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 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.
