Category Archives: Toy News

Toys on Santa list 2013

The postal company Royal Mail in the UK has revealed the presents children have been asking for this year from the letters children have been sending to Father Christmas, Santa, Santa Claus, you know who, the big guy etc.

The presents children really want this year include Lego and One Direction merchandise featuring topping the list.

Royal Mail said it analysed letters from over 200,000 uk children, before they flew and delivered them to the North Pole –

The most requested toy children asked for in their Santa letters was Lego so a traditional toy, one of the latest items Xbox one was 9th place so it shows that younger children still prefer traditional and productive toys and not always tablets, and tech which if we are honest is a tad beyond their age group. continue reading>>

Toy stock 2013 Christmas seems ok at the moment…

Some people are saying that this year with a mixed bag of different toys and electronics a outright hard to find toy or gift may not happen this year. I’m not that convinced as there always seems to be stock delays or hold ups especially within the last 7-10 days when some stores always seem to be surprised by high demand.

However they could have a point,  this year for many a big expense is dominated by the head to head of Sony PS4 and the X-Box One from Microsoft a lot of people will opt for this as the main present this year due to the cost and the knowing that they will use/own for ~10 years. continue reading>>

K’Nex Appoints logistics partner for UK market

US construction toy firm K’Nex has recently appointed Import Services as its logistics partner in the UK.

K’ Nex building sets are designed to let children build and create models by connecting together specially designed building components and the company currently distributes to more than 30 countries worldwide.

Import Services is a retail logistics company for the UK handling products for a number of toy companies who include, Toymaster, Melissa & Doug and Flair GP.

“Over the past several years, K’Nex has grown by leaps and bounds in the United States,” said Michael Araten, president and CEO of K’Nex Brands. continue reading>>

Toy Awards 2014 Nominees Announced

The Toy Industry Association has revealed 84 toy and game finalists for the 2014 Toy of the Year Awards. These were selected from a total number of 520 products submitted by 153 different companies.

People can vote online until 13th Jan at Toyawards.org and each vote could win you some prizes.

ACTIVITY TOY OF THE YEAR
Arts and crafts, construction and other indoor toys that inspire creative play through various forms of activity

•     Hot Wheels Car Maker by Mattel, Inc.
•     Rainbow Loom by Choon’s Design LLC
•     Crayola Melt ‘n Mold Factory by Crayola
•     LEGO Minecraft by The LEGO Group
•     PLAY-DOH PERFECT TWIST ICE CREAM Playset by Hasbro, Inc.
•     GLITZI GLOBES GLITZI SHOWCASE by Moose Toys
•     Spirograph Deluxe Kit by Kahootz Toys continue reading>>

Tamagotchi Relaunced in UK on 21st Dec 2013

The Nineties toy craze Tamagotchi the virtual pet you had to carry around with you to feed and look after is being relaunched by Bandai in the UK this time branded Tamagotchi Friends.

The original version sold 80 million units since first appearing in 1997.  The new Tamagotchi Friends will be on general sale from 21st December and it will look very much like the original but inside it has new technology, now owners can ‘bump’ other owners to send each other texts, gifts and even go on play dates. continue reading>>

Black Friday Opening Times Announced Retailers are really trying hard this year

Christmas Toy season is almost upon us with several of the big names hoping to get extra trade by Toys R Us and Target deciding to open on Thanksgiving evening they will be hoping that Black Friday starting earlier helps them tempt in the shoppers.

Target has announced it will welcome shoppers from 8pm on Thursday 28th which is its earliest opening ever at this time of year. Target has said most stores will be open until 11pm on Friday and that they plan to be open for 14 hours on Christmas Eve and 15hrs on December 26th! continue reading>>

Toy Best sellers Europe Q1-2 2013

Figures from NPD shows the toy market is down slightly in the UK for the first five months of this year and 2% in Italy down 3% and Spain down 2%. In contrast the market in France is +2% and +4% in Germany for the same period. Of course outdoor toys will come into their own during the summer months and these will surely improve the picture later this year. And this is before we come into prime shopping Season for the holidays and Christmas surge in spending.

Toy Best Sellers across Europe Jan-May 13 (source: NPD) continue reading>>

Jumbo Toy Retailer sales exceed 500 Million Euro

Greek toy retailer Jumbo has seen its sales rise slightly by 1.60 percent for the financial year that ended on June 30, taking the group past the 500-million-euro mark for the first time with 502.2 million euros in consolidated sales, compared to 494.3 million euros in the same period last year.

In Greece, the popular retailer saw a small decline in turnover. Sales in Cyprus down a slightly at 1.14 percent, but rose by double digits in Bulgaria.

Jumbo opened four new stores in the financial year from July 2012 to June 2013, three of which are in Greece and one in Bulgaria. continue reading>>

Hasbro buys major stake in Backflip

Hasbro the massive toy company of almost 100 years has surprised many by buying a major stake of 70% in Backflip Studios who are a iOS developer who are well known for their DragonVale game.

The Wall Street Journal is quoting the deal cost a cool $112 million in a cash deal for a 70% slice of the Colorado based company.

Besides DragonVale, Backflip is also well known for the Ragdoll Blaster series, the Paper Toss series, Ninjump and Army of Darkness Defense, among others. Just a few of the heavy hitter brands from Hasbro include Monopoly, Transformers, Play-Doh, My Little Pony, Nerf, and tons more. Interestingly, some of those properties have already been turned into games by the likes of EA and Gameloft, so it will be interesting to see how all that shakes out. At any rate I’ll be looking forward to the fruits of this new Hasbro / Backflip relationship going forward into the future. continue reading>>