{"id":28599,"date":"2019-02-19T07:30:09","date_gmt":"2019-02-19T12:30:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/?p=28599"},"modified":"2019-02-19T07:30:09","modified_gmt":"2019-02-19T12:30:09","slug":"lions-and-tigers-and-toys-oh-my","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/?p=28599","title":{"rendered":"Lions and Tigers and Toys, Oh My"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Photo from GearBrain<\/p><\/div>
\nWhen I tell the untutored that I’m\u00a0heading to Toy Fair in New York, their faces turn young and wonderstruck.\u00a0“TOY FAIR?!” they say. You can\u00a0hear the seven-year-old toy fanatic who lurks inside us all. It’s hard to\u00a0burst their bubbles and tell them that, while\u00a0this giant annual exhibit at the Javits Center is indeed filled to the rafters (literally) with toys, the convention itself is all business.
\nIn order to get through the door, buyers have to provide two pieces of personal identification proving they work for\u00a0their stores, along with\u00a0three invoices\u00a0totaling $1,000+ each\u00a0for past toy purchases from various companies (not easy for smaller stores to provide). Not only aren’t children allowed into Toy Fair\u2014admittedly, that could\u00a0lead to meltdowns\u00a0of epic proportions\u2014but spouses aren’t welcome, either. Everyone who attends must be an exhibitor, an official buyer, or press. It’s pretty wild.
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\nI’ve only gone to Toy Fair a few times; we’re a bookstore with some toys, not a toy store with books, and we see toy reps in our state. But every several years, it’s great to hit the convention, both to take advantage of extra discounts or freight breaks offered at the show and to discover new items to bring to our customers. The latter is the most fun, and it’s how I spend most of my time at the Javits\u2014prowling the aisles for something unique that catches my eye.
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Image from Neventum<\/p><\/div>
\nYou have to be careful, though, because even the tiniest sidelong glance at an item in a booth brings a\u00a0salesperson leaping\u00a0to greet you. The experienced ones have learned not to take any breaths at all while they show you new products; any gap might allow a buyer to extricate herself. I only slow down near booths I absolutely know I want to visit, because\u00a0every interaction is at least a guaranteed 20 minutes. (On the flip side of that was a busy booth in which the sales rep actually pushed us aside without a word as she led a group of buyers over to the corner where we were looking at metal construction games. Um.)
\nWe found some great things.
\nBlueOrange had a craft that I haven’t seen before, Creagami.\u00a0These folded-paper sculpture kits have hundreds of paper pieces that turn into beautiful 3-D butterflies, dragons, etc. It’s hard to see from this photo, but they look very cool!
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\nWe were delighted to see\u00a0these\u00a0dolls from Orijin Bees<\/a> featuring girls with a variety of skin colors ranging from tan to deep brown, with fabulous hair for kids to style.
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\n“Any boy dolls?” we asked. The saleswoman assured\u00a0us they are in development. We will be telling our toy store colleagues who sell dolls about Orijin Bees.
\nWe saw some gorgeous editions of classic games, high-end luxury versions of Monopoly and Clue. My favorite was the Clue set with actual miniature 3-D rooms under the lucite playing board:
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\nOur market won’t support\u00a0those super-fancy deluxe versions, but the WS Game Company<\/a>\u00a0has\u00a0many appealing items, including their Vintage Bookshelf line featuring classic games that fit into linen boxes that look like books:
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\nOur old friends Eeboo have some great new puzzles, including Votes for Women<\/strong>, featuring 40 women’s rights activists and Goddesses, Warriors, Deities, and Heroines from Around the World<\/strong>:
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\nAnd, irresistible to booksellers, a puzzle featuring 100 great words.
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\nAll of these puzzles have posters with more information on them\u2014a\u00a0nice bonus. They also have a great new line of board books coming out, featuring art by Joost Elffers.
\nFinally, we saw a beautiful line of shaped puzzles from a great little company out of the UK called Floss & Rock. They’re about three years old,\u00a0and their design aesthetic is great! This photo doesn’t do justice to them, but they pop off the shelf.\u00a0And the shaped puzzles are not only in shaped boxes, but assemble in shapes! For example, the unicorn Fantasy puzzle\u00a0is shaped like a butterfly when assembled, the Zoo puzzle ends up shaped like a leaf, and so on.\u00a0I can’t wait to bring these in.
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\nMore than the new items we found, we enjoyed meeting the folks in the booths. Some of those interactions\u00a0turned out to be a highlight of the show!\u00a0At the Duncan booth, we met Bryan Jardin, a seven-time national champion yo-yo competitor, and one of the top five yo-yo masters in the world! His artistry and skill\u00a0are unbelievable! Here’s a snippet:
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