Review of the NY International Toy Fair

From Dan: Earlier this week, Millie and I flew to NYC to attend the NY International Toy Fair. Honestly, we had a lot of fun. In addition to the fair, we met up with other businesses owners members of both the Handmade Toy Alliance and the American Specialty Toy Retailing Association. We also got the chance to shop lots of Manhattan stores, from haute baby boutiques to FAO Schwatrz.

The best news from our trip is that we found lots of great new toys, which we'll be telling you all about as they arrive throughout the year. It seemed like there were a lot more new products on display than there were last year, which seems like a very good sign for everybody.

If there was one product that defined this year's fair, it would have to be mechanical toy animals--in particular hamsters. Yes, expect small armies of Zhu Zhu Pet knockoffs to invade malls everywhere in the coming year. The weirdest thing we saw was probably fake fingernails for little girls. Or maybe it was a product that turned bathwater into something like Jell-o.

The coolest thing we saw was...well, we'll let you know when they arrive. Stay tuned! In the meantime, check out Rocketboom's review of Toy Fair--it provides a good sense of the experience, especially if you keep in mind that the whole things takes the space of about a dozen football fields.