists and other retailers. So far, so good then. And what’s more, this data doesn’t include sales of Minions-related product and we still have the eagerly-anticipated Star Wars movie to come at the tail end of the year. So everyone in the toy trade is brimming with positivity? Well, sort of.

As ever, things are not quite as black and white as it may at first seem. Take the Minions movie as a prime example: after NPD reported that sales of Minions merchandise had overtaken Frozen to make it the number one licensed property in the UK, you’d think that toy retailers would have been overjoyed, running round their shops shouting ‘banana’ or something unintelligible. In fairness some probably were (if so, we’d very much like to see video evidence please), but judging by a few phone calls and emails we received at Toy World towers, others were a tad disappointed. The cause of their frustration was a Tesco promotion which wiped 33% off the price of their entire range of Minions products (not just the ones specially bought in to be discounted). The fact the promotion took place on the day the film was launched only seemed to exacerbate the situation. And it wasn’t just Tesco: a few days later an email popped into my inbox offering 50% off Minions toys at The Entertainer, although at least the offer was more selective on this occasion.

It’s no secret that the British public likes a deal, and NPD has previously documented just how large a percentage of toys are sold on promotion. But the fact that huge discounts are being offered so soon in the selling cycle, when demand is presumably at its peak, seems a little defeatist to me. According to some of the specialists that contacted me to vent their spleen, the same thing apparently happened when the Avengers movie was released a few months ago, although on that occasion it was not just a single retailer, but a number of the majors which chose to aggressively price promote the merchandise.

One prominent independent retailer even suggested that he would largely be steering clear of what he termed the ‘mega licences’ going forward, as he felt he just couldn’t compete with other retailers giving product away to artificially boost their market share (let’s face it, anyone can give stuff away on the cheap, as we know only too well….). I’m certainly not suggesting that these promotions aren’t successful and popular with consumers, just questioning whether it would have at least been sensible to wait a few weeks. Would parents really have refused to buy a £2.99 Minions blind bag for their child unless it was reduced to £1.99?

After I touched on this subject in my Friday Blog a few weeks ago, I received a huge amount of feedback (clearly it struck a chord….or perhaps touched a nerve), with most respondents agreeing that knocking 33% off at the peak selling period was at best a questionable tactic. NPD got in touch to say that they’ve also questioned the need to promote so early in the past, but there was sadly no suggestion that any retailers had been interested in engaging in the debate with them.

The question remains as to whether this was a tactic designed to drive sales in what is generally considered to be an off-peak season for toys, or whether this approach will return in the run-up to Christmas, especially on Star Wars merchandise. And if this does become the norm, especially with high-profile movie licences, one wonders what impact it will have on the ordering strategies of specialist and independent retailers moving forward. It’s definitely a situation worth keeping an eye on.

In the meantime, enjoy the summer and let’s hope that the encouraging performance of the first half of 2015 is replicated at the business end of the year.

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BTHA presents Lifetime Achievement Award to Gary Grant

The British Toy & Hobby Association has presented a Lifetime Achievement Award to Gary Grant, CEO of The Entertainer toy retail chain. The presentation was made on 24th June at the UK Toy Industry Day at Great Fosters Hotel. Inaugurated in 1996, the BTHA Lifetime Achievement Award is presented in exceptional circumstances. It is awarded to individuals who have made a truly outstanding and significant contribution to the toy industry.

“Gary’s contribution to the toy industry has been hugely significant. His personal drive and energy have combined with a tenacious ambition to lead The Entertainer to become a recognised name across our high streets”, said Kevin Jones, BTHA president.

“Gary has been a major supporter of the industry’s Toy Trust charity from the very early days, has placed family values at the forefront of his life and reflected them through the values in the business and has made a tangible difference to the face of the toy industry.”

Gary’s career in the toy industry began in 1981 when he bought his first toy shop in Amersham, Buckinghamshire, with his wife Catherine. His early business success has grown from buying and selling skateboard parts during the skateboard boom of the 1970s. Today his business now incorporates more than 100 stores in the UK and abroad.

Gary’s philanthropic approach to business results in The Entertainer giving 10% of its profits back to children’s charities; in 2014 alone The Entertainer raised more than £1,000,000 for charities associated with children and families.

As well as his success in the commercial sphere he has also served as chairman of the retail industry body, the Toy Retailers Association. He served for two terms in 20012003 and later in 2007-2010, and also as president during 2004-2006. Gary remains an industry spokesperson and also chairs the steering committee for Dream Toys.

Gary is married to Catherine, who is also a director at The Entertainer, and together they have four children – Duncan, Stuart, Anna and Alastair. Duncan and Stuart are also directors of the business.

Gary commented: “To receive this award is a great honour, I’d like to acknowledge and thank the many staff who have invested their careers in building The Entertainer.

Also, the many suppliers who have endlessly supported and encouraged me. I am proud to be part of the industry’s achievements over three decades in bringing joy, fun and excitement to millions of children.”

Market & Distribute Quality Brands

Cartamundi to buy Hasbro’s games manufacturing facilities

A letter of intent has been signed to sell Hasbro’s games manufacturing locations in East Longmeadow, Massachusetts and Waterford, Ireland to the Cartamundi Group.

Under the terms of the agreement, Cartamundi will continue to employ all regular manufacturing and distribution employees located in East Longmeadow and Waterford on comparable terms.

Hasbro will continue to invest resources in areas that will maximize the value of the company’s brands globally, including in design, development, storytelling, sales and marketing.

Duncan Billing, EVP, chief global operations and business development officer, said: “We will continue to focus on global brand building. Cartamundi not only has a deep legacy in manufacturing but shares similar values with Hasbro. In addition to continuing to manufacture Hasbro board games, the factories will now be available to Cartamundi’s other customers, thus driving additional volume and supporting future growth.

Chris Van Doorslaer, CEO, Cartamundi, said: “We are very pleased to have signed a letter of intent with Hasbro for the acquisition of these state-of-the-art facilities. We consider this to be a milestone in the history of our company. We welcome Hasbro’s work force to our team and we look forward to continuing to manufacture Hasbro games at East Longmeadow and Waterford while also adding volume from both our current and new global customers.”

The proposed transaction includes all buildings, land and equipment located at both sites. It is anticipated that the transaction, which is subject to the signing of definitive agreements and the satisfaction of specified closing conditions, will close in the third quarter of 2015.

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IMC Toys expands York premises

Based in the outskirts of York, IMC Toys has confirmed it will expand its existing office this summer by an additional 1500sq.ft, taking over an adjacent building.

A large investment will be made to renovate all the office space and create a new showroom.

Terry Crew, managing director, said: “We’ve grown rapidly in the past few years and this is a necessary step forward for the business. The future of IMC Toys is bright and I am looking forward to welcoming customers to our new showroom/office for the AW16 previews.”

This announcement comes on the back of IMC Toy’s recent success with Club Petz and its partnership with Disney on the new IPS property, Miles from Tomorrow.

The correspondence address will remain the same for IMC Toys.

Rubie’s acquires Mask-arade

Rubie’s has announced the acquisition of Mask-arade from its owners Ray Duffy, Dean Walton and Chris O’Nyan.

The deal sees Mask-arade join the Rubie’s group of companies, with Ray remaining with the company as commercial director and Dean and Chris leaving the company with immediate effect.

Commenting on the acquisition, Chris Isitt, Rubie’s vice-president EMEA, said: “We’re thrilled to have Mask-arade join the Rubie’s family. This is a great company that has really made a niche for itself. We look forward to helping the Mask-arade brand achieve its potential both in the UK and across the rest of the world. It’s great that Ray has agreed to stay on to drive this mission; we also acknowledge the huge contributions that Dean and Chris have made from the start in establishing the business with Ray and creating the demand with their PR.”

Midco Toys reveals alternative top 10 Christmas toys Flying Toys unveils new Parrot MiniDrones range

Flying Toys directors David and Janine Rawlins have announced that a new generation of Parrot MiniDrones are arriving in August.

Following the success of the first series of Parrot MiniDrones, the UK distributor expects the new collection of 13 products to prove popular.

The toys are piloted with a smartphone or tablet via the FreeFlight 3 application. They are compatible with both iOS and Android devices and developed with additional new capabilities.

The Airborne Cargo Drones have been customised to carry a toy pilot and can transport miniature freight.

The Airborne Night Drones include powerful white LED lights activated from the FreeFlight 3 app. During night patrols, the pilot can adjust the intensity of the headlights and send signals.

The Jumping Race Drones are equipped with two high performance brushless electric motors and a pair of big wide wheels. They can reach up to 8 mph by using Boost Mode, which is accessed through the FreeFlight 3 app.

Children can enter the dark with the Jumping Night Drones which can see in the dark when its powerful LED lights are activated. It can send light signals and take complete video reports, even in dark areas.

The Hydrofoil Drones are hybrid robots which work both in the air and water. Thanks to the four propellers of the MiniDrone, the Hydrofoil slides through the water and stays about 50cms above the surface. As the water resistance is reduced, the Hydrofoil can reach a maximum speed of 5.4 knots (6 mph) and turn in a flash.

For further details call David Rawlins on 01702 295110, or visit www. flyingtoys.com

Midco owner Dave Middleton has announced his own Christmas top 10 list as an independent’s alternative to recent lists released by major accounts.

Dave said: “We will be stocking all the items on Argos’ list but, as an independent store, I see our list being completely different to theirs. Many of the lines mentioned cost more than £30 and, personally, I don’t feel these will be the volume drivers over Christmas. We are noticing this year that money is tight with consumers and, as an independent, our average spend is around £11, this increases to £18 over the holiday period.”

The Midco Christmas list includes: • Tube Heroes Action Figures (Jazwares).

• Shopkins Series 4 12-pack (Flair).

• Star Wars Episode 7 Funko Pop figures (Underground Toys).

• Thunderbirds vehicle superset (Vivid Imaginations).

• Paw Patrol vehicle assortment (Spinmaster).

• Twirly Woo Plush (Golden Bear).

• Yummy Nummies Soda Shopper (Character Options).

• Lego 21120 Snow Hideout (Lego).

• Bing Plush assortment (Mattel).

• Minions Talking Bob (Thinkway).

Toy World 10

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Brainstorm plans August TV for bubble line

FoameeZ is now in stock at Brainstorm and will be launched with a new TVC commencing in August.

The FoameeZ animal bubble blowers create trails of foaming bubbles when children blow through the tube. The bubbles come bursting out of the animal’s mouth and create a foamy chain that youngsters can catch and hold. The bubble pot can be replaced using standard, off the shelf replacements.

Three different animal heads are available: Hippo, Rhino and Elephant and are supplied with a free CDU. As well as the TV advert, the product will be supported with PR, in-store marketing and social media campaigns.

Arklu announces internal distribution for Lottie brand

Arklu has announced that it will be taking on the distribution of its Lottie Brand in the UK, Ireland, France, Belgium, Holland and Luxembourg.

The company has recently hired its own internal sales team, replacing Marbel which formerly managed UK/ Eire distribution.

Since the initial launch in August 2012, Lottie dolls are now on sale in over 30 countries via a network of 16 distribution partners. Arklu has recently doubled its office space, and hired a number of new sales staff as well as appointing sales reps/agents to cover key accounts and independent retailers.

This summer Arklu has launched 10 new products, with educational collaborations with TrowelBlazers, The European Space Agency, The Girls Leadership Institute, Action Breaks Silence and Brave Girls Alliance.

Lottie dolls have received 22 international awards including five Oppenheim Portfolio Platinum Awards in the USA. Lottie now sells in over 30 countries.

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VTech’s Toot-Toot range teams up with Tiny Pop VTech has announced a yearlong partnership with Tiny Pop to sponsor its new Tiny Pop Birthdays feature.

Running seven days a week, three times a day, VTech will feature six different creatives all focused around its expanding TootToot range.

The partnership between VTech and Tiny Pop offers a diverse range of programming with titles such as My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic and Care Bears: Welcome to Care-a-Lot. A spokesperson from Sky Media said: “The Tiny Pop Birthdays sponsorship will run for a full year allowing VTech to maintain an on-going dialogue with both its young consumers and their parents. The activity is set to reach over 24% of housewives with children 0-3, that’s 638,000 mums, with each of them mums seeing the campaign an average of nine times. Toot-Toot will be hard to miss.”

Charlotte Drake, senior brand manager, VTech, commented: “It’s great to see that after five years of witnessing sales go from strength to strength the Toot-Toot brand is now big enough to warrant being on TV three times a day every single day of the year. With new additions arriving for autumn/winter we are excited to watch this successful brand continue to grow.”

Monopoly UK and Ireland Championships crowns winner

Natalie Fitzsimons from Saintfield, Northern Ireland, was crowned the Monopoly UK and Ireland Champion at the national final on 19th September at The Shard.

Natalie beat 11 other finalists to win the adult title and will represent the UK and Ireland at the Monopoly World Championships in China in September.

She defeated her husband in the heats and won an hour and a half-long final against three opponents.

Natalie said: “This was the first time I’ve ever played Monopoly in a competitive environment and it was certainly pretty tense at times. I’ve always played with friends and family over the years so have collected a few top tips by playing them but at the end of the day you’ve got to hope the dice is on your side.”

Adult and junior players from across the UK and Ireland competed in regional heats throughout June and July on a specially designed Monopoly bus. 12 adult and 12 junior winners went on to compete in the grand final.

Natalie will face 24 other nations at the Monopoly World Championships. The winner will take home $20,580, the amount of money included in a set of Monopoly.

Thunderbirds 1965 Kickstarter campaign lifts off

To celebrate Thunderbirds’ 50th anniversary, the puppets will be making a return in three new episodes in Thunderbirds 1965, a project created by director Stephen La Rivière.

Thunderbirds 1965 will see the director film Thunderbirds puppets and sets he recreated for the Filmed In Supermarionation documentary, using Supermarionation techniques and using original audio footage to create three new video episodes in the distinctive Thunderbirds style.

The project launched on Kickstarter on Thursday 9th July at 9am. In addition to a DVD/Blu-ray of the finished production, project backers will receive other rewards including a photo-book. This experience will give backers the opportunity to visit the Thunderbirds 1965 production studio and experience the classic filmmaking techniques.

The campaign is aiming to raise £75,000 to fund the first of the three episodes. If the project surpasses this initial target, the remaining episodes will be also produced.

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Bigjigs celebrates 30th anniversary

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This August Bigjigs Toys celebrates its 30th year of trading and with the growth the company has experienced it looks set to continue for many more years to come.

Founded in 1985, the family owned and operated business has come a long way since founders, Liz and Peter Ireland, began selling their very first hand cut puzzles and other simple wooden toys at local craft fairs and country shows. At the time, the limited range of products were hand crafted in the Irelands’ garden shed, packed in the house porch and transported to craft fairs in the family car. Today, the company occupies 40,000 sq ft of warehousing in Kent and supplies a broad customer base worldwide. Thirty employees now manage the design, marketing, sale and delivery of more than 1500 products.

Bigjigs officially became a family business when sons Sam and Tom joined the company during their early twenties, although they’d grown up helping at trade fairs and had been enlisted as toy testers from an early age.

Today, a third generation of Irelands join the ranks, regularly appearing in product photo shoots for packaging and the annual catalogue.

Their success as a family business has been recognised, having been selected as a finalist in the Family Business of the Year category of the 2015 Red Ribbon Awards.

In honour of their 30th trading year, the company has launched a collection of more than 100 new products, including additions to the Bigjigs Rail and Bigjigs Baby sub brands. During its anniversary month it will be running a series of promotions and competitions for trade customers.

Commenting on the company’s plans for the next 30 years, Liz says their goal is: “to continue doing a good job and support the independent retail sector – in products, price, quality and service.”

Clementoni opens new UK showroom Clementoni has announced the opening of a new UK showroom.

The team recently moved into their new office and the showroom is now up and running.

The new address is: Clementoni, Business Environment Wembley No 1 Limited, 1 Olympic Way, Wembley, HA9 0NP. Tel: 020 8782 1143.

Return of the Bratz John Baulch speaks to MGA’s Andrew Laughton about the relaunch of the iconic Bratz brand JB: Why have you chosen to bring Bratz back now?

AL: I think the time is right. It’s not necessarily just about the market or competitor brands; it’s the right time for the brand in a cultural context. We’re not just bringing Bratz back for the sake of it, we’re bringing the brand back in the right way.

JB: What do you see as the key attributes of the Bratz brand?

AL: Bratz has always been about expression, empowerment, creativity, diversity and friendship. And, of course, fashion: one of Isaac’s favourite phrases is “it’s good to look cool.” But kids have definitely changed since the doll was originally released in 2001, and the new range reflects that.

JB: How do you think kids have changed in the past decade?

AL: I think kids are definitely more aware of diversity now than they were back then.

One of the great attributes of Bratz has always been its portrayal and celebration of diversity. I also think that there are stronger role models today, pop stars who change their style frequently, and I think that Bratz reflects that. They’re not just vanilla, they are 23 different varieties.

JB: How will you be targeting this new generation of kids to tell them about the brand?

AL: We’ll be targeting them through the traditional TV route, but also through all the new mediums that have sprung up since the range was first launched, such as Facebook, Netflix, YouTube and Stardoll. We want to reach as broad a range of kids as possible, from 5-13. We’ll be spending a lot of money to drive the re-introduction of the brand. As well as a substantial marketing spend, no expense has been spared in the design process. We’ve used the best quality material, each set has a high piece count and the packaging is of a very high quality too. The whole team behind the relaunch has been of the highest calibre. Isaac has a real passion for this brand, it’s very personal to him: one of the dolls is named after his daughter, so it’s very much his baby.

JB: How do you see Bratz fitting into the 2015 girls’ aisle?

AL: I believe there’s a gap for a fashion-conscious, culturally diverse fashion doll brand. Kids definitely want something a little more fashion-conscious than is currently available. I also think it fills a gap from an age perspective: it’s aimed at older kids than Frozen.

JB: What has the reaction been like from retailers?

AL: I’m delighted to say that we’ve had an extremely favourable response from retailers, I’m hugely grateful to the trade for their support. We’ve got a broad spectrum of retailers on board, from large to small, and we’ll be supporting everyone with stock at the appropriate levels, so everyone gets a piece of the cake.

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JB: Will you be developing a licensing programme for Bratz?

AL: Absolutely. The licensing programme will kick in next year. We’ve already signed up some great partners, and the product will come through in 2016. The licensing programme will complement our core range: we want to manage the brand, not let the brand manage us.

JB: How confident are you that Bratz can replicate the success it enjoyed the first time round?

AL: I think this has is every chance of being something quite special. Bratz is an iconic brand, and it’s still hugely popular: it still had one million followers on Facebook last year, even before the relaunch. When it was originally released, the brand was ahead of its time: now it’s very much for this time.

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newsinbrief Jumbo Games has agreed a new UK licence deal for adult puzzles with ITV Studios Global Entertainment for the period drama series, Poldark. The deal will see Jumbo release a selection of Poldark-themed adult puzzles, starting with a 1,000 pieces puzzle in autumn/winter 2015. Subsequent releases will follow in 2016.

Esdevium’s family game, Colt Express, has clinched this year’s Spiel des Jahres (Game of the Year) award. The awards are judged by a panel of German board game critics looking at releases over the preceding 12 months. In the past, a win has been known to catalyse a jump in global sales of between 300,000 and 500,000 units, in the first year alone.

industry moves The Entertainer has announced the appointments of Mark Whittle as head of buying and merchandising and Mark Campbell as finance director.

Mark Whittle will be working closely with the senior management team reporting directly to Stuart Grant and will have responsibility for all aspects of the buying and merchandising of current and new stores.

He will purchase across all categories and will help Stuart expand the buying team and build structures and processes. He brings his expertise from his role as senior toy buyer at Argos and previously at Tesco where he created and launched the toy brand Carousel.

Meanwhile, new finance director, Mark Campbell will be working closely with the senior management team and have board level responsibility for all aspects of financial management.

Gary Grant, founder and managing director, The Entertainer, said: “His expert knowledge and experience of managing the financial functions within the retail environment will be invaluable in ensuring we continue to deliver an efficient, first class service to our customers in a time of rapid growth.”

Obituary: Derek Morris

Derek Morris, founder of MV Sports and Leisure, passed away on Sunday 5th July.

Derek was born on 15th May 1930 in Birmingham where his father was a local builder and director of Birmingham City Football Club. Derek had a lifelong association with Birmingham City, where he was a supporter and season ticket holder for many years.

Derek was involved in many businesses, most of them linked to the toy industry.

In the 1970s, he started Morris Vulcan manufacturing roller skates in his home town of Solihull. At one time it was producing 3,500 pairs a day. It was also one of the first companies to produce skateboards.

Derek started MV Sports and Leisure in the early 1980s. The company still exists today as part of the Tandem Group. Much of MV’s success was built on character licences such as Barbie, My Little Pony and Thomas the Tank Engine.

Derek organised golf days to support the Roy Castle cancer charity and raised thousands of pounds on each occasion. The events were attended by local celebrities from Birmingham and Coventry City FC as well as the likes of Willy Thorne, Jasper Carrott and former international cricketers.

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Clever Keet and Teksta’s Scorpion head to Gadget Show Live Character Options has confirmed that it will be showcasing the Teksta Scorpion and Little Live Pets Clever Keet at the Gadget Show Live’s Westfield Event.

The Gadget Show Westfield takes place between 23rd October and 1st November in the public atrium of the mall. Open to all visitors, there will be two dozen gadget stands with a number focusing on toy brands and catering specifically for children. Children will be able to see and play with Clever Keet and the new Teksta Scorpion. The 10 day exhibit will host just a few toy brands with a potential audience of 1.2 million.

Jerry Healy, marketing director, commented: “Character considers a range of options when creating its marketing plans for its brands. Consumer shows are an important part of the support for our retailers and by choosing where to exhibit we have found them to be a great way to effectively connect with a large audience. The event will have a huge passing footfall, and with only a few toy brands represented, we are guaranteed a great share of voice. The timing is also perfect for retail, as it covers the October half term; a key buying or decision time for parents.”

Thomas & Friends flies high with Virgin Atlantic Hit Entertainment has announced a global partnership with Virgin Atlantic which will see Thomas & Friends featured across all Virgin Atlantic international routes throughout the month of August.

Families travelling with Virgin Atlantic will be offered Thomas & Friends in-flight packs including activity sheets and Thomas Minis collectible engines to entertain children for the duration of the flight.

Once in the air, passengers will be invited to watch Sodor’s Legend of the Lost Treasure.

Kate Schlomann, VP global brand at Hit Entertainment, commented: “This is a big year for Thomas & Friends. As we celebrate this milestone for the brand, what better way to grow our reach and continue to entertain young audiences than to take Thomas on a new adventure to the skies?”

Further exposure in the air will include a 30-second television spot at the start of all international flights and presence in the in-flight magazine. Visitors to the Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse will also be gifted with Thomas & Friends merchandise.

Meccano and Super Camps build new partnership Meccano has announced a new partnership with leading children’s holiday camp operator Super Camps.

Meccano will feature as part of Super Camps’ A Passion for…. Invention course which will run in more than 50 venues throughout the summer months.

The course will engage small groups to build both independently and collectively and stretch their imaginations.

Those signing up to the week long course will enjoy daily build sessions and receive a free take-home starter set.

Emma Eden, Meccano’s marketing manager, said: “Super Camps’ A Passion For… series offers the perfect opportunity to reach and engage with a core group of children who already know they will enjoy the challenge of Meccano. We will extend the programme in autumn to incorporate Meccano’s new personal robot Meccanoid G15 KS, which will introduce programming skills and further creative challenges.

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The Irish Fairy Door Company partners with Gulliver’s Theme Parks The Irish Fairy Door Company is joining forces with Gulliver’s Theme Parks to create a magical woodland fairy trail in Milton Keynes.

The Whispering Woods interactive fairy trail opened in July and is the latest family attraction at Gulliver’s, giving young visitors the opportunity to discover a series of handmade wooden Irish Fairy Doors. Smartphone technology will allow guests to find out all about the individual fairies who live behind each door as they explore the trail. Visitors will also be able to purchase their own Irish Fairy Door.

Niamh Sherwin-Barry, director at The Irish Fairy Door Company, commented: “We’re delighted that our first UK fairy trail is coming to life at Gulliver’s. We’ve worked closely with the theme park to bring this new attraction to life – even using Gully Mouse to voice the specially crafted stories of each fairy living behind the fairy doors. We’re proud of the interactive content, which visitors can access from their smartphones whilst enjoying the trail, and we know that our beautiful doors will open up a brand new world of imagination for parent and child alike.”

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Lego Dimensions adds Doctor Who

Lego Dimensions, the new toys-to-life game from Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, now features Doctor Who within its variety of brand mash ups.

The entertainment experience merges physical Lego brick building with digital gameplay and launches in the UK on 29th September.

Batman, Gandalf and Wyldstyle will team up with Doctor Who, The Simpsons, Ghostbusters, Jurassic World, Back to the Future and many more fan favourites in a mission to thwart Lord Vortech’s evil plan to collide all dimensions into one.

The Lego Dimensions Starter Pack includes three Doctor Who levels, where players can battle the Daleks and Cybermen, complete with a cameo from the Twelfth Doctor. From November, gamers will be able to purchase an additional Doctor Who pack enabling them to play as the Doctor.

Lego Dimensions will be available for Xbox One, the all-in one games and entertainment system from Microsoft and the Xbox 360 games and entertainment system from Microsoft, PlayStation4 and PlayStation3 computer entertainment systems and the Wii U system from Nintendo.

Spider-Man joins Lego Juniors Marvel’s Spider-Man joins the Lego Juniors line-up as the brand launches three new sets for summer.

With the Spider-Man Hideout Set, children can help the superhero defend his hideout against an aerial assault from the evil Green Goblin. The set comes with an easy to build hideout with slide, a helicopter featuring a turning rotor and opening cockpit, Green Goblin’s air glider and a police motorbike. All three minifigures come equipped with their own set of accessories: Spider-Man’s web and string, Green Goblin’s glider and the police officer accompanied with traffic lights and newspaper stacks to knock over.

The final two new Lego Junior sets are The Family House and the Road Work Truck.

Lego Juniors brand manager, Ombeline Marcus, commented: “The cool themes of these new sets are sure to appeal to children, parents and gift givers alike. As with the existing Lego Juniors collection, they are designed to provide a positive first experience of Lego which gives them confidence in building, driving early recruitment in to the brand and ensuring builders have a smooth transition through the Lego lifecycle.”

Fisher-Price named licensee for CBeebies’ Go Jetters

BBC Worldwide has announced the appointment of Fisher-Price as global master toy licensee for new animated preschool series Go Jetters.

Marcus Arthur, MD UK and ANZ, BBC Worldwide, said: “This global deal with Fisher-Price demonstrates our commitment to working with world-class partners to develop toys that enhance children’s experiences of their favourite shows. We know there’s a strong international appetite for animation and are looking forward to delivering a successful licensing programme.”

The Fisher-Price product line will debut in autumn/winter 2016 in the UK with the roll-out in other markets including the US. Under the multi-year master toy licence, Fisher-Price has global rights to develop pre-school toys including electronic and non-electronic plastic figurines, vehicles, playsets and standard plush.

Susie Lecker, SVP global marketing and design, said: “We’re happy to be partnering with BBC once again to bring the content of Go Jetters to life through playtime with our toys. Particularly exciting to us is the strong early childhood development component we can tuck into our toys encouraging social, emotional and cognitive skill building as children have fun exploring.”

The series is due to air in autumn 2015.

Monopoly to hit the big screen

Hasbro has announced plans to translate its Monopoly board game into a film.

While no release date has yet been decided, it has been confirmed that the screenplay will be written by Academy Award nominated writer Andrew Niccol who drew attention after writing The Truman Show.

The film is said to be co-produced by Hasbro and Lionsgate Entertainment.

It will follow the story of a boy from Baltic Avenue, which is the lowest valued property in the American version of the game. The boy will try to make a fortune using chance and community cards while trying to escape being jailed.

Since the board game was first sold in 1930s, it has become one of the most popular games, locally licensed in 103 countries and available in over 37 languages.

Licensing World 18

DC Thomson and Gibsons reveal The Beano Past and Present Jigsaw

Made in the UK on 100% recycled board, the new The Beano Past and Present 1,000 piece jigsaw is now available from Amazon.

The classic The Beano comic artwork is blended with a contemporary Dennis the Menace and Gnasher design. This latest addition joins Gibsons’ line of The Beano games including The Beano 1,000pc and Dennis and Gnasher 150pc jigsaw puzzles.

Tim Collins, head of brands at DC Thomson, commented: “Gibsons has very effectively utilised the fantastic selection of artwork we have on offer and created a unique twist on a classic puzzle. As we approach the key Christmas gift buying season, we’re confident this latest addition to their range will be a big hit among The Beano fans of all ages.”

Kate Armitage, marketing director at Gibsons, added: “The Beano is a fun and iconic brand that boasts high levels of consumer awareness and crossgenerational appeal. Our new Past and Present jigsaw has been designed to capture the spirt of the brand across the years and with lots of early positive indicators from retailers, we definitely think we have a winning product on our hands.”

Sakar signs Bratz electronics

Sakar International has announced a global licensing agreement to develop a new collection of branded electronics for MGA Entertainment’s Bratz fashion-doll line.

The agreement is part of an upcoming makeover of the Bratz franchise spanning updated doll personalities as well as a broad selection of branded toys, content and consumer products.

Sakar is developing multiple SKUs ranging from earbuds, headphones and bluetooth speakers to action cams, smartphone cases, flash drives, password diaries, power banks, walkie talkies and a portable sing-a-long karaoke device moulded to resemble the Bratz doll lips.

Juli Boylan, global head of licensing, MGA Entertainment, said: “Our new Bratz rollout is going to be a large-scale campaign that will not only update the Bratz doll family but also seed the market with a full spectrum of licensed products and drive exposure through both traditional and online channels. Our licence partners are going to play a pivotal role in the effort. Sakar’s extensive experience with tween brands, specialisation in tween electronics, and creative design ideas make them a strong choice for the electronics component of the campaign.”

Liza Abrams, Sakar VP of Licensing, added: “Young girls have embraced Bratz dolls for years, and this makeover promises to rekindle interest in the brand with its focus on fashion self-expression, individual style and the interests of today’s tweens. It has all the elements for a successful reboot that will also drive demand for licensed products in multiple categories.”

Sakar’s branded Bratz products are expected to hit store shelves next spring.

Collectible Robotic Edition Indominus Rex hits retail

The Collectible Robotic Edition Indominus Rex, from the Jurassic World movie, joins the Zoomer line from Spin Master.

Indominus Rex uses True Balance Technology, has IR nose sensors, can sense hands and responds to movements. It comes complete with a customised Jurassic World remote control and allows the user to programme modes, record combo moves and direct its actions. It features sounds from the Jurassic World film and colour-changing eyes.

Each Collectible Robotic Edition comes with a numbered certificate of authenticity. The Collectible Robotic Edition Zoomer Dino Indominus Rex will be available from August.

Turner and Warner Bros. sign multi-series deal

Turner Broadcasting and Warner Bros. have announced a global agreement for the recently rebranded Boomerang network.

The agreement, which represents the first-ever original content being developed exclusively for Boomerang, includes nearly 450 half-hours of programming from Warner Bros. Animation. The content will premiere on all Boomerang channels worldwide and on some Cartoon Network channels, along with potential crossover with Turner Broadcasting’s Pogo, Boing, Toonami and Cartoon Network (U.S.) The partnership also extends Boomerang’s access to the classic animation portfolio from the Hanna-Barbera, MGM and Warner Bros.

Animation collection, a total of 3,500 titles. Boomerang’s on-air schedule will continue to feature favourites such as Tom and Jerry, Looney Tunes and Scooby-Doo. Premiering this autumn will be the first of Boomerang’s new original series from Warner Bros. Animation – Bunnicula is an all-new animated comedy series based on the bestselling children’s book of the same name.

Be Cool Scooby Doo! is an all-new 22-minute animated comedy series featuring the Scooby gang, back with a modern comedic twist. In Wabbit – A Looney Tunes Production, Bugs Bunny is starring in all-new shorts.

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NPD Column Half-term report The NPD Group’s Jez Fraser-Hook looks at the UK toy market’s performance in the first half of the year.

T

he mid year point has now been passed, meaning we are officially on the countdown to Christmas.

Approximately 40% of the value sales of toys for the year have by now been put through the tills, and everyone is feverishly gearing up for a galactic peak season, which is sure to deliver.

It has been a strong year so far for sales, but can we predict the full year performance given the most important sales months are yet to come? A review of the first six months, from The NPD Groups POS Retail Sales data, can give an indication of what to expect.

Given the positive impact of loom bands, World Cup stickers, a lovely long period of good weather early last year, and the LEGO movie, in both value sales and unit sales, the prospect for 2015 was to be a slow start. Varying forecasts had been voiced throughout the start of the year commenting on low growth expectations for the year, due to the aforementioned, picking up through the summer with the Minions film, concluding with Star Wars at the end of the year.

In fact, it is still debatable whether Star Wars sales will impact primarily 2015, 2016 or both years.

At present, for the period of January to June, the Toy market is +4% ahead of value sales in the same period in 2014, representing +£31M (source NPD Toys Retail Panel). A very respectable number given World Cup stickers and early sales of Loom bands contributed over £15M to the figures last year.

Many sectors of the market (8 of the 11 NPD supercategories), and an extensive array of manufacturers have contributed to this growth, demonstrating a real strength in the range of products from licensed to branded, appealing to a broad consumer group. It is refreshing to see such performance in the industry when children’s time and money is being increasingly challenged by a broader spectrum of activities outside of toys. On top of this the trend is very similar between the Grocers and Specialists and Other retailers.

In finer detail, in the first 6 months of the year sales of Frozen product has generated +£20M additional sales to the market, with sales averaging £1M per

week. Although value has slowed in recent weeks Toy Market Growth it is likely to pick up Predicted +3% market growth for full year looking conservative again with new product against current +4% trend. releases and the natural peak season boost. The only other properties to achieve the number one position on a weekly basis this year have been Little £ Sales Tikes and Despicable Me/ Growth Minions, knocking Frozen off the top spot in the last four weeks for June.

The Action Figures category has also had a strong year with +£14M being added to the Source: NPD UK Toys Retail Tracking YTD June 2015 £52M category at half 1 The NPD Group, Inc. | Proprietary and Confidential year point, and with Despicable Me/Minions, product sales in the above numbers, Star Wars is still to Thunderbirds and Star Wars sales still to take hold, it is come, Frozen is still a hit with children, and there are likely the category will remain in strong growth given plenty of new product releases launching now, many of the early positive drive from Transformers, Avengers which have strong expectations and a handful already and Minecraft, amongst others. a focus in retailers’ top 10 published lists.

To comment on the broad range of product selling What are your thoughts? We, and Toy World would well in the first half or the year, within the top 15 value love to hear your thoughts on expected growth, or ranked items, prices range from £1 with Match Attax decline, and supporting evidence. Join the debate via cards to £78 with Mookie’s Smart Trike. Nine of the top an email to jez.fraser-hook@npd.com.

15 items are from different manufacturers, and the average price of the top 15 items is £17.

And what of the full year predictions? At NPD’s Toy Fair client breakfast event we predicted that given the new launches and growth from existing ranges, together with decline from the well documented craze of last year, we forecast a +3% growth in value sales for 2015. This figure was met with some nods of heads, a trickle of raised eyebrows, and a few anticipated guffaws.

A +3% growth, however, now looks somewhat conservative as we enter the all-important second half of the year. We’re currently at +4%. There does indeed remain the core Loom band period to overcome, however we’ve only had a couple of weeks of Minions

Jez Fraser-Hook executive director

The NPD Group provides global information and advisory services to drive better business decisions. By combining unique data assets with unmatched industry expertise, we help our clients track their markets, understand consumers and drive profitable growth. Sectors covered include automotive, beauty, entertainment, fashion, food/food service, home, office supplies, sports, technology, toys, video games, and wireless.

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

Toy World 20

Opinion The Construction Toy World – competition is building

By Lutz Muller CEO of Klosters Trading Corporation, a provider of competitive insights in the mass retail space in the USA and Europe.

T

he Construction Toy Category has consistently outgrown the market each year since 2008 and this year looks like more of the same. Obviously, Lego continues to be the 800 lb gorilla and this is very unlikely to change during the remainder of this decade.

There are a number of other contenders vying for the remainder of the market and this article will consider the major ones – how they have been doing, how they are expected to perform over the rest of this year, and what the national buyers at the major toy retailers think of them.

First, the overall The chart below shows the performance of the U.S. toy market – both the Traditional Toy Market as well as the overall toy universe which includes the Hybrids [Skylanders etc] and the Game and Hobby Channel sales:

Source: Klosters Retailer Panel The chart above tells you that Total Traditional Toy Market growth this year in the U.S. is expected to be in the neighbourhood of 2% and the Construction Toy Category of 6%. However, not everybody agrees with these estimates. The Toy Book Issue May/June 2015 quoted NPD as stating that the U.S. Traditional Toy Market grew during the first quarter 2015 by 14% and the Construction Category by the same percentage. This is in fact unlikely. For one, we have not seen growth rates above 10% for the total market in living memory. Secondly, the national buyers I questioned confirmed that their estimate for overall growth for the first quarter was around 4% and for the Construction Toy segment about 7% - numbers which are mirrored by Klosters Retailer Panel metrics. In fact, one national buyer got into trouble with her boss who, having seen these NPD numbers, accused her of losing market share.

there are two new movies in the offing – the Lego Batman film scheduled for release in 2017 and the Lego movie sequel slated for 2018. In addition, Lego has the Star Wars licence and will reap the benefits from the blockbuster “StarWars – The Force Awakens” movie to be released in December. The StarWars licence is just one of the many top notch properties controlled by Lego and there is little doubt that Lego’s current estimated market share of about 75% of the Construction Toy segment will remain locked-in for the remainder of this decade.

The fact that Lego possesses this overpowering market share also poses a dilemma for the company. Once you are this big, you cannot hope to grow by grabbing sales from competitors and there is a limit to which you can drive growth of the category by yourself. Hence, Lego is looking at other toy categories to conquer and the upcoming 2017 Batman movie tells you the direction in which the company is likely to focus.

Buyers believe that Lego has decided to take a leaf out of the Skylanders’ book by invading the Action Figure category. According to Retailer Panel estimates, threequarters of the Skylanders toy sales are made in substitution of traditional Action Figures [and one-quarter from Preschool].

Lego Dimensions is a hybrid product very similar to Skylanders and Disney Infinity. Just like them, Lego Dimensions is played on Playstation, XBox and WII U consoles; requiring a video game, a platform and toy figures. The Lego Dimensions Starter Pack now on pre-order at ToysRus for $99.99 includes the Lego Toy Pad, which allows players to transport Lego minifigures and other Lego objects into the game, bricks to build the Lego Gateway, three Minifigures [Batman, Gandalf from The Lord of the Rings and Wyldstyle from the LEGO Movie] plus the Batmobile. This lineup will be expanded later on with characters from the The Wizard of Oz, Ninjago, Back to the Future and others.

In fact, Dimensions is not the first attempt by Lego to enter the Hybrids category.

The company launched Lego Fusion in the middle of last year. Lego Fusion had one major short coming – the game is only playable on smart phones and tablets and hence it never got traction. The buyers believe that Dimensions is a totally different kettle of fish and will become a major player in the Hybrids field.

Mega This Canadian maker of building blocks at one time challenged Lego for market leadership but these heady days are now only a distant memory. The company finally settled into a second position with a market share that fluctuated between high single and low double digits. The owners, the Bertrand family, finally saw the light and sold the company to Mattel in May last year. In fact, Mattel participated in the construction toy category with its Trio range several years ago but it never took off and was finally withdrawn last year.

Mattel has had a somewhat choppy experience with Mega since then. According to my buyer contacts, Mattel had great plans for new designs and new licences but it quickly ran up against the reality of very high retail inventories left behind by the Bertrands. Mattel basically had two choices – take a major haircut and clear out old inventory or hold back with new initiatives until it had sold out. They chose the latter, but as a consequence sales were much lower than originally anticipated.

Mattel has now begun to phase in their Preschool Mega design featuring the Fisher Price logo. However, this has led to the somewhat odd situation where you have exactly the same product with the old and the new design next to each other on the shelf – as at Target at the end of June:

Lego Lego continues to reign supreme and there is nobody on the horizon who can rationally expect to challenge them for market leadership. The Lego movie last year racked up a box office number of nearly $500 million worldwide and further cemented the hold which the company has on this toy category. Equally importantly,

Toy World 22

In addition, Mattel has now unveiled the new Mega pack design for the Minions license – a design which the buyers consider a vast improvement over the old Mega graphics.

There is little doubt that Mattel is now on course to roll out its original plans for Mega – new IPs [TMNT and Power Rangers for boys, Monsters for girls], new pack design, and vastly increased international presence.

The question is where Mattel will bring its competitive pressure to bear. Lego now has about 75% of the market and Mega about 10%. This leaves 15% of which K’Nex, the most important secondary player, controls about 4%. The remaining 11% is loosely held and vulnerable. The buyers believe that Mattel will in fact not go up against Lego, at least not in the beginning, but rather concentrate on going after the other 15% on the premise that at least two-thirds of that could be low hanging fruit.

K’Nex K’Nex is third in market share after Lego and Mega, holding about 4% of the U.S. Construction Toy segment. In many ways a unique company in that it is the only significant U.S. toy manufacturer to produce virtually all its products in the USA. In addition, its best selling education range is focused not on play per se, but on developing education-driven skills in the science, technology, engineering and math areas with products designed to be incorporated in classroom disciplines.

As an example, the K’NEX Education Intermediate Math & Geometry set is designed to address critical mathematics concepts in the upper elementary school classroom and to provide instructional models that will enhance students’ understanding of important concepts and algorithms. Rods and Connectors and the included teacher’s guide allows teachers to offer students a programme of study that uses hands-on exploration.

The company also hold the licence for Lincoln Logs, a brand that is now nearly 100 years old and which fills a very specific slot within the category.

Because of its niche strategy, K’Nex is somewhat sheltered from competitive pressures and is unlikely to be immediately affected by the Mattel’s efforts to gain more shelf space for Mega.

Kre-O Hasbro had entered the construction toy category with its Built To Rule line released in 2003 under the Transformer and G I Joe licences. Built To Rule never got traction and was finally withdrawn in 2005. Making a new attempt, Hasbro brought out the Kre-O line in late 2011. Since then, Kre-O has had its up and downs – after the Transformer licence, it featured Battleship, then G I Joe, then Star Trek and finally Dungeons and Dragons. The brand had its peak in 2012 with about 8% market share and is now down to less than 1%. Kre-O currently has one SKU on ToysRUs’ shelves but is only available online at Wal-Mart and not at all at Target. Also, Kre-O prices have been significantly reduced at both TRU and Wal-Mart.

There is little doubt that Kre-O would long have been pulled had it not been for the fact that it is Hasbro which is pushing the brand. However, just like Mattel’s Trio, it now appears to be only a matter of time until the brand hits the dust.

Others There is a whole host of other brands competing for shelf space, particularly at ToysRUs. Three companies stand out as being a little more significant than the rest – Erector by Spin Master, GoldieBlox and Lite Brix by Cra-z-art [the former owners of RoseArt who sold out to Mega in 2005]. Between them they have about 6% of the Construction Toy shelf space at Target, Wal-Mart and ToysRus and about 8% market share. Another 3% or so is held by companies such as Nanoblocks, Magformers, Bandai, Eitech etc. sold mainly online. In addition, McFarlane Toys has just signed the Games of Thrones licence for the Construction Toy category and plans to launch the range this Autumn.

With the possible exception of Spin Master’s Erector brand, acquired as part of Meccano in 2013, these companies arguably lack the resources to withstand an aggressive campaign from Mattel to gain shelf space for Mega and the odds are that many of them will hence lose some of the shelf space they now occupy at the major brick-and-mortar retailers.

In summary, we are looking at two major developments over the next few years – one is the expansion of Mega both in the U.S. and internationally, the other is Lego’s invasion of the Action Figure space.

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talking shop Independently soldiering on Toy World’s Daniel Rich speaks to independent retailers about the hot topics of the month. This month retailers talk Lego, Star Wars and how the majors are impacting their businesses.

Dave Middleton Managing director, Midco Toys, Burton-upon-Trent and Derby The first half of the year started strongly until March time, then in April sales began to decline. April, May and June were all tough months. I think lack of new product contributed to this. Shopkins has been strong when stock has been available. Lego as always has been key and trading cards in general have been selling well. Funko Pops seemed to be flavour of the month for the first half, it will be interesting to see how it progresses into the second half.

Thunderbirds has also started strongly.

The biggest challenge we face is the same as every independent and that’s keeping the playing field as even as possible. Too many suppliers are giving into large retailers with promises of large orders and payments for TV commercials and promotions in return for getting an early launch on products. We have seen this across many retailers and many suppliers this year and it’s becoming a real problem. None of this is ever mentioned when companies are selling in either. There seems to be too much pricing activity going on with the majors on products when they’re first launched. Almost every movie released this year has seen promotions on product direct on launch, this is something that we

have not been offered and have trouble competing with.

The thing that gets me excited more than anything is Star Wars. I literally cannot stop thinking about The Force Awakens. I’ve seen the products, some are better than others, some have got it bang on right and others haven’t.

Last year turnover wise was an awesome

year for us. We had Loom Bands that sold like crazy and we also have a lot left. We had Frozen – that stock was really tight – so whenever we had stock we could demand a higher price. We had The Lego Movie, that increased sales on our already bestseller, the movie range of minifigures was awesome. On top of that we had the World Cup stickers which might be a low price

Connectable & Collectable making toys Limited For more information call:

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Toy World 25

point but there were good volumes being sold.

This year Shopkins has been good, Lego and Funko are constant but nothing is setting the world alight. Manufacturers need to excite me again because this year feels like a re-run of previous years - same stuff different series, different year. There hasn’t been a craze like Loom Bands. Loom bands brought people into the shop that I’ve never seen in my entire life. I’ve been here for 13 years and these folks have never walked through the door before or after the Loom craze.

I was surprised by the news of Hasbro not attending the Toy Fair. Its importance to the independent retailers as one of the big three is massive. Mattel haven’t attended either. If Hasbro is not attending this year because of the Nuremberg crossover and it’s successful for them financially I fear they may never return.

June was bad for us this summer, like I said, because of lack of new product I feel but the election didn’t help, people always get a bit uncertain about life during an election. July has started strong, the heatwave means we have sold a lot of pools

and super soakers. New Series 3 Shopkins started awesomely and Thunderbirds the same.

I’ll start ordering for Christmas when the coke advert starts showing on TV because until people hear “holidays are coming,” half of them still think it’s summer. Most of our sales come from December. December is when independents can shine because by that time all the nationals have finished with their promotions and usually have no good stuff left. This Christmas Lego is sure to sell well.

accompanying the new film.

Trade has peaked due to the new product lines such as board games. Minecraft is also doing better because there’s a healthier product margin – there’s no profit to be made when the product margins are low. I always need to be very careful about what I order but a good chunk of people obviously come in for comics. I am very selective about what I stock and order on a case by case basis, it may sound basic but if the shelf is empty I order more stock and if the shelves

are full then I don’t buy more stock.

I wouldn’t say the lack of a craze this year is having an impact on footfall but it helps when there’s a craze. I‘ve done all of the crazes since Pokémon came to the UK in the late 90s. It’s nice when a craze comes along but I wouldn’t say my business relies on them.

I don’t tend to order for Christmas; I really order stock as and when I need it month-bymonth and I always have done. I even order some products on a week-by-week basis.

Matt Booker Owner, Automattic Comics, Corsham, Wiltshire The first half of the year was great in terms of sales. Lego Marvel Super Heroes has sold well, Ninjago and City have also been strong.

I put this down to good quality products and the huge range by Vivid. The computer games on X Box, iPhone, PS4 and movies drive it too. Since I was young I’ve loved Lego - I went to Denmark, which is where Lego originates from when I was a kid and thought it was fantastic. The product has always been the same, it has never dropped in quality and is a very good product – it always has been and always will be.

In the second half of the year, I’m expecting big box discounting to be a challenge – all toy companies do deals with the big retailers meaning they can offer cut priced deals and undercut the independents.

I’ve been doing this a very long time and have learned to adapt to the changes in the industry.

I’m most excited about board games because they offer interactivity. As a retailer I can show my board games off and demonstrate them to customers which increases the likelihood they will buy them.

We strive to do something the big retailers don’t offer. Everything Star Wars also excites me, I’m a massive fan and am a staff writer for Jedi news, I won’t go on about it but I’m looking forward to the products

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Toy World 26

Jonty Chippendale Owner, The Toy Shop,

indie viewpoint

Cockermouth, Cumbria Trade is currently improving in comparison to last year. This was due to our county deciding to dig up the road which had a negative impact on my trade levels but it’s now recovering although there is still some way to go.

I feel the weather is currently the most important factor in regards to trade because we have seasonal tourist trade, our trade is governed by tourists.

In terms of new products I’m really looking forward to Meccano Meccanoid, although not from a business sense, I’m just really eager to play with it because it looks great.

If I was comparing this year’s trade to last year’s, I would say that certainly in the north of England the green shoots are few and far between and whilst it’s in recovery it’s a long way short of where it should be.

The thing that stands out the most at the moment regarding trade is the Lego sales which always seem to hold up while others can falter.

The Scottish summer holidays have started and that always helps, the Lake District is a beautiful part of the world and if the sun shines we’re sure to get good trade.

A lack of a craze this year doesn’t really bother me. A craze is always nice as a driver of footfall but chasing a craze is a recipe for disaster in my opinion and no one has discovered a fool-proof way of knowing what will take off and what will crash – there are store rooms in the UK still full of products that were going to be the next big thing.

I don’t like to place Christmas orders until the beginning of September as I don’t like early buys and would rather get the stock at a decent margin when I need it. I don’t buy until I see how my summer trade has panned out.

I have no idea what will sell well in the run-up to Christmas, if I knew that for sure I’d be on my yacht in the Bahamas. I have no inclination, there will be big lines people will talk about but this will be ruined by the internet and big multiples. I don’t go in for big new brands straight away, if the brand has got legs then there’s plenty of picking once the dust has settled. If it’s like Teletubbies there will be plenty of picking for everyone.

If you would like to get involved with next month’s Talking Shop, please get in touch with Daniel: 01442 502 407, daniel@toyworldmag.co.uk

Mark Buschhaus and Stephen Barnes Toy Barnhaus

School’s out

H

i all. As we write this, we are a week out from the school holidays, and right in the middle of the peak loom sales from last year. To be honest, we were worried about going up against these sales, as June and July was the peak for us. However, we have been quite pleased with how trade has been. It seems to be the case that last year maybe people were buying looms and not a lot else. There have seen several things that have helped to replace the looms. With the release of the Minions film, we have seen a big increase across all products for it. The success of the Jurassic Park film has also been a pleasant surprise, with the Lego selling exceptionally well. And just as we write this, Shopkins series 3 has arrived… and has gone. There is clearly massive pent up demand for this, and it seems to be getting bigger and bigger each series. Here’s to hoping it continues through the summer holidays!

Our favourite time of year has begun, with the start of Spring Summer Previews, and it is going to be a fierce competition for the title of Preview lunch of the year. Hasbro have really set the benchmark, we literally rolled out of the showroom. With cakes included in the afternoon, they will be a tough act to follow! And with Paul Bulger losing at Pie Face, it was a great day. On a more serious note, regarding products, the range does look good for next year.

Plush toys have been one of the stars of our year so far, with our sales growing by half in the first six months. Our key range is the Beanie Boo range from TY. It is good plush at a good price point, and is highly collectible. The stands that TY have work very well, making us a destination for the range, and the rate of sale is such that we struggle to keep the stands full! Keel toys are also very good for us, offering a nice quality range of generic animal plush at good price points. We also stock some licensed lines from Posh paws, with Frozen, Super heroes, Star wars and other Disney lines proving popular.

One thing that does not work too well for us is seasonal plush. We have found that at Christmas and Easter, there is a lot about, and for us we are better to stick to everyday plush lines.

Science toys are a small, but important part of our range in store, especially leading up to Christmas. We carry a tight range, mainly the 4M sets from Great Gizmos, and the Dig-a-Dinosaur range being out bestseller. We also have the Kitchen Chemistry set from John Adams, and also the Horrible Science range from Galt toys. It certainly fills a gap for boys in the craft section, and is very popular at Christmas.

Autumn fair will soon by upon us, and is always worth a visit in our opinion.

Although we have done most of our Christmas buying by then, there are usually a few gaps that we need to fill. As it is not as big as Spring Fair, it is easier to get around and see people, and we generally find there are some great deals from suppliers to tempt us too! We will just do a quick dash up there on the Sunday to avoid the traffic, but it has always been worthwhile, and we expect this year to be no different!

Here’s to a good Summer holidays for you all. Happy trading.

Toy World 27

Retail profile

Hamleys festive predictions

Hamleys recently held its annual Christmas in June event and deputy editor Emily Ansell Elfer took the opportunity to catch up with buying director Laura Olver.

T

oy World was invited to Hamleys’ annual Christmas in June event and was given a tour of the top 10 toys for Christmas.

Buying director Laura Olver talked me through the choices, which included Interactive Tracy Island, Skate and Sing Elsa, i-Que Intelligent Robot, Little Live Pets – Clever Keet, Once Upon a Time Princess Rose Peppa, Kinetic Sand, 3D Maker, My Friend Freddy, Shopkins Scoops Ice Cream Truck Playset and LeapPad Platinum. An additional ‘fabulous five’ were also picked out: Meccanoid G15 KS, Triceratops Sit-on Dinosaur, Batman 6V Battery Powered Batmobile, Peppa Pig Kitchen and Lego City Deep Sea Exploration Vessel, as well as a ‘ones to watch’ list.

With the opening of the Nickelodeon Store around the corner as well as The Toy Store, I was also keen to find out how Hamleys plans to keep its position as one of the country’s best loved toy retailers: EE: The West End is becoming a real hive for family shopping. What is it about Hamleys that you think will keep it a firm favourite with consumers?

LO: Everyone remembers coming to Hamleys as a child. Hamleys is a unique experience for families and children because we bring the toys to life. Our stores allow children to play in an engaging environment, whilst parents are re-assured through our product expertise and trust from 255 years of selling toys.

EE: Talk us through this year’s Christmas top 10 predictions…

LO: It’s reassuring that the top 10 is not so movie dominated this year. I’m also really pleased to see some great innovation in the art and craft sector – I felt like it had been neglected for a while. Tech plays a part in

most of the products on the list and it’s clear that a toy’s appeal is broadened when it comes with an app. Lego doesn’t feature as heavily in our list as people may have expected. However, we appreciate that Star Wars has a very late launch and is likely to be a key contender – it’s all under wraps at the moment though.

EE: What do you make of the integration of technology into toys?

LO: The technology that everyone wanted to get out last year has now been integrated properly into toys.

We are seeing a resurgence of tech in toys and the way in which they link to the child’s imagination. All of the tech in our top 10 Christmas toy predictions has a real purpose and enhances the product in some way – it’s not tech for tech’s sake. I also think that technology is helping to increase the lifespan of toys and gives them an older age appeal.

EE: What categories and brands are performing particularly well at the moment?

LO: There are some really strong performances from firm favourites such as Peppa, Lego, Sylvanian Families and the Avengers this year, with newer licences such as Paw Patrol and Shopkins seeing great post-launch success too. However, it’s the products that are synonymous with the excitement, theatre and heritage of Hamleys that continue to lead the charge for us.

Our plush category is performing extremely strongly, particularly the new range of Hamleys wild animals.

Art and craft is seeing a strong resurgence helped by new product development in this traditional product area. Additionally, with the warm weather currently, our outdoor demonstration products from RC flying to bubbles are continuing to bring fun to more and more visitors to our shops.

Toy World 28

Laura Olver

buying director

EE: How important are in-store demonstrations?

LO: Our stores boast thousands of toys ranging from the traditional to the high-tech, games and puzzles to arts and crafts, magic, Scrumpalicious sweets and of course the iconic Hamleys Teddy Bear. But toys should be fun, so by focusing on bringing toys to life through demonstration we deliver a unique atmosphere that is fun and means our customers leave with positive memories of their visit.

EE: What makes Hamleys get behind a product?

LO: The reaction of children is probably the most important thing for us when it comes to knowing whether a product is right for Hamleys. We encourage them to play with the toys and we judge the success of a product by how kids react to it. For this reason, our top 10 Christmas toy predictions might be a little different to that of other retailers.

Feature

Stationery

The pen is mightier than the sword

Stationery products – especially character licensed ranges – are becoming increasingly popular within the toy retail channel. Toy World’s Daniel Rich investigates why this is a smart category for toy retailers to stock.

L

icensed stationery, stickers and paper-based creative play products offer toy retailers the perfect complement to their art and craft selection, and the opportunity to grow their sales through impulse and gift purchases. Character or branded items can be low cost add- on purchases for a fan of a particular licence; indeed many stationery purchases are at pocket money price points, ideal for children to select and collect themselves.

Sambro’s Nikki Samuels comments: “Licensed stationery provides a great way for toy retailers to extend their licensed offering. The impulse price points complement key licensed merchandise, allowing consumers to purchase all licensed products in one store.”

Ginette McGee, owner of Toytown branches in Seaford, Hailsham and Haywards Heath, highlights the fact that the back to school period is a key sales period for stationery related products: “Back to School can be a huge opportunity for retailers, as both parents and children like to start the new school year off with shiny new uniforms and all the paraphernalia to go with them. Pens, pencils and pencil cases are essential items and there are suppliers for every style, whether licensed or generic.”

Stationery may peak during the summer months for back to school sales, but the category also proves popular over the festive season, with sought after licenses providing perfect stocking fillers. Although it benefits from peaks at key times, Stationery performs strongly all year round, as it consists mostly of items which need replacing frequently.

Nikki Samuels adds: “I think that traditionally, stationery is perceived as being specifically for back to school, but I don’t think there is a seasonal aspect any more - particularly with licensed stationery.

Children love to collect everything relating to their favourite character and so categories like stationery perform well all year.”

Kristina Holden, operations director at Kidicraft holds a similar view: “Consumable stationery lines are a year-round necessity. Pens, pencils, rulers and fibre pens will always be needed. By stocking lines such as this, any retail outlet is opened up to many more customers; everyone needs a pen.”

Helen Webster, group licensing director at Copywrite Designs, says: “We try to offer our retailers a real spread of multiple price points in any given licensed offering, together with some seasonal offerings. This way, whatever the retailer’s requirements, we will hopefully have something that

fits their needs across the whole year.”

As licensing in this category is key, identifying what is hot is crucial to stocking the right product mix.

Nikki Samuels comments: “Our Minions stationery lines have been proving extremely popular.

As with many of our licenses, we have created a range of filled backpacks containing lots of stationery items and these have been particularly popular with retailers taking stock for Back to School.”

James Kyte, UK sales manager, Pyramid International, identifies a range of best-sellers: “Licences performing well include Minions, Marvel and Star Wars. This is due to new movie releases this year; Marvel Avengers, The Minion’s Movie and the new up and coming Star Wars Episode 7 have all increased stationery sales. In particular, our 3D Lenticular Many Minions Notebook has received a lot of attention.”

3D lenticular printed products have been added to the ranges of many forward-thinking stationery companies to maximise their sales and shelf appeal by offering something new and different.

Kristina elucidates: “Our new range of National Geographic 3D stationery sets are proving very popular and I think this is down to two factors. The first being that the quality of these sets is superb, with the lenticular printing giving great depth and movement to the image; it’s something different. Secondly, these kinds of sets appeal to both boys and girls.”

This observation provides an interesting talking point because the category is considered by some as more girl-orientated and therefore limited in terms of sales opportunities. Helen believes this is set to change: “Stationery has traditionally appealed more to girls than boys but with the recent arrival of some big male focused brands into the stationery space, such as Marvel and Star Wars, I think change is being brought to the category. The rise in popularity of other licence types that particularly appeal to boys, such gaming brands, is also a factor.”

Toy World 30

Anker International

Companies are raising the bar higher than ever before, as customer demands become more sophisticated. As well as seeking the latest hot licences, the demand for quality and classic evergreen brands is also high.

Helen adds: “It is really refreshing to see some companies pushing themselves on product range and design, to fight for that all-important shelf space, and it is even more refreshing to see consumers wanting greater quality of design and product before handing over their hard-earned cash. Big movies, old favourites and technology are all playing their part in the paper products category now and it is making the category much more fun to work in and much more deserving of retailers’ attention.”

Effective merchandising is vital in store, to capture the customer’s attention. Suppliers are willing and able to assist, as Nikki explains: “Sambro is able to work with retailers to create bespoke free-standing branded FSDUs to showcase their licensed stationery to great effect. These can be replenished easily and quickly and used to create impactful in-store displays at key selling periods. We can also add extra categories within these FSDUs to enable retailers to maximise sales even further.”

Stationery is evolving and expanding its horizons: the category is no longer considered dull or boring – there are some great lines available that allow toy retailers to capitalise on key selling periods all year round with high-quality and affordable products.

See overleaf for some of the latest stylish stationery ranges on the market.

Stationery

Pyramid International 01162 843 645 | www.pyramidinternational.com

Copywrite Designs 01908 618 811 | www.copywritedesigns.co.uk

Copywrite Designs has new product ranges launching for autumn 2015. There will be a number of new product formats in the popular Peppa Pig activity and sticker product offering, including a 3D Colour and Build scene, a Mega Sticker Set containing over 100 stickers and a Deluxe Sticker Collection that allow children to be creative with stickers, pens, scenes, a reward chart and more.

Copywrite’s new Care Bears stationery, colouring and activity offering comprises a die-cut notebook, a multi-colour novelty pen, three novelty erasers as well as bestselling formats that include a colouring book, play pack and colouring set.

Disney Frozen Olaf product offering will join new activity and sticker product range for Disney/Pixar’s The Good Dinosaur movie which will be released in the UK in November 2015.

Blue Sky Studios 01133 879 670 | www.blueskydesigns.co.uk Blue Sky Studios work with sought after brands to create stationery ranges which include Disney’s Star Wars, Big Hero 6, Inside Out, The Good Dinosaur and Finding Dory, Thompson’s The Beano and My Little Pony, which includes the new fashion inspired stationery by Alice Vandy.

Many of the UK’s retailers work with the company to create stationery ranges for back to school, summer events, Christmas stocking fillers and all year round core stationery.

Products like Catapencils, sound movement pencil cases and 3D Puzzle Erasers are new to the range.

Blue Sky Studios expects growth to continue with Star Wars The Force Awakens stationery launched into market as well as sequels set to be released. Disney Pixar’s Finding Dory, the sequel to Finding Nemo will be part of the range consisting of 3D Dory Puzzle Erasers, liquid filled notebooks and many more products.

Toy World 34

New for summer 2015 are Minion Movie products featuring the characters Bob, Stuart and Kevin.

Related merchandise hit the stores in June and Minion mania is set to continue through the summer season.

Products include wall art posters, stationery, mugs and accessories.

Pre-loaded display units with a selection of products are also available now.

Marvel Ant Man products include posters, retro wall art, accessories and Marvel Ant Man mugs with additional products coming soon. Marvel’s retro comic range is available now, featuring all of the classic comic heroes in time for back to school/back to college.

The Rugby World Cup kicks off on 18th September and is hosted in the UK across various cities around the country and will continue until 31st October. A wide range of official merchandise is available.

Star Wars continues to be a success featuring the classic character artwork and movie stills. New products include Chewbacca hairy notebook, available in August. New stylus pens, premium notebooks and accessories are available leading up to the new movie and are available 4th September.

Vivid 01473 322 000 | www.drumondpark.com The Crayola brand is famous for its great washabilty however this year it introduces an all new innovation in washable ink formulation.

Called Ultra Clean, it sets a new standard for washability with colours which come out in just a cold wash. Crayola’s Ultra-Clean Washable Markers range is even more washable from skin, clothing and painted walls than ever before. Available in a variety of much loved formats including eight Large Crayons, eight Marker Stampers, eight Broadline Markers or eight Fineline Markers.

AGE

3+

OVER 150 PRODUCTS AVAILABLE AGE

3+

HB Pencils

Chalks

Fibre Pens

AGE

3+

Wax Crayons

AGE

3+

AGE

Coloured Pencils

3+

Stationery Sets Big Cats Initiative - African Lion

Animal Rescue - Giant Panda

AGE

5+

AGE

5+

What’s included: Super 3D Notebook, Magic Motion Pencil Case, Super 3D Ruler, 4 Colour Markers, 2 Push Pencils & 1 Eraser.

Kidicraft Limited Tel : +44 (0)1282 500899 Email : sales@kidicraft.com

®

www.kidicraft.com Toy World August 2015.indd 1

12/07/2015 20:13

Stationery

Kidicraft 01282 500 899 | sales@kidicraft.com Kidicraft is to release 3D Stationery Sets and 3D puzzles under the National Geographic brand. Also arriving will be a selection of Howard Robinsons new images made into 3D puzzles.

These ranges have been brought forward to September with the wider ranges being introduced in 2016. The National Geographic Stationery sets are available in two themes, Big Cats Initiative – African Lion and Animal Rescue – Giant Panda.

Each one contains a 3D notebook, a Magic Motion pencil case, four colour markers, two push pens and one eraser. 3D lenticular printing is used to produce both the National Geographic and Howard Robinson images, giving them a sense of depth and movement. Inside the cover of each 3D notebook are facts and information about the animal on the front cover.

Primo’s back to school lines consist of pencils, poster paints, modelling clay, sponge shapes and everything in between. With the tighter controls on certain additives within paints being enforced from June this year, the Primo range was already fully compliant prior to the start of 2015, giving retailers, parents and teachers added confidence that the products are safe and tested to the highest standard.

Sambro 08458 739 380 | www.sambro.co.uk Sambro has long been established as a manufacturer of licensed stationery and continuously works to refresh ranges and innovate with new stationery products. Sambro has launched a Jurassic World collection following the launch of the box office blockbuster.

A new Minions range of stationery is in demand by retailers. At a range of impulse price points, the Minions stationery collection includes a variety of pencil cases (including filled cases) based on the characters. The back to school stationery collections and collectibles include a five piece stationery kit as well as jumbo pens and stationery filled character backpacks.

New licensed stationery collections also feature character notebooks and pads as well as pens, felt-tips, coloured pencils and more. The wide ranges allow retailers to stock full back to school licensed collections to appeal to boys and girls of all ages.

Licensed stationery ranges also include Disney Princesses, Minnie Mouse, MLB New York Yankees and more.

Toy World 36

DKL’s Smencils are available in a cylinder of 40 pieces, a CDU of 20 five-packs and refill packs of five which also feature a hang tag. Scents include cola, strawberry cupcake, jelly bean and watermelon.

The scents in Smencils last for two years and all materials are biodegradable and/or recycled.

Also available are Birthday Cake Smencils, Sports Smencils and Spring Smencils.

Another Scentco collection is Smens. Black Ink Smens are available in a CDU of 25 whilst Glitter Gel Smens and Metallic Smens can be purchased in a CDU of 25 or a CDU of five-packs. Each pen comes in tube packaging.

Accessories to the range include Smencil Buddy pencil cases and Sketch & Sniff notebooks.

Tobar’s limited edition Scentos Scented Activity Set comes with over 75 scented pieces including erasers, markers, crayons, stickers, paints and pencils.

The Scentos Funny Face Markers are ideal for party bags. The eight pack Funny Face Marker Set is washable and nontoxic, the pack includes some fragrant pens including watermelon, strawberry, orange, apple, lemon and blueberry. The larger Funny Face Markers can be used for highlighting and colouring and come in three scents. The Classic Scentos Rainbow Pen is also in the range so children can press and select any of 10 fruity colours. Tobar also has a range of erasers, pencils and stickers.

The Underground Toys selection of licensed journals is ideal for writing notes in class or at home with a selection of premium mini and standard sized journals.

The note books are available in licences such as The Walking Dead, Game of Thrones, Sherlock and Doctor Who. They all feature a design incorporating key features specific to each series. The door façade of Sherlock’s London residence graces the pages of the 221B mini and regular journals, the Doctor Who Tardis Journal is available in both mini and regular size, and The Walking Dead Journals feature hand prints.

Delivering licensed images worldwide: Extensive range of stationery and gifting products available now. Please visit our website or contact the sales office for further information.

WWW.PYRAMIDINTERNATIONAL.COM TEL: +44 (0)116 284 3640

•

FAX: +44(0)116 284 3696

•

MAIL@PYRAMIDINTERNATIONAL.COM

touchingbase

Sponsored by

Ready for Autumn Fair In this month’s edition of Touching Base, Emily Ansell Elfer speaks to companies exhibiting at Autumn Fair about their plans for the show.

Pioneer Europe/Qualatex

Cuckoo

Anna Bubnova

Tony Eves

Without doubt this has been the most amazing year for Cuckoo in some time.

We have seen the company completely transformed with the arrival of so many new lines, being crowned by the launch of Small World Toys and its fantastic collection of fashion, creative, science and nature ranges.

We choose to exhibit at Autumn Fair as we see it as the last opportunity for our customers to see all our products in the flesh.

We have such a diverse range that it is impossible for the salespeople to carry all the samples needed to present the line.

We always have show specials and wherever possible try to match a customer’s needs to an appropriate offer.

Without question, the biggest launch will be the Small World Toy collection and we encourage everyone to come and take a look at this fantastic range.

We usually have a big stand at Spring Fair to launch our Everyday Catalogue and all new products, and we have a small pod at the Autumn Fair as part of Cardgains Village – it is a cost effective way to see our customers half way through the year, to show them our mid-year new product releases and get seasonal orders for Halloween and Christmas.

We like to offer exclusive show deals to encourage our visitors to place their products orders at the show. There will be show offers available on our Christmas ranges and new Disney collection as well as party products.

At the show we will be largely focusing on our new Disney, Marvel and Star Wars balloons as well as Christmas balloons.

Bizzy Bitz

Alphabet Pie

Lots of smaller companies I’ve spoken to have said that Autumn Fair is good for meeting independent toy retailers who are looking to stock up for Christmas.

Autumn Fair will be all about sales for us this year, whereas Toy Fair was about relationship building and meeting the bigger retailers.

We will have some exclusive show offers. Our brand new FSDU comes with £50 worth of free product when a fully stocked FSDU is ordered. It will help Bizzy Bitz stand out in store and encourage customers to try something new this Christmas.

Our whole range is new for this year, so we will be taking all our newly branded stock with us.

We chose to exhibit at Autumn Fair with Nutty Putty because we had such a successful Spring Fair where we launched the product. Since then we have improved our packaging and also launched new themes. It is also the run up to Christmas and we know it will be a great opportunity for the independents in particular to see and feel the product in person and stock up in time for Christmas.

We will be offering exclusive show deals. To give you a hint: one of our ranges will be selling like “hot cakes”.

Our new ranges include an expansion on our current line and also a set for older children and tweens – since launching Nutty Putty we have had many enquiries for the tween age bracket and even for GCSE and A Level use. We have taken this on board and will be launching a range that will appeal across the board.

Rachel Fogel

George Pornaris

Bladez Iain Morgan

Autumn Fair is one of our best shows for meeting our customers face to face at a peak time of the year. It is a great opportunity for retailers to get an exclusive preview of SS items for the following year, and to re-order stock in plenty of time for Christmas.

As always, we will be running great value show deals – including Buy 48 units and receive £480 worth of free stock. We will also have a super-saver mystery deal so visit our stand to find out what it is – Stand No: 5C60-D61.

We will be focusing on our new Star Wars and Minions RC inflatable lines, The Supernano Quad, Helicopter and Volkswagen micro bus, as well as our new Peppa Pig lines for 2016.

Toy World 38

Blue Sky Designs

Asobi

Nick Jarvis

David Bottomley We are exhibiting at Autumn Fair for the first time this year for a number of reasons. We now have a range that we believe will appeal to a wide audience of retailers, with a number of new ranges offering high quality product, and we are also seeking to expose a number of our brands on an international arena – we believe Autumn fair is a good step for this and, most importantly, it offers an excellent medium to show product to many of our existing customers and reinforce the key sales message prior to Christmas.

We will be offering a variety of deals to encourage our existing and new customers to place orders across all of our ranges and to stock up in time for Christmas.

We will be launching three fantastic new ranges at Autumn Fair – all to be revealed soon – but a key focus will be behind our Core Buttonbag, Orb and Seedling lines.

3DLightFX Steve Clarke

Autumn Fair is a great place to exhibit. For us, the timing of the show is perfect as it is the last chance for retailers to order merchandise for the key Christmas period. Many of our products, although they aren’t specifically toys, quite often get grouped in that bracket; with most toy sales taking place in the last quarter in the run up to Christmas and also the new year sales. It’s the perfect place for us to show off our wares. It’s also a smaller, more relaxed affair than Spring Fair.

We’re not currently planning on offering any exclusive show offers. Our range of 3D lights are flying off the shelves at the moment and are very reasonably priced.

We pride ourselves in giving customers value on all our product ranges so we’re confident that people will see these products for what they are – a high quality product at a great price.

This year is very exciting. Our Marvel range of 3D lights has proven to be immensely popular with people of all ages, so we will definitely be highlighting this range. However, the thing we’re really excited about showing people is the launch of our brand new Star Wars range, which features an awesome selection of characters and spaceships, some that many people know and love and some brand new Episode VII lights featuring new characters. The feedback and pre-sales we’ve had on these lines has been stratospheric, so we can’t wait to show them off to everyone in attendance. On top of this we also have one or two things up our sleeve in terms of how we’re displaying these products that we think will blow people away.

We have developed a large range of Star Wars VII The Force Awakens stationery and novelty gifts that will launch in September.

This range will include core stationery, sound movement pencil cases, furry Chewbacca pencil cases, 3D plastic covered notebooks and technical illustrative paper. We are also launching The Storm Trooper Bluetooth Speaker.

Autumn Fair is a great chance for us to showcase our new innovation and bestselling products. We can always expect to see a good variety of retailers each year that will visit our display stand in search of the latest trends and great products.

We will be showing our Magic Tattoos, which are brought to life on the screen of a smartphone or tablet by the free Magic Tatts app – characters include a tarantula, Fairy, T-Rex Dinosaur and walking Robot. Christmas themed tattoos and stickers will be launched at the show.

Travis Designs Dena Pearce

This is a showcase for new dressing up styles for both the Dress up by Design and Disney Baby dressing up. It is well placed in the year for autumn/ Christmas buys for independents and forward ordering for the spring for volume customers. As well as regular customers, we always meet with new buyers from the UK and overseas.

Autumn Fair is a great launchpad for new styles, new customers and is definitely an order taking show for Travis.

Travis always offers a show deal, we offer free goods to the value of £30 for orders placed at the show for over £300.

Disney Baby Princesses will take the stand along with gorgeous new Daisy and Donald tabards and the vintage Winnie the Pooh Rompers. The Dress up by Design range has some fun new styles including the Ride on Unicorn, Dinosaur and Dragon. There are beautiful new Princesses and Fairies in rich colours and some classics including Pirate Pete and a Pink Baby Bunny. Costumes for every occasion.

WORKING TO PROTECT OUR CHILDREN

Leading The Way In Toy Safety & Quality • PRODUCT TESTING • QUALITY INSPECTIONS • MANUFACTURING AUDITS • DESIGN EVALUATIONS • CHEMICAL SAFETY ASSESSMENTS • ADVISORY SERVICES W: ul.com/toys

E: qaenquiries@ul.com

T: 0118 927 3340

Toy World 39

Company profile

KD Group undergoes restructure KD Group has added to its executive team, partnered with leading brands and expanded its product offering as the company positions for a major growth year.

A

t board level, KD Group has appointed two industry veterans with significant experience in the consumer electronics, toy and consumer products industries. Jose Joaquin Perez has joined as group sales director and Roger Monerris Tormo has taken on the role of group marketing director.

A former executive with Sony, Jose held a number of roles over his 21-year career with the consumer electronics giant. In his most recent position, Jose was responsible for the VAIO operation until Sony sold off the division. Adding to his strong engineering background in telecommunications, Jose spent the last 15 years in commercial operations and was responsible for the Sony IT Corporate Channels Group.

Jose brings his knowledge and experience in the operation of tablets and consumer electronics to KD Group. In his new position at the KD Group, Jose will help develop new company procedures and work toward expanding the company’s distribution by opening channels in new markets.

Roger joins KD Group after a 15-plus-year career building global consumer brands and generating strategic sales growth. In his most recent role, Roger served as channel manager at Mattel where he was responsible for distribution and channel positioning for core Mattel brands, including Barbie, Fisher Price, Hot Wheels, Disney Princess, Monster High, Pictionary and more. Prior to that, he held various marketing roles with leading consumer products companies, including Coty, Pepsico and DrinkWorks

by BrainVentures, and founded his own consultancy, rokler. At KD Group, Roger will be responsible for coordinating and controlling all aspects of marketing, including budgets and operations.

KD UK, also known as Inspiration Works, has hired Paul Dearlove as national account manager. Paul brings to the team a wealth of experience in the toy and licensing industries, both in the UK and New Zealand. He has spent the last 15-plus years working on business development and licensing strategies at companies including Crayola, Blueprint Collections and M.Y. Sports. In his new role at KD UK, Paul will work with the existing sales team and agents to oversee the toy division, working closely with Paul Joyner, head of sales for the technology division.

Commenting on the new staff appointments, Dr. Luis Bravo, president of the KD Group, said there are still opportunities for talented, passionate industry experts within the company.

Luis said: “At KD Group, we are currently undertaking the process of restructuring our organization, assets and personnel. We are looking to incorporate experienced, dynamic and forwardthinking executive team members into leadership positions. This will allow us to be able to leverage work-partner relationships with companies like Microsoft, Intel, Philips, Disney and Alcatel-TCL.” “KD UK is a vital component of the KD Group, an international toy conglomerate with offices in the UK, Spain, France, Germany, Benelux, USA, Hong Kong and PR China,” he added.

While continuing to be a major player in the world of toys and ELAs, the KD Group is currently looking to branch out into new product categories and recently announced a partnership with Philips for home lighting. Together, the companies will take a “toyetic” approach to traditional lighting, offering fun solutions for children and families.

New products created with Philips will be coming out next year and feature various licences, including Disney.

KD UK’s licensed toy division has seen strong growth over the last several years and the company recently added two new hot properties – Paw Patrol and Thomas & Friends. Products developed under these new brands will be coming into the market in August. The company will also refresh its Ben and Holly line.

KD UK’s expansive, licensed product portfolio includes leading brands such as Peppa Pig, Fireman Sam, Disney Princess, Scooby-Doo, JCB, DC Superfriends and Mike the Knight.

There are five new Peppa Pig lines this year that will all shortly be coming to market. Plans are also in place to bring out a Disney Frozen ELA tablet.

The company launched its own Kurio kids’ electronics brand in 2012 with great success. Its award-winning range of kids’ tablets continues to perform strongly around the globe. Two new Kurio

Toy World 40

devices are being launched for 2015 – the first, Kurio Tab 2, an upgraded version of the company’s current Android tablet featuring Kurio Motion 2 multiplayer body-controlled games; and Kurio Smart, a new 2-in-1 Windows tablet computer for students that will take kids from homework to play.

Luis commented: “Having experienced local UK and international success with the Kurio line of products, the KD Group is now ready to take the next step in this competitive market segment.”

Looking to the future, Luis stresses that the plan is to continue hunting for innovative new ways to present product lines and to launch ranges in the right platforms.

He explained: “With headquarters in Barcelona, Spain, the KD Group has actively and regularly worked to improve the efficiency of its commercial operations, in particular searching for new, innovative methods of presenting their product lines into the relevant global market places.”

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Feature

Wooden Toys

Wood stock Toy World’s Daniel Rich speaks to wooden toy suppliers about how innovation is brought to this traditional category in order to keep it fresh.

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ooden toys have long been a staple for many retailers; they’re easily merchandised and straightforward to demonstrate in-store, furthermore they’re practically risk-free to stock because they are timeless. Products stretch across a wide variety of age groups; wooden blocks when babies, moving onto products as diverse as trikes, scooters and wooden craft kits as children get older.

Sam Ireland, operations manager at Bigjigs, comments: “One of the many benefits that lies in stocking the category is the fact that wooden toys allow children to get stuck in straight away without having to fit batteries or read instructions.

Wooden toys require greater imagination from a child, but this arguably makes them more rewarding in terms of creative play.”

Chris Watters, toy buyer at Argos, offers a retail perspective: “We stock a lot of wooden role play.

We’re seeing a move towards traditional wood in a lot of our ranges – what’s great about wood is that it looks nice around the home and parents are happy to have it left around the house. Children love the feel of wood and we’ve seen them spend ages playing with our wooden Chad Valley kitchen – they like the feel of it and their parents know it’s a quality product.”

Tim Hall, managing director at Ravensburger, which recently acquired the perennially popular Brio brand, explains how merchandising can boost sales: “We are able to provide excellent point of sale modules that look great in store. In addition we know that playing with Brio stimulates more sales and this also provides an extra reason to visit the local toy store.”

Timeless it may be, but even this most traditional of categories isn’t completely immune to the vagaries of fashion.

“The new Big Jigs Dino Range has performed extremely well since it launched at the start of the year. The Dino Range combines trains with dinosaurs – an unrealistic concept but a winning combination for pre-schoolers. To them it is pure story-telling fun and they can grow their wooden railway collection with the accessories and rolling stock on offer, meaning the collectibility factor also appeals,” adds Sam. Sofia Pheasey, marketing and sales manager at John Crane, identified some current best sellers from the company’s Tidlo wooden toy range: “At the moment our customers can’t get enough of our food sets that go with the play shop and theatre.

Our new garage from Tidlo has just launched, while magnetic letters and numbers remain strong sellers internationally.”

Big Jigs

David Bottomley, commercial director at Asobi, reinforces the classic nature of the sector: “Wooden toys are not a fad buy, so they will continue to be a popular for parents and grandparents. They also encourage intergenerational play: for example, wooden kits are great for the whole family to make and learn together.”

So how do suppliers keep this tried and tested category fresh? “There is a balancing act required to keep the designs contemporary, while still demonstrating the traditional qualities and natural aesthetic appeal of wooden toys. Here at Bigjigs we regularly review which products require a redesign to ensure the products remain relevant to a modern day audience,” Sam explains.

Tim believes that the Brio range also combines the traditional with the modern to good effect: “When one of our customers buys Brio, they are opening a world that goes beyond a train and a track. Because the themes are mixed, children can use their imagination from modern life experiences, such as traveling on a train to the airport.”

Sofia tells me that supply and demand is key: “We always like to offer something new each year.

We ask our customers what they would like and what the consumers are asking them for and bring in ranges such as the All Aboard train series which has had a great response.”

Cost versus quality can be a challenge in this category, as the expectation is that wooden toys will outlive the children they’re being bought for, yet prices have to remain competitive. In the past

Toy World 42

some companies have undercut the established brands using inferior quality wood, however David believes there is no substitute for quality: “Some consumers will always look for a bargain buy and ignore the quality of the products. But, on the whole, we find that the consumer will buy from a known brand or distributor, where they are safe in the knowledge that the products would have met all the approved standards. So, in reality, we do not see them as a threat.”

Tim comments: “Own brands have been around a long time and of course they have a place in the market. However premium brands have a strong place too. With Brio, we know we have a product that can be passed through generations of families that offers excellent value to the customer.”

Sam believes it’s pivotal to keep an open mind regarding materials and that using a good quality base material at the start of production offers more options at the finish: “If you choose MDF as a material, the only thing you can do with it is paint it, use ply and there are options to lacquer, stain or paint it.”

Sam maintains that a company would rather uphold its reputation for producing good quality products, rather than manufacture them cheaply.

She believes one should never compromise for a good quality wooden toy: “We have faith that consumers will be motivated by design, play value, variety and quality and not simply by what it says on the price label,” she adds.

Over the page we present a selection of the latest wooden toys being introduced to the market.

RAV_TW_AUG15BRIO_FullPAge_FINAL.pdf

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Discover your new BRIO® World

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Now distributed by Ravensburger

UK Sales Office 01869 363 800

Ravensburger Ltd, Unit 1 Avonbury Business Park, Howes Lane, Bicester, Oxfordshire, OX26 2UB

Wooden Toys

HTI 01253 778 888 | www.htigroup.co.uk HTI provides a range of Peppa Pig wooden puzzles and toys. An evergreen licence for HTI, the range offers a selection of colourful Peppa designs across classic lines that have been designed to encourage early learning and develop hand eye coordination. The Floor Puzzle is a 49 piece jumbo jigsaw featuring a Peppa Pig classroom scene. The chunky 3D Clock Puzzle helps children to learn to tell the time as well as familiarise themselves with numbers as they place shaped numbers in the correct spaces in the correct order or take them out to reveal Peppa images. Other puzzles include a Peppa Pig Dress-up Numbers and Muddle Puddle Peg Puzzles, offering a number learning and shape sorting activities with Peppa designs.

HTI’s own Wood Works range of traditionally crafted, wooden toy lines includes puzzles for children of ages 18 months upwards.

The Wood Works pre-school offering comprises colourful chunky shape sorters, a learning clock, alphabet and number puzzles, dominoes, an abacus, chalk board and jumbo floor puzzle. Assorted peg puzzles provide little children with hours of shape sorting fun.

All Wood Works pre-school puzzles have been designed to help develop recognition of numbers, letters, shapes and colours as well as enhance hand-eye coordination, cognitive abilities and stimulate visual development and are supplied in fully branded display CDUs.

DKL

01604 678 780 | www.dkl.co.uk DKL’s red pull-along Circus Truck doubles up as a shape sorter and its Rolling Zoo Animals can be mixed, matched and transformed into wheeled toys.

The Scratch Balance Bikes are sturdy and finished with bright colourful themes and features and are available in various sizes for different age groups. The stand also makes an ideal add-on line.

The Anamalz range of mini animals are hand-crafted from eco-friendly wood, include plush features and are finished with child-friendly paint. There is also a small display stand and FSDU for merchandising. The wooden figures are collectible and are available in different collections; Farmyard Anamalz, Sea Creatures, Winter Mammals and Worldwide Mammals.

Wonderworld includes a range from ball runs to educational toys, made from high quality rubber wood, Wonderworld toys are strictly eco.

The young mini vehicles feature a character design, such as Dog Police Car and Moo Moo Tractor. They can be taken apart and used as construction toys.

Also from Wonderworld are the Role Play Kitchens which include a Cooker & Stove, Refrigerator, Sink, Washing Machine and Little Chef Station. These sets are durable and sturdy with a painted finish. Accessories include Fruit and Veggie Baskets, which come with six food items and can be cut and stuck back together. The Wonder Cash Register features a real calculator and toy money.

Toy World 44

John Crane 01604 774 949 | www.john-crane.co.uk With over 30 years of experience. The Tidlo range has been designed here in the UK to produce a colourful collection of educational, stimulating and fun timeless toys. This summer the focus is on a retro feel to the range.

The Tidlo ride on campervan is a compact, sturdy but speedy ride on vehicle complete with essential storage for teddies and more. the van is fitted with caster wheels.

A handy storage tub with a shape sorting lid containing one hundred chunky wooden blocks provides any budding builder or architect in the making a way to express their creativity as well as encourage them to tidy up.

The Tidlo garage offers the complete service package. Children can drive the cars up the slope and park until it’s time for the service. Once called, the lift with handy clicky motion will lower the vehicles directly into the garage. The Tidlo pick-up truck will collect a car and return it to the customer fully valeted by the carwash and with a full tank of fuel.

Asobi ToyWorld wood HP August 2015:Layout 1 14/07/2015 10:04 Page 1

Red Toolbox Pirate Ship K099

Red Toolbox Mini Soccer Table Kit JK002

Uncle Goose Alphablanks Uppercase ABC Blocks AB-A 600099

Skipper Ride ‘n’ Roll - Lady Bird SKIP0503

See our website to view the full range of our traditional toys

www.asobi.co.uk

T: 01628 200077 • E: info@asobi.co.uk asobitoys

@asobi_toys

Get in touch

Coming Autumn 2015!

Facebook: MillyandFlynn Twitter: @MillyandFlynn Email:sales@millyandflynn.com PART OF THE

©Disney. Based on “Winnie the Pooh” works by A.A. Milne and E.H. Shepard. Artwork and packaging subject to change.

Wooden Toys

Asobi 01628 200 077 | www.asobi.co.uk

Milly&Flynn 01242 241 765 | www.millyandflynn.com

Asobi has expanded its wooden toy range with its Skipper brand. Skipper is a brand which has created hand crafted wooden pond yachts for over 20 years. Branching out from pond yachts it has produced variations of ride-ons made from wood and EVA foam. Made with traditional patterns Skipper’s products are aimed to engage children in active imaginative play and to also promote social interactions.

Red Tool Box’s wooden kits and children’s tool sets create an environment for parent and child bonding, surrounding building games for kids. Parents and kids can work together as a creative team, learn from each other, communicate and achieve real-life accomplishments. For the younger audience, Uncle Goose offers wooden blocks in many different designs and languages from the basic ABC learning blocks to periodic table building blocks. All are printed with nontoxic colour ink.

The Dear Zoo and Disney wooden toy ranges are a new direction for Milly&Flynn, and these two licences feature a character push-along, a pullalong, a skittles game, a wooden block puzzle, a wooden puzzle tray with chunky wooden character pieces and a traditional shapesorter.

The Dear Zoo toy range has been designed in collaboration with author Rod Campbell and incorporates the book’s animal cast. The Disney Winnie the Pooh range features all of the characters from Hundred Acre Wood.

The puzzle range and matching pairs games feature licensed characters from Beatrix Potter, Spot, Hairy Maclary and Dear Zoo. The puzzles include illustrations commissioned exclusively for the brand. The two-piece puzzles feature shapes, opposites and numbers, as well as a range of bright, shaped puzzles and giant themed floor puzzles.

award-winning wooden and metal balance bikes for 2 years +

full range can be seen on 0103 Kiddimoto-ToyWorld-1/2 pg.indd 2

www.kiddimoto.co.uk.

Toy World 46

for more information or to order, speak to Ian or Nikki on 01749 871175.

7/5/15 8:44 PM

Wooden Toys

Ravensburger 01869 363 830 | www.ravensburger.com Brio toys are designed to help young minds unlock their imagination with safe, high quality products made from FSC certified wood. Established over 130 years ago, it is these traditional play values that are at the core of every Brio product.

Children develop a range of intellectual, emotional and social skills while they play and all Brio toys are designed to allow children’s imaginations to grow in the knowledge they are playing with a safe toy. Wooden toys are at the heart of Brio and not only does it ensure proper production of its toys, but also commits to reducing the carbon footprint. For a long lasting toy and an enduring environment, wood just makes sense.

The quality combined with simple and robust designs, helps inspire young minds to let children discover the world through play. Children don’t need instructions, just a place for their imaginations to grow and the Brio range of toys offer babies and children of all ages, just that.

NEW & EXCLUSIVELY DISTRIBUTED by

Gibsons Games 020 8661 8866 | www.gibsonsgames.co.uk The classic wooden board games of Shut the Box, Chess and Tiddlywinks combine strategy with skill.

The range also includes classics such as Solitaire and Cribbage as well as travel games, Travel Chess, Mini Shut the Box, Mini Tiddlywinks and Mini Solitaire.

Each travel game is compact in design and the box not only acts as storage for the pieces but has been designed to double up as a playing board. Each game is crafted from re-forested hardwood of the highest quality and with minimal cost to the environment.

For more serious gamers, Gibsons offers a Deluxe range of games, including wooden Backgammon and Chess which are inlaid with walnut and maple. This range is more expensive than the wooden games range but goes all the way in terms of luxury, presented in a faux leather case and containing weighted Staunton pieces made from Kariwood and Boxwood.

DKL Marketing Ltd 11 Deer Park Road, Northampton NN3 6QD, UK tel 01604 678780 • fax 01604 678787 email dkl@dkl.co.uk facebook.com/DKL.Toys twitter.com/DKLtoys www.dkl.co.uk

Toy World 47

Wooden Toys

Kiddimoto 01749 871 175 | www.kiddimoto.co.uk Kiddimoto has developed original soap box racers and created the BoxKart. The design is a simple, solid construction in sustainably sourced plywood. It includes contemporary features, such as a handbrake, pneumatic tyres and adjustable frame.

The kart needs to be assembled before use. The pneumatic tyres absorb bumps on rugged terrain and the working handbrake and steering makes mastering the route manageable for children. The fully adjustable frame increases the BoxKart’s longevity. The BoxKart is available in various designs, from a classic natural wood through to a selection of racing stripes.

Sambro 08458 739 380 | www.sambro.co.uk Sambro has a wide selection of wooden puzzles across all of its licenses including Frozen, Doc McStuffins, Avengers, Sofia the First, Mickey Mouse and Clubhouse. There are three different sized puzzles including the four puzzle set, three puzzle set and a 12 piece puzzle. All feature popular characters and scenes.

The puzzles come in a range of impulse price points and each comes in its own wooden storage box so as well as being easy to store, they also make a great impact on-shelf.

There is also a pre-school Fisher Price wooden block puzzle featuring Fisher Price characters.

BEAUTIFULLY CRAFTED CLASSIC GAMES FOR ALL THE FAMILY TO ENJOY

T R A D I TI O N A L

WOODEN GAMES m a d e f r o m t h e h i g h est q u a l i t y r e - f o r est e d h a r d w o o d

Toy World 48

sales@gibsonsgames.co.uk www.gibsonsgames.co.uk 020 8661 8866 Follow us on Facebook: facebook.com/gibsonsgames

Wooden Toys

Bigjigs Toys 01793 461 650 | www.bigjigstoys.com Sunflower Cottage comes complete with genderneutral colour scheme, a six-doll family, 27 furniture pieces and a sheet of stickers for customised decoration. The new Home & Garden Furniture Set extends imaginative play with 22 extra pieces to add to Sunflower Cottage or any of the other doll houses in the Bigjigs Heritage Playset Collection.

Joining the Cooking and Role Play range is the new 51cm high Market Stall with removable stripy canvas awning and eight sections for role play foods, separated by removable wooden dividers.

The three new Play Planks sets are a simple construction toy available in natural, marine and sunset colours. These lightweight yet tough little planks can be stacked into all manner of designs.

For a younger age range is the new 40-piece collection of Click Blocks, with assorted colours and shapes. These wooden blocks can be stacked on top of each other. They click together firmly and can easily be detached to start a new design.

Two extension packs of 20 Click Blocks are also available from the range.

GP Flair has added a new face to wooden game-playing with the addition of a Thomas & Friends collection to the company’s portfolio.

The Wooden Dominoes and Track Puzzle has 28 dual sided dominoes and four engines pieces. Children can either play the traditional game matching the images or turn the pieces over to create a wooden train track for an altogether different experience.

The range also includes the Block Cart, Tic-Tac-Toe and a Wooden Clock Game with 12 double side self-correcting puzzle pieces, 2 jumbo time-dice and a clock stand. Also available is the Hammer and Peg toy.

Puzzle Magnetic from Jumbo are interchangeable magnetic wooden character puzzles. The set includes a pirate, princess, Indian, ballerina, witch and musketeer. They can be mixed and matched, and with only two pieces each they are really easy for young children to use.

The 1-10 Number Wooden Duo Puzzle is easy to play, with bold colours and large numbers to help children learn counting and matching skills, each tile features animals.

The 21 piece Goula Domino Oscar at Sea domino set with shaped wooden bricks allows children to create wave-like patterns whilst they match the dominoes. It features bright, colourful pictures of Oscar and sea creatures.

Tobar’s wooden toys include classics such as planes, trucks, cars and pull along transporters. The company also has wooden Russian dolls and musical wooden toys including a Red Piano, Xylophone and Maracas in its range.

viewpoint Toy World shares insight and opinion

David Ripley COO of Winning Moves

The calm before the storm

Unless you are an outdoor toys buyer the summertime can be a (welcome) quiet period for the toy industry with trading at relatively low levels and both retailers and suppliers reviewing and testing their planning for the heavy months ahead. This year’s trading pattern has felt different with the success of Jurassic World and The

Jim Hawker co-founder of Threepipe PR and digital marketing agency.

A force for good

Over the last year or so I have been very fortunate to have been involved with the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) devoted to promoting a Fit and Healthy Childhood. This has been created and chaired by Baroness Benjamin of Beckenham, or ‘Floella Benjamin’ to me and most people. The purpose of the group, which is supported by all political parties and a number of brands, is to promote evidence based discussion and reports

Minions movies keeping Toy sales moving at a brisker than average pace. Also a few recently announced corporate mergers have also kept the industry news feeds buoyant.

As we start to experience the Death Star like ‘tractor beam’ of Autumn Winter trading with the launch of the Argos catalogue, news stories from here on in will predictably centre around retailers Top toy lists for Christmas and possibly with the strength of sterling ‘rip-off’ Britain stories about how much cheaper it is to shop for your Christmas toy list in outer Mongolia than it is in central London. Such PR usually gets limited column inches in the press, dependent on what else is going on in the world at that time.

A different PR story that would pick up considerably more coverage, suitably timed for Christmas, would be a list of the worst 10 toys ever! In the same way that a movie flop can be measured, the criteria being amount invested in development and

manufacture and the subsequent return on investment.

The W.A.T.C.H organisation in the U.S does release a worst 10 toy list annually but coverage barely makes international news and the criteria for selection is subjective at best.

Autumn Winter 2015 could be a particularly lucrative one for the UK Toy industry with a largely stable and improving economy driving consumer confidence and what can only be termed as a legitimate ‘A+’ graded cinematic blockbuster release in Star Wars Ep 7 – The Force Awakens.

The power of Disney coupled with possibly the largest licensing program ever seen within Toys will ensure the success of a new Star Wars trilogy. I wonder how many parents will be introducing their younger children to the first 6 episodes in the SW franchise so they can prepare them for the storyline of the new trilogy.

Winter is coming.

to help inform policy making decisions affecting children’s’ health and wellbeing.

Not only is Floella just how I remember her from my childhood – passionate and enthusiastic with a great sense of humour, she is also absolutely determined to effect change on behalf of UK children. The group sits regularly in the House of Lords and invites independent speakers and brands to share their latest research and to have informed discussions on a wide range of issues which are then collated into a formal report and launched to media and politicians.

This is not merely a PR exercise as the content is supported by MPs and presented to cabinet ministers. I have been attending the sessions on behalf of a couple of clients in both the food and toy sector and have also had the opportunity to pass on BTHA information to the group. Previously, I didn’t know too much about the BTHA’s Make Time 2 Play initiative and have had the pleasure of reading through their independent research as part of attending the APPG sessions.

It is clear that this programme is well thought out and well managed and is a great credit to the toy industry. I am hopeful that the research will be included in some of the formal reports that the APPG circulates and will therefore go a long way in supporting the voice of the toy industry. Protecting children and creating an environment for them to flourish and reach their potential should be one of the priorities of our society and the toy industry works tirelessly to not just make a profit but make a difference to children’s lives.

Not many people could pull such a diverse interest together and Floella’s personality and enthusiasm is contagious in making this happen. It is a shame that all the great work that goes on in the corridors of power is so hidden away, so I would encourage everyone who is interested to search out both the APPG and Make Time 2 Play reports online. They are a good read as they are packed full of interesting insight and will make you proud to be working in an industry that is a force for good.

Toy World 50

John Baulch publisher and managing editor, Toy World

The online retail conundrum: saviour or margin eroder?

I recently attended the UK toy industry day, which is ably orchestrated by the British Toy & Hobby Association. The event incorporates a selection of speakers, with the first presentation slot traditionally reserved for an organisation presenting statistics and observations on the retail market. This year’s speaker covered well-worn ground, in particular by focusing on the continuing stellar growth in online retail channels.

Admittedly, the figures make a compelling case: 84% of homes now have internet access, while 62% of consumers own a smart phone.

There are 5.74 billion searches a day on Google, while 72% of internet users are active on social media. The trend towards greater reliance on the internet has clearly transformed consumers’ shopping habits, and online shopping has become a way of life for the vast majority of people. Once, retailers abided by the mantra ‘location, location, location’; now it is being suggested that the 21st century equivalent is ‘convenience, convenience, convenience.’ Increasingly, customers want to shop however and whenever they want, and to have their order delivered where they want, when they want (and if they need to, to be able to return their order to their channel of choice free of charge).

You could be forgiven for thinking that the march of online sales is inexorable and unstoppable. Indeed, the aforementioned speaker suggested as much, with a graph that showed a constant upward curve. However, there have been a few signs recently that a few stumbling blocks are emerging; challenges which – if not conquered – could provide significant obstacles to the growth in online sales over the coming years.

First of all, there is the core question of logistics: to see the extent to which this could become a major issue, we have to turn the clock back to last November. America successfully pioneered the Black Friday event: since the early 2000s, it has been regarded as the beginning of the Christmas shopping season in the USA, and most major retailers

offer aggressive promotional deals. Seeing the growing success of Black Friday, and the opportunity it presented, a number of UK retailers have followed suit in the past few years, notably grocer Asda (owned by WalMart) and Amazon. Last year’s Black Friday was the biggest to date: Amazon UK recorded its busiest single trading day ever. But the biggest problem came in the days that followed; in short, Black Friday broke the UK delivery system. Orders were being placed on websites that the retailers were unable to fulfil, due to a lack of logistics capacity: even the largest retailers had to admit defeat and tear up their delivery promises. The UK’s second biggest delivery company – Yodel – refused to collect any more parcels from retailers as it struggled to clear the backlog. Some deliveries eventually arrived up to three weeks later, while customers fumed at the broken promises of the retailers.

Having pulled out all the stops to drive huge sales volumes, it appeared that retailers had no plans in place to cope with the fulfilment of the extra demand they had created.

So what is likely to happen this year? Talking to retailers, they seem convinced that Black Friday will be bigger than ever in terms of sales.

And with the benefit of hindsight and twelve months’ planning, perhaps delivery companies will be better prepared. Yet doubts remain: one very prominent UK toy retailer I spoke to recently suggested that delivery companies are turning away business if the projected increase in demand is more than five-fold at any point during the year. It seems that the logistics companies have taken the view that they cannot plan a sustainable business around such extreme swings in demand, and with capacity struggling to keep up demand, they are in a position to choose which orders to take on and which to decline. There is a parallel here with the situation that global toy companies have faced in recent years with Chinese manufacturers: as factories have closed down, remaining facilities can pick and choose which business to accept.

In addition to the issue of capacity, there is another major factor in the online delivery equation: price. It’s no secret that modern retailers have many challenges to face in their quest to achieve an acceptable margin, and online sales have, in many respects, contributed towards margin erosion. Generally, customers have been conditioned to accept free delivery by companies such as Amazon, which has been building its customer base by offering deals which some might construe as commercially unsustainable. The fact that Amazon has never made a profit is welldocumented, and swallowing delivery costs must have contributed significantly towards this. Furthermore, toys are tricky products for a logistics operation to cope with: they are not a consistent size, shape and weight like books and cds.

Toy World 51

There have been warning signs recently: Amazon has doubled the amount of money customers have to spend to qualify for free delivery, from £10 to £20. Bearing in mind that delivery was free in 2013, it’s a steep rise in such a short space of time, but a reflection that even Amazon acknowledges that it is impossible to subsidise delivery for ever. There is also the issue of non-delivery: as one retailer explained to me, “the minute that the customer isn’t at home to accept the initial order delivery, the clock starts ticking and every minute until it is successfully delivered costs us.” With customers reluctant to wait at home all day for a delivery – especially given the unpredictable nature of delivery timeslots – this situation is likely to remain a huge challenge for all concerned.

Even the click-and-collect facility, which has become hugely popular with bricks and mortar retailers in recent years, has a cost implication.

As a concept, it has been an overwhelming success: customers have embraced the convenience of being able to order goods online and pick them up in store or elsewhere.

Online retail industry body IMRG estimates a growth rate of 20% per year in click-andcollect orders across all retailers. For retailers that sell online and also have physical shops, click-and-collect accounted for 4% of online sales in 2010: that figure jumped to 17.7% in 2014. Retailers also like this approach because of the opportunity for incremental sales: between 30-40% of click- and- collect shoppers are estimated to buy something extra in-store while picking up their order.

However, the product has to be picked at the warehouse, loaded onto a lorry and delivered to store, in the majority of cases for free. When the order is of low value, the cost to the retailer undoubtedly exceeds any profit on the transaction. Offering click and collect for free may attract shoppers, but it was clearly financially unsustainable in the long term.

John Lewis is the first UK retailer to break rank and accept this situation is untenable: going forward, it will charge £2 for each click and collect order under £30. It is almost certain that other retailers will follow their lead. John Lewis is banking on the fact that shoppers will understand the reasons for this move and not rebel against the charge. However, early feedback has been split, with some pointing out that they are effectively paying to make sure their product is in stock at their local store.

Online shopping remains a conundrum: it is no longer just an up-and-coming challenger to the high street, it is at the heart of every retail business, and established retailers will need to embrace the channel to prosper. However, it is not without its challenges, and these should not be under-estimated. Ultimately, it will never replace the magical toy store experience for children, but it may save some bricks and mortar retailers from disappearing altogether.

Feature

Science and Nature

Geek chic The science and nature category has seen a real resurgence over recent months. With fun experiments, bug catching, crystal growing and beauty product making all on offer, all of a sudden science is rather cool. Emily Ansell Elfer reports…

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cience and nature isn’t a licencedriven category, but Brainstorm’s sales and marketing director Nick Saunders believes it’s essential to keep on top of current trends and offer a “fashionable” range. For example, with the recent release of Jurassic World, the company has taken the opportunity to push its Aqua Dragons range along with other dinosaur-linked items.

“This is the year of the dinosaur and we have a number of very successful dinosaur themed toys in the Brainstorm stable. Our T-rex Projector and Room Guard is a perfect educational gift and includes new online content that kids can access through a secret code. We also have two Aqua Dragons items that have been very well supported; we recently created a brand new TV commercial to support these lines.”

Nick says the category has seen a recent boost because fun learning can help pull a child away from smartphones and tablets. He stresses that it makes sense to offer products that are fun for the child as well as appealing to parents for their educational value.

He commented: “There has been a lot said about age compression and kids moving away from toys in favour of their parents’ smartphones and tablets – but parents want their kids to be kids and are still keen to buy toys for them. Science and nature toys are perfect adult-selected purchases since they satisfy two desires; for their kids to have toys as well as to inspire and educate.”

Trends’ marketing director Lindsay Hardy reinforces Nick’s opinion on the opportunities for linking science products with popular culture: “There is excitement in the category and continued consumer demand. Popular movie releases that have a science and nature based message such as Jurassic World help generate awareness and interest in the category,” she comments.

She also says that products allow parents to support their child’s education at home, without the child feeling like studying and learning is being forced upon them: “We like to communicate the benefits that play with science products can offer, but without making it sound like homework.

Set It enables kids to create over 100 experiments safely at home, teaching them about how different ingredients can create reactions that are fun to explore. We believe it’s popular as parents see it as a fantastic opportunity to support their children’s learning.”

Michele Marziliano of Clementoni believes a key challenge that the science and nature category faces is that it is often perceived as a boys’ market.

For this reason, companies have started investing

Brainstorm

time in developing clearly gender-neutral and more girl focused products.

Michele explained: “I think that the science and nature category can easily be portrayed as just a category for boys, which is a big challenge as it is a popular market for girls too. We focus on making our products as generic as possible to fit with both genders so that all children can enjoy playing with them. An example would be the Herb Lab in the Clementoni Science & Play range which is a scientific laboratory that you can use to perform herbal experiments using natural substances in complete safety.”

Michele has also noticed more crossover with the art and craft category, something that brings more girls into the fold: “For example, in the Clementoni range the Candle Creations is a great kit for kids, encouraging them to create unique and original candles with natural beeswax sheets.

This wax is set in a high quality natural mixture, which lends itself perfectly to handling and modelling,” he commented.

Offering a retail perspective, Ginette McGee, owner of Toy Town, shares Michele’s belief. For this reason, she intentionally places her science and nature offering next to the girls’ stock in her stores.

Ginette explained: “In all three stores, we deliberately site the science (and magic) next to or very near to the girls’ toys, although we don’t use girls and boys signage in the store. I was a tomboy growing up and my six-year-old daughter

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is following suit, so I think it’s important that these toys are marketed to all children equally.”

Ginette worries that, although science and nature has started to be marketed in a more gender-neutral way, some companies are actually now trying too hard to appeal to girls: “I despaired at Toy Fair when I came across a science kit which was essentially a chemistry set with added glitter, heart shapes and predictably in a pink glittery box.

Why does something need to be made pink and sparkly to be sold to girls; surely it’s as exciting for them to grow a crystal as it is for boys?”

A company that Ginette says has successfully steered clear of the pink box strategy is Flair with its Wild Science brand (and a lip balm making kit which comes in an orange box). Toy Town is also excited about the new range of Science Museum approved kits from Clementoni.

“Trends offers a good range of straightforward science toys such as telescopes, microscopes and metal detectors – we did well with these last Christmas,” adds Ginette.

Ginette is always looking for new science and nature products: “In an age where kids spend so much time in front of screens and living in a virtual world, I think any product that encourages a connection with nature or the physical world around us deserves a place on my shelves.”

Over the next few pages, Toy World presents a selection of companies working in the science and nature sector and their hottest products.

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Science and Nature

Brainstorm

01200 445 113 | www.brainstormltd.co.uk New to the range of Brainstorm Toys Globes is the Illuminated Moon Globe. This 22.8cm globe displays a detailed map of the Moon including major craters, mountain ranges, seas and sites of moon landings. At night, the globe lights up to become a night light.

The Creepy Crawly Catcher is also new.

With the patented Spider Catcher, a device which easily picks up all kinds of bugs without harming them, kids can explore all their favourite creepy crawlies. It also includes a bug catch jar, magnifier and practice bug. The booklet contains bug record sheets and a secret code to unlock online bonus bug information.

With the Geode Discovery Kit, children can break open their own real geodes. Once opened, the three geodes reveal crystals inside.

The T-rex Projector and Room Guard is a 40cm long T-rex shaped projector that has 24 dinosaur images to project. It becomes a room guard and roars into action every time an unwanted visitor trespasses into the room. It has five different roars and includes a secret code to unlock online dinosaur facts and a T-rex door sticker. The T-rex will be supported with a TV campaign in the final quarter.

The recently added Jurassic Time Travel Aqua Dragons line includes Aqua Dragons Eggspress and Eggspedition. The Jurassic Eggspress has an aggressive price point and the egg-shaped tank comes with everything needed to hatch and grow Aqua Dragon pets. The Jurassic Eggspedition has a dinosaur sleeping in its base and with the push of a button the baby dinosaur blows air through the tank, whilst the LED base illuminates the tank at night. Aqua Dragons will continue to be TV advertised with regular bursts of activity every month until the end of the year.

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For kids who love Bugs!

Clementoni 020 3206 1397 | www.clementoni.com The Anatomy Lab includes a realistic human body skeleton which enables children to learn all about human anatomy. The activity set focuses on anatomy tables to help children understand the body’s inner organs and the way they function. The kit also contains a jigsaw puzzle and a magnifying viewer for X-ray sheets to ensure kids really get to know the human body and identify each atom.

With this kit, there is also the opportunity to see movies, explanations, animated images and interactive anatomy from the Clementoni website.

Children can also assemble the skeleton model which helps them to understand the way in which the human bones really work. They can piece together the jigsaw puzzle and learn where all of the humans internal organs are and see what the body is really like.

Also included in the Science and Play range is the Astronomy Lab, Detective Lab and Space Lab. All the Clementoni Science and Play range products have been Science Museum approved.

...designed to inspire

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Interplay 01628 488944 | www.interplayuk.com The My Living World range by Interplay consists of 10 kits. TV naturalist Nick Baker champions the brand, designing the kits’ contents and writing the manuals. Top selling lines Ant World and Worm World were the first ever products that Interplay launched and still remain perennial best sellers.

In the sub-£10 category, Triop World, Bug Safari, Ladybird World and Snail World are firm favourites with consumers.

This year, Interplay introduces Instant Flower Press to the range. This new device allows flowers to be pressed, dried and ready to use in a matter of seconds using a microwave oven.

Technokits is another Interplay brand. Each kit is designed to promote a practical knowledge of electronic and mechanical principles. A new addition to the range this year is the Racing Truck.

Science and Nature

DKL 01604 678 780 | www.dkl.co.uk

Fascinating Technology Kits!

DKL’s science and nature offering includes products from the Miniland Educational range and new lines from SmartLab Science Toys.

Miniland Electronic Science kits include real working parts, including light bulbs, motors and magnets. Electrokit 88 allows children to trial 88 different experiments with the aid of an instruction booklet, whilst Electrocombi 49 can create a moving car or boat. All Miniland toys have further content which can be unlocked online – the Play Miniland collection of digital games boost the play value of the range further as consumers can download bonus games for their children’s toys.

DKL is now offering the new SmartLab Science Kits. SmartLab offers squishy experiments and nature and solar system labs. This year’s hero product is the Squishy Human Body which contains an anatomical body, nine squishy organs, two tools, a fact-filled activity book and felt tips. Additional items include The Amazing Squishy T. Rex, The Amazing Squishy Brain and Inhuman Squishy Zombie.

Further highlights from the new SmartLab range include the That’s Gross Science Lab featuring a motorised toilet mixer and 26 experiments and more, the Smartphone Science Lab which transforms a smartphone or tablet into a science instrument, the Remote Control Rocket which can launch 30 feet into the air and the All Natural Spa Soaps kit which makes over 25 soaps and includes make your own gift boxes.

Flair 0208 643 0320 | sales@flairplc.co.uk WILD! Science offers children creative scientific projects. Kits in the girls’ science category allow children to create sleepover party essentials such as bath bombs, lip balms, eau de parfum and UV reactive manicures. Meanwhile, kits from the boys’ science category teach kids how to make their own Zombie eyeballs, slime creations, Hyperlauncher Rocket Balls and exploding volcanic reactions.

Flair has injected some fresh ideas into the brand for AW15 with new projects. The Zombie Blood & Guts kit is designed to shock friends and family with pickled zombie parts. Soap Studio Ocean Friends explores science whilst creating a gift for friends and family.

Flair will be promoting and supporting the WILD! Science range with a fully integrated marketing campaign including TV. Also new to the portfolio is a range of products from Uncle Milton which allow children to create their own Star Wars epics. Youngsters can build their own Light Saber or their own night light with the Deluxe 8 Colour Light Saber Room Light. A replica of Anakin Skywalker’s Light Saber, it has colour changing effects, authentic sounds and an infra-red remote control. A darkened room can be transformed into the night sky with the Death Star Planetarium.

Peterkin UK

0116 2543 645 | www.peterkin.co.uk

...designed to inspire

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Sea Monkeys Ocean Zoo, a classic aquarium with magnified portals, is supplied in assorted colours in a 12 piece cdu and comes complete with water purifier, instant live eggs, growth food and a feeding spoon, whilst Instant Life set is aimed at those who have their own aquarium and includes everything needed to hatch and grow a Sea Monkeys colony.

These classic lines are complemented by Sea Monkeys Pirate Treasure, a gift set that is supplied with a glow in the dark pirate galleon and a torchlight built into the aquarium lid so that the Sea Monkeys can be checked on at night.

Peterkin has recently taken on the distribution of the Navir range of science and nature toys – a range of bug viewers, magnifying lenses, periscopes, microscopes and binoculars. Particular highlights include the Discovery Kit, which includes a Zoomscope, Megalens and Triple Bug Viewer and the Threek, which is a three-way telescope, microscope and periscope. The range also includes two gyroscopes – Space Wonder is a traditional gyroscope, whilst UFO Lighting gyroscope has in-built coloured LED lights.

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01553 819 383 | www.learningresources.co.uk

The Award Winning Nature Range!

The Nancy B’s Science Club range from Learning Resources provides hands-on tools and activity guides that bring the mysteries of science to life.

A mother-of-two and ex-teacher herself, Nancy B created the range to shine a new light on science and spark children’s interest in the natural world.

New for 2015, the Black Light Illuminator and Nature’s Mystery Journal encourages outdoor discovery as children create experiments to uncover a hidden world that’s invisible in normal light. The set is complete with a black light with three LEDs, an invisible ink pen and a 22-page journal. The illustrated activity journal contains step-by-step experiments such as observing rocks, insects and flowers that glow under black light, making gelatine that glows and counterfeit money detection.

Also new for 2015, the Discovery Lab Pens and Field Journal are ideal for recording discoveries on land and in water whilst exploring on-the-go. Both pens feature a magnifier, ball point pen and a soft textured grip. The Land Pen includes a specimen jar with air holes, built in tweezers and engraved ruler for safe and secure storage of specimens. The Water Pen includes a specimen jar with built-in dropper, thermometer and fluid level markings for up-close study of life under water. The 14-page activity journal includes experiments such as making a pit trap, planting a seed sock, investigating water life and creating a wildlife habitat in the garden.

John Adams 01480 414 361 | www.johnadams.co.uk John Adams is expanding its science collection further for 2015 with the introduction of Sparkle Science – a science kit which enables kids to conduct glittering experiments whilst learning through play.

Aspiring chemists can make a lava lamp, create glitter chalk and construct a glitter bath bomb as well as grow a sparkly geode and a crystal necklace.

This new kit sits amongst the company’s successful science collection which includes Gross Science – the number one selling science toy in 2014 (NPD data), as well as Dr Toxic’s Slime Lab and Booms Bangs Fizzes.

All of the kits in the range aim to encourage kids to explore the world around them, whilst making science fun, with an emphasis on learning through play. Sparkle Science will be TV advertised and is available now.

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MGA 0845 0533 333 | www.mgae.com Project Mc2 is a new collection of science experiments and fashion dolls taking inspiration from STEM subjects.

The product range focuses on four main characters each with their own personality and interests. The Project MC2 girls are: McKeyla McAlister (Mc2), Adrienne Attoms (A2), Bryden Bandweth (B2) and Camryn Coyle (C2).

Their friendship makes mathematical sense – based on the Pythagorean theorem that A2 + B2 = C2. Each doll comes with an interactive science experiment to try at home The range will follow the four girls as they attend Maywood Glenn Academy and take part in the organisation NOV8. Each member of NOV8 is a specialist in their subject, whether it’s chemistry or technology.

The launch will see extensive marketing support including PR, social media, TV advertising and media partnerships. It also includes a partnership with AwesomenessTV to provide short-form content via YouTube influencers.

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© 2015 Trends UK Ltd

FM Walkie Talkies © & TM 2015 Discovery Communications, LLC. Discovery Channel and the Discovery Explore Your World logos are trademarks of Discovery Communications, LLC, used under licence. All rights reserved.

Expect so much more!

To place an order please contact: +44 (0)1295 768078 salesadmin@trendsuk.co.uk For Media/PR enquiries, please contact: Ane Olesen: ane@wirepr.eu

DON’T MISS THE FULL RANGE AND AMAZING SCIENCE KITS

NEW FROM DKL Marketing Ltd 11 Deer Park Road, Northampton, NN3 6QD, UK tel. 01604 678780 • fax: 01604 678787 • email. dkl@dkl.co.uk • www.dkl.co.uk facebook.com/DKL.Toys

twitter.com/DKLtoys

Science and Nature

A.B. Gee of Ripley 01773 570 444 | www.abgee.co.uk D

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A.B.Gee’s Science4you range has won many awards and has formed a partnership with the University of Oxford.

Every Science4you kit contains experiments to spark the creative imagination of children. Further educational detail is provided by the inclusion of an illustrated educational manual that is informative and easy to follow.

A.B.Gee exclusively supplies the complete range of Science4you kits, including My First Spa, Gem Excavation, Soap Factory and Perfume Factory for girls and Slimy Factory, Solar Plane and Solar Car for boys.

Appealing to all are the Chemistry 600, Chemistry 1,000 and Chemistry 2,000 sets. Children can also enjoy the Dinosaur Fossil Excavation range.

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The Top Selling Nature Range!

Trends UK 01295 768 078 | www.trendsuk.co.uk Trends UK has refreshed its science range with a new Science Mad logo and branding.

The Trends UK Science Mad Chemistry Lab allows budding scientists to mix ingredients, watch chemical reactions, grow crystals and much more.

The Discovery Channel Science Toys inspire children to explore the world around them. Young scientists can satisfy their curiosity through a range of real world related products with working features that simulate the high-tech products that experts use to explore the environment. New items from Trends UK include the Discovery Channel 150x Microscope.

their surroundings, including: Bug Observation Dome, Bug Research Centre, Bug Tub, Butterfly Net, Bugnoculars, Multiview Magnifier Lab and Binoculars.

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The LeapReader Solar System Adventure Pack from LeapFrog is a three foot, fold-out, double-sided map offering over 40 family-friendly activities, including a planet-hopping board game, more than 240 audio responses and interactive stickers.

With this accurate map, children learn to consider life science, physical science and earth science concepts through gameplay.

The LeapReader Human Body Discovery Pack is a two-sided fold-out chart and game board allowing little ones to discover how the human body works.

It includes more than 300 interactive responses, 40 learning activities and a one or two player interactive board game.

Tobar’s Junior Explorer range encourages children to learn more about their surrounding habitats and the nature within it. There are seven products in the range which urge children to get outside and explore

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The Arklu Fossil Hunter Lottie Doll was created in collaboration with TrowelBlazers, an international team celebrating women in palaeontology, geology and archaeology.

The doll wears a rucksack holding fossil finds as well as a magnifying glass, trowel and geology hammer. The box includes a set of cards about British fossil hunter Mary Anning and an additional sheet featuring notable women in palaeontology.

The Gold Collection Stargazer Lottie doll is a collaboration with the European Space Agency. It includes a telescope modelled on the Galileoscope, a tripod, a set of solar system cards and an information sheet in the doll featuring female astronomical trailblazers. Stargazer Lottie was winner of the Space.com’s Little Scientist Award at New York Toy Fair.

Retail profile

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas…at Argos Deputy editor Emily Ansell Elfer recently caught up with Argos’ chief toy buyer Linzi Walker and toys buying manager Paul Kinge at the retailer’s Christmas press show.

EE: Argos was the first retailer to release its Christmas top 10 predictions - why so early?

LW: Last year we spoke to customers about when they start planning Christmas and we were amazed by how early they actually compile their shopping lists. Some people start as soon as the last Christmas ends. One of the questions I’m asked most frequently when people hear what I do for a living is – What’s the hottest toy for Christmas this year? I get asked that all year round. I have two children and they’re already writing their lists.

EE: Are there any key themes running through this year’s top Christmas toys list?

LW: This year, the list is driven by highly anticipated movie releases and children’s favourite TV shows. Toys such as the interactive Tracy Island, Barbie and Lego are all stellar examples of how this year’s list crosses the generations, bringing the whole family together on Christmas Day. With the growing buzz around the new Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens movie out later this year, we are expecting even more toys to launch in the next few months which will be in huge demand by kids and parents alike.

PK: Another theme coming through with a lot of toys this year is customisation. This can been seen in the Chad Valley Three Storey Summer Winter Dolls House where children can create their own home. The Real FX racing track can also be customised – children can explore different layouts and add bumps and pit stops to the track.

EE: Almost all the products on the list have tech features. What do you make of the integration of tech into toys?

LW: We have now got the balance right with technology

and we are seeing products that stand on their own two feet with technology that simply adds to them.

PK: Although tech now plays a big part in toys, we are finding that children and parents are still getting just as excited about classic products.

EE: What’s your favourite product on the list?

LW: I love Pie Face. I have played the game with the team and whether people were playing or simply watching there was always laughter coming from somewhere in the room. I think it’s a great game for adults as well as children. I also love the Barbie Style Your Way House – as a child I was always most excited about the biggest box under the tree.

PK: A standout product for me is the Real FX car track.

It’s a bit like a video game but in real life as you can race against another player and add in pit stops and other obstacles. I tested it with my son and we were on the floor playing for two hours.

EE: What makes Argos get behind a toy?

LW: We do a lot of research, we travel the world and we have good relationships with our suppliers and customers. We look at past products as well to see what previously performed well and make sure we keep on top of the latest trends. Our heritage is so important – it’s deep rooted in traditional play and value for money so those concepts are really crucial when it comes to choosing our stock.

EE: Tell us about your online developments…

LW: Almost 50% of our customers actively use the internet to make purchase decisions so having a good online presence is really important. It also gives us the opportunity to showcase our products in the best possible way with high quality imagery. Our convenience is so important and 90% of our customers

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Argos’ Top Christmas Toy predictions for 2015 are: •

My Friend Freddy

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VTech Toot Drivers Super RC Raceway

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Thunderbirds Interactive Tracy Island

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Lego City Deep Sea Exploration Vessel

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Nerf Modulus

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Pie Face

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Chad Valley 3 Storey Summer Winter Dolls House

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Shopkins Scoops Ice Cream Truck Plays

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Barbie Style Your Way House

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Frozen Sing-A-Long Elsa

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Little Live Pets Birds Clever Keet

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Minions Tumbling Stuart

•

Real Fx

are still touching our stores, whether that’s to pick up their purchase or choose an item. Our availability and accessibility are unrivalled in the industry.

EE: How can Argos maintain its position as a market leader?

LW: We work with the biggest suppliers and we work hard to secure exclusive products for our customers.

We want to offer our customers something they cannot get anywhere else. I think our history is also important – for years, children have used our catalogue to put together their Christmas lists and we work hard to keep it that way.

Feature

Plush

A soft touch Emily Ansell Elfer looks at how licences and feature plush are dominating the soft toy category and asks what toy retailers are looking for when it comes to stocking these products.

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lush is often thought of as a traditional, timeless category – most of us remember piling a load of cuddly toys into bed with us as a child. However, the sector has evolved and moved forward over the years, becoming more licence and feature plush driven, with many toy companies opting to combine both a licence and feature elements into one product.

There’s no denying that plush has had a good year.

At the end of May 2015, the Plush Super Category was up 4% according to NPD data. When you bear in mind that a lot of plush is now recorded within other categories, such as Infant and pre-school, this really is an impressive result. Golden Bear’s commercial director Barry Hughes confirms that the company’s plush growth is actually much greater than 4% when the crossover with pre-school is considered.

Barry explained that licences have become key factors in Golden Bear’s plush offering: “Licences are very important to us. When you take all plush sales into account, (regardless of which super category they appear in) we are the number one soft toys supplier in the UK and over 90% of what we do is licence driven.

There is obviously a big market for non-licence plush but it is not what drives the majority of our sales.”

He says that a good licence can be what drives plush into the toy market rather than it ending up in the gift category: “Obviously if the licence is more mass market that drives it more down the toy retailer route,” he commented.

Golden Bear is TV advertising more of its feature plush than ever before this year and many of the items feature movement, lights and sounds or combinations of all three packed into one toy. Textured Mr Tumble with Fun Sounds, for example, has fabrics which crinkle when touched and makes sounds. It also includes Mr Tumble’s spotty bag and light up waistcoat.

Posh Paws’ group brand manager Lauren Hayward agrees with Barry on the important role that licences are now playing in the plush category. She concurs that the plush category in the toy channel is dominated by licensed product rather than generic offerings.

“Fortunately for us, we’re able to offer our customers some of the hottest licensed properties in the market.

There is still a demand for generic product especially for an infant audience, but when it comes to preschoolers and above the demand is most certainly for the very latest licensed toys,” she explained.

“When generic plush has perhaps shown a decline in retail we have found that our licensed plush toys continues to thrive. In 2014 we achieved a strong +18% share of the market and this meant we took the top spot as the number one manufacturer for traditional plush. I strongly believe that our success in the plush sector is down to securing some of the

hottest properties and delivering high quality plush to retailers.”

Lauren says that a good plush range for a toy retailer rather than a gift retailer needs to have elements that appeal to different ages, genders and price points: “Toy retailers understand that there are a mix of people buying a plush toy – there are kids making their own choices as well as parents and grandparents. There is always a place for traditional plush toys – boys and girls will always want a toy to cuddle, but also there is a real demand for kids to collect all the characters for role play. For toy retailers, it is not about just stocking the most popular character from a show, it is being able to offer the whole range of characters that customers may not be able to get elsewhere.”

Character Options is another company combining licensed and feature elements into one toy. Princess Rose Peppa sings a nursery rhyme and Clangers Musical Starlight Tiny plays music and lights up.

Brand manager Rachel Copeland-Jones commented: “Plush is an important category within our branded portfolio. It consistently makes up a significant part of the product range mix within our top brands. The combination of leading brands, particularly within pre-school, combined with authentic and accurate styling, quality fabric and excellent plush play features, ensures that plush continues to be an important part of our portfolio mix, even when the sector in general is not increasing.”

One company going against the grain and making a real mark in non-licensed plush offering is re:creation.

The company launched its Stretchkins range in 2014 which was named NPD’s Best New Non Licensed Plush.

Brand manager – toys, Rebecca Clark, commented: “Licences will always have a place in plush but, certainly from our point of view, non-licensed plush is truly flying right now. We’re complementing Stretchkins with exciting new non-licensed brands this year. Non-licensed plush can offer highly competitive price points delivering value and quality, and offers fantastic features for the consumer.” re:creation’s newest non-licensed plush lines are Zigamazoos and Necknapperz. Zigamazoos is highly collectible and comes at a very attractive price point, while Necknapperz is unique as it offers children a cuddly toy which transforms into a neck pillow.

“Like any sector, innovation will always be key to keeping the consumer excited. This doesn’t have to come in the form of bells and whistles, but maintaining engagement through timely refreshes or the addition of a new feature is very important in driving the longevity of a plush brand,” says Rebecca.

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Golden Bear

“Light-up action is favourable with children at the moment and, for this reason, we’ve introduced a lightup addition to our Stretchkins range. The Stretchkins Pink Cat features lights in its feet to add to the fun as children dance and play with it.”

Offering a retailer’s perspective on the category, Vigen Khatchik, of The Toy Station, says: “Plush toys offer a steady income, with a good mark up, especially in the younger market. The fad based side of the market offers products of reasonable quality with high collectibility which means customers return to buy many toys in the same range. Some manufacturers have recently increased their range to tap into the classic market, with moderate prices, and we wish them every success in these ventures.”

Overall, it seems the future is looking bright for plush but the pressure is on for toy companies to either snap up a good licence or come up with some innovative ideas that give them a real niche in the own brand arena.

Over to next few pages, Toy World presents a selection of companies currently making waves in the plush sector.

from

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Hero Products “Dubbed by over 17 million Facebook fans as the World’s Cutest Dog, Gund’s Boo collection continues to be an outstandingly hot trend. Boo-Rex (pictured) is in prehistoric mode in a hooded green costume.”

Helen Shield, director of marketing, Enesco

“A hero line for me is in the new Once Upon a Time Peppa Pig collection. The Princess Rose Peppa toy, with its story telling play pattern and dedicated TVC, is already tipped to be a top choice this Christmas.

Princess Rose Peppa is keen to play a traditional playground game of Ring-a-Roses with all that want to join her. Simply form a circle with friends and hold hands with Princess Rose Peppa; when the ring is complete Peppa will sing her favourite nursery rhyme for everyone to dance around to. It’s definitely one of my favourites this year.”

Rachel Copeland Jones, brand manager, Character Options

Alfie My Training Puppy is an adorable young Husky who, just like a real puppy, needs a loving home and lots of training. Alfie comes with a magic bone controller, which children can use to teach him to lie-down, stand, sit, pounce and, when he’s tired from all the training, can even make him fall asleep. All Alfie’s movement sequences are combined with cute, realistic puppy sounds and children can have so much fun training Alfie to be a good pup – but remember he’s still young and sometimes he can still be a mischievous puppy.

Tom Bennie, brand manager, Vivid “Twirlytop Toodloo is a super product which we feel really reflects the ethos behind the Twirlywoos TV programme, created

by Anne Wood. As well as featuring eight Toodloo sounds and two songs from the show, Toodloo’s twirlytop really spins which will delight pre-schoolers whilst mirroring the themes of fun and silliness of the show.

Twirlytop Toodloo also features poseable arms and is made from really soft fabrics, which makes it a comforting companion too.”

Barry Hughes, commercial director, Golden Bear

“Zigamazoos received a fantastic reception at Toy Fair and we’re delighted they’re finally unleashed on the plush aisle. They offer cute, collectible and giggly fun at an attractive price point – a great combination and a great addition to our Snuggables portfolio this year.”

Jonathan Kirkley, marketing director, re:creation

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14/07/2015 16:27

Plush

Plushiemorphs info@plushiemorphs.com | www.plushiemorphs.com Designed in the UK and launched earlier this year, Plushiemorphs specialises in soft toys that transform using elements sewn into the toy. The staged levels of transforming can help children develop dexterity and coordination for all ages from pre-school upwards.

Plushiemorphs have lots of repeat play value due to their transforming aspect. This encourages traditional role play, communication and interactivity, developing kids’ natural creativity and curiosity.

This year, Plushiemorphs is running a Super Summer campaign with lots of activities and competitions. Freebies will be available at all the events as well as free online content such as comic strips, activity ideas and print and play games.

Character Options 0161 633 9800 | www.character-online.com

Character Options’ Clangers plush characters include collectibles, squeeze and whistle plush toys and the Whistle & Dance Mother. For bedtime is the Musical Starlight Tiny which helps little ones drift off to sleep. If the child presses Tiny’s tummy, she will play soothing music whilst also providing starlight that will reflect on surfaces and gently fade away.

Adding to the lineup of Peppa Pig plush toys is a new musical Peppa Pig. Princess Rose Peppa is ready to play a traditional playground game of Ring-a-Roses with all that want to join her. Children simply form a circle with friends and hold hands with Princess Rose Peppa while she sings.

For Disney Princess Palace Pets fans, Aurora’s Kitten, Dreamy, will be the first licensed version of the new collection. Complete with 10 phrases, she creates wake up lighting when her head is patted and dozes off to sleep again when her back is rubbed.

Anagranimals 07736 299 200 | www.anagranimals.com Lending a unique twist to the plush sector in 2015, Anagranimals is an interchangeable plush range which scooped the Best New Toy award at Toy Fair.

Based on a children’s book, the Anagranimals are a gang of cuddly creatures, each made up of three different animals. There are six different characters to collect, each featuring three swappable animal body parts that stick together with velcro and offering children the chance to create up to 216 different Anagranimals of their own.

There is currently an extensive PR campaign underway for the Anagranimals ranges, focused on securing exposure in Q4 and positioning the plush as a Christmas gift. The interchangeability of the Anagranimals means they are easy to swap and share with family and friends.

Posh Paws 01268 567 290 | www.poshpawsinternational.co.uk Posh Paws’ Disney Tsum Tsum range includes classic characters such as Winnie the Pooh, Minnie, Aristocats and Dumbo. A new wave of characters are now ready to hit retail, including Tsum Tsums from Disney movies such as Frozen, Big Hero 6, Snow White, Alice in Wonderland, Toy Story and Inside Out. There are currently over 40 mini Tsum Tsums available and Posh Paws will be introducing a selection of super-sized Tsum Tsums.

Posh Paws believes that Tsum Tsums are not only ideal for Disney fans but they also make good ad-hoc and till point purchases. The company expects the Tsum Tsum craze to carry on into 2016 and has a lineup of characters planned for release throughout the year.

with over

17,OOO,OOO FACEBOOK FANS

we’ve got giftware all wrapped up

Come and join us…

6th – 9th September Autumn Fair International NEC, Birmingham, Hall 3, Stand 3W04–X03

Enesco Limited, Head Office & Customer Services, Brunthill Road, Kingstown, Carlisle, Cumbria, CA3 0EN Tel: 01228 404022 Fax: 01228 404041 email: uksales@enesco.co.uk Overseas Customer Services: Tel: +44 1228 404066 Fax: +44 1228 404080 email: eurosales@enesco.co.uk © GUND 2015. © Boo and his likeness are property of Buddy Boo Inc. All Rights Reserved. © 2015 Enesco Ltd.

en5299 toy world ad aug15.indd 1

14/07/2015 10:05

Plush

Rainbow Designs 01329 227 300 | www.rainbowdesigns.co.uk

LeapFrog 01895 202 840 | www.leapfrog.com

Rainbow Designs will be launching a new Paddington Bear Movie collection in October. The new Paddington will be available in three formats – 17cm Bean Toy, 24cm Soft Toy and 30cm Talking Paddington.

The new Air Puppy collection consists of animal characters each with their own personality. Each Air Puppy is available in a variety of sizes and has its own style. The Hickory Shack collection is a group of animal friends which all come with a signature piece of clothing. The long legged friends from the Burford Yard collection all have beans in their feet so they can stand up whilst the Hedgerley Farm Animals are made from soft plush for younger children.

Rainbow Designs has a huge character portfolio of plush characters including, Miffy, The Snowman & The Snowdog, Shaun the Sheep, Peter Rabbit, Peppa Pig for Baby, Miffy, Guess How Much I Love You, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Elmer, Wallace & Gromit and the Enormous Crocodile

Read with Me Scout and Violet are interactive learning puppies that encourage reading.

The plush have accompanying books and ask questions throughout the story.

The two plush toys also feature five interactive spots and respond to every pet, pat, hug and kiss.

They can be switched to Sleepy Time Mode with eight minutes of stories and lullabies.

My Pal Scout and Violet can be personalised with a child’s name, favourite foods, animals and colours in the box with an iPhone, Android or computer. They introduce children to words, counting and feelings though 14 activities. Both come pre-loaded with five songs and over 30 more learning songs for personalisation. They also include five touch points and have two modes of play: daytime fun or night-time mode which can be used to set up to 15 minutes of lullabies.

Flair 0208 633 0320 | sales@flairplc.co.uk

Enesco

01228 404 022 | uksales@enesco.co.uk Two new plush toys of Pusheen the cat will be available from Gund this summer.

Pusheen, a chubby grey tabby cat known for her love of cuddles, snacks, and dressing-up, originated as a web comic. Pusheen Christmas is dressed in a soft bright red collar, trimmed with white fur and fastened by a red bow.

Gund’s Peter Rabbit Plush Collection is a collaboration between two heritage brands. Mrs Rabbit and Tommy Brock are new additions to the range and are both available in two sizes. The pair join Squirrel Nutkin, Mr Jeremy Fisher, Hunca Munca and Baby, Peter Rabbit, Flopsy, Mrs Tiggy-Winkle, Jemima Puddle-Duck and Benjamin Bunny.

All plush items are hand washable.

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Flair extends its plush offering this autumn with new pets in the clinic for Doc McStuffins and new collectible Shopkins characters with a softer touch.

The all new Doc Mcstuffins Pet Vet series introduces some new plush pet toys to the patient list. Squibbles is the latest pet to arrive this autumn and is Stuffy’s new remote-controlled toy from the show. Squibbles is a free-wheeling toy that also has a pull-back feature and will come to life once he stops walking by automatically jumping in the air.

The Doc McStuffins Pet Vet collection will launch with substantial PR and marketing support, including girls’ press, parental outreach and a high profile social media campaign.

Licensed plush will be high on the agenda for Flair’s Shopkins Portfolio this autumn. There will be six plush to collect in the first launch, comprising characters from the range. These new plush lines will feature key hero Shopkins characters, all of which are wellknown from the online webisodes.

Plush

Puzzles and Play 01354 669733 | www.puzzlesandplay.co.uk

Golden Bear

01952 608308 | www.goldenbeartoys.com Golden Bear is launching a selection of new plush lines across its licensed ranges this autumn/winter.

Based on the new children’s TV series airing on CBeebies, Golden Bear’s Twirlywoos range includes soft plush versions of characters Great BigHoo, Toodloo, Chickedy, Chick and Peekaboo.

Varying in size, the range includes talking soft toys Peeking Peekaboo and Twirly Top Toodloo, which mirror the child centric humour from the TV show. The range will be supported by a strong TV advertising plan from launch.

Also airing on CBeebies is the new animated pre-school series Hey Duggee.

Golden Bear’s plush offering includes collectible characters and talking squirrel soft toys – each complete with its own child-safe feature badge. The Woof Woof Duggee soft toy with textured fabrics and push-activated badge icons features the show’s theme tune and key phrases from the series. This item will also benefit from TV advertising from launch.

The In the Night Garden range also sees new introductions. Peek-a-boo Igglepiggle covers his eyes and plays signature phrases when his tummy is pressed while activity Igglepiggle features tactile fabrics, stretchy crinkle arms and floppy legs as well as his classic red blankie.

There are new additions to the Something Special portfolio including Textured Mr Tumble with Fun Sounds which features lots of textured fabrics to engage and simulate children’s senses, and a new size Talking Mr Tumble which includes sounds and phrases from the TV programme.

Textured Mr Tumble with Fun Sounds will have heavy TV support from now until Christmas.

Tomy 01271 336 155 | www.tomy.co.uk A new Winnie the Pooh plush toy will be introduced in autumn. Listen and Discover with Pooh is an interactive bear which recognises a soft book when it is attached to its paws. As the pages are turned, the bear asks questions.

The pages of the soft book feature Winnie the Pooh characters and settings with rich textures and sounds.

The Post ‘n’ Roll Hunny Pot floor toy includes colourful balls which can be put in the top of the Hunny Pot and roll down and around.

Winnie the Pooh and his friends hide in Hide ‘n’ Shake Hunny Pots which include colour matching and shape sorting fun and can be packed in a handy storage case.

Jiggle with me Pooh plays three different songs for parent and baby to sway along to. Children can tap on Pooh’s head and watch as he sways from side to side in time to the music.

The products join the existing Disney Baby range from Tomy.

Over the past year, Puzzles and Play has seen increasing success with its Plush Heart craft kits in the UK market.

Plush Heart is a range of stitch together stuffed toys and accessories with varying degrees of difficulty. The kit contains a toy’s head already sewn (or cut-out parts for the more advanced kits), cut-out body parts, stuffing, threads and a sack of polygranules which warm with the heat from the makers hands. Each kit also contains a plush heart which is placed into the toy to make it a truly personal item.

The range includes a variety of subjects from hedgehogs to bears wearing jackets and pink lions to dollies with clothes and plaited hair. The craft kits are a way of getting a child interested in stitching crafts or supplying a more advanced toy maker with gifts for loved ones.

Underground Toys orders@underground-toys.com | www.underground-toys.com Underground Toys’ electronic plush offering includes a new range of Marvel toys entering the market this summer with the likes of Captain America, Iron Man, Hulk and Spiderman. Each character reflects the individual features of the Marvel hero and will be available in 4” clip-ons, 9” medium and 15” deluxe sizes.

The Marvel range joins the vast Star Wars range developed

by Underground Toys over the last few years. With evergreen core characters Yoda, Darth Vader, Chewbacca and R2-D2 available in the same sizes as the Marvel collection, Underground Toys has expanded its range.

The fully animatronic 16” Roar & Rage Chewbacca roars when his tummy is pressed. The 16” Lightsaber Yoda also joins the animatronic range.

Other characters in the Star Wars Talking 9” Medium range include the Jawa with light-up eyes, galactic bounty hunter Boba Fett, Wicket the Ewok, Jabba the Hutt and Wampa.

The company has launched a gigantic four foot Chewbacca as well as a slightly smaller 24” Super Deluxe Talking Chewbacca. The Roar & Rage 16” Chewbacca features the original Chewbacca roars taken from the classic Star Wars movies.

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Plush

re:creation

01189 736 222 | www.recreationltd.co.uk The Stretchkins launched in 2014 with super stretchy limbs and ended the year as Best New NonLicensed Plush according to NPD. This year the cast is refreshed with the introduction of a new look Pony and Pink Cat with special feature light-up feet.

The Bright Light Pillow range grows with the addition of the Twinkling Star. Like originals Pink Beating Heart and White Starlight Square, this new addition features LED lights within that softly glow with a light display when pressed.

The Zigamazoos collectible plush are new for summer 2015. The crew of eight animal-themed friends each give a laugh when squeezed Necknapperz are plush animal characters that transform to become a neck pillow. Styled around children’s animal favourites, Dotty the Ladybird, Twinkle the Unicorn, Oinky the Pig and Waddle the Penguin, they are poised to help the nodding heads of children travelling. re:creation will support the Snuggables portfolio with a wide-reaching marketing programme incorporating heavyweight TV dedicated to each brand, comprehensive PR and online activity including a new web home at www.snuggables.co.uk.

Vivid 01473 322 000 | www.drumondpark.com Following a strong start in the first half of the year the Care Bears range will be refreshed for autumn to include new characters and styles, including the Pyjama Party Fashion Beans and the TV advertised Sing-a-Longs which can interact with each other as they talk, dance and sing.

Story-Telling Peter Rabbit allows children to open Peter’s journal and hear him start telling a story as the pictures light up.

With hundreds of different story combinations, youngsters will never know what he will say next.

The book is detachable.

The all new Walkin’ Talkin’ Olaf walks when his button is pressed and speaks up to five phrases.

Alfie My Training Puppy comes with several sound and movement combinations and can be made to sit, stand, pounce, lie down and go to sleep when the magic bone controller is used.

Toy World 72

Plush Following the popularity of the Bella and Bruno plush range, Bigjigs has introduced two new gender neutral plush ranges.

The Cheeky Monkey and Snazzy collection of soft toys offer bright colours, tactile textures, shapes and sounds to help youngsters discover the world around them.

The monkey character in the new Cheeky Monkey range provides comfort, while the colour palette and varied textures provide stimulation and entertainment.

Seven new rag dolls also join the Bigjigs family – Molly, Melanie, Penny, Louise, Alice and Susie measure in at 380mm high, while Emily is 350mm.

Each doll sports a texture-rich removable outfit.

The Clementoni Baby Minnie My First Doll is soft, cuddly and interactive – and teaches children words and sentences as well as songs.

Baby Minnie and Mickey Play and Learn are both interactive and help teach children first letters, numbers and colours. They also talk in the original voices of Minnie and Mickey and are pre-programmed with 24 melodies.

Baby Mickey Catch and Play develops manual skills as well as coordination by throwing a ball. The five interactive buttons encourage the learning of numbers and letters as well as nursery rhymes and songs.

Hasbro’s Furchester Hotel range of soft toys includes a 12-inch Talking Elmo, which repeats phrases and songs from the TV show. There is also a selection of jumbo 20-inch plush based on characters from the show, including Elmo, Cookie Monster and Phoebe Furchester-Fuzz.

New plush toys have been added to the John Adams Pip Ahoy! toy line. The 12” Talking Pip plush character leads the way, featuring 11 phrases from the show.

Smaller soft toys of Pip and his friend Alba are also available; each character measures eight inches and wears signature outfits from the TV programme. Being smaller in size, they are suitable as travel toys.

The Pip Ahoy! toy range will be TV advertised and supported by a strong PR campaign.

NEW Paddington Movie Collection available October 2015

‘It’s nice being a Be ar, especially a Bear called Paddington’

‘Good Afternoon I’m from darkest Peru ’

‘Marmalade sandwiches are my favourite’

‘I’m a very rare sort of Bear’

‘Hello My name is Paddington’

Press my Tummy

Talking Paddington

™

Tobar’s best-selling dinosaur plush lines include Age of Dinosaurs Diplodocus and Snugglesaurs. For older children, the Flippin Puppy, Walking Pig, Trotting Pony and Walking Westie are firm favourites. Tobar’s Safari lines include soft toys and hand puppets which are designed for small hands.

Bean Toy

Soft Toy

Call for our new catalogue: 01329 227300

©P&Co.Ltd/SC 2015

Trends UK’s new Disney Sheriff Callie’s Wild West toy range includes collectible plush toys and figure playsets. The hero item is the Sheriff Callie Callie-oke feature plush.

The Puppy Surprise brand has been re-launched and the plush assortment includes three dogs each with a surprise number of puppies in their velcro pouch.

The Disney Frozen range includes the new remote controlled Ultimate Olaf and Olaf Chatterbacks as well as Elsa and Anna singing plush.

Email: sales@rainbowdesigns.co.uk Web: www.rainbowdesigns.co.uk

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Feature

Autumn Fair

Fair play The stage has been set for Autumn Fair 2015, which takes place from 6th-9th September at The NEC, Birmingham.

Emily Ansell Elfer take a look at what visitors can expect from this year’s event…

A

utumn Fair, organised by i2i Events Group, will showcase new products from 1,400 exhibitors across 13 different market categories, with tens of thousands of new launches offering cross-over buying opportunities and sector-specialist products.

Retailers can look forward to sourcing from the largest seasonal presentation of Toys & Gadgets and Children’s Gifts in Hall 5. Around 100 companies are taking part in this section of the show, covering pocket money toys, educational toys, books, games, puzzles, gadgets, plush items, hobby, arts and craft products, wholesale toys and character licensed product ahead of the Christmas trading period.

The account manager for Children’s Gifts, Toys & Gadgets, Bhavika Pattni, says this sector of the show has increased dramatically this year and more companies are looking to attend Autumn Fair in addition to Spring Fair.

She commented: “This sector of Autumn Fair has attracted a lot of growth and this year we are welcoming a lot of great new companies, many of which have a very contemporary look and feel. We have also found there is a strong trend for companies that would traditionally only exhibit at Spring Fair now deciding that one show in the buying cycle is not enough for them. Buying patterns have clearly changed with retailers placing orders in both spring and autumn, and our exhibitors are well persuaded that Autumn Fair can help them generate plenty of new orders in the second half of the year.”

With 13 vertical product sectors, Autumn Fair offers visitors countless crossover buying opportunities as they seek the hottest new products and must-have toys and gadgets ahead of the key Christmas trading period.

Independent retailers in particular will benefit from

the flexible trading terms offered by Autumn Fair exhibitors, the majority of which will carry products that are in stock and ready for delivery, without restrictive minimum orders or expensive carriage fees.

Flanking Children’s Gifts, Toys & Gadgets will be a huge showcase of Gifts and Contemporary Gift suppliers in Halls 3, 4 and 5, plus a selection of greetings cards, stationery, gift wrap, craft and party items. The exhibitors in these surrounding halls offer an abundance of opportunities for toy retailers looking to expand their offering beyond toys to include products that complement their existing ranges.

Retail Shop is a key growth area for Autumn Fair, reflecting the swiftly evolving retail environment where over 10% of purchases are made online and 62% of British consumers use their mobile phones and tablets to shop with. Exhibitors within Retail Shops can help businesses navigate the huge online space, build a multi-channel offering and enhance their bricks and mortar offering through in-store solutions.

This area of the show will include: Logistics companies, digital marketing and social media specialists, web designers, payment providers, product photography, warehousing and returns companies, mailing houses, POS suppliers and packaging solutions.

One toy retailer planning to visit the show is Toy Barnhaus which is looking to “fill a few gaps” in its

Paroh

0121 543 1336 www.paroh.co.uk Hall 1 Stand M06-L07 Paroh has introduced two voice activated pets to its toy range.

Customers can choose from a white and pink kitten or a white and black puppy.

With voice activated commands they will follow, obey, dance and sing.

Competitively priced, the products come in colourful retail packaging, take 4 x AA batteries and are available in sizes measuring 21.8 x 22.2 x 23.8cm.

Paroh will also be showing a selection of remote controlled dinosaurs with authentic sounds, flashing eyes and real walking action. An infra-red gorilla with 360 degree rotating arms is also available, as well as a selection of infra- red controlled bugs, spiders, snakes and scorpions.

Toy World 74

Christmas buying list.

Co-owner Stephen Barnes told Toy World: “It is easy to get around Autumn Fair and see people, and we generally find there are some great deals from suppliers to tempt us too.”

The new portfolio director for Autumn Fair, Naomi Barton, commented: “I’m incredibly excited to be working on Autumn Fair, which has massively grown in stature over the years and is one of the fastest-growing seasonal trade exhibitions in Europe, showcasing more new and innovative products than any other event of its kind taking place in the autumn/winter season. I am also delighted to be welcoming so many brand new companies to the show, along with our loyal existing clients.”

For more information on Autumn Fair and to register for free visit www.autumnfair.com.

Over the following pages, Toy World speaks to a variety of toy companies exhibiting at the show to find out more about their products and exclusive offers.

Autumn Fair

H. Grossman 01416 132 525 | www.ozbozz.com

Travis Designs

Hall 5 Stand D20/E21

01442 289 898 | www.travis.co.uk Hall 5 Stand A31 The award-winning Disney Baby range will be on show. There are over 30 dress-up apparel styles to choose from including Disney Princesses, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Snow White, Belle and Rapunzel. These sets include a dress with embroidery and ribbon detailing, satin bloomers and a headband.

New styles include Daisy and Donald tabards. To celebrate Winnie the Pooh’s 90th birthday celebrations next year, the new vintage style Pooh and friends character rompers will be in stock at the end of August.

Dress up by Design’s generic costume range for babies and children up to 12 years includes princesses, pirates, animals and accessories.

The Sophie La Girafe baby and toddler dress up range is a capsule collection from 0-3 years.

TKC Sales 01380 872 950 | www.tkcsales.co.uk Hall 5 Stand D50 Ogobild Animate-It! was developed with Aardman Animations. The kit enables children to make their own animated movies. It features 103 Ogobild pieces, express animation software, a HD webcam and a stepby-step guide as well as a green screen for playing with colour and importing scenery.

Petron SureShot provides an introduction to shooting a traditional crossbow with safe sucker darts and arrows. Children can choose between Handbow, Crossbow or Archery. The Stealth range has also been revised to feature more power and shooting targets.

The LED and Duelling Stomp Rockets from the creators of the original Stomp Rocket boast a new LED kit f and a two-player duelling version with different rocket colours.

Classic TKC products presented will include Kites covering all ages and price points, the lightweight, foam constructed Groover Sledges known for their fast, smooth and controlled descents and Aerobie flying rings.

Among the Wow Stuff products on show will be: Natural History Museum Dinosaur Discovery kits, a QI gift range, a bigger Mensa puzzle collection, new Science Museum products and additions to the TX-Juice Remote Controlled toy range.

Toy World 76

The Speedy scooter is designed for those who want to know how fast they can go. The aluminium deck provides great stability as does the steel T bar steering. In a variety of colourways the standout feature is the easy to read speedometer. The new pogo range includes Blaze, Tornado, Twin Stick and Maverick.

H. Grossman is showing a full Minions range from 99p up. This includes outdoor products, scooters, bikes, skateboards, trikes, inline skates, a pogo stick and a balance bike. There are helmets, pad sets and a dartboard as well as a whole host of pocket money items including yo yos, bubble wands, keyrings, balls and fingerboards.

The award-winning Megasaurs range is complemented this year by a range of dinosaurs in a variety of sizes. There are new gift sets featuring open jawed dinosaurs.

Car Trax/Roller Coasters consist of a chunky flexible track which connects and interconnects so that young children can collect the sets and connect them all together. Designed in bright colours, each set includes its own vehicle. The sets range from 23pcs to 129pcs and now feature either cars or trains.

New for the fourth quarter are the Train Trax sets including the Train Trax Super Looper, a 113 piece set with a track circumference of 440 cms. The Train Trax Crazy Coaster is a 129 piece set which allows children to build their own track and includes train and carriages. Other additions to the Trax range include the Train Trax Loop & Turn, the Train Trax Loco Looper, the Car Trax Truck Circuit, the Train Trax Bullet Looper and the Crazy Car Set. Also new are the Sand Sculpt Sets. Children can choose from a medieval castle or a princess castle – new additions to the range include foil packs, tubs and a set.

Meet the Perfect Pets!

These voice activated robot pets will follow, obey, dance and sing!

At gr eat value , thes e a re y our n ew best frien ds

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For more information please contact sales on 0121 543 1336 or email sales@paroh.co.uk or visit www.paroh.co.uk

Web: www.paroh.co.uk

Email: sales@paroh.co.uk

Paroh Ltd

@ParohLtd

Paroh Ltd

Autumn Fair

Paul Lamond Hall 5 Stand B40 C41

Winning Moves

0207 298 9507 | www.winningmoves.co.uk Hall 5 Stand D51 The new Game of Thrones Monopoly will be on display at the show. This special licensed collector’s edition of the classic Monopoly board game includes the infamous locations of King’s Landing, Winterfell and Castle Black.

The new pack of Avengers Assemble Top Trumps, based on the Marvel animated series, is launched to coincide with this summer’s blockbuster Age of Ultron. The highly anticipated Minions Movie will also have its own Top Trumps.

Star Wars fans will also be catered for with the Star Wars Top Trumps, which will include characters from Episode 7 released later in the year. The collection will also boast a new Best of Bond pack for older Top Trumps fans.

These new introductions will join the current Top Trumps range which includes Big Bang Theory, Shopkins and Disney’s Frozen.

The new James Bond Trivial Pursuit edition contains 600 questions based on the 007 movies.

New board games and puzzles include Gobblet Gobblers, Skribble Head, Jacqueline Wilson’s Dreams, Dilemmas and Divas, Dalmatian Dominoes and Death in Paradise Murder Mystery Puzzles.

Gobblet Gobblers is a memory test game for two players, while Skribble Head is a family or after dinner game.

Dreams, Dilemmas and Divas is aimed at Jaqueline Wilson fans and Rush Hour Shift is a twist on the best-selling logic game Rush Hour.

For younger players, Dalmatian Dominoes features 28 Dalmatian puppy-shaped dominoes with various numbers of spots.

New to the puzzle collection are three 1,000 piece Death in Paradise Mystery jigsaws.

Additions to the craft range include Paint By Number kits from Thomas & Friends, Dinosaur Roar and Rainbow Magic. Also new to the range is the fully washable Thomas & Friends Activity Tablecloth.

The Irish Fairy Door Company 01279 408 208 | www.theirishfairydoorcompany.com Hall 5 Stand A36-B31 The Irish Fairy Door Company will be showcasing its range of handmade wooden fairy doors and accessories. The stand has been designed to bring the magic of the products to life and will give buyers the opportunity to view the new retail packaging.

Red, blue, pink and purple arched doors, which are sold through distributor Ackerman International in the UK, will be available to view along with accessories including vinyl decals and fairy washing lines, as well as the new story book – The Fairy Force.

Created by friends Niamh Sherwin Barry and Aoife Lawler, along with their husbands Oisin and Gavin, the range of fairy doors can be installed just about anywhere and, once in place, the creative team at Fairy HQ ensures direct access to Fairy Valley with ongoing messages, play ideas and stories via email and an app.

Recommended by the Good Toy Guide, over 150,000 Irish Fairy Doors have been sold around the world to date.

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Autumn Fair

Tobar 0844 573 4299 | www.tobar.co.uk Hall 5 Stand D10-E11 Tobar is showcasing the new Scentos stationery line of fruity pens, activity sets, bubble wands and dough packs.

Blue Sky lines include a range of Star Wars merchandise and Magic Tattoos which bring temporary tattoos to life via a free app.

Bburago has the exclusive Ferrari range to keep model fans happy.

For plush fans, it is hoped that the new Scurrying Scotty will win hearts. Zuru has a new range of Robo Turtles and Playsets which complement the Robo Fish and Mermaids which proved popular last year. Schylling’s retro range of Robots and Classic nursery toys will also be on show.

Tobar’s Bump N Go Bubble Train is an award-winning line for pre-schoolers. For festive fun there is the new Christmas Penguin Chitter Chatter. Syma’s Quadcopters will be present and Maisto has created a XXL R/C line to fulfil Christmas wish lists.

Kidicraft 01282 500 899 | www.kidicraft.com Hall 5 Stand A100 Kidicraft will be showcasing its new range of 3D stationery and puzzles under the National Geographic and Howard Robinson brands. The 3D lenticular printing combined with the National Geographic and Howard Robinson images give depth and movement to the pictures.

Primo will also be on the stand.

From textile paints to oil pastels and paint brushes to coloured pencils, this range has been well received throughout 2015 by retailers and consumers.

Kidicraft will be showing the new additions within the Mostaix range of mosaic craft sets; Orange Ribbon Series, My First Mosaic Art Mini and Make My Own Badge.

The company will also feature the MagPaint speciality paints and Dowling Magnets magnetic play sets and accessories.

Cuckoo 01937 848 460 | www.cuckoo.ltd.uk Hall 5 Stand A13 Small World Toys has joined Cuckoo with its collection of fashion, creative, science and nature products.

The year started for Cuckoo with the launch of its new Bath Time collection and the introduction of the MiYim Organic Cotton plush range.

Shortly after these launches, the company was appointed as the new distributor for Deglingos plush, Mistinguettes Dolls and the Calafant Cardboard Land of Fantasy colouring collection. These were added to the already established ranges of TS Shure, Sugarpie, Streamline, Tinti and Tappy.

The introduction of the Small World Toy range completes what Cuckoo believes will be a comprehensive catalogue of complementing lines.

Bigjigs will be showcasing new additions to its range of wooden railway toys.

Products include the detailed Christmas Train and Santa Sleigh with Reindeer. The magnetic points on the wagons of the Christmas Train can be lifted and lowered using a third new Christmas-themed rail accessory: the colourful new Candy Crane.

Other new launches for 2015 will also be on show, including the collection of wooden Click Blocks, boasting assorted colours and shapes. The 40-piece Intermediate Pack is a starter set of building bricks which can be added to with the Zesty Basic Pack and Primary Basic Pack, each with a further 20 blocks.

Hall 5 Stand A39 Bizzy Bitz is a new construction toy which boasts numerous educational advantages. It inspires creativity in children and allows them to create anything from necklaces to moving vehicles.

The shapes lock together using a simple and patented ball and socket system and instruction leaflets help the child understand how to get started.

Created by a family with decades of experience of working with children in the education sector, Bizzy Bitz is suitable for all ability levels and enhances fine motor skills, problem solving, engineering and emotional skills.

Bizzy Bitz has won many awards from the Good Toy Guide, Practical Pre-school, Rainbow Awards and the Creative Play Award.

Hall 5 Stand A69 New for 2015 from Esdevium is a range of Disney games, headed up by Disney Pictopia. Esdevium will provide a launch offer for Pictopia at the show.

Also part of the Disney collection is a new Star Wars Timeline. It features original artwork from the trilogy.

Esdevium will showcase a range of Fisher-Price Classics, including the Chatter Telephone and the magical Record Player. A new range of Fisher-Price wooden toys includes a collection of My First animal wheeled toys, Puzzle Stackers and Animal Towers.

Hall 5 Stand B30 Pioneer will be exhibiting its latest balloons and party ranges as well as its Christmas 2015 collection as part of Cardgains Village.

Earlier this year, Pioneer launched a new collection of licensed latex balloons, including licences such as Frozen, Star Wars, Avengers, Mickey and Minnie and many more. The new collection complements the already popular collection of licensed Bubble balloons.

The Qualatex range includes an extensive selection of latex, foil and exclusive Bubble balloons, featuring popular licences such as Disney, Marvel, Nickelodeon, Me to You, Hello Kitty and more. Recent additions to Pioneer’s portfolio are party products, including tableware, candles, badges, banners and confetti.

Hall 4 Stand E20-F21

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Allegedly

The scramble to be the first retailer to release a Christmas top toys list intensified this year, with Hamleys – which has held the proverbial crown for the past few years – gazumped by Argos this time round. The wisdom of releasing a Christmas list so early is still up for debate, not least with embargos precluding the inclusion of any Star Wars items at this early stage. On top of that, the list was unveiled several weeks before the launch of the Argos catalogue (which was itself released quite early this time round), and almost none of the toys mentioned in the list would have been in stock at the time it was announced. The only possible conclusion is that Argos was far more interested in being the first retailer to go public with a list than using it as a specific sales tool. In fairness, there will always be some kudos – and perhaps additional coverage – for the retailer who is first out of the traps, but surely few parents have given a second thought to Christmas purchases in early July. A case of peaking too soon maybe?

The BTHA’s Industry Day, held last month, proved to be another triumph. Proceedings included the presentation of a richlydeserved Lifetime Achievement Award to The Entertainer’s Gary Grant, as well as the usual fascinating array of speakers.

Practicology’s Jeremy Wilson followed the well-worn path of covering the increasing importance of the internet to retail sales, although it would arguably have been even more interesting if he had spent a little time focusing on some of the challenges facing the sector, in particular the looming logistics crisis. You can find more on this subject in this month’s Viewpoint section, where our publisher explores some of the major issues affecting online sales. American toy inventor Bruce Lund discussed why toys matter and talked about how they influence the adults of the future, explaining for example that the Wright Brothers’ interest in flight was galvanised by being given toy aeroplanes as children. It’s difficult to argue with the theory: for instance, had Bruce been given more VTech and LeapFrog products as a child, he may well have mastered the power point presentation better (only kidding – that was a cheap excuse for a gag). Daredevil / madman winter Paralympian Talan Skeels Piggin’s inspirational talk probably humbled everybody in the room; next time anyone has the proverbial ‘bad day at the office’, it will serve as a good reminder to keep things in perspective. Foye Pascoe also spoke about the fantastic ongoing work of the Toy Trust, which dovetailed perfectly with Talan’s talk. It was great to hear that a record amount was raised by this year’s Big Thames Challenge, so a belated congratulations to all concerned….

According to a report in the Guardian, Amazon’s UK operation paid only £11.9m tax last year, despite sales to UK shoppers rising by more than 14% to £5.3bn. The UK subsidiary recorded a meagre profit of £34.4m, as Amazon continued to claim that UK sales were all being made by the group’s Luxembourg arm.

Last month, the retailer quietly reversed this frankly ridiculous position, and will henceforth count sales made to British customers in its UK tax return. However, that development is still unlikely to lead to a leap in Amazon’s UK tax bill, as the company continues to use further controversial measures to shift profits out of Amazon EU Sarl – which reported a loss last year – and back to the US. So whether the level playing field that tax law- abiding UK retailers have been seeking is any nearer remains highly debatable….

One of the people who worked for the consultancy engaged

by Toys R Us to ‘negotiate’ with UK suppliers has apparently left the company. It’s not clear why she has decided to move on already, but it’s unlikely she was given an easy ride during the meetings, and who knows, it’s possible she may even have had some sympathy with some of the points being raised by toy companies. It can’t have been an easy ‘sell’ for her, that’s for sure….

John Lewis has announced that it will be charging £2 for click and collect orders under £30. Good for them for having the courage to take the lead on this. Speaking to a number of major retailers recently, they have all privately bemoaned the cost of servicing online ordering services such as click and collect.

There’s no question that it is eating into already fine retail margins to a worrying extent. Will other retailers now be brave enough to follow suit? And what effect will that have on online sales as a whole? It will certainly be something to keep an eye on moving forward….

The Toy Store buying team is growing: the latest recruit is Sam Muxworthy, who recently left Harrods to take up her new role. Also on the move is Laura Clarke, formerly of Hit Entertainment, who has joined licensing agent Fluid World….

The Government’s proposal to allow local authorities to grant permission for shops to extend their Sunday opening hours has been widely debated since the announcement of the move in the budget. Gary Grant appeared on Radio 2’s Jeremy Vine Show, unsurprisingly voicing his opposition to the move. In fairness, he made some compelling points and came over well very well (perhaps helped by the fact that his debate opponent was the world’s most curmudgeonly woman, Nina Myskow).

Gary pointed out that not trading on a Sunday hasn’t exactly hurt The Entertainer’s business model, and he doubted he’d sell more by opening longer hours, as people are aware of his trading pattern and they’re happy wait until he’s open.

Whether that would hold true for all shops is another matter, but what is certain is that the idea shop workers would have a ‘choice’ on whether or not to work the extra hours on a Sunday is laughable. That said, is it likely proposal will go through?

Absolutely, if only because this move is almost certainly the result of the government horse trading with major retailers over the introduction of the living wage initiative….

Paul Jackson, former owner of the defunct company the InThing, has put another company of which he was a director into receivership. This time round it is Dropship Systems Ltd, trading as I-Spy Distribution, which has bitten the dust. As this has happened with several of Paul’s previous companies, there can surely be few people in the toy trade who weren’t factoring the distinct possibility of this happening into their planning process….

Congratulations to Peter Dawson and Helen Davis, organisers of the Rainbow Toy Awards, who got married in their home town of Thrapston last month. Here’s a picture of the happy couple at the ceremony, complete with what I am sure was an official licensed wedding cake (ahem).

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R E B M E T SEP

Stationery

Discover our Fantastic Ranges at the

Plush Science

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Wooden

We will be showing our latest products at the Autumn Fair, make sure you book an appointment with us!

Come and find us - Hall 5, Stand D10-E11, NEC Birmingham 0844 573 4299

sales@tobar.co.uk

www.tobar.co.uk

N Ar ew r iv al s See ww the f w.a ull bge ran g e.c o.u e k

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*Official Licenced products

A.B.Gee of Ripley Ltd, Asher Lane Business Park, Ripley, Derbyshire, DE5 3SW. Tel: 01773 570444 www.abgee.co.uk Email: sales@abgee.co.uk