Toy Trends

It's interesting to see how the word 'addictive' has entered the vocabulary of people making products aimed at kids. Everyone wants kids to engage with something and stay engaged. This level of engagement might indicate the product is fun and interesting which helps nurture their inquisitiveness or it could be plain addictive in a monotonous sense. The latter is definitely not a good thing for growing minds. Things which enrich and enthuse a child's senses is what they need at the younger ages. The want to engage must come by learning something new. It must challenge the elasticity of the brain and help kids acquire new knowledge. 

ToyFairNY16_533bas by Baldwin Saintilus

Here are some of the trends announced in the New York Toy Fair - 

1. An increase in board games and puzzles

Many parents want their kids to spend time playing on board games that they had enjoyed as kids. Companies have been releasing old favorites in packaging from earlier decades. There are also interesting new explorations like the one with tactile cards in a board game called What’s that smell? Which includes disgusting smells!

2, A return to games played by Millennial Parents.

Playing on the nostalgia card of Millennial parents, old games like Monopoly, Chess and Checkers are going to be released. Magna Doodle with retro packaging has been released.

3. Unboxing of surprise gift bags

Kids love surprises and the unboxing of ordinary looking boxes or bags to get a surprise has caught the imagination of kids. They may get duplicates, but that’s okay. The things found inside are collectibles. The collectible market grew by 14% to 3.9 billion USD. Hatchimals, Lego mini-figures, Funko etc are extremely popular and these are expected to have a  good run this year too.

4. Nurturing virtual pets

With the prices going down for incorporating electronics in pets, animatronic pets have caught the fancy of kids as well as adults. 2018 is going to see an influx of such toys. There is an integration of app and electronic toy. Some of the more expensive toy animals can be programmed by the kids themselves. From real pets to virtual pet games we now have electronic pets in the real world to look after. Parents like such toys because this makes kids responsible for those pets. In some cases it also a way for parents to see if their kids are ready for real pets.

5. Quirky games

Lots of games which are yucky  and rather odd. There’s Flush Force where you have collectibles with yuccky names popping out of a toilet(with the most interesting collection of fart noises to accompany). Hot Pie Face game has one player with a full cannon of whipped cream battling against another with buttons to bring a red hand up to stop the projectile.

The market’s growing bigger, the love for old favorites remains even as newer technology based games are entering our homes. However wonderful these toys maybe, there are many parents and grandparents who encourage the habit of making one's own toys even if they are for toys for Valentine's day!