NEW YORK – After a launch at Macy’s stores in 2022, the mascot for the Toys R Us brand, Geoffrey the giraffe, will go on a summer 2023 tour. It is a next-step effort to rebuild the brand, which was once as synonymous with toys as Blockbuster was to videos.MORE HERE
BOCA RATON, Fla. – The toy marketer Basic Fun, a master licensee for Tonka, along with Hasbro Inc., the toy and licensing company, are kicking off a 75th anniversary celebration for Tonka trucks. The campaign calls on families to put down their screens and take a “Playcation” together with favoriteMORE HERE
The Better Business Bureau, once worried about keeping crooked paving guys away from grandma, is now concerned with whether PreppiPosh, one of the Fail Fix Dolls, has messed up her makeup. Yes, the Children’s Advertising Review Unit of the Better Business Bureau sent out an Orwellian press release about PreppiPoshMORE HERE
Whenever possible, companies should keep these corporate names in the active column. Instead of confusing the consumer, they are a valuable hidden link to the past that most don’t notice, but trigger memories in some. Use the company name on a product, or on a tee-shirt, or on a division. Try out a new product, a risky one, with the old name on it.MORE HERE
The toy store brand FAO Schwarz is back, nationally. In lots of places, including middle-market airports. At airports, the retailer is a licensed boutique for travelers, selling candy and last-minute stuffed animals and assorted toy classics, such as an FAO Schwarz rubber ducky. One of their newest shops is atMORE HERE
If you were at a country club pool in the 1960s or 1970s, you would likely see toddlers swimming about with little bubble floats on their backs. In some cases they were plain styrofoam, but in many cases they were more stylish and fabric covered version, from a brand calledMORE HERE
Recently, Coleman brought back its original steel cooler. It’s sold as an exclusive for the 50th anniversary of the sporting goods supply company Cabela’s. It’s part of a trend of retro products, reintroduced as specialty products for particular retailers, similar to Fisher-Price toys sold at Cracker Barrel and vintage TideMORE HERE
El Segundo, Calif. -There is still time to get the 40th anniversary UNO game. The Mattel card game, a derivative of Crazy Eights, was invented in 1971, and is on the sales shelf at Walgreen’s now, though is available at Amazon.com from the company, as well. The game was inventedMORE HERE
The Ideal Toys brand has resurfaced at Big Lots, and on Amazon. Ideal was one of the great American toy companies, and was the maker of one of the classic toys of the 1970s, Toss Across, which was basically a bean bag toss and tic tac toe. Wikipedia’s entry hasMORE HERE
SARASOTA – A kid threw up last Sunday in the McDonald’s Playplace here. Not that that is a surprise. Stuff like that happens all the time, and it was cleaned up. It could have been me throwing up, however, as my daughter got yet another stinky Strawberry Shortcake Happy MealMORE HERE