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.

Choosing Wood Toys for Your Little Ones

Hi Everyone, Jesse here and I found this great guide for parents on choosing Wood Toys for your son or daughter.  Wood toys offer so many great benefits: durability, quality and safety.  We encourage each of you to visit The Imaginative Child and find the best wood toys on the market today.

Wooden peg puzzles, which are basically wood jigsaw puzzles with pegs or knobs on top of each puzzle pieces, are classic wooden puzzles. They are usually 1-piece puzzles, which mean there is only one piece per picture. One wooden peg puzzle can contain a few puzzle pieces.
For the littlest toddlers - around 12-24 months, get wooden peg puzzles which have pictures on the board which correspond to the pictures at the jigsaw puzzle pieces. This way, your toddler's job is just to match the pictures at the base of the hole with the ones on puzzle pieces, and then put the pieces back in the correct holes.
Hence, wooden peg puzzles are ideal starter puzzles which will enhance your toddler's picture matching ability, as well as fine motor skills.
You can see a decent selection of wooden peg puzzles made by Melissa and Doug here.

Once your toddlers are expert in completing wooden peg puzzles, it's time to move to wooden jigsaw puzzles which will not only challenge your toddler's fine motor skill, but also shape recognition ability and logic.
To increase your toddler's fine motor skills ability you need to get toddler wooden puzzles with no peg. Melissa & Doug makes wooden sound puzzles with no knobs or pegs which are ideal for toddlers this age.
When your toddler is ready for more challenge, get kid wooden puzzles which have no peg and no pictures at the base of the puzzle holes. This way, you challenge your toddler's fine motor skills and at the same time increase your toddler's shape recognition ability.
Magnetic wooden puzzle made by Melissa & Doug can be used to get your toddler to match shape of the hole and puzzle pieces. These magnetic puzzles are also good to enhance your toddler's fine motor skills because your toddlers are expected to take out and put back the magnetic puzzle pieces using either a tow, a bug catcher net or a fishing pole which come with the puzzles.

Updates from Jesse

Hi Guys,

We are working on so much good stuff here at The Imaginative Child that it is hard to keep up with it.  We have been working closely with some of the greatest toy makers on the planet and are really looking forward to forging some great partnerships with them.  I wish I could share more with you about who we are working with, but that would ruin the upcoming suprise.  Stay tuned and check back often to see who is coming to the party! 

Did you know we also make our own toys?  These toys are how the company was orginally founded and is the same criteria I use to evaluate the "Play Value" in each of these toys. 

Please share our toy website with your friends.  If one of your friends orders from us and adds your name to the comments section.  We'll send you a coupon for $10 off your next order.  Be sure they include your email address or phone number so we can contact you for the credit on your next order.

Don't forget to sign up at http://www.imaginativechild.com/ for the 20% off coupon as well.  All you need to do is submit your email address and first name. 


Happy Toy Shopping and Thanks for Reading,

Jesse
The Imaginative Child 

Hello from Jesse

Hi there friends!  My name is Jesse and I am The Imaginative Child.  My toy store brings you the best toys you can buy for your loved ones.  All of the toys at my store are tested for having a great play factor, durable and most importantly, FUN.  The Imaginative Child partners with only the best toy makers in the industry and we are constantly looking for new toys that we can share with our friends.  I look high and low, far and wide to find these great toys.  You may even see me really soon at the upcoming Toy Fair in New York.  I will be there scouting the Toy Fair for the new toys that we are going to feature at my store.  Please be sure to check in from time to time at my blog for updates on the new toys that we will have in stock. 

Happy Playing,

Jesse

Toy Fair Has Gone Green

Toy Fair’s gone green before. But this year, in addition to welcoming a slew of eco-friendly product, the Toy Industry Association is ramping up environmental consciousness everywhere from the press room to individual exhibits.
A buyer visiting a booth, for example, will be able to text a message with the show ID and document number for that exhibitor, then later retrieve the desired data sheet by logging in to his Virtual Totebag account. This free service for retailers — and complimentary for vendors uploading just a single document — is only one way Toy Fair is embracing eco principles, according to Stacy Leistner, TIA’s vice president of communications.
“Toy Fair Times,” he told TDmonthly Magazine, is just a single issue this year — as opposed to daily printings — though show updates will be accessible throughout the expo at ToyFairNY.com, where the Virtual Press Office also stores dozens of press releases from exhibiting manufacturers.

This year, for the first time, companies have the chance to identify themselves to buyers as “green” through the new Earth-Friendly Product Zone that joins 11 other product areas on the show floor.

Dandelion is one exhibitor taking advantage of the new section, which will boast 19 vendors altogether.

“There are a whole lot of stores now that are looking to bring in green and eco-friendly that didn’t have it before,” said Beth Saunders, marketing manager for the company. She believes many buyers at Toy Fair, motivated by customer request, will seek targeted opportunities to add “green” to their inventory.

TOY TRENDS SCORE AN “A”

Aside from the earth-friendly theme, “active,” “accessible” and “affordable” are three buzzwords for this year’s show. Those designations build on the exercise trend of 2009, the continued development of engaging and Web-connected toys, and the ongoing challenge of diversifying lines with lower price points, Leistner told TDmonthly.  “What we've been really impressed with is the technology and attention to detail” found even in value-priced products at $5 to $25, he emphasized.

The fourth big trend — "aspirational" — refers to products that inform children about their communities, involve them in charitable missions, and create greater awareness about important social decisions, such as eco-friendly product selection.
SAFETY TAKES THE STAGE
Of course, the one question that affects every product at Toy Fair regardless of trend is simply, “Does it comply with safety standards?”

Because the regulatory landscape doesn’t present an easy answer, CPSC Chairman Inez Tenenbaum and TIA representatives will take the stage for the annual Toy Fair Safety Update Seminar following Monday morning’s TIA business meeting (usually conducted at ToyCon, on hiatus this year).

In addition to continuing dialog pertaining to the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008, TIA staff will address present and forthcoming developments at both the federal and state levels.
State legislation can easily hinder efforts to streamline toy safety law. However, as Leistner pointed out, TIA’s work has contributed to the fact that out of “250 pieces of state legislation proposed in more than 40 states last year … none was passed in a way that would be harmful to the industry.”
Article provided by TD Monthly