After a near three year wait and then a eighteen month hiatus the New York Toy Fair returned not only to a more familiar February (March) time slot but also back to the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center. For those that recall that The Toy Association announced at the end of the September 2023 Toy Fair it had decided to move the show out of New York for the foreseeable future. That decision however lasted all of a month and the thankfully the Toy Association agreed to come back to New York and keep to their roots. This decision did introduce the one issue that after September 2023 the next show was announced for March 2025 creating a very long wait for the show to return.
But return it did. The March 2025 Toy Fair came back in near full force with a slew of participating companies and product announcements and while the show did feel a bit scaled back as compared to pre-COVID there were still a noticeable increase in buy-in from top brands. All this lead to great product reveals, reconnecting in person with staff at companies, and socializing with other fellow collectors.
With this reinvigoration into the Toy Fair and hopefully a regular yearly cadence of shows I am hopeful there will be a regular flow of toy and collectible news for years to come.
As is typically the case when reporting on these events I’ve split up my coverage into a few articles while trying to keep a general theme to each one. I won’t go into too much of a preamble in each of the focused articles and will instead mostly dive right into the relevant companies.
That said, in my 2023 coverage I went in a slightly different direction and showcased some of the various displays that The Toy Association had in the Crystal Palace of the Javits Center. This mainly included three distinct areas – a showcase of toys which had been nominated or won Toy of the Year (TOTY) Awards, a Hot for Holiday section, and a Freshman Class section. Since I enjoyed covering it then I have decided to bring back that article this year. Look out for some of my other standard coverage of collectibles, board gamming, top brands and more to come soon.
Let’s dive in!
Toy of the Year
The Toy of the Year awards are a big deal to a company attending the Toy Fair. There are many categories from Collectible of the Year, Creative Toy of the Year, Doll of the Year, Action Figure of the Year, and Grown-Up Toy of the year. While some categories are less relevant here there were some familiar faces and some interesting finds.
Specific callouts include Ravensburger’s Disney Lorcana Trading Card Game which I previously covered here; Jumbo Group’s Hitster; Deddy Bears; LEGO Ideas Jaws; WOW! Stuff’s Real FX Disney Stitch Puppet; Mattel’s UNO Show ‘Em No Mercy; and The OP’s Flip 7.
Freshman Class
The freshman class section focused on new attendees to the show. While there were less collectibles or hot brands in this area there are a few bright spots including but not limited to CMY Cubes; TOTYM Plushies; Pinewood Derby; Marmals Minimals; and The Game Of Switchboard which will launch on Kickstarter soon.
Hot For Holiday
Though the holiday season is a bit further away it’s never too early to see the trends of what will be hot this holiday season and the Toy Association did just that. Some notables included the Bob Ross Master Paint set; Pure Arts Assassin’s Creed Statues; and Asmodee’s Duck and Cover and LEGO Monkey Palace and Brick Like This games.
