Radio Workshop

Go, Go, Gadget (Transcript)

by Noah Reibel

AMB:

(Sound of Toy Fair)

NAR:

The annual Toy Fair is part P.T. Barnum, part Willy Wonka. It's the industry's largest expo: a chance for toy makers to demo new products and toy sellers to begin strategizing for the coming year. But underneath all the hoopla at this year's fair was a sobering reality- This is an industry coming off one of its worst Christmases in years.

KIRSCHBAUM:

It's a bad year. It's a bad economy. It's a bad Christmas. we're resistant to economic trends, but we're not invulnerable.

NAR:

Andy Kirschbaum owns Three Trolls and Puzzles in Chelmsford, Mass. Small independents like Kirschbaum and larger chains sent buyers to the Fair every year to try and stay ahead of the trends.

KIRSCHBAUM:

So far, we've picked up a lot of the things we've sen in years past. We've expanded some stuff and we've pruned some stuff. We're stilll looking for the next thing. We don't know what it is yet.

NAR:

No one does... This is an unpredictable industry, and no one can really say where the next craze will come from. Chris Byrne is an industry analyst known as "the Toy Guy".

BYRNE:

the last real toy craze we saw was, was Poochie, probably from Hasbro. I think they sold forty million of those.

NAR:

Poochie was a robotic dog- and Byrnes says the customers make this a difficult industry to predict.

BYRNE:

I always say about publicly traded companies is that they're putting their stock price in the hands of an eight-year-old.

AMB: (BABY ANNABELLE ADVERTISEMENT)

Voice #1: Baby Annabelle

Voice #2: What's so special about her?

Voice #1: She's so real. The way she uses her pacifier, sucks on her bottle and cries.

(Burp)

She burped!... (advert continues under narration)

NAR:

Not everyone's having a bad year. German doll maker Zapff continues to have success with Baby Annabelle.

AMB: (END OF ADVERT)

Voice #1: The special thing about Baby Annabelle is...

Voice #2: She's just like us!

NAR:

... that may be true, but Byrne says the real key to Annabelle's success is her ability to appeal to both children and high-end doll collectors. Accesories like cribs, bottles and pacifiers allowed Zapff to capitalize on Annabelle's success and transform the company from a $13 million enterprise to a $50 million one.

Annabelle succeeded in the largest and most competitive sector of the toy industry: toys for infants and pre-schoolers, but Byrne believes a glut of toys aimed at tots has opened up opportunities

n other areas and age groups.

AMB: DSI Showroom room tone (pull up Spinheads music loop)

NAR:

At their showroom on 23rd Street, Houston based DSI demoed a toy aimed squarely at the 'tween market: children between the ages of eight and twelve.

WOLFF:

Basically, Spinheads are a whole new way to play your music.

NAR:

Jeffrey Wolff is an Assistant Marketing Manager in charge of promotion.

WOLFF:

It's taking two trends that are happening: kids having more control over their music by downloading music or mixing it up on a computer, and also the phenomenon or trend of Deejays coming into their own as performers...

NAR:

There are six Spinheads. Each little plastic figure features a different style of music.

WOLFF:

Each figure also comes with their own signature saying or "Ill-lyrical" as they call it in the 'biz.

AMB:

Spinheads Ill-lyricals and music beat loop. (continues under narration.)

NAR:

Spinheads is definitely one of the success stories to come out of this year's fair. The toy has generated so much advance interest that DSI has gone back to its manufacturers to ask them to step up production. But Spinhelds won't even be on the shelves until July, and in an unpredictable industry like this one- next Christmas is anyone's ballgame.

AMB: (Spinheads music back up)

NAR:

For Columbia Radio News, I'm Noah Reibel.

AMB: (Spinheads music fades out)