Get ready for Toy Fair 2011 by acquainting yourself with some of the newest companies and products. TDmonthly Magazine brings you a small sampling of offerings from Toy Fair's first-time exhibitors. Don't forget to check in with TDmonthly after the Fair, too; we'll show you videos of the latest and greatest:
BABIES 'N BUBBLES Bibo Collection by BABIES 'N BUBBLES
Made in Brazil, these life-like babies that float inside a magic bubble feature artistic characteristics such as skin, touch, and other life-like baby properties. Sculpted by Luciana Miglioranzi. Awards: 2009 DotY Award Industry Choice, 2009 DotY Award People's Choice, 2010 IDEX Tiny Treasures
Wi$eMoney, The Town of Financial Literacy by DESTINA INC.
Wi$eMoney is a fun learning game for ages 13 to adult. Two to twelve players in two to four teams follow footprints in and around the fictitious Town of Financial Literacy. The entire family learns about banking, investing, budgeting, payday, financial responsibility, financing, credit, and identity protection. Players face real world situations and challenges as they learn the secrets of money management. "We created Destina...Wi$eMoney, a team-based board game, to give families a fun, engaging way to help everyone learn and remember financial basics for a successful life," Elizabeth Treher, founder of Destina, Inc., told TDmonthly.
Discover With Dr. Cool Fluorescent Rock Kit by DISCOVER WITH DR. COOL
Discover rare glowing fluorescent minerals. Shine a UV light on these fluorescent minerals and what looks like an ordinary rock suddenly becomes a brilliant display of fluorescent color. Only 15-percent of the world's minerals are fluorescent, making for a fun challenge to go hunting for more of these rare minerals. Kit includes a portable, battery powered UV lamp, 6 fluorescent minerals that glow in beautiful colors and an information packet filled with fun experiments. Requires 4 AA batteries.
This patent-pending version of an elastic bracelet takes it to a whole new level – perpendicular to the wrist. Piggybacks, “The Bandz That Stand™" have incorporated a mini shaped band that “piggybacks” on top of the traditional shaped rubber band allowing, the top shape to be easily seen when placed on the wrist. A Piggyback Bandz looks similar to many other band bracelets until you slide it on your wrist and watch it stand at attention, upright. The bandz can be layered with one, two or a half-dozen more to create a word, a secret code, a design or whatever the imagination whips up.
Helmtops are soft helmet decorations to style bike, skate, ski and snowboard helmets. Helmtops come in playful designs that let children and adults personalize their helmet. "Helmtops encourage children to get active in a safe way," Gregg Mastoras, owner of Helmtops, told TDmonthly. Awards: 2010 - Creative Child Magazine, Seal of Excellence. Launch Date: February 2011 at Toy Fair
Look Out World, Here I Come!™ New York Adventure Kit by LOOK OUT WORLD
This is a 30-minute interactive DVD and activity book. Children will enjoy the animated characters, Otto, Blink, and Casey on their adventures as they visit all the real sights and sounds of New York City, while singing along to original music and learning age appropriate concepts and themes. Each DVD comes packaged with a 36-page activity book that gives parents and children creative ideas on how to explore New York City together and enrich their experience. Awards: Dr. Toy 100 Best Children's Products - 2010
The ghouls and goblins are on their way... Halloween Dust will keep them at bay! Halloween Dust will add a little sparkle to your trick or treating and is sure to keep you safe along the way.
Meet Moopus McGlinden, canine side-kick to Mrs. Pinkelmeyer, Silliest, Warmest Know-It-All. Tag along with Moopus on his adventures. He is 12" tall, with plush, cuddly fur. Moopus is designed to provide children with love, warmth and care. Surface wash only.
The Safari Friends Pedestal Pets collection includes a gorilla, lion, hippo, and elephant. Pedestal Pets are sets of pencil toppers featuring a variety of animal figures. Each package comes with 4 animal pencil toppers, 4 matching pencils and 4 fun fact trading cards. Children can also go to the Pedestal Pets website and "adopt" their pets and print out coloring pages of all the animals.
American Ody-see (Economy Version) by ODYSEE GAMES
American Ody-see is a strategic educational game designed to teach American geography and history by using competitive fun and stunning images. It can be played by children and adults alike. It includes reference to all 50 states plus the territories of the USA. "American Ody-see boasts two versions in each game (Time Limit and Home City), as well as being able to be played by children as young as 8 who can outplay adults, so it has an extraordinarily wide market appeal from schools, homeschooling, families and adults, even to 'serious' gamers," Len Wicks, chief executive of ody-see.com ltd, told TDmonthly. Launch date: July 2009.
Popochos™, Columbian slang for "cool" or "sweet", is the watch skin made to accompany the silicon sports watch. This watch accessory is stylish, colorful and simple to click on and off of the sports watch. The diverse collection of watch skins includes several trendy designs for Fall including: plaid, animal print and camouflage.
This line of hand puppets features charactes from Puppet Heap's short films "Mother Hubbard" and "I Knew an Old Lady Who Swallowed A Fly." “We’re very excited about the launch of Puppet Heap Playthings™,” said Paul Andrejco, Puppet Heap’s founder and CEO, “Putting the magic of Puppet Heap’s creative team into the hands of a wider consumer audience is what this new branch of the company is all about.”
The Rockboard Scooter uses propulsion technology, allowing it to be ridden without having to put a foot on the ground. It can be used as a kick scooter or a Rockboard. When in Rockboard Mode it requires no kicking, batteries, charging or gasoline. It can also be folded up for easy storage and transport. The Rockboard combines fun, fitness and functionality into one product. "While standing on the deck in Rockboard Mode the rider shifts their weight back and forth, and this powers the drive chain. Propulsion is achieved with each rock, wasting zero energy and allowing the rider to reach speeds of up to 10 mph," Zane Andrews, Account Manager, M.Y. Products, told TDmonthly. Launch date: November 18, 2009. — Thanks to a product demo in the store, Learning Express of Newton, Mass., had sold at least 15 Rockboard Scooters in 2010 as of July, Owner Richard Gibson told TDmonthly. — In a March 2012 survey, Grafton Stine, owner of Toys on the Square in Hummelstown, Pa., told TDmonthlythat Rockboard Scooters were one of their best selling ride-on toys.
Easy Fill & Tie features a way to fill and tie water balloons easily, quickly and finger friendly. This kid-friendly device can screws onto an outdoor tap to enable everyone to make water balloons. Using Easy Fill & Tie, one can tie water balloons with just two fingers. Awards: 2010 INPEX Silver Medal awards in Toy/Games, Sports, Gadgets, and Lawn/Garden categories.
A SwaggerTag is an identification tag that reflects your personality and helps you keep track of your gear. By customizing your SwaggerTag with your own photo, image or logo, you let everyone know it's your stuff. You decide what personal information to include and your SwaggerTag reveals the hidden information only if it is opened. Water, weather and impact resistant, with strong attachment points and ties ensures a SwaggerTag will stay with your gear. Available in six distinctive colors.
The Zither Heaven harp, while small enough to be portable and affordable, is capable of quality sound. When the strings are plucked, the soundboard resonates. The strings form a diatonic scale, allowing many familiar tunes to be played. Beginners can explore the harp while making real music. The harp pictured is 38" tall and has 22 strings. Zither Heaven also offers a 15-string harp that is 30" tall that will debut at Toy Fair 2011. Both instruments are made in the U.S.A. The neck and pillar are made from sustainable native North American solid cherry or maple and the soundboard is made with Baltic birch.
Created by award-winning children’s author/illustrator Neecy Twinem, ZombieZoo characters are different and a bit quirky, featuring an unusual story line and unique personalities. The ZombieZoo family of animals includes Boo the black cat, the natural born leader of the group, and Stich, a pig obsessed with hygiene. Along with their friends, Muck (Monkey), Rob (Rabbit) and Toxic (Snake), original (large) Zombies stand at 12 to 15 inches high, are made of soft fleece and have a “Frankenstein” style of stitching adorning their bodies and over-sized heads. The large ZombieZoo plush characters come with a six and a half minute DVD storybook. Zombie minis, replicas of their larger siblings, are also available. They stand 4-5 inches tall and include a handy clip to attach to backpacks, clothing, etc.
Writer's Bio: ALISON MAREK is an award-winning writer, director and cartoonist whose work has been published by Fairchild Publications and DC Comics (Piranha Press), broadcast on Showtime and other cable networks, and viewed worldwide in film festivals. See her short films and print work on www.alisonmarek.com. Watch her nefarious villains in the web series www.MuggsMovers.com. Get inspired by her cartoons "Daily ARFFirmations to Unleash Your Inner Fido" at www.ARFFirmations.com. Phew! And then ... Read more articles by this author
Writer's Bio: ALISON MAREK is an award-winning writer, director and cartoonist whose work has been published by Fairchild Publications and DC Comics (Piranha Press), broadcast on Showtime and other cable networks, and viewed worldwide in film festivals. See her short films and print work on www.alisonmarek.com. Watch her nefarious villains in the web series www.MuggsMovers.com. Get inspired by her cartoons "Daily ARFFirmations to Unleash Your Inner Fido" at www.ARFFirmations.com. Phew! And then ... Read more articles by this author
