At Toy Fair, Playing With Others Is Back In

A radio-controlled shark hovers above the 2012 Toy Fair in New York City.

Image: Michael del Castillo

An emerging trend from last year’s Toy Fair was the widespread popularity of gaming applications aimed at young children, and based on what we saw at Toy Fair 12, this does not look to be changing anytime soon. However, one new development is the rise in "appcessories," or apps with physical counterparts, designed to get kids moving around and interacting with others.

That's a significant difference, says Adrienne Appell, a trend specialist for the Toy Industry Association, who, amidst tables filled with bowls of cotton-candy lollipops and saltwater taffy, gave a presentation on toy trends at the event, which opened in New York Sunday and ends Thursday.

“Apps are keeping toys relevant," she said. "And not just any toys, but toys that bring back family play.”

From an app that turns an iPad into an air-hockey table complete with paddles to trivia games for mobile devices with TV game-show-style buzzers, some 1,100 exhibitors hailing from 110 countries filled the shelves of the Javits Center convention hall with actual, tangible, physical toys—not just staring-at-the-screen-endlessly videogames.

“Physical toys aren’t going anywhere,” said Appell.

According to the TIA, toy makers are using technology to enhance rather than erase the "classic play patterns" that keep children moving—and to walk through the seemingly endless rows of booths exhibiting over 100,000 toys, this seems readily apparent.

“Every year, the line between toys and tech gadgets becomes more blurred,” Appell told the Toy Fair Times. “In 2011, we saw a couple of products that were based on popular apps or that worked with iPads or iPhones. This year, we’re really going to see that blow out.”

Although this new breed of appcessory may be designed to get children moving, what makes them different in more than just the screen on which much of the action takes place—what distinguishes them—is the fact that many of these toys can actually grow with the children.

“Oftentimes, a toy or game will grow with a child, and they will play with them differently depending on their age,” said Appell. A skill game can get increasingly difficult to compensate for more finely tuned ability of an older child, or it can even switch skills altogether, going from a reading-driven game to one that is driven by eye-hand coordination.

In addition to the app trend, Appell cited other 2012 trends, such as glow-in-the-dark toys with LED components; early-age educational toys; toys that exist on multiple levels to adjust to a child's mood and interest; "save and splurge" toys that are surprisingly expensive given the down economy, but are still worth the "wow" factor they generate; and what she called "young maestros," or musical toys designed to get infants and tweens creating elementary music.