Toy Fair 2006: Education, Electronics, Entertainment

Braving a record-setting snowfall—the second major Toy Fair blizzard in four years—more than 40 publishers sold their wares at the 2006 New York International Toy Fair, held February 11–15 in New York City. Independent toy, gift and educational stores, mass market and discount chains, supermarkets and pharmacies, cataloguers and other special-market channels all shopped the show.

The educational and preschool sectors have been strong in the toy industry of late, and both were reflected in publishers' offerings. On the education front, a number of publishers introduced or highlighted workbooks.  Son Schein Press showed its Kumon workbook line, linked to a chain of tutoring centers, as well as workbooks, book-a-day and puzzle books tied to the Weekly Reader brand.

Educate, Inc., the owner of Hooked on Phonics and Sylvan, last year introduced Hooked on Phonics products for retail—they previously were sold through informercials only—and this year is adding Hooked on Spanish and Hooked on Science. The products are sold at Books-A-Million, Borders, Amazon and Hastings, as well as discount chains, price clubs and Toys R Us. Educate, Inc. intends to introduce Sylvan-branded retail products in the future.

Learning Horizons highlighted its new LeapFrog license, based on a leading electronic learn-to-read brand, for which it will market workbooks and wipe-off activity mats. (Scholastic is doing LeapFrog books as well.) Learning Horizons also added titles to its Care Bears, Strawberry Shortcake, Parents Magazine, Sesame Street and Nick Jr. workbook series.

Brighter Minds introduced its 30-Minute-A-Day Learning System, a range of workbooks that will debut in June. It is intended for parents and children to use together for a half hour at a time.

A Boost in Bilingual

While publishers have offered some Spanish-English or Spanish-only titles each year, and have long spoken about the importance of the U.S. Hispanic marketplace, this year the talk is becoming reality. Several publishers said they were making bilingual books more of a focus than in the past, and others introduced Spanish-language or bilingual titles for the first time.

Bendon Publishing exhibited bilingual versions of many of its titles, including in its Sesame Street, Bible story, everyday, Christmas and coloring and activity lines. It also took a license for a Mexican property, El Chavo, for Spanish-language books. School Zone highlighted its bilingual workbooks, now numbering 16. (It also introduced its Wipe-Off series of educational activity books.) Modern Publishing showed its Fisher-Price Español line.

Publications International, known for its electronic books, has added many bilingual titles, especially in its Look and Find and Active Minds series. Christopher Campbell, senior v-p of marketing, notes that 20% of U.S. kids are Hispanic, and that while the company has had bilingual titles in the past, "We've really ratcheted it up, largely at the request of our retailers."

A first-time Toy Fair exhibitor, Me+Mi Publishing, a four-year-old subsidiary of packager Rose+Wesley, exhibited its English-Spanish titles for pre-K and kindergarten, which are sold in bookstore chains, discounters and price clubs.

Influence of Electronics

Electronics have been a trend in the toy industry for several years, from MP3 players and DVDs to talking toys and items that communicate through infrared technology. The line between books and electronics has blurred as well, particularly in mass market titles, with many book publishers adding electronic components to their offerings. Paradise Press, which offered its first electronic books last year with eight titles, now has over 100 electronic books in its line.

Publications International has sold two million of its Story Reader devices and nine million Story Reader books since the brand launched three years ago. This year, PI introduced Story Reader Video Plus, along with 12 other new electronic book formats. Story Reader Video Plus, which is sold in mass market book departments, is an animated learn-to-read storybook that consumers connect to their televisions. Software includes five educational plug-and-play games.

PI also offered a DVD book, as did School Zone and several other publishers. DVD-and-book combinations echo trends in the toy industry, where DVD games and toy-and-DVD packages have become common. Other publishers offered DVD-only programs, including novelty book and language tape marketer Penton Kids, whose focus was Your Baby Can Read, a five-DVD program that introduces children 0–5 to written language.

Meanwhile, toy companies continue to introduce electronic products involving books and storytelling. Hasbro's Playskool brand, for example, launched TJ Bearytales, an electronic teddy bear/readalong device with 13 books available, each illustrated with photos of the bear in action. The stories are about school-readiness concepts such as fears and overcoming barriers.

Many of these electronic learning products are aimed at preschoolers, and many traditional publishers at Toy Fair focused their attention on items for younger children as well. Preschool toys have become the largest segment in the industry, maintaining a 15% share of total sales, according to new figures from the NPD Group, which estimates toy sales overall decreased almost 4% in 2005, to $21.3 billion.

Innovative Kids highlighted its new iBaby line, which includes four value-added titles for spring and four more for fall, marketed under the tagline "iBaby lets babies be babies." The line will be sold in trade and specialty stores, priced at $10.99 to $15.99.

Licensing Watch

Licensing accounted for 26% of dollar sales in the toy industry in 2005, according to the NPD Group. Licenses didn't have as a high a profile at Toy Fair as they have in some years past, but there were a number of film, television and other properties in evidence.

The most visible were those from comic books, including Marvel and DC Comics characters, and from mange/anime. (Meanwhile, several publishers displayed proprietary comic and graphic novel formats for children; Innovative Kids launched a line of leveled beginning readers called Phonics Comics, while Brighter Minds showed the third book of its graphic novel series Extreme Monsters, for example). Film licenses were widespread among publishers, including Kappa with Fox's Ice Age: The Meltdown and DreamWorks' Over the Hedge; Scholastic with Warner Bros.' The Ant Bully and Over the Hedge; and Bendon with Disney's Cars and The Wild.

Bendon showed a number of new licensed lines, including Peanuts, Jakers! and Precious Moments. It also added several formats to its existing licensed lines, including giant pop-up storybooks, board book box sets and digest-sized activity books with stickers. All told, the company introduced over 400 new items this year; its top-selling licenses are Sesame Street, My Little Pony and Hello Kitty.

Even when licensing activity is limited for a film or TV property overall, there is usually at least one publisher on board. A case in point is the TV show Totally Spies, which is about to start its fourth season on Cartoon Network. Licensor Marathon, of France, and its U.S. agency Copcorp are focusing primarily on publishing and interactive games. U.S. publishers include Simon & Schuster, which is releasing 10 to 12 chapter, novelty and sticker books a year; TokyoPop for four volumes of Cinemanga; and Brighter Minds, a new licensee for novelty/activity books. PaperCutz, distributed by Holtzbrinck, will publish six 88-page comic books a year. "The editorial content of the show is strong enough to contain all of that content," said Patricia DeWilde, Marathon's director of licensing.

Book-Based Properties

To coincide with the DVD release of The Chronicles of Narnia film in April, HarperCollins is adding new I Can Read and activity titles; there were 150 titles on the market with the theatrical release. Harper also promoted the Charlotte's Web movie, which will be in theaters in December. The company will publish 10 tie-in titles, and will use the event to promote its existing Charlotte's Web books. Meanwhile, Houghton Mifflin devoted half a wall in its booth to Curious George: The Movie; the February release will be followed by a DVD and animated television show later this year.

There were a number of licensed toy lines throughout the Fair that were purely based on books, without entertainment support. In addition to sidelines companies that specialize in these types of properties—such as Merrymakers, which showed Piggies and Diary of a Worm playsets, and Yottoy, which highlighted Harry the Dirty Dog, Poodlena and The Little Fur Family plush—Candlewick and its licensing agency RJM Licensing had a booth to promote their 10 Maisy and 24 Guess How Much I Love You? licensees.

Sababa Toys, which produces playthings tied to Angelina Ballerina and Dick and Jane, announced that it has earned worldwide master toy and game rights to Dragonology from Templar Publishing and Silver Lining Productions (Candlewick is the U.S. publisher). Sababa will create a Dragonology game and action figures.

Playmates Toys showed an extensive line of dolls, playsets and activity sets tied to Disney Fairies. The toys are three-dimensional versions of the artwork in Gail Carson Levine's illustrated novel, Fairy Dust and the Quest for the Egg, released last year, and the subsequent tie-in books from Random House.

Another pop culture trend evident throughout the show was Sudoku. Across the show floor were Sudoku board games, magnetic jigsaws, 3D puzzles (like a Rubik's Cube), handheld electronic games, DVD games, and spin-off products such as the Green Board Game Co's Picdoku. Among the many publishers exhibiting Sudoku titles were Workman, which promoted The Original Sudoku, and Kappa Books, which has sold one million copies of its Sudoku books since they began shipping in October, according to Paul Kolkka, national sales manager.

Seeking Special Markets

Publishers have long targeted independent toy and gift stores, discounters and cataloguers at Toy Fair. But additional types of stores are increasingly attending, offering potential new distribution channels for exhibitors. In particular, publishers mentioned supermarkets, drug store chains and craft stores such as Michael's and AC Moore as customers that have shown increasing interest in books.

Free Spirit Publishing talked to several pharmacies at the show. They were interested in, among others, its books for high school students that deal with social and emotional issues, according to Penne Post, Free Spirit's senior trade sales associate. Like many publishers at the show, Free Spirit highlighted preschool educational titles, namely its Best Behavior series of early learning board books, including the most recent title, Germs Are Not for Sharing.

Even clothing stores can be a venue for books. Last year VIZ forged a deal to distribute Naruto merchandise in the Hot Topic chain, and the products did well in that venue, according to Carol Roeder, VIZ's director of licensing. Books, which were sold nonexclusively in the chain, started out slowly but eventually attained double-digit sell-throughs there.

Licensed products, in turn, are popping up in bookstores on occasion. Starting in May, Borders and Waldenbooks will sell an exclusive 8-inch Naruto action figure from Mattel, which will launch a full Naruto line in July.

This is the last Toy Fair in the Toy Center buildings at 23rd and Fifth Avenue, which were sold for condos last year. During Toy Fair, the Toy Industry Association confirmed it will continue to hold the show in New York into the foreseeable future, at the Javits Center and in showrooms. But toy companies and showroom-based coloring/activity publishers are scrambling to decide where their showrooms should be, whether they should move to Javits (where the bulk of publishers already exhibit) or even if they ultimately should support the February fair at all. Stay tuned.