Toy Fair 2011 – The Next Kid Thing

Lego Encourages Kids to Rock Out with Duplo Jams

May 9, 2011 by Jen Rabulan-Bertram

LEGO aptly describes their construction play sets as catalysts for ideas, and I couldn’t agree more. Like many of you, we’ve sat for hours playing LEGOs, building architectural masterpieces, crazy vehicles and pretend food, among other whatchamacalits… The possibilities are endless, but one thing’s for sure: creative play and LEGO go hand in hand.

At Toy Fair, LEGO once again invited bloggers to their booth for an after-hours party where we had the chance to check out all of the upcoming sets and more. Aside from their beloved bricks, LEGO gave us a peek at their latest foray into the creative play space: Duplo Jams.

LEGO launched Duplo Jams as a new dimension to encourage and inspire creative play for toddlers and preschoolers. The three songs that are currently available are all written and performed by a preschool dad that everyone listen to for free. Duplo Jams has a dedicated iTunes channel and Facebook Page where the free songs can be accessed and are also hubs for future anticipated releases. To encourage further creativity, LEGO says they plan to release a new song every month.

We found the British Pop inspired-songs, “Sort Out the Blues,” “Build with Letters,” and “Stick Together,” to be catchy and cool, and a funky musical backdrop while we play in the playroom. As more parents are realizing the importance of limiting screentime, musical outlets such as Duplo Jams are a fun way to shift the kids’ eyeballs to hands-on play and complement with good kid tunes, where copious sing-a-longs and dance parities are expected.

Many families already engage their kids in kiddie music classes, so I think Duplo Jams is such a great way to reinforce many kids’ natural love of music. We’re a musical family, so we can usually be found jamming out one way or another, and it goes without saying, Duplo Jams is perfect complement to our eclectic playlist.

Be sure to check out Duplo Jams’ latest releases on their iTunes channel—for free!

New Duplo Sets

And speaking of Duplo, have you seen the latest playsets? Here are just a few:

TOTY: Best Toys and Games Honored at TF11

February 24, 2011 by Jen Rabulan-Bertram

Toy Fair may have been a grand stage to unveil the latest and greatest toys, but it was also the perfect backdrop to honor the best innovations from the previous year.

To kick off Toy Fair, the Toy Industry Association held their annual Toy of The Year Awards Celebration at a gala at Lincoln Center. I may not have attended the event, but I “watched” from a distance on Twitter. Among the best in show included many NKT faves such as LeapFrog, Crayola, Squinkies and Hexbug, with Mattel’s Sing-a-ma-jigs nabbing the Toy of the Year title.

Here’s the list of this year’s TOTY winners:

Toy Fair 2011: Hasbro Showroom, Boy Toys

February 18, 2011February 22, 2011 by Jen Rabulan-Bertram

Along with many of my blogging and media colleagues, Toy Fair affords us an opportunity to take a glimpse into toy manufacturers’ lineup of new products for 2011. A few big brands opened their doors for informational tours of booths and showrooms, including #2 toy maker, Hasbro.

I already mentioned a few notables from our tour of Hasbro’s Toy Fair showroom, but Hasbro continues to underscore their success in existing toys and licenses, which includes many of the familiar products that have shows on the new family channel, the Hub, a joint venture with Discovery Communications.

I’m finding it quite difficult to organize everything I saw over the past few weeks, so I’ll try to post them in good-sized chunks to avoid bombarding too much information at once.

Here are just a few of the many new toys for boys from Hasbro:

Hasbro’s new Boys Toys didn’t disappoint. Marvel Super Heroes, once again, have a big presence in Hasbro’s lineup of new toys. With Thor and Captain America hitting the big screen later this year, Hasbro has several new toys, including role play sets, that will have launches coinciding with movie releases.

(above) The Lightning Hammer is a replica of Thor’s signature weapon, and is fully equipped with electronic battle sounds and a launching projectile.

The Captain America Disc Launching Shield fires miniature foam disks and has a diameter of 15 inches.

Because I have a smaller super hero fan, I love the Super Hero Squad 3-Packs. In addition to other popular super heroes, Hasbro will have Thor and Captain America 3-Packs as well. I’m excited to see this segment of Super Heroes go on to expand with more accessories and playsets

Aside from the Marvel Super Heroes, Rescue Bots (Transformers) and Star Wars are joining this chunkier line up for smaller hands.

Toy Fair 2011 Trends and Beyond

February 17, 2011 by Jen Rabulan-Bertram

Whew. What an exhausting week it’s been. You probably wouldn’t know it from my absence here on NKT, but I was at the New York Toy Fair, and what a productive week it was!

Every time I attempted to write up a post or two, I was distracted by toys or discussion about toys with my blogger pals. For my second year at Toy Fair, it was yet another fun adventure, and one that I’m excited to share.

From babies to big kids, manufacturers are stepping in up with their latest fares. I spotted a lot of great trends ranging from active-inspired toys and games, to tech enhanced toys, to many licensed products in line with new movie releases (Pirates of the Carribean, Cars 2, Captain America, Green Lantern, etc.) to toys that continue to mimic the real world and of course, anything that’s old is new again.

Still in the process of digesting all this information and downloading the thousands of photos I took, I can’t wait to share more detailed information and sneak peeks of new toys, books and gifts that I saw in my travels.

In the meantime, here are just a few of the many photos I took over Toy Fair:

Skylanders Spyro’s Adventures from Activision incorporates actual toys with video game play. This game, geared to gradeschoolers and up, is unique, exciting and the first of its kind.

Call it Monopoly 2.0 or video games of the future, Monopoly Live involves electronic interactivity, player recognition and more.

In line with their 10-year deal with Sesame Street, Playskool rolled out their new line that celebrates America’s favorite furry monsters. Let’s Rock Elmo was the big reveal in this new Sesame Street line boasting accessory recognition, dancing and singing capability and more.

Megablok’s Need for Speed line was one of the many licenses-turned-toy/games that’s indicative of the impact games and apps have on kids and the products we’re finding on our toy store shelves.

Continuing on with the Teeny Tiny trend that I talked about last year and a trend that we saw continuous growth all year, Spinmaster is introducing Gomu, another line that will have girls lining up to collect more teeny tiny toys. Gomu, a line of tiny erasers, was one of my personal favorites since I love pens, pencils and writing tools, and collectible (and affordable) erasers.

I’ll be back with more finds and thoughts from Toy Fair 2011, but in the meantime, feel free to check out my Flickr photos.