By Sara Grimes
The American International Toy Fair starts next week (Feb. 11-14) and this year everyone is all “a buzz” about ” high tech”…again! Part of this is a result of the ongoing celebratory discourse around tech-savvy “cyberkids” (which promotes the idea that if kids are encouraged to develop their innate technological skills they will be better prepared for a future as IT workers), but mostly the industry seems to be responding to consumer trends. The US toy industry grew for the first time in ages last year (to $22.3 billion), primarily due to a 22% increase in the “youth electronics” category–which grew from $871.5 million (2005) to $1.1 billion (2006). (Note: That’s not including video games, which have their own category and represented an additional $12.5 billion last year in the US alone). The Toy Fair (as it’s called) is a big deal for toy manufacturers and retailers, who are now dealing with a $60 billion global industry which remains dominated by US toy companies (Mattel and Hasbro are the biggest in the world, with Japanese companies Bandai and Sanrio, and Denmark’s Lego rounding out the top five), and by US retailers (Wal-Mart and Toys’R'US are the top two toy sellers in the world (in that order)).
As toy trend specialist Reyne Rice describes, “About four to five years ago we saw that kids were starting to leave the toy industry for four main areas: music, fashion, electronics and entertainment. So by bringing those play patterns into products that are suitable and accessible for kids — and priced for families’ wallets — the youth electronics aisle has exploded with those types of products.”
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