Be it high-tech or classic, play’s the thing at toy fair

Before they get to the high-tech emotional Furby, the text-messaging radios and the invisible spycatcher beams, visitors to the American International Toy Fair might pass Mr. Etch A Sketch.

Tim George, 54, who bears the trademarked moniker, sits quietly near an entrance to the Jacob Javits Convention Center surrounded by his creations–tigers, alligators, the White House and even a profile of Jay Leno, all drawn on toy tablets like the original one produced 45 years ago.

“It’s such a thinking toy. It requires hand and eye coordination, patience, concentration and practice, practice, practice,” said George, who works as a security officer in Columbus, Ohio, when he’s not entertaining children.

On whether the Etch A Sketch stands up to today’s computer-driven toys, he said: “We’ll see in about 30 years which one is still around.”

The contrast between toys for basic play and the new sector of what the industry calls “lifestyle electronics” or “cool tools” ran through last week’s three-day toy fair, which introduces retailers to what exhibitors hope will be this year’s hot toys.

“A good toy is a good toy, whether it is driven by a chip or just simply paper and ink,” said Chris Byrne, an independent analyst known as the “Toy Guy.”

This year’s fair comes at a tough time for the toy industry, which saw overall sales fall 3 percent last year, according NPD Group, a research firm. In response, companies have turned to electronic toys to lure increasingly tech-savvy children.

Children “see Mom with the cell phone and Dad with his PDA,” Byrne said. “That’s the culture we’re bringing them up in, so they’re going to reflect that in their play.”

Mattel Inc., the world’s largest toymaker, is rolling out a fully functional Barbie-brand cell phone for preteen girls, Byrne said.

Slightly less phone and more toy is No. 2 Hasbro Inc.’s ChatNow, a $75 pair of two-way radios that let kids talk or send photos and text messages across 2 miles without any airtime charges.

Hasbro also is reviving Furby, a talking fuzzy creature that was a hit in the late 1990s. The upgraded Furby, selling this fall for about $40, simulates breathing, recognizes voices and reacts with smiles, frowns and laughter.

Several companies are selling high-tech toys that use cameras to insert kids into educational video games, where they can watch themselves and become part of the action by moving their bodies.

Getting kids more active to combat increasing childhood obesity is a major shift in the industry, said Reyne Rice, a toy trend specialist for the Toy Industry Association.

It’s “the whole `no more couch potatoes’ concept,” Rice said. She said the typical child now spends 5 1/2 hours daily on “screen time” in front of a TV, computer, video game or cell phone display.

To encourage activity, a tiny company called Babypro, founded and operated by a husband and wife from Elizabethtown, Ky., sells sports-themed videos for infants and toddlers.

Lara Hayes Needham said the product was inspired by their baby son’s interest in TV sports. She said after watching it, a kid will “ask Mom to get your soccer ball out of the closet so you can go out in the yard and kick it.”

While some tech toys have benevolent motives, critics say technology has spread too far into all manner of toys.

“Too much technology in a toy reduces time spent developing the social, personality and character skills needed for life,” said Marianne Szymanski, creator of Toy Tips Inc., an independent research firm.

Many toymakers are going back to basics.

Science toys and those that make bubbles in a variety of shapes and sizes are popular, and traditional building blocks are now marketed to girls as well as boys, Rice said.

K’nex Industries Inc. brings a high-tech element to more basic play in its construction toys, which include moving and electronic creatures, vehicles and amusement park rides that kids can build, Byrne said. The company also has brought back Lincoln Logs, a building toy born nearly a century ago.

The toy fair has a surreal quality, mainly because there are no kids in toyland. No one under 18 is admitted, and the show is closed to the public.

More Top Picks Le Beau Paradise Garden Jean Paul Gaultier For Men

This makes for odd scenes, such as executives in suits and ties crowding around an electric track to race toy cars and bored exhibitors shooting each other with foam arrows. Others pose with a pair costumed as giant Uglydolls.

Owners of toy shops roam the aisles, dodging the occasional radio-controlled monster truck and looking for wares among dizzying displays, which range from action figures and princess paraphernalia to educational puppets and a life-size model of a skeletal Terminator robot.

One of several booths hawking poker chips and casino accessories is squeezed between displays of stuffed animals and shark-shaped kites.

Industry experts say some other toys to watch are:

Lazer Tripwire from Spy Gear, which allows kids to set up barriers of infrared beams visible only when sprayed with a mist of water. The toy, which invites kids to penetrate the web of beams like a secret agent, is due this fall for $20 to $30.

Cranium Inc.’s new games for kids and adults including Bumparena, which requires players to arrange bumpers on a slanted board to guide balls to a goal on the bottom.

A stain-free, slimy compound from Jakks Pacific that kids can toss onto one another.