Tag Archives: american international toy fair 2016

Exploring Play Fair 2016: A New Event Debuts

Logo - Toy Fair - 2016

I’m hoping that you have been enjoying the posts from this years Toy Fair that I have been loading up here on the Chronicles of PiercingKen over the last few days.  As I mentioned at the beginning of those narratives, our readers are going to get to enjoy even more from the Toy Fair thanks to this site since I will featuring posts from the companies that don’t fit all that well on the PiercingMetal.com site.  This years event was super special because it was going to introduce a new side event that consumers could participate in and bring along the little ones – They called it “Play Fair” and I’m using this post to showcase the highlights.  This was the first consumer accessible event connected to Toy Fair that had taken please because remember that Toy Fair is an Industry Only event and not open to the general public.  Here we go.

Logo - Play Fair - 2016

The Play Fair event would run on the Saturday and Sunday on the same days as Toy Fair but was held way on the other side of the Javits Center in the area where we often find Artist Alley taking place during the NY Comic Con.  The press attendees were welcome to explore Play Fair at their leisure but on the first day would have an unencumbered hour to browse and meet the vendors that were present.  With a laundry list of appointments between Skeleton Pete and myself, we opted for the preview hour.  As you can see the space was guarded by a giant Lego Incredible Hulk.

play fair ny, play fair ny 2016

Here’s the space where the masses would soon assemble and everyone was rushing to get ready.  It was beyond cold today with temperatures at around 5 degrees but with the wind it was even worse.  Hopefully they get the folks lined up outside in the venue quick.

play fair ny, play fair ny 2016
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Exploring Toy Fair 2016: Playmobil

Logo - Toy Fair - 2016

In keeping with the presentations from the 2016 Toy Fair, I wanted to share a quick group of images that I saw in the Playmobil booth. There aren’t a lot of them but I think you will enjoy them.

Logo - Playmobil

I noticed this larger than life NY Rangers figurine as I walked by their booth and sadly they were not taking any additional appointments for the day and the rest of my time was pretty locked up just the same. Fortunately, I was able to quickly zoom in and snap some photographs of the hockey figurines along with the giant Ranger. I didn’t sway from my focus and see if anything else was perfect for this post since everyone in the booth was taking care of business at this time. Next year I will make an appointment but that being said aren’t these hockey figures cool?

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Exploring Toy Fair 2016: Crayola

Logo - Toy Fair - 2016

It’s clear that Crayola is one of the most iconic brands in the history of creative play from their being the creator of the famous wax crayons that I am pretty sure every single one of us owned as a child. I have fond memories of the original small box of “9” and if you were a lucky duck you might have gotten that big “64” box with colors you could only imagine existing. Do you remember that it even had a sharpener on the box? I do. During Toy Fair, Skeleton Pete and I explored the offerings that were happening in the Crayola pavilion and I am presenting them to you below.

Logo - Crayola

As with many of the Toy Fair attending vendors, the press outlets must set up an appointment to explore the offerings so one of their team can provide insight on the product line and field any questions that you might have about what you were seeing. As we entered we were treated to this delicious cupcake and a cookie. Yes I ate them both because wandering the Javits Center in this fashion is draining and exhausting.

toy fair, toy fair 2016, crayola

toy fair, toy fair 2016, crayola
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Exploring Toy Fair 2016: Fat Brain Toys

Logo - Toy Fair - 2016

As noted only a few posts ago, my exploration of the 2016 Toy Fair was done and while a considerable amount of my narratives will be located on PiercingMetal.com there are other items that I found of real interest and fell outside of my usual wheelhouse. As a scribe you also meet some awesome reps from numerous different companies and this post focuses on what was observed at Fat Brain Toys. Take a look.

Logo - Fat Brain Toys

Skeleton Pete and I had gotten to the point of expanded exploration at this point of the convention and what I mean by that is how we were between the locked in appointments and now was the perfect time to see what else could be discovered. The large bins with this colorful goop type stuff caught my eye and I learned from the Chizcomm PR rep Stephanie that it was known as magic sand. I grew up on Play Doh, Silly Putty and even those grosser things like “Slime” so found the sand to be super interesting.

fat brain toys, toy fair 2016

This stuff was amazing. It really felt like sand and yet there was nothing on your hands when you were done mushing it around between your fingers or molding shapes. Even the famous clays I grew up with didn’t offer that to happen to you.

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Exploring Toy Fair 2016: The TIA @ 100 Years

Logo - Toy Fair - 2016

Hello again. When last we met and began discussing the findings at the 2016 American International Toy Fair which I just called Toy Fair, I had presented the winners of the “Toy Of The Year” awards in their own post. Now before I get underway with the amazing companies that I am sharing here on The Chronicles Of PiercingKen, I wanted to share this awesome walk through history about the Toy Industry Association. They are celebrating their 100th anniversary with this years event and I felt that such a milestone deserved a post of its own. Here is the display from afar.

tia at 100 years, toy industry association history

Now that the full shot has been taken care of, let me go through this lineage panel by panel. I hope you can read them, I tried to get it all as large as possible without ruining the shot. See you at the close.
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