Toys Talk enters the UK with fi ve key ranges that all have at their heart the seamless blending of traditional play values and cutting-edge app and augmented reality technology. Toy World’s Tom Roberts caught up with Michael Wilson and Joan Cavalieri, managing partners at Toys Talk UK, to fi nd out more about the products.
The talk of the town
F
ounded by Marco Carvalho and Ivan Zorn in 2009, Toys Talk is dedicated to creating, developing and bringing to market high-quality and technologically advanced toys. Five years ago, Toys Talk launched its fi rst big success, Spark Dogz, a range
comprised of seven different characters that reacted to voice commands.
In the following fi ve years, 600,000 units were sold in the Brazilian market, and Spark Dogz was also launched in 22 countries and made available in 14 different languages. Toys Talk also has other properties that include Batman and Ben 10 voice which were made into voice command toys. With offi ces in Belo Horizonte, Brazil and
Shantou, China and following the huge success in Brazil and worldwide, Toys Talk is now setting up its business in the UK handled by partners Joan Cavalieri and Michael Wilson. Toys Talk has spent the past few years re-investing and developing new product lines that marry great standalone toys with ground-breaking technology. The ethos of the company has always been to add value to toys in a way which doesn’t distract from true, organic and imaginative play, but enhance the experience with technology that amazes and educates children.
Into the cauldron Undoubtedly the hero range from Toys Talk, Aremi the Magic of Gaia launches in Autumn/Winter 2014, and the company plans to launch with four sku’s ranging in price from £4.99 to £59.99. Aremi reverses the Skylanders style of play, where a physical fi gure becomes a virtual character in the digital world, and allows kids to play with a physical toy while the digital world reinforces what they do. Kids add ingredients to the smoking, light and sound cauldron, stir the ingredients with the magical spoon, then seal the spell with a touch-sensitive wand and watch as the potions work on their device. With over 50 ingredients and hundreds of spells and challenges to complete, children will be able to battle, unlock adventure worlds, learn spell making, tell fortunes, experiment and learn. The company will launch with the fi re cauldron and plans to launch further cauldrons in the future. The ingredients are sold in blind packs and some have a light up feature. There will be three spoons and two wands available, and the cauldron comes in
a starter pack with fi ve ingredients, one spoon and one wand at £59.99. Aremi will be launched with a full PR and TV campaign and the company will support Aremi with interactive displays which can be used in-store to highlight the features.
There’s more... There are four other ranges Toys Talk will launch into the UK this year, including Snow and Stella. This range features Snow, a plush bear, and Stella, a star and virtual companion. Snow has fully-interactive voice recognition, and children can ask Snow a number of questions and get a response. Kids can download the app and Stella comes to life in a series of interactive books. It is priced at £59.99 for kids aged three years plus and will be launched with a strong TV campaign for Autumn/Winter 2014. Of the Dino Mundi range of products, the standout item is the Dino Mundi track. It features a 200-piece track with eight different build combinations and a triceratops that acts as a bridge for the track featuring lights and sounds activated as the battery-powered truck passes underneath. Prices start from £12.99 and products are suitable
for ages six years plus. A TV commercial is available to promote the product online and include in any promotional plans.
I Mundi Extinct is comprised of models of extinct animals and people which include a feature that brings the characters to life. Like other products from the company, kids download an app and place the fi gure in front of the device. They can then ask the character questions and they will give out educational content. The range will be refreshed every three months. Prices start from £6.99 and the products are suitable for ages three years plus with teaser adverts available for promotion.
Monsteel: The league of Monster Heroes features monsters fed up with being monsters who now want to be heroes. Draclord, Mc Mummy, Silly Wolf are some of the characters included in the assortment. The app brings the characters to life when placed in front of the device and each picture within the comic will open up a game or piece of interactive content. Monsteel will be available in single and double packs, and each product comes with a comic. Prices start from £7.99 for kids aged six years old with TV teasers available.
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