"It's a Wrap!" Toy Fair Ends with a Bang!

My Toy Fair (and that of thousands of others) ended just as it began, in the bowels of the mammoth Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, surrounded by a flurry of union workers, exhibitors and shipping boxes. Because I knew I wasn’t flying out until the following day, or maybe because the last day of the show was the best day for The Playmakers, I was in no real hurry to get out of there, even though many of my fellow exhibitors evidently were. The show was to end at 4:00 on the 18th of February, but by 3:30 the lighted superhero clocks, musical dress-up clothes, candy machines and race tracks that surrounded my display were being packed up by their owners in earnest. As the show wound down, I enjoyed a steady flow of people coming back to buy the remaining display copies of The Playmakers, the very last one being purchased by an “upper extremity surgeon” walking the show on behalf of a great children’s charity called Canines for Kids.

The packing and scurrying around The Playmakers booth peaked into a storm of activity by 4:00, as Bruce Whitehill (the foremost authority on American board games), Robert Grebler (the developer of Jenga) and I, stood and talked as if in the eye of a hurricane. It wasn’t until the union workers ripped up the aisle carpet and Bruce spilled his briefcase that we realized, maybe it was time to evacuate. I told Bruce I looked forward to seeing him at the 20th Anniversary Convention of the Association of Game and Puzzle Collectors in April and assured Robert that his autographed copy of The Playmakers would be in the mail shortly. It was a great end to a great show.

The buzz of Toy Fair for me was Mattel’s announcement that they had acquired the rights to distribute TriBond and Blurt!, games I am proud to have co-invented and invented. Many old friends in the industry wanted to know how the deal came to be and the ramifications for everyone involved. Toy gossip is definitely a big part of Toy Fair! TriBond was on display at the Mattel booth and in a fortuitous bit of timing, enjoyed center stage billing in an article in the March issue of Reader’s Digest (thanks to Patch Products’s media guru, Lisa Wuennemann). Getting in a publication that is read by 100 million people each month never hurts.

The Playmakers was very well-received by buyers and the media. I don’t want to jinx anything, so I will refrain from mentioning any of the massive media outlets and major catalogs that want to help distribute the book to a wider audience. (What can I say? It’s the superstitious baseball player in me. At least I didn’t wear my lucky game socks all week – stirrups and wingtips, anyone?). Suffice it to say, we will be going back to print soon! I most enjoyed showing The Playmakers off to the inventors and developers who grace its pages. I even got a few to autograph my personal copy, which was a real treat.

Roger Schlaifer, the “Insider” who named and licensed the Cabbage Patch Kids to Coleco came by and shared a great story. When I asked him when he realized the Cabbage Patch Kids had really made it, he didn’t hesitate a second in saying, “Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. I was there watching and when the Cabbage Patch Kid (a giant helium character balloon) finally appeared, there was this roar from the crowd that was just deafening.”

Richard Gill of Pictionary and Trivial Pursuit fame signed my copy of The Playmakers, bought a few for himself and sent more people our way than our ad in Playthings Magazine (thanks Sir Richard!). His partner in Sababa Toys, Stone Newman, left what was easily the coolest looking display at Toy Fair to come by and buy. Adorned with branded versions of the Uno game, Etch A Sketch and Magic 8 Ball, the Sababa Toys display was awesome to behold and bouncing with activity.

Speaking of which, have you heard of the Po-Knee? This product was just a few booths down from us and enjoyed a steady flow of attendees. Featured on Oprah and Live with Regis & Kelly recently, the product is a horse and saddle that straps to a parent’s knee, on which can ride any wide-eyed cowboy or cowgirl. “Bouncing on daddy’s knee” will never be the same. Such a great idea! That’s what Toy Fair is all about -- the hunt for the next “classic.” Perhaps the Po-Knee will make it in The Playmakers 2: More Amazing Origins of Timeless Toys!

Until next year, the hunt goes on…

At the Toy Fair

The Keys Publishing first family: author/publisher Tim Walsh and his wife Sarah, along with their two children providing cuteness on the banners.

As a book designer (along to help in the booth -- I certainly know the book), this is my first Toy Fair -- and it's an adventure! I've never seen so many "oh, that's cool" items in one place before. The variety of toys, games, educational materials, and just plain fun is nothing short of astonishing.

Look for a Toy Fair wrap up from Tim soon.

Author John Michlig On The Playmakers

In preparation for writing the 1960s-1970s section of The Playmakers, I had the privilege of interviewing writer and producer John Michlig, whose GI Joe Masterpiece Edition book-and-figure product arguably kick-started Hasbro’s newfound reverence for the “classic” version of the product. Besides writing the definitive book on Hasbro’s little-big man, GI Joe: The Complete Story of America’s Favorite Man of Action, Michlig genuinely loves toys. We hit it off immediately and talked about action figures, movies, comics, and movies based on comics. We conversed over Marvin Glass, Batman, King Kong and other pop culture giants. He gave me a schooling on the business of books and his contributions to the final version of The Playmakers were numerous. Yet, just when I thought he couldn’t possibly do anymore to help, he agreed to preview a pre-press version of my book. Here’s what he had to say:

“Visually compelling, stunning in its breadth, and wonderfully subjective at times, The Playmakers tells the often dramatic, always eye-opening stories of mavericks and dreamers who created the playthings and cherished totems that in turn helped create us. Walsh has done his homework well and ker-plunked it home with clarity and wit.”

-- John Michlig, author of It Came from Bob's Basement, GI Joe: The Complete Story of America's Favorite Man of Action, and the creator of The Masterpiece Edition book-and-toy series.