SECTOR GUIDE: CONSTRUCTION Building sights
The construction market continues to perform exceptionally well, spurred by hot new licences and technology. Robert Hutchins gets to the nuts and bolts of the products designed to inspire a new wave of architects this year
LEGO
A successful launch of LEGO Legends of Chima and strong performance from classic lines such as LEGO City, contributed to a successful 2013 for the construction toy company. Evergreen lines such as
LEGO City, LEGO Duplo, LEGO Technic and LEGO Creator all grew double digit while LEGO Star Wars remained one of the top selling lines within the boys core theme. The Legends of Chima story and products
continue to develop throughout 2014, with building sets, digital apps, online content and games. Another brand in the fi rm’s
portfolio also adopting this 360 approach is the newly launched LEGO Mixels range. Created by a partnership
between Cartoon Network and The LEGO Group, the collection made its UK debut in February this year. Released in three waves
throughout the year, the brand aims to introduce
construction to the collectables market and each model features up to 70 pieces of LEGO, including eyes, teeth and working ball joints. The LEGO Movie has
proven a global success, and with the release of the fi lm on DVD and Blu-ray scheduled for July, the fi rm is adding three new sets to its LEGO Movie line-up. Sets include Emmet’s Construct-o-Mech, Super Secret Police Dropship and Benny’s Spaceship, Spaceship, Spaceship. Performing as the number
three property in the total market, LEGO City is also expanding with a new introduction in the form of LEGO City Arctic, set to launch later this year. Meanwhile, this June
will see the LEGO Friends characters head to the jungle in their eff orts to rescue and care for endangered animals. There are four sets to collect,
INTERPLAY
This season, Interplay continues to grow in the construction sector with the addition of the new GoldieBlox range. Joined by the popular
Rivetz and Technokits ranges, the team aims to open up the construction sector to a wider audience. New this year is the GoldieBlox range that combines a collection of books featuring the female inventor Goldie, with a variety of construction sets. Developed by engineer Debbie Sterling, the range is designed to inspire young girls to follow in her footsteps and in to the world of engineering. The launch series will have three GoldieBlox sets to
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choose from, including the Spinning Machine, Parade Float and Dunk Tank. Each will be priced between £19.99 and £24.99. Meanwhile, the Rivetz collection features fi ve
diff erent titles, with each project off ering kids the chance to rivet together
pre-cut coloured card using the patented Rivetz gun to create a fi nal masterpiece. In addition, there is Interplay’s classic range of Technokits. This build and play collection encourages children to explore the world of technology and physics. Technokits start from £9.99. 01628 488 944
including Jungle First Aid Bike, Jungle Bridge Rescue, Jungle Falls Rescue and Jungle Rescue Base priced from £12.99 to £44.99. The brand new property
LEGO Juniors is made for kids aged four to seven and girls aged fi ve to 12 years old can build and play out stories based on fairytales with the Disney Princess LEGO play-sets. Pre-school brand LEGO Duplo is launching nine new building sets for the second half of the year including the Superheroes range featuring Batman, Superman and the Joker. Now in its 15th year, LEGO
Star Wars is the number one Star W
ars property with 63 per cent share of the Star W
ars toy licence, and 2014 brings a new Darth Vader theme. Microfi ghters have been
introduced as entry point items and hero products include the AT-AP Imperial Star Destroyer and The Ghost. Further developments
for 2014 include new lines in the LEGO Superheroes collection, LEGO Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, LEGO The Hobbit and new independent play themes such as Ultra Agents. Finally, the number one blind bag collectible, LEGO Minifi gures, continues to perform with The LEGO Movie characters and the 25th anniversary Simpsons LEGO Minifi gures. 01753 495 000
HEXBUG
From Innovation First, the Hexbug Nano V2 habitat gives kids the chance to construct and customise their own tracks to test the Nano V2 bug’s climbing abilities. Each set comes with tubes and can be slotted together, while builders can include accessories such as rotating fl ags and pegs in the Hex cell base. The Hive and Bridge Battle join the portfolio of sets that includes the Orbit, Gravity Loop, Infi nity Loop, Sky Max, Barrel Roll, Helix 180, Watchtower and Hurricane. 01925 453 144
July 45
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