Just after last week’s Blog hit the wires, I headed off to New York for my final trip of Toy Fair Season. Thankfully, the journey went without a hitch, unlike the poor passengers on one Virgin flight, which was cancelled due to engine failure. Some people ended up taking almost 27 hours to get to New York, including Midco’s Dave Middleton who had set off from Derby at 1.00 in the morning to get to the airport. Buddy the Elf took less time to get to New York and he came from the North Pole!
I made it to the Big Apple in time to join the US toy community at the TOTY awards on Friday evening. The ceremony was as grand as ever, but there were plenty of surprises on the night: the awards are often dominated by the big guns, but not this time round. Sure, Lego, Mattel, Spin Master, Zuru and Hasbro each posted a category win, but this time round there were no multiple winners for the industry giants. Instead, the likes of Plus Plus, The Loyal Subjects and Solobo Toys beat off more established competitors, while it was a fantastic night for the UK & Ireland, with Innov8’s Deddy Bears winning Collectible of the Year and Wow! Stuff picking up both Tech Toy and the overall Toy of the Year awards for its iconic Real FX Stitch Puppetronic. I first saw Stitch hidden behind a curtain (who needs secret padlocked rooms?!) at the previous New York Toy Fair in September 2023 – what an incredible journey he’s had since then. Understandably Richard North was thrilled, nearly knocking me over as he threw his arms around me when we first caught up after the ceremony. That’s what it means to a ‘smaller player’ (and I say that in the nicest sense of the word) to win. On top of that, this was the first time a UK company had ever won the US Toy of the Year award and also picked up both the top UK and US awards in the same year – a truly phenomenal achievement.
The evening itself was hugely enjoyable: from watching the amazing double act of Alan Hassenfeld (attending his 60th New York Toy Fair!) and Neil Freedman presenting an award, to catching up with people I hadn’t seen for ages (including John Barbour, who had been invited by his former protégé Greg Ahearn, now president of the Toy Association), even the jetlag didn’t curtail my enjoyment. It was also lovely to see a couple of Brits mentioned in the In Memoriam section (Clive Wooster and Ranjit Dhutti), alongside US luminaries including my good friend Richard Gottlieb. As we’ve seen on a wider stage in recent weeks, there really is a close relationship between the UK and the US – it would be a massive shame to see that destroyed.
Indeed, I found that many US colleagues made reference to being hugely impressed by our politicians in the strange days we currently find ourselves in – after the Lettuce and the Scarecrow, it’s nice to be seen as the sensible voice in the room for a change.
Read the rest here.
