{"id":1025,"date":"2011-01-26T12:44:45","date_gmt":"2011-01-26T11:44:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.feedingedge.co.uk\/blog\/?p=1025"},"modified":"2011-01-26T12:55:46","modified_gmt":"2011-01-26T11:55:46","slug":"london-toy-fair-2011","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.feedingedge.co.uk\/blog\/2011\/01\/26\/london-toy-fair-2011\/","title":{"rendered":"London Toy Fair 2011"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Yesterday i got to go along to the Toyfair 2011 at Olympia with a press badge with Archie Productions and with my Cool Stuff Collective g33k t-shirt on.
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\nI was not there to film but to do a bit more research, meet some people and see how roving reporters and crews get things done.
\nI have been to a fair few trade shows, including lots of standing around on a stand talking about virtual worlds but I was not sure what to expect from a trade toy show. It was good to be able to head onto a stand and do a bit of promoting back on the TV show. It was also interesting the sheer number of PR people manning the stands. The ones I have been to tend to be the actual people from the actual company, close to the product. That was in evidence at the show but the huge corporate machines were in full PR mode. There were secret rooms, closed invite only stands and classification of how much of a prospect you might be worth talking too.
\nSome stands had character guards
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\nmany others had actual suited and booted bouncers. If your names not down you are not coming in. However a TV crew tends to alter that a little. A few places it was a hindrance as some pre-release toys and film footage was not ready for the press yet, only for the corporate buyers. An old trick about feeling exclusive, being let in (as we do with web betas). One particular secret door kept opening and closing so much that each time the motion caught my eye, I glanced across only to be scowled at by the bouncer. Very different the the playfulness of the toys around, but it is big business.
\nIt was great to see such a big Moshi Monster presence though
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\nI was thinking back to 2007 when Roo and I went to see the very early stages of Moshi, and the various virtual world trade shows we had stands near one another. It is of course now huge, Roo wrote about it back then<\/a>
\nOne thing about the toy industry, like the game or virtual world industry is that no matter how straight laced the pitch is nearly everyone had that outlet to press a button and play with something. You can sit a look at a massive zhuzhu pet stand, analyse your profit margins etc but if you pick one up and press a button a scurrying hamster will raise a smile.
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\nOn the Bandai stand I saw a corporate tour but whilst they were quite serious they got involved testing the car that you shout<\/a> at make it go.
\nThere were some great character costumes wandering around as you can see
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\nOn a very small stand there was a suitably wavering Captain Jack Sparrow, with a big sign saying no photos. However he obviously needed a break at some point, stayed in character and wandered around the show, where he placed himself on the edge of the Gelli Baff (Bath goo toy) as it was filmed. This was one of the most bizarre and amusing sights.
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\nIt would have been really amusing if it actually was Johnny Depp of course \ud83d\ude42
\nI was also amazed to see Grape Escape reborn as Smashed Potatoes.
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\nWas it really back in 2007 I blogged about<\/a> that ! and posted this video of Grape Escape in action.
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