NEWS

The bumper January issue of Toy World is out now

Published on: 6th January 2023

Falling just shy of 400 pages, the biggest-ever January issue of Toy World contains comprehensive show previews as well as a substantial, 30-page Hot Properties section.

The Toy World team is pleased to announce that its weeks of hard work have paid off, with the 394-page January issue of Toy World out in print and online bang on schedule, with a little over two weeks to go until Toy Fair 2023 opens its doors.

You can read the issue here.

As always, this issue contains the most comprehensive Toy Fair preview produced by any trade title at this time of year. This year is no exception, with 177 pages of the magazine dedicated to all things Toy Fair: an interview with the BTHA’s Roland Earl and Majen Immink, a special Touching Base segment on hero products for 2023, full exhibitor lists and show maps, and a huge product-focused feature detailing the unmissable toys, games and kids products visitors to the show can discover.

The Toy World team also caught up with a number of companies ahead of the show. Editor Rachael Simpson-Jones spoke with Jonny Taylor and Holly Oldham at Jazwares UK about the division’s 10th year in business, before sitting down with Bandai UK’s specialist Collector team to find out what’s fuelling the extraordinary growth of this segment.

Assistant editor Sam Giltrow, meanwhile, paid a visit to the HQ of Heathside Trading to discuss why the company is now shining a spotlight on its growing pop culture division, Khadou. And Thomas Eichorn, board member at Zapf Creation, tells Toy World about the company’s return to London Toy Fair, the latest additions to market-leading nurturing doll brands and how it continues to support its retail partners.

Of course, the bumper January issue doesn’t just focus on the London Toy Fair – there’s plenty more for readers to get stuck into this month. Our 30-page Hot Properties section brings readers up to speed on the biggest kids and family properties gracing our screens (both big and small) this year, and asks top licensors what makes their favourite property so special. Sam Giltrow also chats to Venetia Davie, VP Consumer Products, UK & Ireland, ANZ & Israel to discover how the Paramount’s rich vein of content is boosting toy sales.

This issue also contains Part 2 of our in-depth Spielwarenmesse 2023. Toy World took a quick look at how things are shaping up in the final few weeks, and speaks to Christian Ulrich, spokesperson of the Executive Board at Spielwarenmesse eG, about the international trade fair. Part 2 of our preview also includes a Touching Base in which we asked exhibitors to highlight their favourite toys for this year, plus plenty of product information.

Toy World publisher John Baulch has also written a piece on the international Toy Fair Season and what it might hold for visitors and exhibitors alike going forward.

Bolstering its hugely popular Talking Shop feature, the Toy World team spoke to a number of successful toy retailers who made the decision to expand in some way in 2022, resulting in a really positive article that makes clear that the future remains very bright for toy retail. On a related note, John Baulch and Sam Giltrow were invited to the new Hamleys Westfield London store in December for an exclusive tour with senior buyer Karen Dennett and Daniel King, trading manager, UK & ROI. Find out what they had to say about it in their round-up of the opening event. Sticking with retail a little longer, we also caught up with Brian McLaughlin, development manager at Toymaster, about what’s been going on behind the scenes at the buying group and how it continues to support its members.

The team also spoke to Wonder (formerly Amscan International) chief executive Joe Hennigan, who tells Toy World readers how the recently announced company rebrand is just a small part of a much bigger, more wondrous picture. As Sara Taylor, MGA Entertainment’s new UK & Ireland managing director, prepares for her first full year at the helm of this successful and disruptive toy business, she tells Toy World how she plans to continue stabilising MGA from the top down and building upon its success to date with new toy and content launches, a hugely streamlined warehousing operation and much more.

Generation Media’s Jon Chambers takes an in-depth look at using marketing to gain an advantage over the competition in a recession, and Havas Entertainment’s Tristan Brooks takes Toy World behind the scenes of Azure Media’s recent merger with the media, creativity and PR specialist. The ICTI Ethical Toy Program also shares insights into its programmes, explaining how it ensures transparency and maintains the best supplier assessment and engagement programmes available in order to achieve a credible ESG strategy.

As if all of this wasn’t enough, the January issue also contains all your favourite regular features and contributors: Rick Derr returns with his popular Letter from America column, Nick Gibbs-McNeil considers whether the toy industry will benefit from 2023’s slate of new movies, Richard Gottleib makes some predications about the economy, global trade and travel for the year ahead, and Asha Bhalsod examines profitability challenges linked to Amazon going into 2023. No issue of Toy World would be complete without the latest info from the NPD Group, so Rory Partis looks looks at how the overall trend for the UK toy market is likely to end up, and – (whisper it) – things are looking quite promising.

We hope you enjoy reading the January issue of Toy World as much as the team enjoyed putting it together. Don’t forget, Toy World will be at Toy Fair on Stand B23 – do pay us a visit if you’d like to find out more about the UK’s leading toy trade publication and how you can be a part of it. And of course, please get in touch if you’d like to book a meeting before the show starts. Our diaries are filling up fast, especially for Press Day, so don’t delay if you want to secure a slot with one of the team.

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