This past Sunday I was in New York City to check out the Hasbro showroom for this year’s NYC Toy Fair. As a dad it was great to see the toys that will be coming out this year. I was able to preview and play with some of the hottest toys for 2012. While I was looking around the showroom, I could not believe the advancements that have been made with toys. I remember the toys of my generation in the 80’s and back then I thought those toys were so cool. I remember there were very detailed toy car models like a 1969 police Chevrolet camaro collectable. Personally, I had all the Star Wars figures from the original trilogy films. I thought it was great to have Luke Skywalker’s lightsaber be connected to his arm. It was like a blue colored toothpick that would slide in and out of his arm.
Flash forward to 2012 and the Jedi action figure’s lightsabers actually light up and are the correct size and shape in relation to the figure. I can never forget the Luke Skywalker Return of the Jedi plastic lightsaber I had as a kid. The lightsaber had a piece of green plastic for the blade along with a black handle that had holes cut right above the handle so the wind would make a whistle type sound as you moved the lightsaber back and forth. By the way this was a Lucasfilm produced toy and not a knock off brand. Now there are many versions of lightsabers out there. From kid friendly lightsabers to the collectibles that fanboys like me collect. Even the collectible ones now have removable blades, realistic sounds from the movies, and metal handles that look like a prop from the film. As you can tell by this paragraph alone with toys likes these, I wish I could be a kid today. Some people who know me say I still am a kid. To them I say, fair enough.
Getting back to the toy fair, the new technology was astonishing. One of the toys that I found to be great for toddlers is the Super Grover toy. This toy has Grove suited up as the clumsy superhero we all remember, but make no mistake there is nothing clumsy about how this toy is constructed. Super Grover has a sensor to let it know when he is flying up, down, and side to side while he moves his head and arms in each direction your kid takes him.
Remember the great board games of our day? There were games like Monopoly, Battleship, Connect Four, and Life. Hasbro is working to upgrade the classic board games with the newest technology. Whether you have an iPad or iPhone you can enhance game play with a trip to the App Store. The new format is called the zAPPed versions that allow you use your iPad or iPhone to move your game piece around the board, use a credit card to purchase land, and sink people’s battleships. I had a chance to try out the Monopoly game and see it in action and it was great to see the classic game revamped with the use of the technology of today. I used a credit card that comes along with the game and touched the card to my iPhone and it subtracted my play money from the card while moving around the board.
Another toy that caught my eye was from the Amazing Spider-Man collection to coincide with the film coming out later this year. There are of course the action figures, play sets, and costumes. Yet one toy that stood out was the remote controlled Spider-Man. This figure sticks to the wall and you control the ol’ web slinger up and down the wall using a remote control unit. HOW COOL IS THAT? I can recall the sticky spiders that you got from a Froot Loop’s cereal box that you threw against a wall and watch it either stick to the wall and do nothing or hit the wall and fall right down to the ground. The remote control Spider-Man sticks to the wall and climbs up and down the wall of your house. I know that some of my nieces and nephews would love a gift like this for their birthday.
Remember how cool Play-Doh was when you were a kid? How could anybody make an upgrade to Play-Doh? Hasbro can, that’s who! I saw the new line of Play-Doh and the detail is amazing. They have a construction Play-Doh set that comes with many forms of new Play-Doh. The types I saw were asphalt, cement, steel, and brick. You might think that it is the color that sets each set apart. It goes a bit further than that with this new line. For instance the asphalt Play-Doh has bits of silver and grey pieces to give the look of real asphalt. There is a Play-Doh princess line to where you can make dresses for each princess and your child can make their own prince charming of Play-Doh.
I really could go on and on about the advancement in toys like how this year Nerf will have a blaster shoot a dart seventy-five feet in distance. Yes that is right 75 FEET! Or the new GI Joe figures that actually take out their guns or swords from their backpacks with one touch of a button. Oh how a stuffed animal pony that nuzzles your kid’s hand while it is being pet and knows which direction it should go in to create the sense of a real pony. Now it will be heck of a lot easier to get your kid a pony when your parents didn’t get you one.
As you can see from this article I had a blast at the Hasbro Showroom. I traveled back in time and became a kid again. Seeing all these new toys out there was great and I can’t wait for the day that I will be able to construct an actual lightsaber…..er, I meant my kids or my grandkids.