Toyfair Australia 2014 preview
The Australian Toyfair beings in a week (16th March) at the Melbourne Convention Centre, and this year will be the 7th that we will be covering at
this site. With help from the Toy & Hobby Retailer magazine, we already have a list of known exhibitors to check out this year.
Of course the Hasbro exhibit is the primary focus, and as the major exhibitors are getting tougher to get into, this year an official appointment
had to be made to access it... but it is good to be offered the opportunity, and on the first day too.
Other priorities will be to look for licensed items, at other companies' exhibits, such as...
Crown & Andrews - licensed "Shuffle" card game. One of several card games to come out in July, some with online apps by Cartamundi.
No idea what sort of game it is, but each one looks to be different, as there are three ratings (Children, Family, Adult) for the different ones, and
the little edges of cards you can see on each pack is different.
There's nothing mentioned on the website yet, so maybe at Toyfair I'll find out what sort of game it is.
http://www.toycollectors.com.au/toyfair/2014tf01.jpg
MJM Crown - games and puzzles, with at least one Transformers game, as seen in their advertisement.
This one is like the "pop-o-matic" board game from the 80s, which has a die in the middle bubble, that you press and it pops up to roll it... then you move your pieces around the board.
http://www.toycollectors.com.au/toyfair/2014tf02.jpg
Banter Toys - apparently the exclusive importer of the licensed Loyal Subjects in Australia, so there might be the next series on display.
http://www.toycollectors.com.au/toyfair/2014tf03.jpg
Britz Marketing - maker of the Hexbugs, which we heard earlier this year will be producing licensed fighting Transformers Hexbugs, so if they have
them on display, there is a good chance they are coming to Australia.
Ikon Collectables - a past holder of Transformers merchandise licenses, but haven't had anything in the last couple years due to the failure of their
first movie merchandise. They are known to have aUOILKM.,/ lot of other interesting licenses though, so is always worth the look.
Lego - I will try to have a look inside their exhibit, but they only allow in their registered customers, so have been turned away in the last three years.
Mega Blocks - One of the exhibits I like checking out, especially since Lego don't let me in theirs.
As long as there aren't any unforeseen circumstances, look out for the report next weekend.... and hopefully there are some new items that weren't at the NY Toyfair.
Later this week, I'll post up an archive of our past Toyfair reports.
