Spotlight On:
The Toy Book Chats with David Beige, sales manager, Rubie’s Costume Co. How was the Imagine by Rubie’s division created? Imagine by Rubie’s, the toy division of Rubie’s Costume Co. Inc., originally started as Rubie’s Dress-Up division several years ago. Over the past 10 years, with the growth of Internet shopping and our e-commerce customer base, we have witnessed the increase in demand for costume separates and dress-up year-round. Different than Halloween, dress-up tends to be more casual, and this led us to create the muscle chest shirts and reversible capes that exist today, where a child can wear a “costume” with his favorite pair of blue jeans. In addition, over the past five years kids’ increased interest in the latest superhero character and the increase in popularity of play dates has sky-rocketed the industry as a whole. Imagine by Rubie’s has excelled in finding the best ways to provide the highest quality products, while still ensuring they are safe, fun, and feasible within the busy lifestyles of parents and children today.
censes, which are heavily geared toward boys. Now with both girls’ and boys’ dress-up growing rapidly each year, it will be a continued fight over space at retail. Are licensed or generic dress-up costumes more popular? It depends on the gender of the child; boys tend to gravitate toward their favorite licensed superheroes, whereas girls tend to dress up as generic princesses and fairies. However, we have seen a change in the marketplace over the last few years as “girl power” is definitely taking over. Girls are maturing at a much younger age and are now dressing up as the female versions of their favorite licensed superhero characters. In addition, boys are also interested in emulating various occupational characters, such as SWAT, military, police officers, firefighters, and ninjas.
What trends are you seeing for 2015? 2015 will bring even more excitement to the dress-up category. With blockbuster theatrical Does dress-up tend to be more girlfilm releases and TV shows such as Avengers: oriented? Age of Ultron, Star Wars: Episode VII, Star Wars Children’s dress-up transcends Superman and My Super Best Friends Rebels, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and genders and age groups, but it hasn’t alBatgirl dress-up sets Minions, there will be strong representaways been that way. In the past, girls’ dress-up was more popular, and that was mainly because tion of boys’ dress-up products in the toy aisles. Next year that was what the market had to offer. More recently, boys’ we anticipate more girls dressing up as their favorite sudress-up has come on strong to even out that trend. This perhero characters, such as Batgirl, Supergirl, and Wonder can be attributed to the increased interest in the Marvel, Woman. So, both boys and girls will have plenty to look for■ DC Comics, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and WWE li- ward to in the future!
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2014
THE TOY BOOK • 47