During this year's New York International Toy Fair, held February 17—20, visitors to the Javits Center saw technology around every corner. One key theme was the creation of online communities to support toy play; toys from Beanie Babies to Littlest Pet Shop figures now come with a code that gives the child access to bonus content within a virtual world connected to the brand.
Play Visions' Zibbies toy line is one example, and it has a publishing connection. Author Stephen Cosgrove, best known for his Serendipity series with Penguin, previously saw success in the toy industry with his Treasure Trolls and wanted to find a new toy concept that would lend itself to storytelling. “This was cute and compelling,” he said. He joined with Play Visions and started developing a mythology about a world within the Internet called the ZibbieZone, and ended up spearheading the launch of the brand's online community.
“I'm an über-geek anyway,” he explained, noting that he has launched other online ventures over the past 10 years and has a long-held philosophy that all media—books, online, mobile, television—feed each other and bring a story to life. The ZibbieZone builds on what he learned with his past efforts. Character Response Technology allows children to exchange e-mails and instant messages with Zibbies characters, which helps drive story and character development. Cosgrove and Play Visions are about to launch Zibbies mobile phone content with MobiTV and plan to premiere an animated TV series and a line of picture storybooks and juvenile novels in 2009.
The strategy for building Simon & Schuster's Trucktown brand will follow a similar pattern. Executives from licensing agency Chorion were walking the aisles talking to toy companies about Trucktown, which Chorion represents for merchandising and entertainment. Step one is to create an online experience for kids, which will most likely be linked with the toy line and books. “Trucktown is a good example of how publishers are creating these publishing-based franchises that are really tied to what kids are interested in,” said Amory Millard, Chorion's executive v-p, corporate communications.
Books and technology were connected in many ways on the show floor. LeapFrog introduced its next-generation electronic learn-to-read technology, the Tag Reading System, which features an interactive pen that unlocks the educational elements in a Tag-formatted book. The first roster of Tag books includes Fancy Nancy, Olivia, The Little Engine That Could, Walter the Farting Dog, I Spy and Miss Spider. Meanwhile, Wiley has licensed the For Dummies name and content for a line of branded MP3 players, digital cameras, handheld games and portable photo lighting kits (for eBay users) from Sakar Electronics, which introduced its newest product in the line, camcorders. Each box contains a custom 16-page excerpt from a For Dummies book.
iToys will offer a Spiderwick Chronicles—licensed digital camera in conjunction with the DVD release of the book-based movie this spring; when the user prints out a picture taken with the camera, a surprise character from the series appears in the photo with the subject. And Twin Sisters, a CD and book-and-CD publisher that supplements educational curricula with music, showed its first line of preloaded MP3 players.
Several of the 40-plus publishers that exhibited at Toy Fair highlighted books that take advantage of eye-catching publishing technologies. Workman promoted Gallop!, which uses a patented Scanimation technology to make all of the illustrations seem animated, while Silver Dolphin showed science activity books with lenticular covers. School Zone featured updated, higher price-point versions of some of its core product lines, including lenticular flash cards. “Kids are bombarded with all kinds of media,” said Sharon Winningham, v-p, sales. “The question is, how do you make flash cards cool?” Winningham reported that nearly every order School Zone wrote at Toy Fair included this item.
While book publishers and toy companies are going high-tech, many toy makers also were participating in a sort of counter-trend by getting into book publishing. Content such as DVDs, story booklets or mini comic books have been packaged with toys for some time now, but this year several toy companies offered copackaged hardcovers or paperbacks that can also be sold separately.
SpiralingHearts, a yoga-themed game company, showed three coloring and activity books that teach yoga poses and philosophy to children ages 4—13. Three multicultural doll lines, Jambo Kids, Karito Kids and Eco Dolls, all offered tie-in storybooks for each doll. At least 10 other toy companies, makers of preschool toys, plush characters and craft kits, were selling children's books related to their toy lines.
