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TWEEN MARKET
The Boys´ Share of the Tween Market
In the toy and hobby world, the tween market has become a hot commodity for retailers. Reyne Rice, toy trend specialist for the Toy Industry Association, explains that the industry focus for the last few years has been to retain that particular age group in toy products...READ MORE
CHILDRENS MEDIA
Children´s Video Games Win Fans, Spur Spin-offs
12-and-under gamers continue to split their video time between sports games and educational / adventure games. For the most successful companies and developers, understanding this bifurcation is the key to the crowded, but lucrative, children´s gaming market....READ MORE
MUSICAL TOYS
Bells and Whistles: Musical Toys for Infants and Toddlers
Music comes in many shapes and forms, and thank goodness it does! From plush toys that play traditional music to interactive DVDs, the musical toys on the market with have infants and toddlers singing and dancing with delight!...READ MORE
TDMONTHLY TOY BUZZ
Poker Has Breakout Year in 2004
Without a doubt, Poker has emerged as the hottest game of the year and the trend is directly reflected in this season´s new products. For the 50 million-plus poker players in the US and another 100 million around the world (according to About.com), No Limit Texas Hold ´Em appears to be the most popular version of the game; meanwhile, many manufacturers are drawing their licenses from popular cable shows and even the actual games deployed on the casino floor...READ MORE
From the new How Tall Am I? game for young kids to the latest poker deck Dealing Shoe for all you Texas Hold Em sharks, JAX, Ltd. Inc has hot- wired the non-electronic games world with original fun for everyone from pre-schoolers through adults....
EDUCATIONAL
Musical Training Can Start with Toys
Toy Symphony products, were developed by Tod Machover, a composer and professor of music and media, and his research team at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The project is co-sponsored by MIT Media Consortia Fund, Yamaha, Sega, Fisher-Price, and Mattel...READ MORE
RETAILING TIPS
Safe Budgeting: The Dangers of High Overhead
Tamara Carlisle, president of Big Kids Productions in Austin, defines "overhead" as their staff and their inventory...READ MORE
TDMONTHLY COOL COMPANY
Schoenhut Toy Pianos: History in Music
Founded in 1872 by Albert Schoenhut, the award-winning Schoenhut Toy Piano Company has moved into the twenty-first century with finesse. Emphasizing an individualized rather than an assembly line approach to manufacturing, this historic toy company is a timeless contributor to early childhood music education...READ MORE
RETAILER SPOTLIGHT
Groth Music Company: Selling Children´s Instruments
"The biggest factor in our success has been the wonderful talented employees that I have surrounded myself with. In the past five to ten years we have relocated to a much larger building, upgraded our use of technology, and have increased our market area to include the entire United States through advertising on the Internet"...READ MORE
TDMONTHLY MOMīS PERSPECTIVE
Wooing the Parents of Tweens
My son now falls into that demographic Limbo known as "tween"--a new market segment crammed into the space between "kid" and "teen."...READ MORE
TDMONTHLY TOP-10 MOST-WANTED LISTS
TDmonthly Top 10 Most Wanted Lists
The TDmonthly Top 10 lists are mostly used by specialty retailers to better anticipate market demands and trends. These lists are based on thorough research and interviews....READ MORE
For the home player and casino game enthusiast, one of the most desirable formats is the portable, stand-alone hand-held game, which combines the thrill of the tables with faster-than-life action....
Watching I Love the 80s, reading People magazine religiously and playing with a Pet Rock are not the only gateways to today’s pop culture icons...
The future of toys is now, as today's interactive playthings incorporate components like invisible data streams, voice activation and color recognition technology....
Every sports fan has fantasized about running towards the end zone to score the winning touchdown, delivering a bone-crushing blow in a WWE title bout, or hitting a grand slam in the bottom of the ninth to win the World Series....
Be it PC, Microsoft´s XBox, Sony PlayStation 2 (PS2) or Nintendo´s GameCube (GC), video games for the home systems have enjoyed flourishing popularity in the last few years, especially as holiday gifts for players young and old alike....
Can action figures be fashionable and fight evil at the same time? Toymakers are breaking down traditional categories and mixing genres in the female action figure market....
Just in time to stuff stockings, action figures shrink this season....