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American International Toy Fair 2009

by Jordan Yerman | February 15, 2009 at 03:39 pm

2086 views | 14 Recommendations | 2 comments

The American International Toy Fair is underway at the cavernous Jacob Javits Center in New York City. You know Fashion Week? Well, this is the Fashion Week for toys.

It's an insider's event: retailers and wholesalers, but not the general public, get to check out the latest offerings for the young 'uns (and dot commers who need stuff to sit atop their cinema displays).

Aside from traditional stuff like dolls and Lego (which is actually offering digital tie-in products; if only their mobile phone could be joined to existing Lego sets!), it's a big event for licensing and tie-in products: for example, the new line of GI Joe figures reflects the design scheme from the upcoming film. Man, I remember when swivel-arm battle-grip was a huge advancement in action-figure technology: no more snapped-off thumbs. But this... whoah. It's too much for my poor brain to handle. Still, nothing beats Lego, in my opinion.

Barbie is there, looking fantastic at 50... but, you know, I think she's had some work done... her proportions remain pretty much impossible.

Barbie's there, celebrating her 50th birthday with a retrospective of Barbie fashions over the years.

There are board games and puzzles, Legos and Razor scooters and Ugly dolls like the one on Sasha Obama's backpack.

Ugly Dolls have been around for a while, but they're definitely entering a second rennaissance.

Among the scheduled special events is the 2009 Toy of the Year (TOTY) Awards, saluting the best of the industry. The awards ceremony will be held Sunday at Pier 60 on Chelsea Piers.

Also present was a lead detector, meant to boost confidence in the presented wares.

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Paschen

at 16:00 on February 15th, 2009

I am surprised that they are still holding this fair this year in spite of some 27% less sales and further bad prognosis, I be saving this Money rather then wasting it on a fair. Then again if they had good toys over all they would not need the fair either. We may have to go back to carving our own toys pretty soon and it may even help the environment a little.

Horchata

at 20:48 on February 15th, 2009

I'm a buyer for a retail chain and this was my first time attending Toy Fair; I was totally blown away! So many colors, sounds, images...it was surreal! The kid inside me was having an ecstatic seizure! My associate, who's been to the show many times before, described walking around with me as "pulling around a big-eyed, goofy smiling balloon." That's probably pretty accurate. Fortunately, I stopped smiling enough to take a few pics of the show.

Horchata has contributed a photo to this story.