Gone to the Toy Fair

I suppose I probably saw the same things everyone else did at toy fair, but since I was wearing an exhibitor badge, I was totally being bounced at many of the top floor booths. The guy at Matel, for example, came just short of evicting me for looking at toys.

I saw the creepy coma dogs (someone else already posted pictures) and am wondering how far “illusion of life” should go in certain narratives. One guy working for the company said “better than a real pet!” Not sure about that… I can just imagine some kid wondering why the realistic, breathing dog isn’t waking up, becoming increasingly disturbed. Comatose puppies is a strange concept for a toy.

I of course loved the HEX bugs, but who doesn’t? My bf and I were led through the tour and saw all the cool concepts of desk toys they are making. The tour guide pointed out the intellectual property sign on the wall and mentioned that the company had spent $6million or something just to ward off knock-offs. Interesting stuff. I really wanted one.

I loved the really smart Ollo robots. I thought they not only did cool stuff, but in a smart way. The girl at the table was really nice and liked talking about the bots and challenged me to figure out the “elephant”, who was simply just being guided around a square by simple pushing and shoving. Really smart, really cool!