Posted by jim on September 16, 2009 under Toy Trends | 
Disney Netpal
Well, I have to admit. I got into the online toy business at pretty much the wrong time. To be fair, I had a year – maybe six months of good timing. But, what followed, was not pretty. Christmas 2006 was great. Fabulous even. My first Toy Fair in NYC in 2007 was exhilarating. I thought Gile Toys had arrived….
Christmas 2007 ’til now…. Recap: Traditional Big Box and Online Big Box have DESTROYED the toy category…. For some reason toys have become a worthless commodity. We have had to reinvent, but that is nothing new for small business.
This Christmas season should be interesting. Toys ‘R Us has announced that they will be opening 80 smaller, temporary stores in malls across the country. While this may seem convenient for the consumer, it will actually mean less choices.
Anyways, we can continue the Toys ‘R Us conversation later….
Today, I am interested in technology. As I have become a bit disenfranchised with the Leap Frog line we have carried for years, I have been searching for THE technology toy of this season. Now that I have found it, I am as surprised as anyone that it has “Disney” in it….
Disney Netpal
Pre-order now! Shipping in November!
Posted by jim on April 8, 2009 under Consumer Experience, Toy Trends |
Q: What’s more fun than creatures from an alternate Earth dimension known as Vestroia? (aka Bakugan Battle Brawlers)
A: That’s easy. Those crazy tribes from that distant island of Gorm. The Gormiti.
The Gormiti are Coming!
My ten year old nephew told me months ago that Gormiti was the next “thing”. I don’t think he’s into it – nor is he into Bakugan anymore – but he let me know Gormiti was coming. So being the opportunist that I am, I looked into it. And, I think he has a point.
Convinced that we needed this product, I searched far and wide to find a distributor. It turns out that Playmates Toys is the US distributor of this Italian born product. I found myself an old school distrubutor out of Brooklyn NY – and finally, product is on the way. We should have it up on the web site in a week or so.
In the meantime, check out Gormiti.com and YouTube.com.
Posted by jim on March 10, 2009 under Consumer Experience, Toy Trends |
Amazing! I didn’t see this one coming:
Totally Stylin’ Tattoos Barbie?
Before commenting, I thought I would go right to the source – the Mattel.com press release archive. I did a search for “tattoo” and nothing. Hmmmm….
Well, if you do a Google search, my favorite headline belongs to wagerweb.com (not normally where I go for toy news): Barbie gets a tramp stamp!!
This is my favorite photo: buzzfeed.com. Although, I think the “Indonesia” tattoo is worse than the “Ken”….
In any event, I am not going to comment about whether this Barbie is a bad influence on children or a sign of the apocalypse. Nor, am I going to say all these people up in arms are out of their minds. Too easy.
I just want to say I think it is an absolutely fascinating choice by Mattel. Turns out they are sold out almost everywhere….
Posted by jim on November 22, 2008 under Consumer Experience, Toy Trends |
The National Retail Federation released their 2008 top ten toys list for boys and girls Wednesday, and Hannah Montana is up four spots this year to number 2. While Barbie has kept her top spot, Hannah Montana is still on the rise.
We are featuring a few different Hannah Montana toys this year. From JAKKS Pacific, we have two items: the Hannah Montana Holiday Singing Doll (who doesn’t wanna hear Miley Cyrus sing “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree over and over?) and the Hannah Montana Pop Tour Guitar Video Game (with the popularity of Guitar Hero, why not?). We also have the Hannah Montana Girl Talk game from Hasbro, which incidentily is Made in America, on sale at 20% off for only $11.99.
Hannah Montana for Leapfrog Didj
Also, we have the Hannah Montana game for the LeapFrog Didj.
The number one toy in the Boys category for the National Retail Federation is Video Games. We are featuring the LeapFrog Didj this year and hoping that parents will look for a learning alternative when they are filling this wish for kids this year. LeapFrog has made great strides with this handheld gaming system. It has superior graphics, more arcade-like playability, and the unique ability to customize game play and learning skills.
Posted by jim on November 13, 2008 under Consumer Experience, Toy Trends |
We just finished our toy sale from November 2-4 to raise money for the local chapter of Youth for Christ. For an Internet toy retailer like us, not only are these sales great to help raise money for local charities – they also provide a unique opportunity for us to interact with our customers face to face.
I learned a few things – or possibly was just reminded of them – as I wandered the sales floor and spoke with customers. For one thing, Melissa and Doug products really sell when they can be touched and seen up close. They really capture the imagination. I remember seeing their new lines two years ago in NYC at Toy Fair and getting excited about them. Unfortunately, the Internet has become somewhat saturated with their product. In person though, it is an easy sale. What I did not realize was that people still love stuffed animals – and the bigger the better. The Melissa and Doug plushes ranging from dogs to dinosaur, from $20 to $100, were a huge hit and some major eye candy at the YFC boutique.
Next, I was very encouraged by the response to the Leapfrog Tag. If you haven’t seen it in person or watched it in action, take a look at this clip from the Leapfrog YouTube Channel. I will be shocked if this doesn’t make the Top 5 toy list this year.
Learning How to Play Hot Spot
Another manufacturer whose product has become a bit saturated on the net is ThinkFun. Formerly Binary Arts, ThinkFun hit it big years ago with Spin-Out and then Rush Hour. This year we had a great time showing folks how to play my newer favorites: Hot Spot and Pete’s Pike. And they sold as a result.
Finally, books always sell pretty well at these type of events. This year we are featuring We Both Read books by Treasure Bay. These are innovative books for children and parents to read together. The left page is read by the parents, the right by the child (which is written based on the respective grade level.
But the best part of the whole 3 day event was getting to speak, face to face with consumers and tell them why we bought certain product, show them how to enjoy the games we’ve chosen and really just to connect on a personal and emotional level.
If you would like to learn more about Youth for Christ, please visit the national chapter’s web site at www.yfc.org or our local chapter at www.cdyfc.org.
Technorati Profile
Posted by jim on October 29, 2008 under Consumer Experience, Toy Trends |
Bakugan Battle Brawlers have made pretty much every top toy list for Christmas 2008 including Time To Play’s Most Wanted List, the Toys “R” Us Fabulous Fifteen, and the Toy Retailers Association Dream Toys for 2008 – just to name a few. Fortunately, we started carrying them earlier this year and gave the toys some prime real estate on the front cover of our Christmas toy flyer.
The only problem, and this is no small obstacle, is that in typical Hot Christmas Toy fashion there now appears to be a shortage. Our inventory has dwindled down to practically nothing. I have been begging my supplier for almost 2 months, but still no stock replenishment. The excuses have even lost any flavor – now it’s just “who knows with this company” and “still nothing in”.
Bloggers have offered the new term “Bakugone“. Parents are already lamenting the scarcity. I did find this update from a CBS affiliate in Miami, CBS4. Apparantly, Spin Master – the manufacturer responsible for this phenomenon – has “increased production to 300,000 Bakugan a day” (apparantly the word Bakugan is like “deer”) and Spin Master “is air freighting everything to their North American distribution centers as quickly as possible.”
One can only hope.
Posted by jim on September 11, 2008 under Toy Trends |
It appears our Christmas catalog is just about set for this year. I have to admit, it was a bit of a struggle to put together, but I am really pleased how it is coming out. We went with an eight page format: cover with a few select items (Bakugan and Groovy Girls RSVP among them), page 2 Boys, Page 3 Girls, Page 4 and 5 are for LeapFrog, 6 is Infants and Toddlers, 7 is Games (and a few books and CDs) and the back cover is plush toys.
Gile Toys 2008 Christmas Catalog
One of my big challenges this year was placing our Hasbro order. As a specialty toy store owner, I have come to believe that it is important to carry some mainstream items and brands. While most specialty toy stores stay away from such items, I give in to the fact that some kids want Transformers this year. And how can you have a toy store that appeals to girls without anything from Hannah Montana?
We usually carry a lot of Hasbro board games, but had to choose not to this year. For some reason, many of the Hasbro games are being sold well below market value already this season. We can’t put them in the catalog, in fear of losing credibility. We are printing up 20,000 this year and do not want to be stuck with an item that appears non-competitive in our catalog. The consumer usually has no concept of what an item costs us – nor should they. So, we just can’t take the chance. Furthermore, I don’t want to be stuck with a couple of pallets of games I can’t sell above our own cost – we’ve been through that before with Monopoly Here and Now – the 2006 release.
The good news is Hasbro toy assortments like VIPs, Transformers, Might Muggs, Star Wars action figures, etc. do very well. Assortments work for us because it is not usually very easy to find the most popular items in local stores. For instance, a Transformers assortment may only include 1 Bumblebee (the most popular Movie Deluxe Transformer last year) in 8. These are the first to sell in the local retail store. We have a large warehouse space to store many assortments and can make that same Bumblebee more available to the Gile Toys customer.
So, if you are looking for that unique plush or action figure this Christmas and all you can find is a bunch of Chewbaccas that nobody wants, look to the on-line, independent toy store. It is most likely your best chance to find that Bakugan your nephew can’t live without.
Posted by jim on September 3, 2008 under Toy Trends |
If you have a child between the ages of 4 and 12, are related to one, know one, or even have seen one in the last several years, you probably know what a Webkinz pet is. I have two daughters and own a toy store, so I certainly am well aware. According to Ganz, the company that makes Webkinz, “Webkinz pets are lovable plush pets that each come with a unique Secret Code. With it, you enter Webkinz World where you care for your virtual pet, answer trivia, earn KinzCash, and play the best kids games on the net!”
In any event, our store is concentrating on the Webkinz alternatives this year. A lot of other major players have gotten involved in the interactive pet/doll arena, and we have chosen a few alternatives to offer our customers. Of course, I am quite bitter towards Ganz because they didn’t want to sell to me because I’m an “e-tailer”. “E-tailer” has become a dirty word in the toy industry. In fact, I had to talk two manufacturers into letting me buy their stuff this year (one of them a very major, USA manufacturer). As a business owner, it can be very agravating “begging” manufacturers to sell their product. Shouldn’t they be begging me to carry it?
In any event, Ganz has a brick and morder policy. So, because I don’t have an official looking, walk in toy store, they won’t sell their product to me. Although, I have a building, I employ over 30 people, we take walk in business from customers, we sell toys through local home parties, we deliver toys to local schools, we sell on site for local charities to raise money and we have a catalog business. Still, Ganz will not sell to me. Don’t think this is to protect the speciality toy retailers from the evil e-tailer though. You’ll find Webkinz all over the place – Hallmark stores, makeup stores, wherever…. Certainly don’t have to be a toy store. I suppose if I owned an auto parts store I would have no problem.
Luckily, there are some great alternatives to Webkinz. If it wasn’t for Ganz giving me the brush off, I may have never found them. First up is Neopets. It may come as a surprise, but Neopets pre-date Webkinz. They didn’t start selling their plushes until early this year, but their web site has been around longer than Webkinz, is considered to be grander in scale, and allows you to create an account for free, without any purchase.
Hasbro got into the game last year as well with Littlest Pet Shop VIPs. These are great because if your child is already hooked on the Littlest Pet Shop characters or board game, now you can purchase a plush with a code and go online.
Bella Sara is an interesting choice, especially if your child is into horses. Plushes are available as well as trading cards. Also, you can access this site without any purchase necessary.
Karito Kids are another great alternative.
And, we wrap it up with Groovy Girls. We are banking on this line for Christmas 2008. Manhattan Toys already has a strong brand with their Groovy Girls and their RSVP line of dolls and pets with online codes should do very well this year – and make many a young girl happy on Christmas morning.
