This Issue's Highlights

What to Read in January

By Alison Marek
January 2007

This month, TDmonthly Magazine is all about communication: books, DVDs, online, offline. But if you don’t have time for us to communicate it all, here are our top stories in short form, with links to the full articles:

New Books for Specialty Stores

Looking for books to match your toys? Or that have toys of their own? Or mingle high-tech with low? Representatives from Barefoot Books, Five Star Publications (ToyDirectory), Marianne Richmond, Faux Paw Productions (ToyShow), Northland Printing, Block Publishing, Kidzpoetz Publishing and Gingerbread House discuss why their new releases will do well in specialty toy stores. To read the full article, please click here.

Stay Spooky

Eleven specialty toy retailers agreed that parents aren’t looking for junky Halloween fare anymore. “For us, Halloween dress-up has turned into something children can use the other 364 days of the year,” explained Greg Bonner, owner of Heights Toy Center in Little Rock, Ark. Retailers’ favorite costumers include Fairy Finery (Gift Guide), Small Miracles (ToyShow), Creative Education of Canada, Puppet Workshop, Brand New World (ToyDirectory) and Aeromax (ToyDirectory). To read the full article, please click here.

Mass Market Spy: Will DVDs Steal Family Game Time?

Board games are a mainstay of specialty toy stores, but the growing popularity of communal DVD games may knock them aside. In TDmonthly’s new feature, Mass Market Spy, we highlight some of the new DVD family games for 2007 so you can know what’s in store, before they hit the stores. SnapTV capitalizes on the pirate craze with I Spy Treasure Hunt, and Imagination Entertainment does the same with Pirates of the Caribbean DVD Treasure Hunt. Screenlife taps into pop culture with games featuring Marvel characters, James Bond and Nickelodeon. Brighter Minds has new educational DVD games for kids to play with each other or their folks. To read the full article, please click here.

Babies Are Avid Readers

In TDmonthly’s new Infant/Toddler Roundtable, five babies get their first reading experiences with Taggies’ “My First Taggies Book ‘Hey, Diddle, Diddle’” and Wee Gallery’s “What Should We Call the Twins?” Infants who needed a break from vocabulary grabbed some stimulation from the Wee Gallery (ToyDirectory) Baby Flash Cards. To read what the babies had to “say,” please click here.

Make Cyberspace Pay

If you have a new toy, you’ve got to blast it into cyberspace. But where? How? And what’s the most effective way? Manufacturers such as Mic-o-Mic Americas, Schoenhut Piano Company, Tonner Doll Company, Top Shelf Holdings LLC and U.S. Game Systems Inc. discuss everything from optimizing your website to search-engine marketing. Click here to read the full article.

Watch Our Videos!

Why just read about specialty toys? See them in and out of the box by clicking here.

Find New Toys

To search for toys that have come into ToyDirectory/TDmonthly during the past three months, click here. Or, to see everything, do an ADVANCED SEARCH (top of the page) and select "All" for your Category.