Press - Toy Companies Getting Inventive with Promotions

19-Feb-03

DailyHerald.com
By: By James Kane Daily Herald Business Editor

Two local toy companies are making a splash at the 100th American International Toy Fair, the toy industry product exposition that ends today in New York.

The normally reclusive Ty Warner, owner of the incredibly successful but fading Beanie Baby stuffed toy line, visited the Toy Fair to personally autograph "Decade," the 10th anniversary bear.

A line of more than 100 adults snaked from the booth entrance to Warner on Sunday.

"I've been here since 9 a.m. - I took a 4:30 train," said Robert Lloyd, a buyer and collector from New Castle, Del., who personally owns more than 1,200 Beanie Babies.

Lloyd said he likes Beanie Babies for their "affordability and high cuteness appeal." A large group of hard-core collectors make the toy "an easy seller," he said.

Westmont-based Ty Inc. was a big presence at the fair, with banners everywhere, said Lana Simon, spokeswoman for Learning Resources in Vernon Hills, which had its own coup to report.

The Caribbean nation of Grenada is featuring toys made from the company's new M-Gears building sets in a stamp series saluting advances in education worldwide.

M-Gears is a 350-piece building kit with 18 different types of pieces and a motor allowing for creation of robots, vehicles and machines. It will go on the market in May at a suggested price of $36.95.

Learning Resources didn't pay to be on the stamps, which should provide significant exposure for the company to children who are stamp collectors. But it is donating $5,000 worth of educational products to Grenada.

The two companies were among 1,000 exhibitors vying for attention from toy buyers hoping to spot the next big hit.

Sales of toys are soft after years on the upswing, with consumers spending $20.3 billion in 2002, down slightly from $20.5 billion in 2001, according to NPD Group, a market information company.

The event can be crucial for smaller players, giving them a chance to get into the game.

Future Toy Fairs will be broken up into to two events. There will be one in October for mass retailers, who are playing a growing role in the market with their cutthroat pricing, and another in February that will cater to specialty merchants, who try to find niche toys.

"Toy Fair is increasingly irrelevant for larger companies, but it can be make or break for the little ones," said Seth Siegel, co-founder of the Beanstalk Group, a licensing agency.

In a shift in the world of toy retailing, more merchants are trying to crowd into the market.

For example, traditional toy store Toys "R" Us last fall began selling items at kiosks in a handful of Chicago area Jewel Food Stores. Manufacturers like Lego are making deals with apparel stores.

K-B Toys Inc. supplied toys to Sears, Roebuck and Co. last holiday season in 77 locations, up from 29 a year ago. Home shopping channel QVC has doubled its toy sales from three years ago.

And at Starbucks coffee stores, customers can sip cafe latte while purchasing board games like Hear Me Out!, which the company sells exclusively. Cranium, Starbucks' first splash in the game business in 1998, was named the best game of the year by the Toy Industry Association last year.

"The search is on to put the toys where consumers are, instead of trying to attract (consumers) to toy stores or another mass merchants," said Chris Byrne, an independent toy consultant.

• Daily Herald news services contributed to this report.