Let's go surfing now, everybody's learning how...

...come on and safari with me

With apologies to the Beach Boys, the surfing I mean is web surfing. The Toy Industry of American announced the results of a survey of online activity amongst kids. According to their press release, "gaming is the primary activity driving the online experiences of all kids ages 2 to 14, with 76 percent of all kids on the Internet drawn to social and gaming sites, and education sites rivaling the attention of Tweens (9-12) and Young Teens (13-14)."

"More than one-quarter (28%) of kids who use social gaming/entertainment (SGE) sites have purchased either a physical item or digital content from these sites."

According to the release, "Moms are clearly instrumental in guiding their child’s online experience, and moms are the gatekeeper even for older kids, illustrating the importance of earning mom’s trust. The report cites examples of the site attributes that are trusted by moms and well as key values, with educational topping the list. "

What does this have to do with stores like ours that sell physical toys? Well, the success of toys like Webkinz that offer a physical toy along with online content - and the plethora of knock-offs aimed at that same market suggest that toys with some kind of access to web content could become more popular.

I dunno, I can't imagine kids getting all excited during Holiday gift-giving unwrapping an exclusive web code that allows a virtual toy ability to get some kind of virtual gift. Plus, IMHO, things like Webkinz limit the ability of a child to play creatively - they are somewhat forced into playing how the online game says they can play. Toys like Lego's are wonderful because they allow the child to build exactly according to the instructions or totally ignore the instructions and build whatever they want. Is this the future of the toy industry? I hope not.

You can check out the press release here. The entire report is available to purchase from the TIA people.

Hilarious piece on FAO Schwartz in 'This American Life'

I'm a big fan of 'This American Life,' a NPR show that airs each week. It's a show (now spunoff into a TV Series on Showtime) that focus' on one theme each week and presents 3-5 'acts' (stories) that are variations of the themes.

On the way down to Disney World, my wife and I listened to some of the podcasts of past shows that had backed up on my Ipod. Show number 347, 'Matchmakers' featured a often hilarious retelling of the experiences of selling ultra high-end Middleton Dolls at FAO Schwartz, in New York City. The storyteller is Elna Baker, an actress in NYC who took a job in the FAO 'Nursery' selling....er....adopting these babies to rich New York kids. When the dolls are portrayed on a TV show, the demand for the babies skyrocket. Listen to the podcast as the Ms. Baker relates what happens when rich white mommies are faced with a racial dilemma. You can listen to the show by clicking the link above and streaming it, or buy it for 95 cents. Fast forward the show to about 41 minutes - Act three.

Disney's version of a toy store

OK, so I need to come clean off the bat. I eagerly drink the Disney Kool-Aid. I swallowed the blue pill a long time ago, and have a special place in my heart for all things Disney - especially Disney World.

It's funny, cause in the rest of my life, I am not a big fan of gihugant companies who's goals are to take over the world and charge you an arm and a leg for the service. But, plop me on Main St. in Disneyworld, and I'm five years old again.

I just got back from Disney World. (If you're curious, it's about a 15 hour drive straight through from Kissimmee) While there, I visited two stores that Disney identified as 'toy stores.' I say identified because every store in the entire Disney owned megalopolis sells toys.

One, 'Der Teddybar' in the German pavilion in Epcot Center sells German toys only. We went in and saw a selection of Playmobil, Steiff, Schleich, Ravensburger puzzles and some more stuff.
It's not a bad toy store, but it really doesn't do the tradition that is German toys justice. It's nice that they went to the effort of merchandising German owned toy companies and all, but I thought that perhaps it would have been nice to show off some of the history of the German toys throughout the years and offer some toys from smaller German toy companies. There was nothing at Der Teddybar that I haven't seen in dozens of specialty toy stores before.

The other 'Toy Store' we saw was 'Once Upon a Toy,' in the Downtown Disney shopping area. Again, it was nice and all, but how many times can you look at a mountain of Disney toys before you get sleepy. They had a cool 'make your own' Mr. Potato Head section, but I'd seen those before.

Disney does so many things well at Disney World, maybe I'm being a bit too picky about the stores. Maybe it's excellence in doing all the other things magnificently makes it easy for me to expect everything to be done perfectly.

Oh, and off topic - if you're going to Disney World, I wholeheartedly recommend picking up 'The Unofficial Guide to Disney World.' We stuck to the touring plans in the back of the book and, on one of the busiest weeks of the year for Disney, we spent no more than 25 minutes in line for any attraction and rode everything we wanted to ride (including Rock N Rollercoaster twice). Easily the best $20 I spent for the Disney trip.

My Uglydolls can kick your Uglydolls butt!

Boys dig Uglydolls. Curious, cause when I was a kid any boy caught playing with a doll would get his butt kicked three ways till Friday. Of course, I was a kid like thirty friggin' years ago, when they kicked your butt for having short hair and using the wrong curse words. Good times, but I digress...

The New York Times has an awesome article about the attraction of the Uglydoll for boys. I knew the minute I saw them that they weren't gonna sell. Happily, I was wrong and now I'm a big fan of the Uglydolls. At Toy Fair this year, I noticed David Horvath (co-creator of the Uglydolls) at the Ugly booth. I was too nervous to go introduce myself to him. I was thinking, "What am I gonna say? 'Uh...Hi David....I like your dolls'" I'm either not dorky enough or too dorky for that. Oh well. Check out David's awesome blog.

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.

Hannah Montana is bad for you...

...or at least her toys are. The CSPC has found that at least five and as many as nine Hannah Montana toys are over the legal limit for lead. Most of the toys seem to be vinyl accessories (like backpacks, wallets, etc).

Check out this report on the CBS page

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?