Friday, February 16th, 2007...1:35 pm
Toy Fair 2007, Day One
It’s… Toy Fair 2007, Day One!
Today, we went to the Hasbro Collector Event/Annual Herding of the Nerds, where the toy collector and news sites were herded through Hasbro’s upcoming toys for 2007. With Ghost Rider, the Fantastic Four movie, Spiderman 3, and the Transformers movie, it’s going to be a busy year for Hasbro. In addition, Star Wars is facing its 30th Anniversary, as well as the release of an epic next generation game. My Little Pony celebrates its 25th birthday with a re-release of the original 6 ponies from 1983, in addition to a variety of innovative animatronic toys. The hugely popular iDog franchise is dressing up for the release of the Spiderman 3 movie with two SpiDog variations (black/silver and the classic red/blue), while also releasing fashion packs for the iCat and the much-awaited iCy penguin.
Check out the Toy Fair 2007 Hasbro Gallery now!
I visited the Hasbro showroom’s Girls’ Toy section, consisting of the popular Littlest Pet Shop line of toys as well as My Little Pony and FurReal Friends.
This isn’t the Littlest Pet Shop of the 80s! The re-launched Littlest Pet Shop features bobble-head action, highly stylized pets, and an increased focus on technology. The recently introduced virtual Littlest Pet Shop pets are back this year, as is a new secret diary with a voice-activated “lock”. The owner gives a name to the Littlest Pet Shop guard dog, which acts as the password for the diary. If anyone else tries to use the password, the puppy growls and refuses to let them unlock the diary!
The Littlest Pet Shop has also expanded in two directions. On one hand, we have the Littlest Pet Shop Round n Round Pet Town, an expandable playset featuring a working gondola and many nooks and crannies to store your Littlest Pet Shop pets. One the other hand, we have the Teeniest Tiniest Pet Shop, for portable play! These compact-sized playsets feature the tiniest pets ever, and are available in stores now.
If furry pets are your preference, then the FurReal Friends line of toys has a pet for every temperament. This spring, the Farmyard Friends have launched just in time for Easter. The baby lamb and sweet piglet respond to pats on the back by wriggling in joy and making adorable sounds. For those who prefer domesticated animals, the Newborn Kitten responds to touch by kneading its paws and purring, while the Tuggin’ Pup changes its reaction depending on how you interact with it. Pat its back, and it responds happily. Try to take its tugging rope away, and it’ll either growl aggressively or whine in sadness.
Squawkers McCaw is a brand-new FurReal friends Parrot, featuring all the latest in interactivity. He has a variety of modes that can be activated through his remote control, including a “repeat after me” mode and a dance/song mode. Although I’m no ornithology expert, Squawkers is almost eerily life-like, blinking and clicking his beak at the world. Besides having a touch sensor that allows him to “eat” his cracker and respond to petting, Squawkers has a light sensor that lets him tell when he’s in the dark. He randomly chatters to himself, sings, shuffles around, and plaintively asks where everyone is. After a few minutes of inactivity, he closes his eyes and starts to snore.
And for those with extra space in their budget and their homes, the life-sized Shetland Pony Butterscotch is back, this time with a new set of pink plaid accessories and a blue ribbon. While you may not be able to ride Butterscotch, this is probably as close as most of us will get to the childhood dream of having your own pony.
Speaking of ponies, My Little Pony is coming up on its 25th birthday! As part of the celebration, Hasbro is releasing two three-packs of the inaugural 6 pony friends, as well as a variety of new pony products, big and small.
On the small end of things, we have the Ponyville series of plastic miniature ponies and playsets. While the Ponyville ponies aren’t poseable, they are adorable and portable, and they come with a variety of in-scale accessories. I received a Birthday Celebration playset (which I ended up giving to two adorable young girls…’s parents).
On the big end of things, we have Sing and Dance Pinkie Pie, from the live action My Little Pony stage show, the World’s Biggest Tea Party. Pinkie Pie can sing, dance and play games, encouraging little girls to play pretend. In my case, she told me about bees, asked me to buzz like a bee, and told me I was a cute little bee. Although I felt a little patronized, I was impressed by Pinkie Pie’s animatronics. She can blink, move her mouth, twirl her silky tail, and wiggle her tutu. Pinkie Pie is one of the biggest My Little Ponies ever, and she’s worthy of being a banner item for the 25th Anniversary.
The So Soft Baby series has been expanded with a brand new interactive baby pony, Play N Carry Skywishes. Like the previous So Soft Baby ponies, Skywishes responds to touch and can even sense when she’s lying down or when she’s sitting up.
And that’s all we have time for today!
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