Fairly Excited for Toys
The first New York Toy Fair since 2020 is next week! I'm excited. As a kid I always wanted to go - but they didn't let in the tiny tots, nor would my parents be likely let me go Kevin McCallister-style. I've been in the world of toy journalism since high school, so I was able to start going in 2023 and have only missed one Toy Fair ever since. And I'm excited. Not just because I haven't seen so many of you for years, not just because I love toys, but also because it won't be snowing or 12° as I walk to the convention before work starts.
It's my favorite toy trade show, by far. It's not too crowded, it's filled with inside baseball, and you never know what you might see. At the top of this post is a Jurassic World Indominus Rex Dino Hybrid toy I snapped a picture of in 2016 - it looks like no big deal, but it turned out this item never got released, and nobody else in the Hasbro press room that day bothered to shoot these dinosaur toys. A number of unreleased toys were in there, and if it weren't for fans like me - specifically, only me - going through there, nobody would have ever seen them. It would just be another legend, like [redacted thing here I am not allowed to talk about.] So when you're at Toy Fair next week, take pictures. Future generations of toy fanatics will thank you.
Oh, and there's work to do. Discounts to debate, orders to purchase, exclusives to exclude, and if you are lucky, a cart with knishes awaits you outside the doors upstairs at lunch time.
Usually there are things I was tipped off to and am excited to see - but this year I haven't heard any whispers about what might show up. Will Playmobil announce a new license? Gosh I hope so. Might Hasbro have some never-before-seen Transformers on display in their off-site showroom? I would have to imagine that they will. Are you going to go and take pictures and show me things I might have missed? I hope so. I've got a job to do, and there are always thrilling things I can't see because they weren't in the precise meetings I attended. So feel free to post so the rest of us can copy off of your homework when looking for new things!