Jun Planning
Of course the main reason to attend Toy Fair, for me, is the opportunity to go to the Jun Planning booth and check out the Pullips! The first year I was there, Jun Planning had a booth that was half dolls, half other things. Last year, it was mostly dolls, tho I think there were still some other things? (I was a level more obsessed with the dolls in 2009 than I was in 2008, so I only had eyes for the dolls anyway! XD) It's not like doll carnival where they bring all kinds of customs and prototypes, but usually there's at least a couple of dolls there that are not out/not announced. Last year they had the full set of Peter Pan, along with the boat, and that was a really great display. That was also where I fell in love with Tiger Lily and knew I'd have to get her, even if I still thought Byuls were weird. This year they had the steampunk pullips, and even tho photos of them have been pretty well leaked out at this point, I was still way excited to see them in person! I seriously can't wait for them to be released - I just hope I can afford them! >.< Based on my conversation with the folks working the booth, I don't think they will be the $300 that was originally mentioned when pictures first got posted, but I think they will be more expensive than average. Still "Not $300" is great news! I can live with paying an extra $50 or so. They also had all of the recently announced dolls (thru the Indian pullips). There were a few dolls, also, that no one has seen so far too... (shh....) There is a police/military-themed Pullip and Dal that I imagine we will see release fliers for any time, because it seemed like they were due to come out next after the Indian set. They also had some really beautiful ninja dolls that are supposed to come out in *January 2011*! Such a long wait! *dies* No photos of them or the steampunk pullips were allowed, of course. The taeyang ninja was beautiful, with smokey eyes and fox-fur colored hair. He did not have a fur wig, but he had a crazy messy hair style that suggested a fur wig and looked quite good on him. The dal had an eyepatch and looked like a boy (I forgot to ask about Isul, darn it!), and the pullip had purple hair. I hope someone sneaks out pictures of them soon, because they are definitely worth seeing! I didn't love the Indian pullip in person, but the Taeyang was quite handsome. The dal was much cuter than I realized tho! She's not coming out until August or September though, apparently.
Mattel
Mattel is not super-friendly, so after getting yelled at (not really! XD Just questioned and told a lot of items were off limits for photos) last year, I didn't even bother trying to take photos at their booth this year. I also didn't really take notes or anything, so let's see what I can remember... New Barbie Basics things will be coming is one thing. I think there were 4 new dolls, and 2 (?) new accessory sets. Only one really caught my attention - there was a whole set of shoes. Tons and tons of shoes. That one will be a must have! Hopefully it will be available at Target like the others (even if they are hard to get ahold of...) and not just an expensive one I will have to get online or something... If only they did basics for Boys!! I should've hinted at this. Altho... truthfully the Ken feet are a bit small for Taeyangs... Also, there were a ton of "Bond Girl" Barbies. I am not a Bond fan, and I am feeling like Bond + Barbie is some sort of odd feminist tag team nightmare, but oh well. Some of them had nice outfits.
There were also some new dolls in cool clothes and some 'new' repro dolls, but I am not sure I remember all of them well enough to describe, and I am also not sure which of them have been announced and which of them have not. And I am scared of Mattel, so no further news on them! ;)
Tho, it looks like you can see photos of everything over at mawphoto.com's flickr. (Here are the aforementioned shoes in all their loveliness!)
Tonner
Ok, to be honest, I am not very knowledgeable about Tonner, so I'm not going to try to write anything up for them. I will just refer you back to the flickr set. Their dolls are not really my speed, but they are always extremely impressive! I googled "Tonner Toy Fair 2010" and saw other people had covered all the news I could possibly report, so if you want news beyond my pix, I suggest you do that too. ;)
Madame Alexander
I don't collect anything Madame Alexander, but their booth is fun to stop by because their dolls have such great costumes! They also make hats to give away to everyone who stops by their booth.Last year they had a doll that I'm still in love with, but have not been able to find out anything about. I didn't ask last year, stupidly, and when I asked this year, I wasn't able to find anything out. Boo hoo. :(
This year I didn't see anything truly amazing, but I did see this really striking doll:
She's gorgeous, no? They also had some cute Rainbow Brite dolls. I guess she's everywhere... Also, there is a collection with outfits designed by Jason Wu! I totally spaced seeing this somehow, but saw it in the catalog later. My friend got some pix tho.
Alice in Wonderland
Speaking of everywhere, I'm sure you'll not be at all surprised to know there was Alice Everywhere. I saw Alice in Wonderland figures, and Alice in Wonderland themed plushies, and Alice in Wonderland dolls... Nothing I personally felt like I couldn't live without, but if you are an Alice fan, you will be having a great year!
Other doll stuff
We did spot a few other doll-related things. Bandai had a big exhibit of their Harumeki (sp?) stuff. Some of the clothes were really cool looking and made me wish they were actually clothes, and not just 'pinned' fabric. I actually rather like the concept behind this - a way to try out fashion design without needing to learn to sew (or knowing how to sew well enough to make clothes, at any rate) but i still think it would be so much more fun to actually end up with clothes that could be put on an actual doll. Oh well. One thing that did intrigue me tho was that some of their models had shoes on. Rather big shoes. Maybe shoes that would fit Type 2 pullip feet?
Bandai also had some cute mini dollhouse type setups. Very, very tiny. The concept was little animal figures that made houses out of discarded items like empty soda bottles. I like anything tiny, so these will be a temptation for sure!
We also stopped by the Corolle booth were they had some cute Penny Brite stuff. I had never heard of this doll before last year's Toy Fair, but I guess she is a doll from the 60s or thereabouts that is being reintroduced. She's not the right size to share clothes with any of the dolls I collect, and I'm not sure if her face really appeals to me at the end of the day, but she had some cute clothes. There was a Little Red Riding Hood that I quite liked. Doesn't appear to be very expensive either, so I'd consider that as a 'maybe' for future purchase... Esp. because I had a Penny Brite dress that I got from a doll show and it does fit my Dals. I am not sure if the new dolls are the same size, I will need to investigate.
This one is my favorite, of course!
The same booth also had these cute dolls apparently designed by Marie Osmond, who was apparently taking notes from Blythe. They had big heads and big eyes, just like the dolls I'm used to (haha), but were maybe a little younger looking overall. Still, they were pretty charming. More charming in person than they look in their promo pictures... I dont really imagine buying one, but thought I'd mention because they were cute!
I think that's about it, except for the swords (see below, in the Anime Stuff section). Ooh, and except for these awesome dollhouses that I totally missed. Too bad!
Anime Stuff
I didn't see a lot of specifically anime-related items, but I also didn't go out of my way to look. Most of the anime-stuff is usually at the Diamond booth. I don't really remember anything too interesting tho. Which doesn't mean there was not anything interesting, just that it didn't catch my particular attention. My friend did point out some cute music-themed anime girls that I suspect were from K-On, tho I haven't seen that show to know for sure.
What DID catch my attention was over at the Square Enix booth - they had some really beautiful figures last year, and that was true this year as well. Now I'm not a gamer at all - I don't even own a game system - and I have never really played Final Fantasy, so I have only a loose understanding of the characters and storyline, but nevertheless, I really tend to like the art work. So I was (oddly?) excited to see the Square Enix figures. One, in particular, gave me that "grab for my wallet, need to buy now" feeling - it was this amazing giant horse figure and a rather cyberpunk/steampunk looking woman that the man running the booth said could combine together to form a motorcycle. He said they were like $200. This is bizarrely tempting considering I don't collect anime figures (esp. not expensive ones!) and I don't even know who these characters are, it's just that they were so amazing looking!
According to fanboy.com, which I thank one of my friend's friends for pointing me towards last night, there were also some rather cool looking Bleach figures there, but apparently I was so busy ogling the crazy motorcycle lady I didn't notice them. They've also got pictures from the Lego booth - which had "security" and seemed like too much trouble to get into - and the nifty Star Wars lamps I spotted at one of the booths. Well, I thought they were lamps anyway. Turns out they are actually speakers! I need some iPod speakers. Hmm...
That was the highlight. I also saw some Evangelion stuff and some other random cute anime girls at Kotobukiya's booth. Most of their booth, however, was given over to a giant display of their newest product - Star Wars chopsticks. I actually thought these were kind of neat, tho I have to admit I don't want them for chopsticks. I want them for doll-sized lightsabers!! I think they might actually be too big, but... I assume chopsticks can't be too pricey, so if I find them somewhere, trust me, I'll be trying to make it work! XD Their booth also had some nifty looking display swords that also seemed doll-sized. I will be looking for more info on those as well.
Ok, well that wasn't strictly anime-related after all, I guess. And neither is the only other thing I might put in that category - Ben 10. Lots of Ben 10 stuff at the Bandai booth. But, um, I don't remember much about it because although it's a relatively entertaining cartoon, I don't really care about Ben 10... ^^;
Hello Kitty
While my primary mission at Toy Fair was doll-related, if you follow my blog at all you know I couldn't *not* keep an eye out for Kitty too! XD My first Hello Kitty siting actually did not really even have anything to do with the convention itself. The convention center has a couple of little magazine stands where you can buy the paper, some candy, or some little gifts. These are located right near the door. So practically the first thing I saw coming in the door were some cute Hello Kitty plushies with Easter Bunny ears! Like Kitty in the plaid tartan dress, these were made by Ty. And since they were some of the only toys actually for *sale* at Toy Fair, you can bet one made it home with me! (How could I not buy a souvenir after all? ;P) They were also a clue as to whose booth I should be sure to visit. But in case that wasn't enough, they was also a great big banner from Ty showing 4 Hello Kitty plushies. Two of them were familiar, but 2 were not. Actually, at first I thought only one was not familiar - my eye was immediately drawn to the Kitty holding an apple. I want that one! So you can be sure that when I went to the Ty booth, I asked about her. Unfortunately, it turned out that the person working the booth didn't know anything about her either. She said the apple Kitty was probably a future release. I hope so! When I went back to look at the banner again (just to be sure I'd seen what I had seen!) I also realized that the one with the red bow is unfamiliar as well.
There wasn't anything at the Ty booth I hadn't seen before - tho if I hadn't seen those Easter Kittys on the way in, they would've been new...
Last year there was a whole booth of Hello Kitty merchandise. I'm 90% sure the booth was for Nakajima, who is the company that runs the Sanrio stores in the US. I couldn't remember their name while I was at Toy Fair this year (silly me not to prepare better! ^^;) but I was pretty sure they weren't there. Luckily once I got home and remembered their name, it turned out to be true that they weren't there. Jakks Pacific was there, and I knew they did some Hello Kitty stuff, but were were short of time so I decided not to go by their booth because I was thinking they mostly did electronics stuff. I realized today as I was cleaning, however, that they also make the plushies that Target has. So probably I should actually have checked them out. Boo.
I did run by the Jelly Belly booth (because I wanted the free Jelly Bean samples... >.>) and they had some Hello Kitty crossover stuff there too. Mostly the stuff you have all seen - the Hello Kitty packaging. But they also had a little ceramic sort of cookie jar affair that was quite cute. And they also had a Hello Kitty "gumball" machine (gumball in quotes, of course, because it's for jelly beans. XD). The one they had there was only a prototype and they said they were going to be making changes to it, but based on how they are describing it, it will be really cute! So be on the lookout for their Hello Kitty theme gumball machine this year - I know I will be!
I also happened to see a couple of Hello Kitty plushies at the Dragon booth. I am not sure why they had any, but I am afraid I also didn't ask. They were Halloween themed, and looked somewhat similar to Halloween Kittys in the past.
There were a couple of other little Hello Kitty things I spotted, but nothing new or exciting. I wish I'd had more time to run around the convention, just to be sure I didn't miss anything!
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