A $350 yo-yo?

Surely you must be kidding?

Nope, and stop calling me Shirley. And what's more, it sold out in minutes. Anti-Yo, a boutique yo-yo manufacturer from San Francisco, released 75 of the BSP yo-yo. (I'd tell you what BSP stands for, but I'd have to wash my mouth out with soap - those naughty yo-yo manufacturers!) It's a magnificent yo-yo - made entirely of titanium with one half of the yo-yo covered in a zirconium nitrate finish. It's pretty much indestructible. Plus, it sparks when you 'walk the dog' on concrete.

Five retailers around the globe had them on hand to sell as the clock hit midnight Saturday night, and Mitchell's was one of them. We had four of the pricey playthings to sell and once we held a couple for Mitchell's Yo-Yo Club members, we had two that we put online at midnight. They were gone at 12:02 am. Similary, online yo-yo retailers YoYoNation and YoYoGuy sold out in minutes - that is minutes after their web servers recovered initial crash of their sites.

Can there really be 75 people in the world who would spend $350 for a yo-yo? Well, actually, there are more. Plenty of people in both store's online web forums were grumbling that they were not fast enought to scarf up the uber yo-yo.

Where will it end? A $500 yo-yo? A $1000 yo-yo? I certainly was not very comfortable ordering four of these, in the fear that we'd sit on them. Of course now I'm kicking myself for not ordering more.

Prepare to be Domo-similated!

Domo is coming. Be afraid, be very afraid.

Well, OK, you really don't need to be THAT afraid. Domo is on his way from Japan to Nickelodeon for his own TV show. Play Along is releasing the brown furry box (furry box? reminds me of when our trash company was on strike and our boxes sat in the dumpster for weeks on end) in plush format to coincide with the debut of the show.

Sure, he looks very Uglydoll-ish, but I seem to recall seeing lots of Domo stuff at Toy Fair.

According to the Domo-kun Wikipedia page, "Domo, the main character, is described as "a strange creature that hatched from an egg." Domo-kun's favorite food is Japanese-style meat and potato stew, and he has a strong dislike for apples, due to an unexplained mystery in his DNA. Domo-kun is known to pass gas repeatedly when nervous or upset."

Sounds like a winner, no?

Speaking of disturbing 1980's schlock, Cabbage Patch kids are celebrating their 25th Anniversary this year, and Play Along is planning to release retro versions of the Cabbage Patch dolls, hoping to attract the moms of today to what would have been a toy from their youth. Although I've never been a fan of Cabbage Patch kids, I did like the Geico commercial:

Is a green wave coming? AKA "What's all the hub bub, bub?"

I've written about green toys before here and here, and certainly with all the recalls last year and the awareness of lead paint, there's been a new crop of toys coming out that, at the least, stress their safety and, at most, have gone above and beyond by making their toys from recycled material and natural finishes. But, is it a trend? Is it backlash against the safety issues from last year. OR will people demand safer toys until they see the pricetag on something completely safe then sneak back to Walmart to buy their $6.72 Barbie and figure "eh, I ate toy paint when I was a kid and feel OK?"

Consider the lastest in all natural toys. The Swedish company Playsam has introduced their latest to their line of 'executive toys,' the 'miljöbil' (above) - a 'green' wooden toy car that will set you back $50. If you're not aware of Playsam's products, they are absolutely gorgeous wooden toys made in Sweden and aimed squarely at the adult market. I've always had a dilemma about this kind of stuff. It looks cool, but will people really part with $50 for a wooden toy car?

Do the robot!

Robots were all over the place at Toy Fair this year, ranging from the Elmo robot-like doll, to Lego Mindstorms to Robotis (left) and more. Check out this article on ABC's news site about the robotization of toys.

Best Toy at Toy Fair

I had to post about the worst toy at Toy Fair first, well, because it was so awful!
This leads me into the best toy I saw at Toy Fair. Sprig Toys is a new Colorado based company that showed it's line of toys at Toy Fair. Their toys are made out of 'Sprigwood™' - which, according to their website is "a durable, child-safe, bio-composite material made from recycled wood and reclaimed plastic. No decorative paint is used in the production process." They're also battery free, but feature lights, sounds and speech - they're kid powered! Kids power the vehicles. And, they're cute to boot! They're slated to ship in the fall of 2008, and they promise to be a popular item come this Holiday season.

Lego at Toy Fair

Our Lego experience at Toy Fair consisted of a breezy 20-minute tour through the booth. We asked to be brief, and our rep complied.
What was most impressive about our Lego experience at Toy Fair were all the life-sized Lego people that were in New York City. Sunday night we attended the ASTRA Party with the Stars event at FAO Schwartz. FAO had multiple life-sized Lego people - including four Harry Potter figures (see Ron to the left with Scabbers/Peter Pettigrew), Sponge-Bob and R2-D2. They also had a huge Lego city set up. The Lego booth at Toy Fair had Indiana Jones, C3PO and a Star Wars clone figure.
Lego's new offerings this year include new Star Wars sets from the Clone Wars television show coming later this year, new license Speed Racer, updated sets in the City Line. Click here for some pics of the sets from Gearlog.

Bindi Irwin for Sale!

I write this post with conflicting feelings. On one hand, like millions of others, I was shocked and dismayed at the sudden death of Steve Irwin, the Croc Hunter. Sure, he was over the top, but he was fun and you could tell he was into what he did for a living. After his death last year, Wild Republic launched the Steve Irwin line of toys, which seemed a little hinky.
This year, Wild Republic launched, with tons of publicity (bags handed out at Toy Fair, buses painted with ads), the Bindi Irwin doll. The launch, which was not without controversy, ended up kinda split between Toy Fair and FAO Schwartz. The official launch was to take place at Toy Fair, with Bindi being billed as in attendance both Sunday and Monday. However, Toy Fair is a trade show, and is off-limits to children under 18. Since Bindi is nine, she was technically not allowed inside the Fair. (oh, by the way, I saw at least three people under 18 in the fair - including a baby in a booth that featured baby-dolls). The Toy Fair people offered them an exception to allow Bindi to go, but her mother said (according to the New York Post) "No, thank you. I don't want Bindi to grow up being the exception." Um......er.....so, she hosts a show on TV, makes appearances all over the world (and sings?) and now you decide that making an exception to allow her to launch her own doll at Toy Fair is over the top?
Now, like I said, I'm conflicted about this, because the point of all seems to help the Australia Zoo and raise awareness of wildlife protection, but I'm worried about the affect all this will have on a nine year old girl who lost her father doing the same thing. Plus, her mom mentioned at the launch of her doll (mom filled in for Bindi) that Bindi's four year old brother, Robert, was recently bitten by a baby boa constrictor.

Toy Fair wrap up

Three days, thousands of booths, countless numbers of toys, the shameless er, 'marketing' of a little girl, karaoke singing, a two-hour YoYoRadio show, humongous plates of pasta and more were some of the experiences we had at Toy Fair 2008. Sketchy internet access and time limitations ended up preventing me from updating while at Toy Fair, but now that I'm back, I'll start posting about what we saw at Toy Fair 2008.

Toy Fair 2008

Well, I head off to Toy Fair later today. I promise to take lots of pictures, and I will post updates each night if my not so trust iBook laptop behaves. As I mentioned back here, the talk at Toy Fair this year promises to be dominated by the devastating recalls of 2007 and what's being done to make sure our children's toys are safe for 2008.

Here's a couple articles that talk about safety in toys being the talk of Toy Fair:

CNN Money
Newsweek
Reuters

Elmo just flew in from Sesame Street yesterday...

...and boy, are his arms tired. Bad da dump.

Fisher Price introduced the newest in the line of their Elmo dolls, and this one is the grandmonster of em all. Check out this YouTube video of Elmo.

Paris?

Say it ain't so. German toy maker Simba has debuted their new line of Paris Hilton dolls at the 2008 Nuremberg Toy Fair. The dolls, which apparently are not modeled to look like Paris, have outfits and accessories picked by the ultra rich socialite.

The dolls, which apparently will be available only in Europe, will sell for the equivalent of $13. They come out later this year.

Just what we need, a doll modeled after someone that girls around the world can really look up to. Someone who's made their way in this world. Who's sacrificed to get ahead....ugh...

Zero emission toys...

OK, if you recall my earlier post about how my guess as to what's gonna be the big thing at Toy Fair would be safe toys and organic toys....how about a zero emission radio controlled car? Well, Corgi is debuting one this week at the German Toy Fair in Nuremberg where it won the 2008 ToyAward in the Electronics & Technology category, according to a Corgi press release.

The H2Go is a hydrogen powered vehicle. It has no batteries, it is made of wheat-based plastics. It's solar panels both power the vehicle and help create electricity.

"We are delighted about the great trust placed in our H2Go. The H2Go is not just a radio-controlled car featuring new technology but also a symbol of the toy industry's impending adjustment to a future powered by clean energy," said Michael Cookson, CEO of Corgi International.

Hopefully, this will be available to check out at the New York Toy Fair, cause it sounds realy cool!

Check out this video from YouTube:

mmm.....earthworms...

I just got the new Insect Lore catalog yesterday, and one of their new items for this year is the "Earthworm Nursery." Insect Lore makes the really cool Butterfly Garden we sell each year, so I'm sure it's a good quality item. You raise the earthworms from Earthworm cocoons (who knew?) and once they grow up, you can release them into your yard! You get certificate good for 15-20 Earthworm cocoons and the growth soil. It should retail for around $25.
Check out this really cool webpage, which is for Advanced Prarie - the company that provides the cocoons for Insect Lore. It has everything you ever wanted to know (even if you didn't know you did) about their patented technique to reintroduce earthworms into farm fields during the planting process.

Hey Ugly!

Yea, I'm talkin' to you. If you haven't discovered Uglydolls, what the heck is wrong with you? When I first saw them at Toy Fair a couple years ago, I thought, "those are just about the dumbest thing I've ever seen." (FYI, here's the dumbest thing I've ever seen at Toy Fair) Well, paint me purple and call me Susan, cause these ugly critters are hot. We've sold hundreds of the attractive-challenged toys! Why? Well, they're so ugly, they're cute, plus they're ultra soft and each toy features a wonderfully wacky tag that describes them. Pictured above are the newest of the Uglydolls which are (Front row, L to R): Poe (a dragon who hates to fly and loves Chocolate ice cream), Babo's Bird (Babo can't stand birds, but his is his), Plunko (a business man) (Back row, L to R): Puglee (she's super smart!) and Ugly Ghost (found way out beyond the back exits of Uglytown). First scheduled to arrive? - Poe!

What's new with Thomas?

Thomas the Tank Engine, always one of our staples, had a bit of a rough year last year. RC2, the company that makes Thomas, started the big round of recalls when they recalled some Thomas wooden train items. RC2 took a hit, both in the public eye and with sales. I know what you're thinking, "why should we trust them?" Well, they've installed a new 'Multi-Check Safety System,' in which they promise increased testing of raw materials and finished products, tougher certification programs for contractors, mandatory paint control procedures, increased random inspections of manufacturers and suppliers and zero tolerance for compromise on specs. Read the whole plan here.


Now, how about new stuff? Well, happily, Thomas is coming out with new stuff for your Thomas layout - some are already here, some are coming later. Sir Topham Hatt car (top)arrives next month. So does the Oil Derrick (left), which looks really neat. Keep an eye on our Thomas department for the new arrivals.

Indy, Anyone?

So, back when Star Wars Episode I came out, Lego jumped into the licensed toy market by making a bunch of Lego Star Wars sets. We jumped on em and had tons in stock. Guess what? They didn't sell so well. They weren't as bad as lots of the other Star Wars toys that came out, but sales for them weren't so great. Lego whittled down the collection and moved on.

End of story, right?

Guess again. For the past several years, demand for the Lego Star Wars toys has increased dramatically. Each year, we've been sold out of stuff early into the Holiday season and have not had an ability to reorder due to overwhelming demand. Why? My guess is the interest was driven by the hugely successful Lego Star Wars video games that emerged the last couple of years. The games let kids play using the Lego sets and in the form of the Lego Star Wars characters.

So, now Lego has just released sets to accompany this year's release of the latest Indiana Jones movie. The movie is set to come out on May 22nd. Those LucasArts folks aren't dummies - there's a video game set to come out as well with Lego Indy Jones (video game trailer below). We're stocking the Indy Lego stuff (it has yet to arrive), so we'll see if the demand for Indy Lego matches that for Star Wars Lego.