DISCOVERY KIDS PARTNERS WITH CYPHER, TEK NEK FOR NEW LINES OF ADVENTURE PRODUCTS Discovery Kids has partnered with Cypher Entertainment and Tek Nek Toys to develop new lines of children’s products. Cypher Entertainment will debut a line of 3-D Jurassic Action toys, which will utilize augmented reality technology to trigger an interactive dinosaur using any smartphone. The kits include the Dino Excavation Kit and Interactive Dinosaur Kit, and come with digging tools and protective glasses. Tek Nek Toys will introduce a new line of outdoor adventure and role-play products that include a ride-on vehicle, a bug vacuum, a light-up viewing scope, and a big pocket vest. The line will also come with an electronic talking puzzle map of the U.S. and a number of play sets designed to let kids step into the roles of firefighters, police officers, soldiers, and handymen. The products will be available across retail this year.
THE LEGO GROUP, FCP LAUNCH THE SIMPSONS-BRANDED LEGO SET The Lego Group has partnered with Twentieth Century Fox Consumer Products (FCP) to produce a construction set and Lego minifigures inspired by the TV series The Simpsons. The construction set will recreate The Simpsons’ family house, including the characters Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, Maggie, and Ned Flanders. It is set to launch this month in Lego stores and the Lego Shop at Home catalog and website. A separate line of 16 Lego The Simpsons minifigures will launch at mass toy retailers in May. Fox will also air a special episode of The Simpsons in May coinciding with the new products. The episode will feature the cast in Lego form.
WOMEN IN TOYS HONORS GUND’S RITA RAIFFE Women in Toys will present its 2014 Lifetime Achievement Award to Rita Raiffe, who has served as the design director of Gund for more than 20 years. Raiffe will accept the award at the 10th Annual Wonder Women in Toys, Licensing, and Entertainment Awards Dinner on February 17 in New York City. The presentation coincides with the 111th American International Toy Fair. The daughter of Jacob Swedlin, who purchased the company from founder Adolph Gund, Raiffe studied design at Traphagan School, Parsons School of Design, and New York School of Interior Design. She joined the company full-time in 1972, and over the years insisted on new innovations, including huggable designs, softer textiles, and the under-stuffing method.
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FEBRUARY 2014
SPIN MASTER’S AIR HOGS OFFERS CUSTOM 3-D PRINTED ARMOR PIECE With the growing popularity of 3-D printing, Spin Master offers a custom part for its Air Hogs Heli Cage Armored Edition, a helicopter featuring removable plastic armor. Samples of the part were built using a MakerBot 3-D printer, which creates real 3-D objects by laying down drops upon drops of plastic material and building them from the bottom up. The custom part was also flighttested by engineers and tweaked for weight balance. Spin Master now provides an open source 3-D file of the armor part online at www.airhogs.com/blog. Makers can download it for free and print it using a 3-D printer. For those who do not have direct access to a 3-D printer, Air Hogs recommends Sculpteo, which will print from the 3-D file and ship the part to customers. For the very techically inclined, the 3-D file can be fully manipulated to create a truly customizable piece.
Air Hogs Heli Cage Armored Edition
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