It’s clear that Crayola is one of the most iconic brands in the history of creative play from their being the creator of the famous wax crayons that I am pretty sure every single one of us owned as a child. I have fond memories of the original small box of “9” and if you were a lucky duck you might have gotten that big “64” box with colors you could only imagine existing. Do you remember that it even had a sharpener on the box? I do. During Toy Fair, Skeleton Pete and I explored the offerings that were happening in the Crayola pavilion and I am presenting them to you below.
As with many of the Toy Fair attending vendors, the press outlets must set up an appointment to explore the offerings so one of their team can provide insight on the product line and field any questions that you might have about what you were seeing. As we entered we were treated to this delicious cupcake and a cookie. Yes I ate them both because wandering the Javits Center in this fashion is draining and exhausting.
As noted only a few posts ago, my exploration of the 2016 Toy Fair was done and while a considerable amount of my narratives will be located on PiercingMetal.com there are other items that I found of real interest and fell outside of my usual wheelhouse. As a scribe you also meet some awesome reps from numerous different companies and this post focuses on what was observed at Fat Brain Toys. Take a look.
Skeleton Pete and I had gotten to the point of expanded exploration at this point of the convention and what I mean by that is how we were between the locked in appointments and now was the perfect time to see what else could be discovered. The large bins with this colorful goop type stuff caught my eye and I learned from the Chizcomm PR rep Stephanie that it was known as magic sand. I grew up on Play Doh, Silly Putty and even those grosser things like “Slime” so found the sand to be super interesting.
This stuff was amazing. It really felt like sand and yet there was nothing on your hands when you were done mushing it around between your fingers or molding shapes. Even the famous clays I grew up with didn’t offer that to happen to you.
As previously announced here on the Chronicles, I had attended the always amazing Toy Fair for my PiercingMetal.com website. This year I wanted to expand upon the findings at the event by using this blog to feature the stuff that just didn’t fit over there. I’ll begin with two company’s that I love and showcase some Colorforms and Folkmanis Puppets visuals.
When I was growing up, there was always something cool coming out from Colorforms and that tradition seems to be continuing into 2015 as you can see with these fun packs. Two popular licenses such as Spider-Man and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are sure to appeal to those fans of the characters and this toy.
I’ve been hitting the American International Toy Fair with my PiercingMetal.com website for a few years now and if this is something that you weren’t aware of you can click on THIS LINK to open up numerous posts about the event on that website. Historically speaking, I’ve only ever used The Chronicles to mention that we were attending but with this years event the time for change has come and additional coverage will be posted here. I’m not sure yet at this point but will decide once I am exploring the halls of Javits in February where I will again be attending as a member of the press. Recently I received an item in the mail from the fine folks at Nano Magnetics, the makers of these cool little construction dots that are magnetized. I met them at one of the Toy Fair conventions a few years ago and we kept in touch. I felt that featuring this item in a post made the most sense so behold “GYRO”. They come in this cool box which is about 5″ by 5″ in case you wondered.
Opening it up you see that four parts make up the set along with a stand for your desk in case you want to display them to the people who are visiting you. The two clear objects appear to have all the techno-stuff to them and they bear the most weight. The two colored spheres are lighter and I imagine contain less parts on the inside.
Tonight the world said goodbye to “Breaking Bad”, a television drama that was really like no other that I had ever seen before and while I have watched the series finale, I will not be spoiling it for you folks who are still catching up to the show via Netflix or have the final go round on your DVR. Instead I decided to post a photo of the Mezco Toys “Heisenberg” figure. He is aka Walter White the shows main protagonist and he was masterfully played by Bryan Cranston. I saw this figure at this years Toy Fair.
For those hiding under a rock, “Breaking Bad” tells the story of Walter White (played to perfection by Bryan Cranston). A high school chemistry teacher that is dying of cancer and through strange circumstances becomes a methamphetamine drug cook. From here the ride speeds up and seldom slows down as a good man becomes a very, very bad one. My friends Skeleton Pete and Sea Pete were both watching this program from the beginning and suggested that I watch but I did not get around to it until very recently. Once it became available on Netflix I did my best to catch up in order to watch the end as it aired. I figured why not since I had no concert to attend and wanted to avoid any spoilers. I will say that the show kept my interest from the very first episode and throughout each subsequent season. That is not something you find being the case with so many shows. I applaud the creator Vince Gilligan for crafting such a storyline. It’s a shame that it has ended and “Wow” what an ending it was. Hopefully no one will spoil it for you.
The entire series is available on DVD so if you are one of those folks who like to get the series boxed sets I have embedded links for you to do so below on Amazon.com. Do give it a watch.
