New York Toy Fair brought Toy Fair Season to a close this week. If you were there, I hope you had a successful trip. Having had to miss out on this occasion, I’ve been keeping a close eye on social media to see what’s been happening. I read plenty of positive reports on the show, as well as a few posts trying once again to open up the acrimonious ‘East Coast v West Coast’ debate. At times, it all feels a bit like the rap scene of the 90s – two sides with very different, entrenched points of view, each convinced they are in the right and each with what they believe to be compelling arguments to back up their perspective. It’s certainly not my place to get involved – that’s a dialogue for the US toy community to continue exploring.
The TOTY awards provided a fitting curtain-raiser to the show itself, raising an incredible $1m for the Toy Foundation. With 800 people in attendance at Pier Sixty, that’s certainly how you put on a toy award ceremony. Spin Master took home the prestigious Toy of the Year award for its Primal Hatch line, while the full winners list included an interesting mix of global behemoths and brand-new, challenger companies. Congratulations to all of the winners, and also to MGA’s Isaac Larian, Melissa and Doug Bernstein and G.I. Joe inventor Stanley Weston on being inducted into the Toy Hall of Fame – worthy recipients all. The event also saw the Toy Association introduce the Alan G. Hassenfeld Humanitarian Award in honour of the late Alan Hassenfeld, former CEO of Hasbro and prominent industry philanthropist – and by all accounts there wasn’t a dry eye in the house. The last time I saw Alan was at last year’s TOTY event, and it is wonderful that his memory will live on and he will continue to be an integral part of these glittering occasions for many years to come.
At the show, although it appears that the mood was largely upbeat after the US market grew healthily last year, I gather there was still some concern over what might happen with tariffs this year. A judgement is due any day now from the US Supreme Court, but even if that decision falls the way that everyone in the toy community hopes, it won’t necessarily mean it’s over. The White House has threatened to find “other tools to impose tariffs”, which sounds rather ominous. What we don’t need is another year of uncertainty and volatility: let’s hope the President finds something else to focus his attention on (as long as it isn’t Greenland…).
Back here in the UK, Amazon has ruffled a few feathers after bringing in a new rule that each individual ASIN has to be uploaded directly to its portal by a testing company providing “direct validation”.
Read the rest here.
