All to play for: The Grocer visits UK Toy Fair 2012
Playmobil has gone back to the Stone Age with this range launching in March. Expect to see hunters, mammoths and sabretooth tigers – and a fair bit of plastic fire.
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Playmobil has gone back to the Stone Age with this range launching in March. Expect to see hunters, mammoths and sabretooth tigers – and a fair bit of plastic fire.
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Designed with collectors in mind, Lego has expanded its Star Wars range with three small sets (rsp: £9.99) packed in plastic planets. The TIE Interceptor, Naboo Starfighter and Podracer will be joined by three new sets in the autumn.
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Innovation First International unveiled a tie-up with Moshi Monsters in the form of Bobble Bots that, using similar technology to the company’s Hexbug range, skitter around customisable playsets.
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For all those punters who can’t bear to be far from a Stylophone, Re:Creation has launched a mini version (rsp: £9.99) small enough to fit in a pocket. Take that classic 70s sound with you wherever you go.
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Expect lots of toys that interact with smartphones and tablets this year – including the Foam Fighters from Character Options that let players take their model plans into virtual battle.
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Another example of toys and smartphones interacting was new packaging for Bandai’s Thundercat toys. Pointing a phone or tablet loaded with the Aurasma app at the packs will bring a 3D animation of Lion-O or another character to life. Thundercats Ho!
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Subbuteo has come a long way. The latest version – launched at Toy Fair – features virtually unbreakable players in a range of accurate strips including Liverpool, Man U and Chelsea.
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As Toy Fair crowds filled Olympia, Marvel’s Facebook page released images of some of the figures based on this summer’s upcoming The Avengers movie. The toys will be launched in the UK by Hasbro later this year.
The real world seems a very dull after spending some time at UK Toy Fair.
It’s one of the few places where you can see, in the space of a few minutes, the Queen and Prince Phillip playing chess (or lookalikes, anyway), Peppa Pig standing next to Optimus Prime and a 7’ knight riding a child’s scooter.
For three days this week, many of the biggest names in toys gathered at Olympia to see, and buy, the latest products the industry has to offer.
Moshi Monsters had a huge presence at the show in a wide range of licensed forms, as did blind-packed pocket-money collectibles, although the most striking trend in new product development was the host of toys that interacted in various ways with smartphone apps.
Here, The Grocer highlights just a few of the innovations that caught its eye.
