Vote for Your Favorite Plush Team Artist Entry

June 21, 2011 By

The Etsy Plush Street Team, a group of plush toy artists, is hosting a friendly competition to create a popular plush design fitting the theme: “Under The Big Top: A Circus Of Misfits!” Each Plush Street artist was invited to submit circus-themed entries under two categories, Circus Animal Tricks and Circus People. All of the designs have been posted, and the polls are open until Monday, June 27. The grand-prize winner will receive a signed copy of Handmade Nation: The Rise of DIY, Art, Craft and Design by Faythe Levine and Cortney Heimert.

View the entries and cast your own vote here.

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Greenlight Teams Up With Ford Explorer and the New York Yankees for Yankee Ford Explorer Night

June 13, 2011 By

On Wednesday, June 29, the New York Yankees are hosting the Yankee Ford Explorer Night, a family-friendly event that includes giveaways and prizes. Greenlight Toys has teamed up with the New York Yankees and Ford Explorer to create a 1:64 2011 Ford Explorer replica in full Yankees regalia for the game. The first 18,000 fans who attend and are 14 years old or younger will receive a complimentary die-cast 1:64 2011 Explorer as they walk in. One lucky fan will receive a full size Ford Explorer, courtesy of Northeast Ford Dealers, with the same Yankees theme as the version from Greenlight.

Greenlight also plans to incorporate the 1:64 Ford Explorer model into its regular offerings, including a police-themed vehicle for its series, Hot Pursuit.

Filed Under: 9 and up, Articles, New Products, News Tagged With: , , , ,

Big Idea Entertainment Adds New Partners to Veggie Tales Licensing Program

June 6, 2011 By

Veggie Tales will expand its presence in consumer products by forming new licensing partnerships with companies, including Box Creations, Primary Leisure Global, and Brewster Home Fashions.

Build Your Imagination with Bob and Larry is a tabletop cardboard play set from Box Creations that is scheduled to hit stores this fall. Primary Leisure Global is bringing a new toy to the States—GigglePOD, which allows children to interact in a small video booth while parents are engaged through an external monitor. The Veggie Tales GigglePOD will launch this summer.

Brewster Home Fashions also partnered with the successful series to create Veggie Tales Lessons Really Stick, a Veggie Tales-themed assortment of wall stickers and appliques.

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The Juno Company Kicks Off National Reading Month with Do It Yourself ABC (Face)Book Contest

March 21, 2011 By

March is National Reading Month and The Juno Company wants you to celebrate. The Juno Company, a children’s digital new media company specializing in the creation of innovative music education products including movies, apps and games, toys, and books, launched the “Do It Yourself ABC (Face)Book Contest” where you can practice your rhymes and win daily prizes.

Getting involved in the contest is easy. Visit The Juno Company’s Facebook page, become a fan, and each day Juno will let you know that day’s designated letter of the alphabet. Once the letter is announced that’s your cue to post a music-related rhyme dedicated to someone special using the letter in as many creative ways as possible. Juno will pick a winner every day and prizes include Juno products, gift cards, and more.

The Juno Company, founded by mom and composer, Belinda Takahashi, Ph.D., is best known for its Emmy Award-winning Juno Baby line and its newly launched Juno Jr. line of products, which both feature original music composed and performed by live orchestral musicians and a cast of puppets that interact with children through creative and educational storylines. The characters play in the musical world of Harmonia Springs where trees are made of cellos, cars are shaped like bass clefs, and lamp posts like French horns, and the train that takes them on their journey is made up entirely of musical instruments. Through their journeys, the characters learn new musical concepts as they sing to the original, orchestral music.

Check out Juno’s Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/JunoBaby) and enter to win a new prize every day. The contest ends April 6, 2011.

For more information on The Juno Company, visit www.thejunocompany.com.

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Family Game Night

March 10, 2011 By

Game manufacturer FamilyTimeFun shares five good reasons why families should have a dedicated game night:

Decades ago, families often spent more quality time together. There were significantly fewer distracting options than there are today, where we now cope with 300 channels on the television, personal computers, and sophisticated video games. Today, family time often takes a back seat to all the other directions that people are pulled, when it comes to work and entertainment. One way to bring back that quality time is to start a dedicated family game night each week.

“There are many benefits to setting aside a night each week as family game night,” explains John Pandiscio, founder of FamilyTimeFun (www.ftfgames.com), a company that has created several interactive family games. “Besides the impact of making the family unit so important that you set aside dedicated time together each week, family game night helps in many other ways, as well.”

Here are 5 reasons to have a dedicated family game night:

1.    Quality Time. The importance of spending quality time together as a family cannot be overstated. It is important for bonding, building relationships, and improving communication.

2.    Learning Opportunity. Children can learn many important things from family game night. Along with good sportsmanship and the importance of following directions, they can hone their communication skills, as well as testing and improving their agility and coordination skills.

3.    Inexpensive Entertainment. In a day and age when even activities like going out to the movies can be economically out of reach, a family game night is affordable. Games are generally inexpensive, last a long time, and can even be borrowed.

4.    Healthy habits. Having a family game night is healthy. It is good brain exercise, can be good physical exercise (depending on the game being played), and keeps kids from simply sitting in front of the television for hours on end, which has been linked to many negative consequences.

5.    Fun factor. Family game time can be a time when the family has fun and laughs together, each week. That alone will help to create memories and good times!

Filed Under: 3-5, 6-8, 9 and up, Articles Tagged With: , ,

GUEST BLOG: Ryan Conti Reports from the Sweets & Snacks Expo

June 17, 2010 By

by Ryan Conti

As I stepped inside the Sweets & Snacks Expo 2010 (formerly known as the All Candy Expo), I was greeted by a 10-foot-tall Lindt chocolate bunny and served attitude by a towering Garfield. Excitedly, I entered a place that the gluttonous Augustus Gloop would envy; delicious smells wafted throughout Chicago’s McCormick Place, and the worlds of candy and business met head on.

Eyes wide open and eager on my quest for the ultimate candy/toy integration, I spent the first half of day one scouring the aisles, making a concerted effort to see every booth. And what I saw, concerned me. Where was the creativity? Where was the fun? Where was that “it” product that would makes us all salivate?

[Read more...]

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GUEST BLOG: Share the Love with Mother’s Day Email Marketing

May 4, 2010 By

by Wendy Lowe

Many small businesses have a great opportunity to boost Mother’s Day sales via email marketing. If your business is one of the millions that offer beauty products, apparel, flowers, or other things that Mom would enjoy, you’re in luck! Hallmark doesn’t have to be the only company that does great business on Mother’s Day.

Many people have trouble figuring out what to give Mom on her day. This means your audience of prospects and customers would enjoy some creative purchase ideas that are easy to choose from. Your customers may also have forgotten about a gift so emails can be a valuable reminder to them. Here are five tips to help you get going:

1) Consider your products and services and look for a small selection (only one to three items) that you can promote in an email. This keeps the buyer decision process easy. Sometimes more information and choices only create doubt and uncertainty. Also, try to avoid suggesting products that require a specific size or fit, since all of us may not know Mom’s current dress size.

[Read more...]

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The Toy Book Is Now Online!

January 4, 2010 By

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It is now even easier to keep up with the latest trends, news, and products in the toy industry. Check out The Toy Book’s November/December issue, now available online, just click here. You can also check out The Licensing Book online by clicking here.

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The Toy Book’s Toy Report 12/07/09

December 14, 2009 By

toy-logo

Catch up on last week’s news! Read The Toy Book Toy Report for 12/07/09.

To view click here.

Filed Under: Articles, Financial, Licenses, New Products, News, Newsletters, People Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Imperial Toy feature-September/October 2009

October 8, 2009 By

To view the Imperial Toy feature from our September/October 2009 issue, please click Imperial Toy: Still Bouncing High After 40 Years.

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