Greetings my good friends, I’m back to present you with my findings from the Toy Association’s Toy Fair once again. The trade show itself ended about two weeks ago and while having attended for the PiercingMetal side of the fence, I found myself securing a number of images and vendors to add several posts here on “The Chronicles”. I’m now up to the Spin Master booth because they had a number of items that fit this sides demographic. Here we go.
Given the scope of the offerings and my own limited background on a number of them I will keep the extended narrative light and just let you enjoy. Plus I need the break since I am also doing posts over on PiercingMetal as well. Those posts began even earlier than the ones that I am sharing here but I digress.
The Unicorn Academy is a charming line of unicorn themed figures, unicorns and playsets. It’s based on a popular Netflix animated series. They were all so charming.
Welcome back my friends, so when we last met here on “The Chronicles of Piercing Ken”, I had mentioned that the PiercingMetal side of the creative coin was well into the coverage of the recently held Toy Fair. Now I’m officially doing double duty since there was a bunch of visuals that make more sense being featured over here. I’ll continue along with limited narrative so you can just indulge and enjoy the proceedings. This was a photo-op of Ms. Rachel who I am told by the friends who are parents is quite the big deal. It would have been fun to meet such a personality but that was not meant to be.
Continuing along with my adventures from the recently attended “Sweet Suite”, which is the mega-toy preview event held by the fine folks over at The Toy Insider. I was among other select media and assorted influencers at a space called The Glass House. While some of my coverage was shared over on the PiercingMetal website, it seems like much more of it was settling over here on “The Chronicles”. Its a bit more work doing it like this but I don’t mind since each audience is a little bit different, This post brings the remaining Exhibitor Interviews from our YouTube Channel into the website in a compiled post to add to that coverage traction. First up are the folks from the Jumbo Group who were showcasing a newly revised edition of the classic strategy game “Stratego”.
Talking To The Jumbo Group About “Stratego” @ Toy Insider’s “Sweet Suite” 2024
Last week, “The Chronicles of Piercing Ken” was in attendance for the first-ever Toy Insider “Spring Fling” Toy Preview. I shared the news about attending that same day over on Ken Pierce Media (HERE) and mentioned in that post that I wasn’t sure where the overall coverage was going to run. As it turned out, most of the products that I saw across the exploration would end up bein more suitable over here on “The Chronicles” with only a small bit of products falling under what the readers of PiercingMetal might expect. The new event would be held at a brand-new event space called Lavan Midtown. It was located way down on 42nd Street and I hadn’t been here before so was looking forward to it. When I arrived there were already a lot of people waiting to get in. The Toy Insider events are not open to the general public and fall under more of a trade show vibe and they invite a number of the “Influencer” crowd and some members of the press which is where we come in. Let’s get this party started.
Once inside and past the friendly signage it was time to get that exploring done. I am always curious about a new event since one never knows what to expect and this even applies to me who considers himself to be a pretty resourceful and seasoned convention and trade show attendee. In addtion to the Toy Insider events, I’ve been attending New York Comic Con, Toy Fair, NY Now and The New York International Auto Show as media for years. One gets good at this kind of stuff after all those shows but I digress. This is about The Spring Fling and not myself ;p
The TOTY Award Winners were recently announced in a first-ever virtual ceremony with the in-person event being impossible to hold due to the Coronavirus Pandemic. After a brief commentary by Toy Association President Steve Pasierb, the nominations were replayed and the winners announced. For ease of seeing who was up for what and who would eventually win the coveted award, I’ve left the original full list of nominations for your perusal. Now without any further adieu, here are the 2021 TOTY Winners…
ACTION FIGURE TOY OF THE YEAR:
Alter Nation Action Figure Assortment (Panda Mony Toy Brands)
Anime Heroes (Bandai America)
Batman 4 Inch Action Figures (Spin Master) WINNER – Fisher-Price #ThankYouHeroes Line (Mattel)
Heroes of Goo Jit Zu (Moose Toys)
The Original Spawn Action Figure and Comic Remastered (2020) (McFarlane Toys)
Treasure X (Moose Toys)
COLLECTIBLE OF THE YEAR:
Blume Petal Pets (Skyrocket)
Charaction CUBE (Bandai America)
Hairdorables Hair Art Series (Just Play)
HEXBUG JUNKBOTS Large Dumpster (HEXBUG) WINNER – LEGO Super Mario Character Packs (LEGO)
L.O.L. Surprise! Remix Hair Flip (MGA Entertainment)
Space Invaders Micro Player (My Arcade) Continue reading 2021 Toy Of The Year Winners Are Announced→
