ToyFair2013 Toy Fair 2013 on the front line


Toy World talks to some of the companies who are exhibiting at Toy Fair 2013, and tries to get a sneak peek at what’s going to be on display.


We asked the following questions: What was your biggest success of 2012? What will be your most important exhibit at Toy Fair? Are there any potential surprises from you at Toy Fair? What do you think will be the biggest challenge of 2013?


Peterkin Andrew Moulsher


We had a number of ranges that performed really well in 2012, but the standout success was our new Dollsworld range – it was certainly worth the wait. Initial stock hit retail shelves across September and October, and since then we’ve experienced exceptional levels of repeat orders across the 4th quarter. At Toy Fair we’ll be exhibiting something very exciting...that, sadly, I can’t disclose at the time of interview; you’ll have to come and see us to fi nd out. As for challenges in 2013, as and when it is published, the implementation of the new EN71-3 certainly looks like it’s going to present a challenge to the trade.


Thames and


Kosmos Joanna Drage


In 2012,


Thames and Kosmos’ were thrilled to get two of their products listed in the Telegraph top ten Science kits. We really had no idea that the article was being written,


Drumond Park Claire McCool


We were very pleased that Drumond Park, once again, had a really good year. Our multi-title, multi-activity LOGO property continues to go from strength to strength, with sales of the new LOGO What Am I? and LOGO Best of TV & Movies exceeding even our expectations. And our new pre- school action game, Pumpazing, also performed extremely well. Each year, all our new products are developed from scratch or adapted for the UK market in-house, by our own creative team. By the time the prototypes are previewed at Toy Fair, they are pretty near their fi nal versions but the advantage of showing them to our trade buying colleagues at this time is that we can take heed of their informed comments and opinions, and if necessary make any fi nal tweaks before we proceed to manufacture. We also like to showcase refreshed content and packaging for favourite existing products, before we fi nalise the designs. Complete co-operation between ourselves and our buyers, both national and regional, makes for great ongoing relationships and excellent products. So there are many surprises and treats in store for Drumond Park’s visitors, and our team is looking forward to welcoming everyone to our stand. We would like to think that sales of Drumond Park games can continue at the very high level we


have experienced over the past few years, building on the ongoing consumer demand for both board and action games – designed to exercise both minds and bodies! We also feel we are up to the ongoing challenge of persuading more and more families to buy games for playing together all year round, rather than just during the traditional pre-Christmas buying rush. This strategy certainly worked during 2012; with these recessionary times causing ‘staycations’ to become the new package deals, sales during the Summer months were defi nitely up on previous years.


so it was quite a surprise. Bearing in mind T&K had launched in the UK in January, we really weren’t expecting to be so well received by the national press that quickly. Although there were lots of high points over the year, like having kits displayed on Blue Peter and having our kits reviewed on The Cool Stuff Collective, this really made me feel that all our hard work had paid off. Our most important release of 2013 will almost certainly be the Scope Constructor which is construction optical equipment that you can make into a telescope, microscope, binoculars, etc. I am so excited about this new product, and I’ve never seen anything like it. Every buyer that has seen the artwork has stated that they will be stocking it. As you would expect, we have extended


our range in the areas that have been most successful for us, but we have added 20 new kits to the range, which takes our total offering to 76 kits, which is a bit of a surprise. Our demonstrator at Toy Fair this year is a crazy American who was one of the presenters on Punk Science. I’m really looking forward to Toy Fair because I think he might pull out a few surprises. Getting the prices right will be our biggest challenge in 2013. Our products are manufactured in Germany, which gives us the edge on build quality and design and with a return rate of less that 1%, it makes our lives easier in some ways, but obviously this comes at a price. We understand that we need to keep the prices competitive, and therefore we work on a very tight margin in order to bring these products to the consumer.


Toyworld 127


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