It's the Busness of toys

[Tekwych]

Voting Open for Toy Industry Hall of Fame 2014 Inductees

NEW YORK - The Toy Industry Association (TIA) officially opened the vote for the latest inductees into the Toy Industry Hall of Fame.

Voting started August 19th and will run through Friday, September 13th. This year's candidates were chosen from 24 nominees, who were submitted for consideration by members of the Hall of Fame (HOF) Committee.

Living candidates for Induction into the Toy Industry Hall of Fame include: Jill Barad, former CEO, Mattel; Horst Brandstätter, president and sole owner; Playmobil/geobra Brandstätter GmbH & Co. KG; Thomas Chan, chairman and CEO; Playmates Toys Inc.; Joel Glickman, founder, K'Nex Brands; and Bruce Raiffe, president, Gund, a division of Enesco.

Candidates for posthumous induction are Jack Friedman, former chairman, CEO and co-founder, JakksPacific; Harvey Greenfield, hairman of the board, Commonwealth Toy & Novelty Co. Inc.; and Arthur "Spud" Melin and Richard Knerr, co-founders of Wham-O Toy.

An announcement of the 2014 inductees will be made in conjunction with promotion of the annual Toy of the Year (TOTY) awards program, and inductees will be honored during the TOTY Awards ceremony on Saturday evening, February 15, 2014, at the Grand Hyatt hotel, which will officially launch Toy Fair Week in New York City.

This is the 29th year for TIA Hall of Fame and here is a list of past inductees I still say the TIA is an Old Boys Club with their heads still stuck in the last century but they are spending a LOT of money to create a permanent home for the HoF and the Toy of the Year awards at the Strong Museum of Play and I love to support the Strong.

[dayraven]

so, since the stick is already inducted, what do you think we're getting this year? it's between the mud pie, and the cat, and i think cat has a good chance to go all the way this year.

[Tekwych]

Lego becomes world's second-biggest toy maker

Denmark's Lego has become the world's second-biggest toy maker after reporting a 13% increase in sales.

It generated sales of $1.8bn (£1.2bn) for the six months to 30 June, up from the same period last year, overtaking US-based Hasbro.

The firm said first-half profits hit $550m and its market share rose to 8.8%.

The firm is controlled by Denmark's richest man, Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen, who is the grandson of Lego's founder.

US firm Mattel is the world's biggest toy manufacturer.

Lego chief executive Jorgen Vig Knudstorp said: "It is a very satisfactory result in view of general developments in the world toy market, which has had a slow start to the year in the largest and most mature markets of North America, Europe and Japan."

Slow sales in Europe and the US were offset by a boom in Asia, where sales soared by 35% in the first half of the year.

"Asia has not been a major focus for us as a company up until this point, but we see now with the emerging middle class, more and more consumers that are really interested in our products," said Lego chief financial officer John Goodwin.

In March, the company announced plans to build its first factory in China. Construction is due to begin next year.

[NoisyDvL5]

Are they just catching up or are the other two falling back?

[Tekwych]

The 2014 Toy Hall Of Fame Finalists Include:

Hasbro's Clue
My Little Pony
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Little Green Army Men From The 1930S
Bubbles, Originally Sold By Chemtoy In The 1940S
Nerf Toys
Magic 8 Ball
Fisher-Price Little People
The Scooter
Pac-Man
The Rubber Duck
The Game Chess

2-3 of these will be chosen for inclusion in the Toy Hall of Fame. You can vote at the Toy HoF website

The Hall of Fame is part of the Strong Museum of Play and funded by the Toy Industry Association

This will be a hard vote for me this year. FP Little People and Little Green Army Men truly deserve the nod but TMNT and My Little pony will eat a LOT of votes.

[JamesLynch]

I voted TMNT, because no way should any of those others beat TMNT.

[Tekwych]

"Attendees to this year's New York Comic Con convention were allowed to pre-register their RFID-enabled badges online and connect their social media profiles to their badges — something, the NYCC registration site explained, that would make the 'NYCC experience 100x cooler! For realz.' Most attendees didn't expect "100x cooler" to translate into 'we'll post spam in your feed as soon as the RFID badge senses that you've entered the show,' but that seems to be what happened."

Slashdot

[PrfktTear]

I understand why people are getting their panties in a bunch over this --- buuut, if you registered using your twitter and didn't read you terms and conditions...

[Tekwych]

I agree. When it comes to linking personal information and a marketing firm what else would you expect. All cons require that you give up your likeness and any comments you make on the floor or in panels so that they can use it for marketing. Now their asking for you social media links and your giving it to them. You at least have an opt-in on this one. Just don't use your twitter account at check in.

[Tekwych]

Tough Holiday Season for Toys R Us

So payments on loans and notes will equal over a Billion dollars in 2016, half a Billion dollars each in 2017 and 2018 and another full Billion dollars in 2019. Add to this that their line of credit(inventory received but not yet paid for) is, right now, at half a Billion. With a loss of 600 Million last quarter and Holiday sales down almost 5% from last year (which was down from the year before) TRU is in a VERY bad place