Let me tell you, folks; if I had a SnooZzoo as a kid, I’d probably be a lot less tired these days. Cameron Jones and his excellent child sized sleepover bag/huge stuffed animal hybrid caught my eye at Toy Fair and I had to immediately smile because it’s one of those products that fills a niche and is ready to rocket to the top of every parent’s list for all the right reasons. Continue reading
Okay, you should never be THIS lazy, but if you are, you’ve probably earned the right to be at some point in your life. That said, You probably know some exercise buff who’d get a kick out of this Exercise Block. Or you know one who’d kick you out of their workout cave if you gifted them with one just to push their buttons a tiny bit. Although, if that peson can bench press your current weight, I’d not want to push those buttons so hard.
In any event, if your eyes lit up when you saw that photo, you have to have one and somehow don’t know where to find it, click on over to Bigmouth Inc. for a list of places you can pick one up along with a bunch of other fun to funky novelty items. Once you’re on the site, expect to find yourself chuckling a wee bit too much at their assortment of crude to cool to flat out hilarious impulse items.
Note to new trade show exhibitioners: Outside of appointments where I walk away with something to review on the site or someone promises to shoot over samples later, the best way to get me to stop at your booth is to jump out in front of me and say “Hi!”. If that fails (and it usually doesn’t), feel free to use a tripwire or other handy item that gets me to stop, look and smile. Whenever that’s happened at Toy Fair, I’ve always seen stuff that makes me want to write cool things about. Here are a few of this year’s products and people that reached out at the right moment:
Meeting the Life is Wabi-Sabi crew was a highlight of the show because Aaron Castillo Jr. and Marilyn bought that Big Island spirit from Hawaii all the way to NYC, braving the record-breaking cold weather to introduce their SUPER cute line of buttons, magnets and plush kitties. Seeing that big-eyed imperfect cat stopped me in my tracks and made me smile for a few reasons. There’s just something wonderfully zen about that cat that makes you want to pick it up and stare back for a spell.
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Well, now. Chucky’s back in action, this time in a new Mezco Toyz figure bound to scare up some sure sales among collectors when it ships out this September. Be very polite and don’t forget to wave and smile back, now. You really wouldn’t want to get Chucky angry with you, not even a little bit.
Mezco’s latest take on the classic horror villain from the Child’s Play and Chucky films stands 15″ tall and features real cloth Good Guys clothing, 11 points of articulation, a plastic knife and his trademark flaming orange hair. Did I mention he also talks, saying seven phrases from the movies? Well, he does. Nope, “I Can Talk” isn’t from any of the films, but seeing that in the image below made me immediately chuckle and think “Well, I can run away while you talk!” as well as “Exit, Stage Left!”
Anyway, you can pre-order the Talking Mega Scale 15″ Chucky by clicking away on that handy link I’ve provided. It’s $94 worth of scares coming your way, but you knew that from the moment you laid eyes on him. Make some room for him, or he’ll be pretty upset when he arrives and has to lurk about in his shipping box while you clear out that space you should have beforehand. If he starts yapping away in that box before you get to opening it, that’s not a good sign at all…
One of the best things about Toy Fair can be those moments between appointments when you hit the show floor and stumble into a story idea (or when someone stumbles into me and gives me a story idea). What usually occurs is either someone swings a product sample out that stops me in my tracks (“Whap!” Ouch. – it’s happened!), or I happen to slow down because I see something that makes me want to stop and chat with the person or people running the booth. In the case of The Young Scientists Club, it was the latter and thanks to a non-active volcano in the middle of a board game… Continue reading
Thank you, Imperial Toy! One, for having one of the more surprisingly cool licensed items at the show (a huge Star Wars bubble machine shaped like R2-D2 that does exactly what it’s supposed to do and makes everyone in the vicinity stop what they’re doing and walk over to check it out). Its also surprisingly affordable. I’ll post pics of R2 tomorrow, as I shot photos with another camera and (duh!) can’t seem to find the USB cable (duh!)
Oh, and two, for giving me the nice silver-colored bubble lightsaber just for stopping by their booth to check out R2. Apparently, its one of only a thousand made for the show. Nice. Id love to have a blue one as well, but I don’t mind waiting for the normal white sabers to hit retail and add one of those to the collection.
Let’s see now:
Expect to see a LOT of Jurassic World merchandise coming for the upcoming film. Yes, Universal ran the same old trailer fans have already seen, but there’s a nice amount of new toys on the way that were unseen until the event earlier today. Dinosaurs everywhere would be a problem in real life for sure. But it looks like the licensing agreements on this film will bring kids (and adults) into those walking future fossil fuel sources will get plenty of folks into the stores before and after they hit the theaters.
As for those Minions, well, my bad poetry databank has been reactivated, so expect to read some ear curling stuff about that toy line shortly. That long trailer was pretty funny and it looks as if the third go-round with the little yellow guys may be the best yet. As for the merchandise, some items are returning from Despicable Me 2, but in updated form, there are new items that will make the kids (and parents) crack up, and yes, expect your disposable income to become a lot more disposable once the film hits.
More on both toy lines shortly. I’ve a lot of ground to cover over the next few weeks and two more days at the show in this stupidly lousy cold weather we’ve been socked with. It’s worth it, though…
Well, then. Toy Fair is pretty brilliant this year, although I barely made it through the first day’s zipping back and forth. Pictures to come from some of the booths I visited earlier today, but not until tomorrow at the earliest. Par for the course, some of the smaller booths had the more interesting new items, but you’ll have to hold out to see what they are. Let’s just say that if you have kids ages 4-10 who have always give you trouble around bedtime, there’s the most awesome solution that’s guaranteed to get them wanting to hit the hay every night. And it doesn’t involve any trickery or pharmaceuticals, either.
Also, R2-D2 makes a phenomenal bubble machine, courtesy of Imperial Toys. Seriously. You’ll see. Zombies are still “in” this year and in some mighty creative ways thanks to McFarlane Toys, Factory Entertainment and others. Collectible fans will see way too many things to fill their shelves from Funko, Entertainment Earth, Mezco Toyz, The Coop, and too many more to list here.
Anyway, I’m wiped out and need to sleep, as I have to pop up early in the morning to go see some dinosaurs and very funny little yellow guys before hitting the show floor again. Good night!
Soooo, I didn’t intend to do ANOTHER pre-show event before Toy Fair, but like yesterday’s Superherostuff.com and Sphero event, today was *special*. I ended up hoofing out to Astoria (in Queens) to see and play a bunch of games at Indiecade, and if you just so happen to be in the NYC area, love games and want to try some awesome ones, you NEED to get yourself out thataway before the show ends on Sunday. I could only cover one day thanks to Toy Fair eating my weekend plus whole, but I’ll have a few longer articles on the stuff I tried out next week.
Hell, if it weren’t for indies, I’d be doing a lot less gaming these days. Pretty much the only AAA release I’m looking forward to is The Witcher 3 and that’s because CD Projekt RED is going the extra mile plus to guarantee everyone who plays the game on anything it’s on is getting the best experience possible. Anyway, it’s off to sleep for me soon, as I need to pop up at 5am and be out of here before 6. Eeek. Back with more eventful posting tomorrow…
Let’s see now… I’m sort of taking today off because I’m making a new, longer list of Toy Fair 2015 meetings for this weekend and I have a pre-show event to pop into this afternoon to check out a few items. I’d initially promised myself I wouldn’t do any more pre-show events because under certain circumstances it gets to be SO busy running around that I end up too pooped when the show actually starts. However, I made two exceptions this year because of the folks who reached out that didn’t forget they reached out and didn’t suddenly get back to me to say their events were overbooked.
I get invited to a load of events and respond as soon as I see the invite. Once in a while, the PR person who contacted me and took my reservation will get back to me a few days after I confirm or too often, right around the day the event takes place to say something like “oops, we overbooked!” without letting me know what I can do about seeing the product they were gushing about so fervently in that invite. The latest example of this was a big deal film screening/press junket I was SUPPOSED to attend this week, only to be told last minute that they ran out of room AND to hold out for a new screening date (which didn’t happen). Gee, thanks. So much for promoting your film or whatever else you were looking for from me, big megacorp deluxe who’s burned me one too many times. I got yer Throwback Thursday right here, Foo. Anyway, let me get back to my regularly scheduled day.
Back in a bit, maybe with a quick followup post if I make it back before the library closes.
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