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TDMONTHLY TOY VIDEOS
Toys on the Move
Mr. TOYDIRECTORY shows you size relation, dimensions and playability in the following 10 to 20-second videos. The Toys are sorted by categories....READ MORE
TDMONTHLY HOT TOPIC
THIS JUST IN: Conley Resigns From TIA, Flaxman Resigns From Uneeda
Tom Conley resigns from the TIA for "personal reasons," and Richard Flaxman steps down from the Uneeda Doll Company to form a consulting firm....READ MORE
TDmonthly Magazine has been keeping a close eye on Chinese manufacturing and labor ethics. So has the toy industry, which, through its CARE Process, is auditing practices at foreign factories....
What can manufacturers do to protect themselves against law suits when their products aren´t used properly?...
Tom Conley, president of the Toy Industry Association (TIA), is back for another round with TDmonthly Magazine. This month’s topic: hard times in the toy industry....
Jamie Lee Curtis will be heading up a Hasbro board game campaign this fall. Does celebrity placement work in promoting products?...
So, it’s October — what the heck is going on out there? Hollywood Toyboy jumps on his hopped up Vespa and hits the studios to see....
Where do toy producers draw the line between their obligation to stockholders and their responsibility to children?...
Are traditional toy retailers and manufacturers in trouble? Tough times for some of the country’s largest companies have raised eyebrows around the industry, sparking speculation as to the immediate and long term economic future of the toy business....
In the aftermath of one of the most devastating natural catastrophes in U.S. history, the toy industry has stepped up to help Hurricane Katrina survivors through fundraising and contributions....
Manufacturers of traditional toys may benefit from the currrent legislative scrutiny of violent video games....
Ready to refresh your shelves with new toys this holiday season? TDmonthly is here to help....
ACTIVITY KITS AND PLAYSETS
Playing with Playsets
Playsets come and playsets go, but the category is evergreen. In the article “Ready, Set, Playset!” TDmonthly looks at future trends, but here we look at what’s selling Right Now....READ MORE
Playsets: those ubiquitous catch-alls that provide an entire world in a box to a child. In recent years, the top-sellers have been action-figure driven. But that’s changing. What’s the playset wave of the future, and can retail stores capitalize on it?...
Dollhouses, a standby in the toy industry for over 100 years, are becoming hip once again....
ARTS & CRAFTS
Crafts Kits Build Sales
Crafting kits have always been good boredom-busters. To keep the category fresh, these days some combine two or more traditional craft mediums, some are smaller than their originals and some use artists’ quality materials....READ MORE
No longer are crafts just for girls. People in both established toy and craft companies are brainstorming ideas that will tap into the creative side of boys’ minds. To lure them in, crafts glow in the dark and deal with insects, monsters and dinosaurs....
It’s no secret — and perhaps no surprise — that Big Lots! and other discount chains have jumped onto the $2.5-billion scrapbooking bandwagon....
FURNITURE
Blowing up Furniture
For kids who change their tastes more quickly than channel surfers hit the remote, inflatable furniture may be the answer....READ MORE
Retailers and manufacturers who sell sturdy, multiple-use kids’ furniture are meeting the needs of parents and kids alike by making items in creative, vibrant styles. ...
Dollhouses and furniture are coming back. These days, people want their dollhouses ready-to-go and their furniture high-end....
No matter what the trends or fashion, one thing that will never change is that kids appreciate furniture sized just for them. Whether it’s the mini chairs in a library’s storybook section, or a special kid-sized rocker, children love to find furniture that fits “just right.” ...
RETAILING TIPS
Word of Mouth Gives Mileage to Shoestring Budgets
So many advertising trends. So many new promotional technologies. So little budget? Struggling to compete against the advertising war chests of national chains and big box retailers is a challenge most mom-and-pops face daily. The good news for retailers advertising on a tight budget? With word of mouth, most don’t have to compete....READ MORE
When Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, followed within a few weeks by Hurricane Rita, all eyes turned to the nightly news coverage of the horrific destruction. When such natural tragedies occur, many people find themselves asking, would I be able to survive such a catastrophe? And many small business owners wonder, would my business?...
TDMONTHLY POPULAR STORIES
Be the Monster
Classic monsters such as Frankenstein and the Wolfman are making a comeback, according to Luke Rook, owner of Lulubell: A Toy Bodega in Tucson, Ariz., who’s noticed that kids like them, too....READ MORE
From NASCAR to the NFL, sports licenses hit a home run with boys of all ages. In a recent License Tracker survey conducted by KidzEyes and Funosophy Inc., 3,700 boys ages 6 to 17 were asked to rate 21 of the top boy licenses on the market, including several sports licenses, in terms of popularity for holiday gifts. ...
A couple of toy industry pros have taken their values to the street....
Is your store losing money on credit card transactions? The answer for many retailers, especially Internet stores, is “yes.” But it doesn’t have to be....
There’s a new fashion in fashion dolls, and the #1 spot is up for grabs....
Mattel has chucked out the old template for fashion dolls and come up with something new: 17" Teen Trend dolls....
TDMONTHLY TOY BUZZ
The Bead Shop Follows Fashion Trends
Bored with retail, Goldi and Mark Miller launched The Bead Shop to design and manufacture girls’ products. But the couple never shuttered their women’s apparel store in Milwaukee, which today functions as a living lab for a business that — after only seven years — boasts sales around the world....READ MORE
When Rose Engelsrath left her native land of Austria for the United States in 1950, she felt something was missing. Was it her Viennese students? The wienerschnitzel? The Tyrol? No, she realized, it was the high-gloss craft paper....
The Super-Add-Ons Version for Monopoly Game Board from RADGames Inc. is changing the face of a time-honored classic....
Everyone in Europe knows that “cool” is just another word for Scoubidou....
Fulla has taken the Middle East like a wind of change. Will she be coming to America next?...
Roughly three years ago, a Taiwanese inventor stepped into Geospace International’s New York showroom with a kind of anti-gravity boot that propelled its wearer high into the air. He’d come to the right place....
TDMONTHLY COOL COMPANY
Wild Planet Spies on the Future
Since the company´s inception in 1993, Wild Planet´s ability to tap into a thriving toy market with groundbreaking designs — such as Spy Gear — has brought them to the top....READ MORE
RETAILER SPOTLIGHT
The Staff in The Wizard’s Chest
How do you find a staff as committed to your store as you are? Who are willing to learn about new products and teach customers how to use them? The answer might be as close as your selling floor: at The Wizard’s Chest in Denver, Colo., several devoted employees started out as devoted customers....READ MORE
TDMONTHLY BRASS RING
Awesome Kids Thinks Inside the Box
Joan De Souza, Awesome Kids´ CEO and company founder, simply got fed up with stepping on her son´s toys. She wanted something moveable, packable and stackable. So, doing what any ordinary mom would do, she started her own company....READ MORE
TDMONTHLY MOM´S PERSPECTIVE
Get This Boy a Hat
My search for “dress-up” hats for my son has led me, rather reluctantly, to the Internet. Sadly, 2 year olds can´t get enthusiastic about choosing a new hat from photos the size of postage stamps on a computer screen....READ MORE
Maryam Seyedhosseini has studied, worked with and lived with children for a number of years. She uses her unique perspective to review toys for TDmonthly....
TDMONTHLY TOP-10 MOST-WANTED LISTS
TDmonthly’s Top 10 Most Wanted Glow-in-the-Dark Toys
Why should a kid have to stop playing with her toys just because it’s getting dark outside? That problem is happily solved by glow-in-the-dark toys, which provide illumination as well as entertainment....READ MORE
Playing spy never goes out of style; each generation discovering a new icon. But the toys we play with get more and more sophisticated....
Throughout most of Toyland, plastic is king. But all-natural toys are carving out their own niche in the industry and finding plenty of consumers ready to purchase them....
If you want something new this Christmas, try looking abroad....
What’s hot in the shops, now that the weather’s started to cool? TDmonthly Magazine spoke with 16 retailers across the country to find out....
"PEEKS" OUR INTEREST
October Peeks
We feel the following products have what it takes to make it big in the real world....READ MORE
TDMONTHLY UPCOMING ISSUES
Homeschooled Kids Teach Toys How to Play
Is the growing and lucrative homeschooling market a perfect match for your store?...READ MORE
