At Toy Fair 2011, your inner child comes out

Toy Fair 2011 took place here in New York earlier this week. It's a four-day expo, and it is... massive. It's so huge, that to really take it in, you need to go more than one day. Naturally, that's all I had. So I waded into the fray and chatted up some of the people showing off their wares. This might just be the most fun trade show to attend, because nothing brings out the kid in you like being surrounded by 345,000 square feet of playthings. The wow factor starts at the door, where a life-sized Ligntning McQueen built out of 325,000 Lego pieces greeted visitors. There's a reason kids aren't allowed; they'd have nervous breakdowns. Here's some of the stuff I saw.

• Automoblox - As the resident car guy here, this is an obvious place to start. Automoblox founder and Chief Creative Officer Pat Calello had his award-winning wooden car toys on display. I'll admit to owning a few of these myself (there are two on my desk here at the office as I type this; the third is somewhere in my son's bedrooom), but I'd never met the man behind the cars. Calello's newest additions are his hot rod models, and the Automoblox "flagship" set for 2011 combines the T900 pickup truck, a trailer, and the HR2 hot rod. (It carries a retail price of $120, and you can see it in the photo gallery at the bottom of this post).  "What's great about Automoblox," said Calello as he picked up the T900, "is that you can do this." He smashed it down on the table. The model broke apart into its various segments but was otherwise unscathed, ready for reassembly and more rough play. Then we talked about Calello's personal cars for a bit. He has an Acura NSX. I like this guy. To peruse the whole Automoblox toy lineup, visit Automoblox.com.

• Smurfs - Yes, Smurfs. I thought they'd vanished from the scene after their popularity reached its zenith during the 1980s, but the representative from Smurf manufacturer Schleich set me straight. In fact, they've never left, and in 2011, their profile is being raised once again. A Smurfs movie hits theaters in August, and in May, a new line of movie-styled Smurfs arrives in stores (they have larger feet and different facial features than regular Smurfs). Production of the classic-style Smurfs continues as usual. Both Smurf types were on display, and looking at the original-spec figurines was like stepping into a time machine. Even the little mushroom houses look the same as they did when I was a kid. You can check out the full range Schleich's Smurfs toys here.

• Air Swimmers - There they were, in the air, as I walked the floor of the convention hall:  helium-filled, remote-controlled, flying fish. Available in Great White Shark and Clownfish versions, Air Swimmers hit retailers this spring for around $40. The promo sheet I got on them says all they need is helium and AAA batteries. The AirSwimmers.com website is still in "Coming Soon" mode, but you don't need to wait to see them in action. I pulled out my phone and shot the video below. Very lifelike movements. I have already mentally parted with 40 bucks. Check it out:

• Koplow Games - Koplow makes dice and dice games. From the looks of things (see the photo in the slideshow below), they make all the dice games. I asked a rep what Koplow's best seller was. He chuckled, turned around, opened a bin of dice, and pulled one out. "This is, without question, our best-selling item," he said. In his hand was a simple blank cube. No markings whatsoever. "They're called counting dice," he said, explaining that the blank dice are a popular educational tool. Take ten small ones, group them, replace with a single larger one, and so on. "For example, you can teach a child to count to a thousand just by using these. It requires little space, and it's fun." Educational dice make up a large chunk of the Koplow catalog, from math dice, to foreign languages, all the way to a sign language-themed game.  There's even a decahedron inscribed with the 10 Commandments. Figure on paying around $6 for a basic dice game at retail. The Koplow Games catalog shows off every one of their dice products.

• Beamz Player - A light-based music device, the Beamz Player (*Est. $200) works in conjunction with a computer software that contains 50 pre-loaded music tracks. The user then passes his or her hands across the four separate lasers being generated by the Beamz Player to create music (each laser represents a single instrument/sound, and the user can swap between three Beamz sets in every song, so there's 12 instruments/sounds for every track). ConsumerSearch editor in chief Christine Frietchen noted after watching the video below that Beamz seems like a modern take on the Theremin (used to famous effect in Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love").
  
  While the device comes with 50 tracks, it's customizable, too. You can record any sound, save it as an MP3 file, and add it as an available instrument to make and record your own songs. Beamz rep Cody Myer said that they recently signed a licensing deal with Disney Music and EMI to add additional known tracks to the available song library. (In the demo below, he's playing along to a song by Disney recording artists Aly & AJ.) A Beamz XBOX game is also coming, which will make the Beamz Player usable as an XBOX controller. Note that the $199 Beamz Player price does not include the stand, which you really need; that's available separately for $50. Watch Cody Myer demo the Beamz Player for us in the video below, and learn more at TheBeamz.com.

• Green Toys / Green Eats - I was drawn to the Green Toys display by their nice-looking plastic toy trucks (around $25 each). Then I got sucked into the story behind the products. Green Toys are all made of 100% recycled materials (milk jugs, to be specific), and are themselves 100% recyclable. The toy cars and trucks do not use metal axles. In addition to the vehicles, Green Toys makes 100% recycled/recyclable play food and utensils that are also completely food safe and dishwasher safe.
  
  The company started hearing from parents who liked the play dinnerware so much, they had begun using it to serve real food to their kids. So, Green Toys developed its new line, Green Eats, a full range of foodware made using the same processes as the company's toys. I rather liked the divided tray, which looks like a brightly-colored TV dinner tray. Company co-founder Robert von Goeben chuckled and said, "We've internally nicknamed them 'prison trays.'" Whatever you want to call them, the Green Toys and Green Eats products are interesting and encourage a sustainable lifestyle. You can see the full product line at GreenToys.com.

• Life-Like Products -Model railroading is pretty awesome. Slot cars are awesome, too. Combining the two into a single product is so awesome, it will make your brain shut down in order to collect itself. That's what Life-Like Products has done with its High Iron & Burnin' Rubber  set, which includes loop of HO-scale train track, a freight train, a loop of slot car track, and two slot cars. Lifelike also sells the parts that create the intersection of the two track types separately, so owners of its other train or racing car sets can combine them on their own. I probably spent 20 minutes at this display. This and the rest of the Life-Like Train and Life-Like Racing lineup can be seen at Walthers.com. Watch the video below and tell me you don't want this dual-action layout.

• Fundex Games - It's the last company I'll talk about, but Fundex was the first company I paid a visit to at Toy Fair. Fundex is the license holder for classic games like Gnip Gnop and Booby Trap, and has a broad range of its own new games, as well as games based on popular licenses like Tetris, Peanuts, and Diary of a Wimpy Kid, to name a few. My favorite new product Fundex had on display was a game called  Rapid Response. Basically, the overall theme is similar to the old Dick Clark-hosted "Pyramid" game shows. One teammate tries to guess the phrase on a game card based on the clues given by the other teammate. As this goes on, marbles tick down a ramp, acting as a timer. If the marbles run out before you give a correct answer, it's the other team's turn. As you get correct answers, you move your game pieces up a separate ramp. First to the top wins. It's a simple and engaging take on a classic quiz game formula.
  
  The other Fundex product I loved was a game called Armchair Quarterback, which was apparently out during the 1980s as well. (I missed it back then.) This one is designed to be played while watching a football game. Any football game. Pro, college, high school, on TV, in person -- whatever. You can even play it while you watch your friends play Madden. Armchair quarterback comes with a game board that looks like a football field, some game pieces that represent the people playing, and four old-style peel-and-write slate boards with styluses. Gameplay is simple, before every play, players enter the following predictions on their slates:
  • Run or pass
  • Play to the left or right
  • Gain/Completion or No Gain/Incomplete Pass
  • Player number (i.e. the uniform number)
  • First Down, Touchdown, QB Sack or Turnover

Get them all right, and you advance your piece on the game board. Get any wrong, and you get nothing. It struck me as a fun way to watch a game in general, as well as a neat tool for teaching your kids about football. It's also a good way to get non-football fans into the game at, say, a Super Bowl party. The Fundex rep who broke down the gameplay to me added, "We're based in Indianapolis, so think of how hard this can be to play. When Peyton manning goes into the no-huddle, there can be as little as five seconds between plays." All part of the challenge, I suppose. Armchair Quarterback retails for around $15.

One final factoid: I asked Fundex what their biggest seller is overall. "That's easy," said another rep. "It's the Snoopy Sno Cone Machine." Yes, Fundex holds the license to that one, too. And it's exactly the same as it was in the '70s. I know firsthand. Santa brought my daughter one for Christmas. I love the nostalgia.

And that concludes the roundup of my favorite things at this year's Toy Fair. The slideshow below has photos of the products discussed. Neither I nor ConsumerSearch accept responsibility for any compulsive spending that ensues on your part. But believe me, I understand the urge.