February 16, 2001 CURRENT RUMBLE Curious Josh Goes To the Fair Josh Bernard 2.16.01 I was so excited to go to the Toy Fair this year. I had imagined it to be heaven. Being able to be the first to see all the new toys for the year was going to be so cool! Boy, was I wrong. The Toy Fair is a giant mess of corporate greed, smelly salesmen, and desperate entrepreneurs. I arrived in NYC around 10 am on Saturday to meet up with Yappy, ToyboxDX whipping boy and all around cool-guy. He was to be my guide for the weekend. We showed up at the Toy center building North a few hours later. The fair didn't officially open until tomorrow, but the place was buzzing with activity. We quickly registered and got our GIANT bag of free crap. [Yappy: well, I couldn't get one... grumble...] Mostly the bag had industry-type magazines and programs, but I got a free Rugrats doll, a package of temporary tattoos, a key chain, a blo-pen and a bottle of water. (Yappy - I hope your shoulder feels better!) There was a beautiful spiral bound program, but it was very hard to decipher. We decided to take a look around and see what was open. In what was to be the first of many surreal moments, we had one guy approach us in the lobby of toy center. He looked like a professional wrestler in this gray jumpsuit covered in dinosaurs. I felt bad for him because he had obviously been left out of the exhibition floors. "Are you guys buyers?" he asked. Feeling trapped, we quickly ran away from him. The Toy Fair is actually held in several locations. There are the 2 Toy Center Buildings, North and South, as well as the Javits Convention Center, and then there were the large buildings that the major corporations had set up in. Hasbro, for example, had its own building across the street. We started up stairs in Toy Center north. Basically each floor is set up like a horseshoe, with all kinds of offices lining the halls. I wasn't sure why they were here, because most of the people here also had a booth at the Javits Center. Some just looked like offices, and some were totally decked-out. For the most part, we could just walk in and look around each office. Unfortunately, most of the cool larger companies require an appointment with a sales rep to see the goods. (At least that's how it is for a retailer, I think Press has a different method. Press people are also allowed to take photographs, where I was not.) We made some appointments for Yappy to see some people later on in the week. We got to see Resaurus, Sideshow Toys, 21st Century Toys, Toycom / Yamato, Dark Horse, Diamond Comics, and a host of others. For those of you who think it's all about action figures… think again. Only about 1 company in 50 there has something to do with Action oriented toys. This is a vast industry. One of the more interesting companies I got to meet was a Hong Kong Company that had something to do with Moore Action Collectibles. But they also sell bootlegs that very closely resemble real American toys. On display they had some T-28 FX Black-Ox knock-offs, as well as some Small Soldier looking rip-offs. I asked the saleswoman if these were original designs and she said "yes". I asked if they had concerns that they were based on someone else's designs and they said they were different enough. Then the owner asks us if we know any designers, and I, being a designer say, of course! He then proceeds to tell us that he is looking for designers to go to Hong Kong and design toys with his Chinese staff. He wants an American perspective, so his staff can create toys that would appeal to American markets. Primarily he does this now by copying existing toy lines, modifying them just a little, and then producing them. I think the first thing they need to do is to pick a popular toy to bootleg! I mean, Small Soldiers? What were they thinking? So, after that surreal experience, we eventually went over to the Bandai showroom. Bandai hadn't returned my calls, so I wanted to see if I could make an appointment there. No such luck. The Bandai lobby is swanky. Brushed aluminum walls and great mood lighting. Very sci-fi. They had a larger-than-life Digimon that moved and lit up, as well as a couple of American girls in costume. For some reason they looked out of place, like they could care less. They could have gotten someone into cosplay and that would have been cool. I picked up my complimentary Bandai mint and we were on our way. I was so damn tired from all the walking that we called it a day. Yappy would later score a Bandai tour with a more powerful press pass. The next day we made our way over to the Javits Center, which has to be the biggest convention center I've ever seen. This is where the big money exhibits were. Playmobile, Ty, Irwin Toys, K-nex, all here. But there were a lot of companies that were unaccounted for. Where was McFarlane? Lego? ToyBiz? Playmates? I never got around to finding out, but I assume they were all off-site in their own areas. Had I known I was going to this earlier, I probably could have planned it a little better. We wandered aimlessly through the 2,000 booths, stopping occasionally to chat with yet another company with military dolls. The sections in Javits Center were loosely broken into categories. Dolls, Games, and Hobby sections were just some of the loosely defined categories. A lot of manufacturers that were from foreign companies had gotten blocks together. Indonesia, Taiwan and China all had their own "alleys" so to speak. I was surprised to see Chinese and Taiwanese merchants displaying blatantly bootleg materials in their areas. Of course I grabbed some catalogs, but nobody seemed to really want to chat. One of the most disturbing things I saw was the Richard Simmons booth. Yes, THAT Richard Simmons. Apparently he started up a doll company, and I guess he was there promoting them. Unfortunately Richard was in the ladies room when we stopped by. I guess there were several other celebrities in attendance, such as Clive Barker (Hellraiser) amd Mike Myers (Austin Powers). I hip-checked a ton of people by accident but nobody seemed to care. They were all in this convention-induced haze. And there were also a lot of people that would jump right out at you from their booth, thrust their wares into your hands and force you to play with whatever toy they had dreamed up. I can't blame them; I mean if I had a product to get out, I'd be desperate too. There just seemed to be a lot of really bad ideas there. There were lots of cheap robot dogs, and large-scale military figures. I mean how many cheap robot dogs do we need? I saw the Aibo exhibit, and I was absolutely blown away. Most people were just cashing in on a fad though. To get through the show you really only needed to know three phrases: What scale is that? What's the price point? What's the street date? What annoyed me the most about the Toy Fair is how children are really treated as a commodity. We as adult collectors don't really see that side, but it's all aimed at brainwashing 7-12 year olds into buying a product. Children aren't allowed to attend the Toy Fair, but they had a Toy Parade out front for the kids. At first I thought it was cool, but when they brought out Mr. Blo-Pen, then it just got really pathetic. Even the one thing that the kids were allowed to attend was nothing but a giant commercial. All in all, the whole affair was a tiring pathetic mess. Here's what I learned: Wear comfortable shoes. Children are nothing but statistics to the industry. The level of realism in the new military toys is frightening. You can buy a sniper kit for your action figures that come with miniature bullets. For some reason, toy makers think Mechwarrior is cool. Robot dogs = $$$$ Salesmen like to drink a lot. Dark Horse gives out the best swag. Watch your head on the shuttle bus. (better yet, walk) Make sure you hear the little click before proceeding through a turnstile on a NY subway. Your children will thank you for it. All in all, I can say I'm glad I went, but I doubt I'd go again. With the age of the Internet, most of the information is already out there. I knew about most of the products before I showed up. There were very little surprises to be had, aside from the sheer size of the thing. There's something kind of cool about being a part of the industry, but this show has left me with a lot to chew on. And remember that tip about the subway. Trust me.  RUMBLE INDEX  |  CURRENT RUMBLE