Analysis: Christmas Gloom for China Toymakers as Orders Shrivel

Analysis: Christmas Gloom for China Toymakers as Orders Shrivel. June 23, 2011 — Many Chinese toymakers have seen a 5-10 percent fall in pre-orders for the 2011 holiday season.

The Importance of Pretend Play

Young children learn by imagining and doing. Have you ever watched your child pick up a stone and pretend it is a zooming car, or hop a Lego across the table as if it were a person or a bunny? Your child is using an object to represent something else while giving it action and motion. But this pretend play is not as simple as it may seem. The process of pretending builds skills in many essential developmental areas.

• Social and Emotional Skills
  When your child engages in pretend (or dramatic) play, he is actively experimenting with the social and emotional roles of life. Through cooperative play, he learns how to take turns, share responsibility, and creatively problem-solve. When your child pretends to be different characters, he has the experience of "walking in someone else's shoes," which helps teach the important moral development skill of empathy. It is normal for young children to see the world from their own egocentric point of view, but through maturation and cooperative play, your child will begin to understand the feelings of others. Your child also builds self-esteem when he discovers he can be anything just by pretending!
• Language Skills
  Have you ever listened in as your child engages in imaginary play with his toys or friends? You will probably hear some words and phrases you never thought he knew! In fact, we often hear our own words reflected in the play of children. Kids can do a perfect imitation of mom, dad, and the teacher! Pretend play helps your child understand the power of language. In addition, by pretend playing with others, he learns that words give him the means to reenact a story or organize play. This process helps your child to make the connection between spoken and written language — a skill that will later help him learn to read.
• Thinking Skills
  Pretend play provides your child with a variety of problems to solve. Whether it's two children wanting to play the same role or searching for the just right material to make a roof for the playhouse, your child calls upon important cognitive thinking skills that he will use in every aspect of his life, now and forever.
  
  Does your child enjoy a bit of roughhousing? Great! Some researchers in early brain development believe that this sort of play helps develop the part of the brain (the frontal lobe) that regulates behavior. So instead of worrying that this type of activity will encourage your child to act out or become too aggressive, be assured that within a monitored situation, roughhouse play can actually help your child learn the self-regulation skills needed to know how and when this type of play is appropriate.
• Nurturing the Imagination
  Not enough pretend play at your house? Consider creating a prop box or corner filled with objects to spark your preschooler's fantasy world. You might include:
  • Large plastic crates, cardboard blocks, or a large, empty box for creating a "home"
  • Old clothes, shoes, backpacks, hats
  • Old telephones, phone books, magazines
  • Cooking utensils, dishes, plastic food containers, table napkins, silk flowers
  • Stuffed animals and dolls of all sizes
  • Fabric pieces, blankets, or old sheets for making costumes or a fort
  • Theme-appropriate materials such as postcards, used plane tickets, foreign coins, and photos for a pretend vacation trip
  • Writing materials for taking phone messages, leaving notes, and making shopping lists

LEGO Company Has Been Around Since the 1930s

The LEGO Group is based in Billund, Denmark, where it began. The modern LEGO company was founded in 1932 by the Kirk Kristiansen family. The business originally manufactured stepladders, ironing boards, stools and wooden toys. The company name comes from the Danish words "leg godt," meaning "play well." Later, the company realized that the word in Latin means "I put together."
In 1947, LEGO bought a plastic injection-molding machine for toy production. Among 200 other plastic toys, LEGO began building Automatic Binding Bricks, the forerunner of modern-day LEGOs. The LEGO System of Play was launched in 1955, and the first export of LEGO bricks was to nearby Sweden. It was not successful.
In 1960, the wooden toy warehouse was destroyed by fire, and wooden toys were discontinued entirely by the company. The next year, LEGO sets were first sold in the United States and Canada, licensed to Samsonite Corp.
Today, the LEGO Group is the world's fifth-largest toy manufacturer. According to the company, more than seven LEGO sets are sold every second.

Famous buildings

LEGO makes it possible to own some of the world's great architecture without that messy upkeep and mortgage nonsense.
The company's Architecture series offers models of nine landmark buildings in build-it-yourself kits.
Fans of Frank Lloyd Wright can indulge themselves with a model of Fallingwater, which maintains many of its architectural features while reducing the house over the waterfall to a 10-inch width.
Other models offered include Dubai's signature 2,716.5-foot-tall Burj Khalifa skyscraper miniaturized to a 16-inch height, the White House and the Empire State Building. Coming in July is Mies van der Rohe's minimalist glass and concrete Farnsworth House.  Each kit comes with a booklet offering information on the architect and the history and construction of the building. Depending on their complexity, the models are designed for children 10 or older plus their adult counterparts.

On to space

Those who live in households with LEGO lovers find the versatile blocks everywhere -- in the shag rug, in the laundry and even in the flower beds.
Now, through a partnership between NASA and the LEGO Group, they've turned up in outer space.
In May, the space shuttle Endeavor took LEGO kits on its final trip as part of LEGO's Bricks in Space program.
The astronauts were filmed using the kits to build models as a way to show kids the effect of microgravity on how simple machines work. To save time, the models astronauts constructed were partially assembled on Earth.
It's part of a joint outreach and educational program to inspire children to explore science, technology, engineering and math. The in-class portion of the LEGO Bricks in Space project will be available to educators starting in September.
Astronauts also were supplied with clear plastic boxes that allowed them to complete the project without having the blocks float about the spacecraft -- a convenience some Earth-bound parents might wish for.

Movie Stars

From ambitious re-creations of "Star Wars" movies to animations of Eddie Izzard monologues, LEGOs are stars on YouTube.
There also are looks at large LEGO projects, but the winners of the LEGO Academy Awards -- if they existed -- would be the film takeoffs.
"The Fastest and Funniest LEGOs Star Wars Film Ever Told," for instance, features a child's voice telling the basic story of the original "Star Wars" film over a LEGOs-constructed production with Han Solo space ships, a Death Star, and places such as Tatooine.
And it does all of that in a little more than two minutes with an electronic takeoff on John Williams' music.
But you can't stop there, because "Star Wars" LEGO films don't. Izzard does a piece about Darth Vader going to the cafeteria in the Death Star and having a hard time convincing the lunch worker he is more important than the head of catering. The LEGO characters seem perfectly suitable for Izzard's rambling style.
There are plenty of LEGO Goes to the Movies failures, though. "LEGO Detective," "LEGO Mission: Impossible"and "LEGO Secret Agent" don't quite make it.

Going Virtual

LEGOs have gone virtual with several choices of video games including "Pirates of the Caribbean," "Harry Potter," "Star Wars," "Indiana Jones" and "Batman."
"The Pirates of the Caribbean" game brings Jack Sparrow and other familiar characters to life and incorporates storylines, locations and characters from all four films, including the most recent. In LEGO Harry Potter, explore Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, learn spells, brew potions and relive the adventures of the book and film series.
There's also a choice where you can play Batman and his sidekick, Robin, as you build, drive, swing and fight your way through Gotham City capturing escaped villains including the Joker, Penguin and Scarecrow. Then, jump into the story from the other side and play as Batman's foes.

Be sure to visit our toy store at http://www.imaginativechild.com/ and get the best prices on LEGO toys.