trend to new levels. The Crayola Color Alive Easy Animation Studio brings kids’ drawings to life in an app through the company’s Color Alive technology, and includes a motion-capture mannequin, so kids can easily create animated videos with their new creations.
CRAFTS & CREATIVITY • Crayola Color Alive Easy Animation Studio • Wooky Entertainment Charmazing app • Fashion Angels It’s My Biz app • Rose Art Graphic Skinz Chamber and kits
Toys That Talk Although some controversy has been voiced over toys that use the Internet to deliver information to kids, these products push the boundaries of technology in new ways. Mattel’s Hello Barbie uses voice-recognition technology to talk with kids, remember details of conversations, and recall them in later conversations. ToyQuest’s My Friend Cayla uses technology to have real-time two-way conversations with kids and access a database to answer their questions. CloudPets are soft, cuddly friends that can send messages to and from a parent-approved list, speak directly to a child, and provide comfort and delight from parents, grandparents, or military family members, who may be in distant locations. ToyMail offers a similar theme, with messages sent via a cute animal-themed toy mailbox friend. Expect more products to emerge in this newer segment of the business in the coming months.
MAY/JUNE 2015
TOYS THAT TALK • Mattel Hello Barbie • Spiral Toys CloudPets (distributed by Jay@Play) • ToyMail • ToyQuest/Genesis My Friend Cayla With smart technology available across such a broad spectrum of toy categories, retailers will need to focus and decide which segments are the most lucrative options for their own business models. Carrying products that offer the best return for their customers and for their bottom line is a decision that is critical to ensuring that those products fly off shelves. With a variety of manufacturers and price point options, technology ■ is a segment that is extremely appealing. Reyne Rice is a toy industry consultant, trend hunter, and media spokesperson with 30 years of experience in marketing, researching, and analyzing the toy and game industry, children’s technology, entertainment and licensing, and the youth market. She is an international trade journalist and a frequent keynote speaker at conferences spanning Asia, Europe, and the U.S. Rice has owned her own consultancy, ToyTrends, since 2003, and can be reached at reyne@reynerice.com.
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