It’s rather overwhelming walking around the Lego booth at the New York Toy Fair. Not only are there hundreds of new sets but they span brands, ages and complexity. From Duplo to Creator sets to classic Lego City and even the large Lego Technic products, it's an impressive range. This year Lego Boost extends this further with a sensor driven remote controlled robot that can be built in six different ways and offers new brick-based interactions. Lego's own Friends, Elves, Nexo Knights and City lines are all extended in 2017. Big on children's radar will be the franchise and movie tie-in sets. Coming for 2017 there are sets for Pirates of the Caribbean , Cars, The Lego Batman Movie, Minecraft , Star Wars, Frozen , Moana and Cinderella. There are also new sets coming for the Ninjago feature film. To help you decide which of these to get for your family, here’s my top picks from each of the lines at the show. Two sets stood out here for the quality of design and great looking minifigures.
Ariel and the Magical Spell (41145) is a 222 pieces aimed at children 5 and over. It provides turquoise, teal and green bricks with mermaid characters and a underwater theme. It will be available in August Then there is Cinderella’s Enchanted Evening (41146) that is made of 350 pieces to create a magical horse and carriage. It comes with Cinderella minifigure and a miniature castle build. It will be available in August. While the Star Wars: The Last Jedi sets are, for understandable reasons, not revealed yet there was still plenty of Star Wars bricky goodness at Toy Fair. Bit of a surprise pick for me, but the LEGO Star Wars Advent Calendar (75184) was really impressive this year. Not only the range of figures and mini-builds behind each window but the inclusion of a few new Lego pieces I’d not seen before. This will be out in September — which I know is early for Christmas but there you go. A lot of new Minecraft Lego coming this year. The Waterfall Base (21134) stands out as one of the larger sets at 729 pieces.
This is a nice set that offers a range of terrain and characters, all drawn from the video game. Plenty of zombies and other mobs are included as well. This will be available in March. The Ocean Monument (21136) is another large set with1122 pieces. It offers a load of interactive elements and characters from the game, including a Lego version of the Elder Guardian, Guardian and Squid mob as well as Steve and Alex minifigures. Top pick here is the Coast Guard Headquarters (60167) which is a 792 piece build for anyone aged 6 or older. It offers a nice base building, helicopter and launch. The theme is in white and orange of sea-rescue and the level of design is excellent. It’s available in August. Also worth a mention is the Bus Station (60154) which updates the set with a 337 piece build of building and vehicles. A lot to choose from this year but for me the 6x6 All Terrain Tow Truck (42070) stole the show. It’s a massive 1862 pieces and does need some skill to assemble — an age of at least 11 is suggested.
Once complete the build is stunning with attention to detail and realistic moving parts. A nice touch is the Teddy Bear mascot perched on the front grill. This will be out in August. There are some of these Lego Batman Movie sets out already but we hadn’t seen the fantastic Ultimate Batmobile (70917) before. This is another big build, weighing in at 1456 pieces. It comes as three separate vehicles than can combine to make one super Batmobile. Well executed and closely matched to the film. This will be available in June. While there are a few contenders for top set here, in the end I had to go for the Knighton Castle (70357) and its 1426 pieces. Some new pieces included here, but it’s the impressive overall design I really love. All the favourite Nexo characters are included along with some new shields to unlock in-game content. This is available in August. New this year in the Elves universe are the Goblins. This is a nice addition as it not only extends the line but opens new routes for imaginative play.
Accordingly, my top set here is the Breakout from the Goblin King’s Fortress (41188). It’s 695 pieces and includes an impressive castle with a variety of interactive ways to escape and capture elves. This is another August set. There are a lot of Lego Friends sets coming up this year. In terms of August releases shown at Toy Fair this had the most. Top of the list for me is the Heartlake Hospital (41318) which comprises of 871 to make not only a fully operational medical facility but loads of minifigures and bespoke equipment bricks. There is a high level of detail that looks like it will be great fun to build and play with once complete. This is another of the August Lego sets. This is a new range from Lego and offers an interactive building kit with app and sensors all provided. While this sort of thing has been tried before, the level of depth and complexity you can achieve with the set (17101) is really impressive. From an interactive robot to a cat or even a working guitar, Lego Boost was great fun to see demoed and looks like it will do very well.
It will be available in August.The new Teddy Ruxpin by Wicked Cool Toys is displayed during the American International Toy Fair on February 18, 2017, in New York.1 of 34How Tech and Gender Inclusivity Are Propelling the Toy IndustryThe toy aisle is one of the happiest places in the world of retail.At a time when restaurants are struggling with weak traffic due to high prices, department store sales are sputtering because of changing shopping behaviors, and apparel sales are being upended by cheap fast fashion, toy makers like Hasbro (has), Mattel (mat), and Lego are posting several strong years of sales. Experts say players big and small have been particularly adept at innovating, adding new twists to older brands and also coming up with new properties that are resonating with kids.The industry met this month in New York City to pitch their newest toy ideas for 2017 at a toy fair held at the the massive Javits Center. Fortune got a peak at what many of the major players are planning for retailers like Toys 'R' Us and Walmart (wmt).
We've identified four trends kids and their parents should keep an eye on.Blockbuster films have always been a big motivating factor that drives children and their parents to the toy aisle. In recent years, the industry has greatly benefited from a steady pace of releases from Walt Disney's (dis) Star Wars franchise—one of the biggest toy properties that is seeing renewed interest thanks to new movies. 2017 bodes well for the industry from a film perspective, with about 20 films to be released with ties to the toy aisle. ".Hasbro has toys planned for six of those major films, while Lego has ties to 10 and Jakks Pacific (jakk) well over a dozen. All three of those toy makers have licenses for the biggest film of them all from: Star Wars: The Last Jedi, which will be released in December. Hasbro and Lego will also benefit from their own movie releases in 2017. Hasbro has two films coming out based on the toy maker's own franchise properties, Transformers: The Last Knight and My Little Pony: The Movie.
Lego has The Lego Batman Movie—already a strong performer at the box office—and The Lego Ninjago Movie in September."It is a very robust film slate," said Hasbro President John Frascotti. He added that in the past several years, toys tied to films have outpaced those that are not based on hot movie properties. "The overall industry is growing in toys, but movie-based properties have grown at a robust pace, while non-movie toys are flat."Mattel, Hasbro and Lego have all embraced the theme of gender inclusivity—essentially creating and marketing toys with both genders in mind, rather than dividing the toy space into pink and blue aisles. Executives say this is a sign of the times, as Millennial parents in particular don't want their children to learn stereotypical gender habits.Lego got some criticism when it launched a girl-focused Lego Friends line that was full of pink and purple bricks and girly themes that some bloggers and child development experts lamented was too gendered. But Lego said that the line was an entry point to get more girls interested in the toy maker's construction sets, and today, it is seeing girls buy more kits that would have typically been boy focused, like sets made for the Lego Batman film.
Hollywood is also adding more female characters to lead roles, and that's helping as well. "The folks at Disney are coming up with a formula that is more gender inclusive when it comes to the starring roles," says Skip Kodak, who is the head of LEGO Systems. "We have an opportunity to bring that to life in Lego play."Dolls have been historically marketed to girls but even that category is seeing a revolution. Mattel's American Girl brand added the first boy character in the brand's 31-year history. Hasbro's newest Baby Alive doll now says "Mommy" or "Daddy" for the first time—before only "Mommy" was an option. And when Mattel added DC Girls-based cars to the Hot Wheels set, it purposely made the packaging gender neutral featuring blues and reds. In the past, the packaging would have almost certainly been pink."We want to be inclusive in our approach across gender and ethnicity," said Frascotti. "Instead of thinking, that's a boy brand or a girl brand, we see them as dual-gender." He said Star Wars, My Little Pony, Transformers—all of them have fans that don't fall into the legacy gender splits that occurred when those brands were launched.
"Our approach is we build brands for consumers," he said.When toy makers first understood that mobile devices were a threat, they rushed to link tablets to board games, dolls, and pretty much every other toy imaginable. Most of those early efforts weren't well received.But this year, toy makers proved that they finally have a firmer handle on how and when to incorporate tech into a toy. Some of the toys that seemed to do this well include Spin Master's interactive Luvabella baby doll, Hasbro's bluetooth-connected Furreal motorized pet, Barbie's futuristic hologram Barbie, and Lego's app-based coding playset. Mattel also debuted a "smart" baby monitor earlier this year at CES. Wicked Toys is bringing back the classic 80s toy Teddy Ruxpin—which originally 'read' stories using a cassette tape—this time with app-powered storytelling capabilities."Barbie Hologram is a fun, interactive take on the virtual home assistant trend," said Laurie Schacht , a toy expert for industry publication Toy Insider.
She added that Mattel's Internet-connected Aristotle baby monitor would be a good tool to play into the "smart home" trend.These smaller toys—often sold for just a few dollars near the register—have been a strong performer for the industry. Sales of collectibles jumped 33% to $1.8 billion last year and represented 9% of the total industry's U.S. sales. So-called "blind packs" have been especially popular—little collectible toys that are sold in secretive packaging so you won't know what's inside.At New York Toy Fair, pretty much ever toy maker is now in the collectible game. Mattel, Hasbro, Lego, Jakks—all some of the biggest players in the toy industry—all have collectibles for 2017. Spin Master's popular Hatchimal brand is going to dive into the collectible craze this year too. "It got very crowded this year, there is going to be some fall out," warns Silver.Toy makers, however, think the trend will remain relevant for years to come. Australia-based Moose Toys, which generated a massive hit with the Shopkins brands a few years ago, say that collecting toys is a proven way that kids have played for decades."