By Staff -- Playthings, 2/15/2009 10:09:00 PM
Feb. 15, 2009 —Toy Fair at New York’s Javits Center began today with what was considered by many to be a pleasantly surprising start. One former sales rep at tonight’s ASTRA party at FAO Schwarz called it “a normal Toy Fair”—in and of itself a noteworthy achievement considering the run-up to the show has been anything but normal amid global economic troubles and months of bureaucratic wrangling that looked like there might be nothing to actually show at this year’s show.

Walking the show floor today wasn’t nearly the doom-laden gloom fest some predicted. Generally, exhibitors were feeling fairly upbeat to have come out of 2008 still in one piece and when asked, were nearly unanimous in reporting better than expected business in January. And while the days of jam packed tradeshows look more and more to be a thing of the past, at least for a while today Toy Fair looked like a place people wanted to be, with aisles busy enough to keep most exhibitors content and nothing particularly vexing for people whine about.

Not everything’s business as usual, though. The economy does seem to be having an impact in more subtle ways. Unlike in years past, there have yet to be any major mergers or acquisitions announced, for example. That’s a rarity for Toy Fair’s Day 1. Similarly sleepy has been news of new licenses. And in the booths, product is looking different than it might have had the world’s economic bubble not burst. The easiest way to describe this year’s major trends is that once larger products are now smaller, they have fewer electronic features than they might have—as one licensor put it: “Parents are looking for things that are quieter”—and are more “basic” than they might have been in the recent past. To use a baseball analogy, it would seem that for the major manufacturers we’ve visited so far, there’s a greater emphasis on offering retailers a steady stream of singles instead of swinging for the fences on every pitch.

Here’s some of what we found noteworthy today:

Lego announced a multi-year licensing agreement with Disney Consumer Products that gives the construction toy brand access to “an extensive portfolio of renowned Disney and Disney-Pixar properties.” The initial products currently in development are for Disney-Pixar’s Toy Story and Cars, and for Prince of Persia: Sands of the Time, Jerry Bruckheimer’s big screen adaptation of the video game franchise. All are scheduled to launch in 2010. The company also plans a promotional effort to mark the 10th anniversary of its Star Wars licensed products. Included in the push is an exclusive model, The Home One Mon Calamari Star Cruiser, available this August at Toys “R” Us, Lego Stores and Lego’s website.

In other Disney-Pixar licensing news, Carrera of America is expanding its GO!!! line of 1:43 scale slot car racing sets with designs based on Cars, plus has inked a deal with Marvel Comics for Go!!! Spider-Man products based on the fourth edition of the movie franchise. Carerra, long known for slot cars, is also expanding its U.S. product line to include Pull&Speed brand self-powered cars, Mizumi air-powered water guns and Baufix wooden construction sets from its Austrian parent company, Stadlbauer Marketing.

Hasbro continues to find more ways to leverage its bedrock brands, whether it’s an in between scale of My Little Pony products or ever more ingenius ways to reconfigure its classic board games in new iterations, from card games to travel versions to handhelds to its growing relationship with Electronics Arts for video games of all stripes based on Parker Bros. and Milton Bradley brands. It also threw a few curve balls—like Yankee Candle licensed jigsaw puzzles—and a blowback pitch or two to keep the competition on its toes, like the Scrabble Apple game, featuring Scrabble tiles in a plush apple-shaped bag. Think Bananagrams.

iToys talked up big plans to revive the turn of the millennium's almost-craze, Crazy Bones, after a successful relaunch of the collectible figurine-based game in the U.K., where the company said it has sold upwards of 18 million packs in less than a year. iToys will introduce the game with three figure packs at US specialty retailers this spring, followed by distribution at mass this fall on blister cards. More pressing, though, may be its rollout of (and anticipated IP defense efforts for) Kenken, the toymaker’s math-enhanced version of Sudoku, on the heels of the game’s appearance alongside the New York Times’ crossword puzzle earlier this year.

USAopoly has the video game blogosphere fired up for a classically low-tech play experience: a version of Hasbro’s Risk strategy game based on the latest Halo title, Halo Wars. It also has licenses lines up for another timeless pursuit—chess—based on Nintendo’s Super Mario characters and Charles Schultz’s Peanuts. The company also showed off a non-licensed game, Telestrations, a party game based on "the telephone game," but instead of players whispering a message from ear to ear, each draws their understanding of the message based only on the preceding player’s drawing of what they thought the previous player drew.

Corolle previewed a baby doll for a younger than usual demographic, 2-year-olds, with its Bebe Tresor at an appropriately smaller size (14 inches) than its more typical 17-inch baby dolls for kids 3 and up in order to better fit within the grasp of a smaller child.

Musical toy maker Schoenhut showed off an oversized book-plus, Twinkle Tunes Piano Book, that incorporates a small non-electronic piano keyboard into a beginner’s book of songs.

U.S. Games is going after the market for all things Obama with President Obama’s 500 Promises, a deck of cards enumerating each of the promises then-candidate Obama made so political junkies can keep track of the progress made on fulfilling each with help from PolitiFact.com.

I Can Do That! Games previewed an educationally oriented Twister-style game, Dr. Seuss’ Super Stretchy ABCs, the latest in its activity based titles, along with an assortment of no-sweating-involved card games and bingo titles. For its other major license, Curious George, the company has three games at purposely varied price points (none is more than $19.99) in a nod to consumers’ concerns over costs.

Alexander Doll unveiled its first male Cissy doll, the perfect partner for its new Grace Kelly collection. Other additions to the company’s line included cloth dolls based on the Pinkalicious books by Elizabeth and Victoria Kann.

In addition to its ever-expanding global effort for its Chaotic trading card game/TV series, 4Kids Entertainment was preparing a bigger push with Playmates for its Dinosaur King property, the results of which won’t fully show until 2010, and was in talks with potential US master toy licensees for its Russian import property GoGoRiki.

Elenco covered all the ecological bases in the Snap Circuits Green kit. The single set includes the ability to experiment with generating electricity using either a hand cranked dynamo, solar power, wind or chemical reaction using common household products, like cola.

The market for products with a charity tie-in expands to include Kauzbots, a series of 10 soft toy robots, 10 percent of the retail price of each supports a different charity. The first four SKUs are already available—the first fruits of an idea that hatched just a few months ago.

…That’s all for now. More news in our next Show Buzz from the American International Toy Fair on Tuesday. In the meantime, watch for Breaking News reports and Twitter updates from the show exclusively from Playthings.