Global Toy News

Kids want toys. Parents want values. How you can both get what you want!

Laura Ferry is a co-Founder and Chief Marketing Officer for CWIST – “kids’ challenges with a twist.”  Laura is also the founder of Good Company, a partnerships and strategy consultancy, widely recognized for establishing award-winning socially responsible joint ventures for national brands, media and nonprofits. The company works with PBS, PBSparents.org, Channel One Network, Discovery Education/OPEI TurfMutt, KaBOOM! and other outstanding organizations.

Kids want things, and parents want meaningful experiences – but parents like me worry that we give in too often. We love our kids, and while we want them to be happy,  it doesn’t always feel right to answer every request with a ”yes.”  Today’s over-worked, stressed-out moms and dads need support, and they need great tools to make good parenting easier. 

Like so many working moms, I have my hands full finding the time and techniques to teach my kids important values like what it means to work for the things they have and how long it really takes to get them. Either I’m telling them I’ll add the toy or gadget they want “to their list” (birthday or holiday), or I just go ahead and buy it out of guilt for not being there enough.  But then my child misses out on the thrill of anticipation and the incredible sense of accomplishment that goes with earning something he wants.

Toy Tech: From Rough to Finish (Part 2)

Oil on canvas: Joseph Sapulich © 2013

In continuing our discussion on taking rough ideation sketches to fully rendered final art, these remaining points should help you bridge the gap between the two, and help make sure your toy idea is presented in the most exciting way possible.

5. Line work in commercial design sketches is most often made very prominent in final presentation art to clearly articulate details to engineers during the manufacturing process. Usually an outline with shading or color added to it will suffice, but fully rendered digital paintings with no outline are also employed depending on the individual client and licensed brand.

Rearrange your brain at the World Congress of Play

Those who attend the World Congress of Play (September 9-11 in San Francisco) are going to come away with an entirely new way of seeing their business and their industry.  One of the big reasons is the sheer number of points of view (over 40 speakers and 21 points of view) being represented by our speakers.  Here is a list in alphabetical order of points of view and speakers:

Animation; Storytelling and Artificial Intelligence - Oren Jacob, CEO and Bobby Podesta, Chief Creative Officer ;ToyTalk

Augmented Reality - Keith Maddison, Augmented Reality Architect; BoostAR

Children’s Publishing - Dan Yaccarino, Author and Illustrator; Yaccarino Studios

Design - Brendan Boyle, Partner; IDEO

Entertainment - Donna Friedman Meir, Founder; Lemonade Consulting

Futurist - Nicholas Webb, Author and Inventor; Hanz Toys

History of Play -Chris Bensch, Vice President for Collections; Strong National Museum of Play

Learning -

Jessica Lindl, eLearning Executive; GlassLab

Trip Hawkins -Founder, CEO; If You Can (founder EA and 3DO)

John Barbour, CEO; Leapfrog

Licensing - Ira Mayer, Publisher; EPM

Mobile Gaming -

Caroline Hu Flexer, Co-Founder; Duck Duck Moose

Nancy MacIntyre, Co-Founder, CEO; Fingerprint Digital

Trip Hawkins, Founder, CEO; If You Can (founder EA and 3DO)

On Line Play –

Chris Heatherly, VP of Production & Marketing at Disney Interactive; Disney Digital

Miles Ludwig, Managing Director, Content Innovation Lab at Sesame Workshop

DarranGarnham, Chief Business Development Officer and Chief Licensing Officer; Mind Candy

Phygital Play (Digital Toys) -

David Merrill, Expert in cutting-edge human-computer interaction; Sifteo

Meryl Nieman, Co-Founder, CEO; Playdate Planet

Playgrounds - Darrel Hammond, Founder and CEO;KaBOOM!

Research and Analysis -

UtkuTansel, Head of Toys & Games Research;Euromonitor

Dr. Kati Heljakka, Toys and Play Researcher; Tactic

Retail - Richard Barry, Executive Vice-President, Chief Merchandising Officer; Toys R Us

Social Network Play -

Nancy MacIntyre, CEO, Co-Founder; Fingerprint

Chris Heatherly, VP of Production & Marketing at Disney Interactive; Disney Digital

Toy Trends - Reyne Rice, Trend Specialist; Toy Trends

Traditional Toy & Game Inventing -

Mary Couzin, CEO / Co-Founder; Chicago Toy & Game Group

Nancy Zwiers, CEO & Chief Funosopher; Funosophy

Brendan Boyle, Partner; IDEO

Transmedia -

Eli Dekel, President; SabanBrands

Beth Rogozinski, CEO; Transmedia SF

Chris Heatherly, VP of Production & Marketing at Disney Interactive; Disney Digital

Traci Paige Johnson; Co-Founder, Yummico (Creator of Blues Clues and Co-Creator Super Why)

Susanna Pollack, Strategic and Business Planning; Yummico

Anna Van Slee, Co-Founder; Other Door Entertainment

Brian Torney, Strategy Director; Manifest Digital

Traditional Toys -

John Barbour, CEO, LeapFrog

Carter Keithley, President; Toy Industry Association

Video Games - Trip Hawkins, Founder, CEO; If You Can (founder EA and 3DO)         

To sign up, register by clicking here.

A Play About Hoarding Toys; Beanie Babies part 2

Backdrop to the play "The Capables"

In my last posting I wrote about the Beanie Babies collecting Robinson family and the terrible financial impact on that family from investing at the height of the Beanie Babies frenzy.  In this posting, I want to write about a new play, “The Capables.” It is a about hoarding and the way literally piles of Beanie Babies, Happy Meal toys, clothes and other bric-a-brac are curated into scenery that New York Times critic Neil Genzlinker, describes as almost worth the price of admission. 

Greg Kozatek did not write the play, Jay Stull did that, but he is a set designer who used his huge and once valuable Beanie Babies collection from the 1990’s, as a backdrop for the play.  The Capables centers on a woman who believes that her collecting is actually art. The play forces you consider exactly where the line between passion and mania lies. 

When I think about it, it seems to depend upon what is being collected and who is doing the collecting.  For example, fabulously wealthy J.P. Morgan spent a fortune and a considerable amount of his time collecting the world’s great books and manuscripts.  Today his collection is the basis for the wonderful J.P. Morgan library in Manhattan.  He is understandably admired for his passion; or was it a mania?

Thank You, Steve Drucker, You’re Our Only Hope

It’s a summer evening in 2006 and my cell phone is ringing. The caller’s number is not one I recognize, but the familiar 401 Rhode Island area code connotes Hasbro. I pick up: “Hello?” and am greeted by momentary silence. Then, on the other end of the line, a distant voice via speaker phone says, “You know Izzo? Josh Izzo?” I immediately respond that, yes, I do know Josh Izzo. The caller then says, “Kunoichi?” Again, I have to respond that, yes, I’m Brian and I run creative and interactive services at Kunoichi. Finally, the caller turns off speaker phone and picks up the receiver.

He says, “I’m Steve Drucker and we’re going to be working together. Is it too late to talk?”