The festivities started for me yesterday at the Hasbro Showcase featuring all of the Hasbro lines and this year highlighting their new licensing with Sesame Street Workshop. Before the program began, Elmo and Cookie Monster mingled with the crowd and posed with us for pictures. Here I am having a great time with both of them. The SSW CEO, Gary Knell, was on hand and made his remarks via an Elmo and Cookie Monster puppet duet routine that energized the attendees.
Here are some highlights of toys that will be introduced this year:
Playskool Heroes |
Playskool Heroes – These are transformer playsets for boys ages 3 – 6. The pieces are bigger, easier to handle and the themes are Firehouse, Spiderman and Transformers. Some playsets include a story book with themes of friendship, loyalty and working together - “helping” action oriented – not violence oriented. Jerry Perez, Playskool General Manager described the vision for this line as “Big boy toys for little boy hands.”
I think this product line will be a big hit as it fills a void for boys in this age bracket as they seem to outgrow “little kids toys” before they are ready for the big kid stuff. The play set open with toy setups inside and out and close into a carrying case which is perfect for visit to grandparents, travel, or a friend's house. And if you have this playset at your house for when your grandson visits, it closes up neatly and can be put away until the next visit.
Cookie Monster Lunch Play Dough Set |
Sesame Street Playset |
The Hasbro show allowed me to get a peek at these and many more products but they won’t be on the market until the fall. I’ll be doing product reviews – and maybe some giveaways then.
More Toy Fair stories later this week...so stay tuned.