Retailers Speak Out at Toy Fair

Specialty Toy Store Owners Pick Fair Faves

By Alison Marek
April 2007

While at a Toy Fair 2007 event sponsored by ASTRA at FAO Schwarz, TDmonthly Magazine interviewed specialty toy retailers about new products they'd spotted and what had been some of their best sellers for 2006. Just click on their pix to hear their picks:

Videography and editing by Alison Marek.

	Diana Nelson, owner, Kazoo & Company, Denver “We have sold the Khet game [Innovention Toys] since its original inception … There’s a new little company called the Little Little Little Toy Company … great toys.”
	Edward Schmults, CEO, FAO Schwarz, New York City “2006 was a very strong year for us. Business as a whole was up 38 percent in December over the prior year…”
	Mary DeSilva, Smart Kids Company, Greenwich, Conn. “We like to have very specialized things in our store …”
	Tyson Varney, buyer, Playthings, Madison, Wis. “Geomags [Jonic Distribution] looked interesting …"
	Clyde Walton, president, Toy Shoppe of London, London, Ontario “New lines, like [Little]MissMatched socks…”
	Greg Bonner, owner, Heights Toy Center, Little Rock, Ark. “Rokenbok has a lot of new things. They’ve come back to the specialty market…”
	Florence Allen, co-owner, William’s Store, Macon, Ga. “The Tee-Shirt Game [Buffalo Games] looks very interesting … very creative.”
	Rick Garlock, co-owner, Treasured Child, La Grange, Ky. "Each year we reinvent ourselves ... "