Yesterday I made my annual visit to the 65th London Toy Fair. Every year the Olympia exhibition hall hosts this annual fair of all the best toys and games. The event is organised by the British Toy and Hobby Association and provides a view of more than 260 brands and products from across the globe. The pre-opening Press Day on the 23rd January was a blast, allowing me to see and try loads of new toys and some old favourites that are making a return.
My highlights this year included…
The Money Monster
The Money Monster is a digital money box linked with a contactless payment card controlled by the parents. Money can be transferred to the Money Monster account and the child can find out their balance by gently shaking the money monster. It’s a modern money box. The company has recently partnered with Santander.
Action Man
Action Man is making a comeback later this year and will have several military versions (soldier, sailor, pilot, marine) and even an SAS Anthony Middleton based figure. More importantly there will also be a Help for Heroes Action Man with interchangeable prosthetic legs and running blades.
Mobi
A lovely little educational game was the Mobi maths game, which uses tiles in a similar way to Scrabble to form number phrases and sums and teach kids some basic maths.
Frenetic
There was also a great new word game based upon the Periodic table called Frenetic. From the same stable as Accentuate, the accents game where the aim is to guess which accent your teammate is trying to imitate.
Petron Sureshot Crossbow
The Petron Sureshot Crossbow has been out for a couple of years but with its rubber tipped safe darts and robust construction it is a bit of a step up from a NERF gun.
NERF
Although there is also a new multi-shot NERF gun coming out called the Surgefire (one of the Hero toys)..
Strictly Come Dancing Board Game
The Strictly Come Dancing board game from Ideal looked interesting and actually won a Hero prize at the show. Ian Waite, the Strictly dancer, was there for the celebrity launch. The game even has Craig Revel-Horwood’s voice.
PAGL
PAGL are a Ukrainian company and were showing an innovative new recyclable stacking brick for toddlers. The bricks are very similar to an egg box and can be used to build walls etc. They are fully recyclable and with heavy use will apparently last up to a year. Perfect for nursery groups I thought.
Razor
Razor, who are famous for their electric scooters were showcasing electric heelies, which can be attached to normal trainers or sneakers for instant fun.
Thames & Kosmos
Thames & Kosmos had a load of new items including a range of educational globes, science and slime kits.
The Easy Read Time Teacher
Kids can have real problems with telling the time. The Easy Read Time Teacher provides a range of wall clocks, alarm clocks and wrist watches with the easy read face, which makes it easier.
Wilton Bradley X-Factor Bluetooth Microphone
I was also quite taken with the Wilton Bradley X-Factor Bluetooth Microphone range for recording and singing live songs with electronic voice effects.
There was so, so, so, so much more to see! Everything was brilliant and the day was fantastic – they had to throw me out in the end! There were so many new brilliant board games too. I am looking forward to trying some of them out via the Blogger Board Game Club.
The London Toy Fair runs from 23-25 January, 2018 in London.
