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Dr. Toy launches the Magic Toy Box

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Dr. Toy announces the opening of Magic Toy Box – a virtual toy museum and marketplace for children and adults alike, powered by super-mart emergent technology. In the magical world that is Magic Toy Box, you can learn about your favorite toys, discover new ones, share with your friends and loved ones through social media, [...]


Dr. Toy Announces New iPhone App

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Looking for the perfect toy or children’s gift? Use Dr. Toy’s app to narrow down the search! Dr. Toy, Stevanne Auerbach, PhD, is one of the world’s leading experts on play, toys, and children’s products. With 30 years of experience, her annual awards recognize the best in educational, developmental and skill building products on offer [...]


Folkmanis Puppets: 35 Years and Going Strong!

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Folkmanis® Puppets believes imagination is the key to a healthy childhood, encouraging play and discovery to develop the skills necessary in life. The company has been making the most innovative and engaging specialty puppets in the world since 1976, delighting imaginations and winning nearly every industry, child development, and kid-tested award, many repeatedly. 35 Years [...]


Metamorphic Toys Powered by the Imagination of Children

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The daughter of a product designer and artist inspired the founding of Metamorphic Toys with her creative imagination. As Dave Berglund observed how his daughter and her friends played with the toys he made it was clear that kids are hungry for these kinds of creative simple toys that put them and their incredible imaginations [...]


Stacking up some fun with Gibout Toys!

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  Remember when your mom asked you to clean your room before company came over? This usually meant shoving your unsightly toys into the closet and hoping no one would open the door. That’s about to change… We’re excited to introduce a toy that inspires creativity, exercises the imagination and best of all adds room [...]


The Journey Is Half The Fun!

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Whoever said the journey is half the fun, must have shopped at TravelKiddy! Traveling with kids is always an adventure but keeping them busy on the journey is a challenge no parent should face alone. That’s where TravelKiddy can help! TravelKiddy has scoured the toy and game universe to bring you only the best games, [...]


Creating Products for Success

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by Deb de Sherbinin, KidSmart Can you answer these 10 key questions about your hot new product concept? An amazing number—85%—of all new products fail in the marketplace. How can you maximize your chances beating the odds? A good place to start is by developing an understanding of the 10 key factors that contribute to [...]


Film: Wooden Toy History

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Wooden Toy History, a short promotional video for our History of Toys DVD, which is available from Crowe Productions. The History of Toys is ideal for educators museums and parents everywhere. Also available via Little Wood Studio, CV8 1NG, England UK.


Dr. Toy’s Tips for More Valuable Playtime

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by Stevanne Auerbach, Dr. Toy Dr. Toy offers these suggestions for getting even more value from play. These guidelines are good anytime of the year to enrich your child’s experiences with toys and games and other products and will help you to make the time even more balanced and fun for your child: Locate a [...]


Cooperative Games: Returning to the Essence of Play

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  by Anne Mijke van Harten, contributor to DrToy.com In cooperative games people play together instead of against each other. This results naturally in a win/win situation for all players. In less then no time, the focus has shifted from each one for themselves and trying to be the best, to working together to attain [...]


Cooperative Play from Bag-O-Loot

  Has this ever happened to you? You finally get the family around the table for game night and you are faced with two choices. You can play a game that is made for kids, but you would never play on your own; or you can play a game that you like but the kids [...]


Eco-Friendly Toys: How to Go Green

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From Gifts & Decorative Accessories Toy industry recognizing, responding to sustainability issues Stevanne Auerbach Maple Landmark Blocks The world we live in is going through dramatic ecological and environmental changes. The toy industry is growing more aware of the issues and is becoming more responsive to the changes in a wide variety of ways. There [...]


Peaceable Kingdom: A New Way To Play

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Peaceable Kingdom has a mission – to teach kids to cooperate by playing board games. This winter, Peaceable Kingdom will launch five new cooperative board games. The collection includes Count Your Chickens, Hoot Owl Hoot, Lost Puppies, Mermaid Island and Stone Soup. Ideal for children three years of age and up, the games focus on [...]


A Whole New Environment in the Toy Industry

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  How to Survive and Prosper by Rachel Murray Meyer In the summer of 2007 there were millions of toys recalled. Consumers Union labeled 2007 “The Year of the Recall.” The majority of these recalls were for design related issues such as small hazardous magnets and small parts in toys for children under three years [...]


Montgomery Schoolhouse ABC Blocks

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Maple Landmark Montgomery Schoolhouse ABC Blocks A set of 28 blocks with a proportion assortment of letters and numbers for creating words and making arithmetic combinations. Each block is printed with letters, numbers and simple pictures such as a chair, tree, hat, duck, or telephone for word and object recognition practice. The 1 3/4″ cubes [...]


JigsawBlocks Fantasy Land

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HABA JigsawBlocks Fantasy Land Fantasy Land jigsaw blocks made of beech wood feature a different shape, color, picture, pattern or sound. There is a kaleidoscope block, mirror and also a little bell. Little hands will have fun manipulating building blocks. Arrange bear, mouse, lion and other animals into a jigsaw puzzle picture or pile them [...]


So you want to make (or sell, or market) toys.
Now what?

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by David E. Fitzgibbons, CPC Executive Search Group Hello everybody. Before I tell you what to do, I think it’s important to tell you what not to do. To begin with, don’t ever pay an individual to get you a job! I think this is a serious waste of your money and, ethically, I have [...]


Dr. Toy Advocates More Play Time

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Reprinted from San Francisco Chronicle March 1, 2010 She calls herself “Dr. Toy.” An educator and advocate for toys as tools for learning, Stevanne Auerbach has written 15 books, including “The Toy Chest: A Sourcebook of Toys for Children” (Lyle Stuart, 1986) and “Toys for a Lifetime: Enhancing Childhood Through Play” (Universe, 1999). Auerbach, 71, [...]


Dr. Toy’s Interview: Cleveland Plain Dealer

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Trendy toys like Zhu Zhu Pets come and go, but classics like Play-Doh give us lasting funFrom the Cleveland Plain Dealer, February 20, 2010 This year, the Zhu Zhu Pets hamsters are all the rage. The little furry robots caught on like the Cabbage Patch dolls of yesteryear. The American International Toy Fair took place [...]


Walt Disney’s Pinocchio: The real life Gepetto

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reprinted from Sunday Mercury News Feb 20, 2009 A toymaker from Warwickshire has become a real life Geppetto after being filmed for Disney’s re-mastered version of Pinocchio in Hollywood. Cyril Hobbins, from Kenilworth, has been making wooden toys for 20 years and Disney approached him to feature on the new DVD. Mr Hobbins said: “We [...]


Alabama Babies: The Alabama Indestructible Doll Story

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Virginia Davis, Doll Reader Dolls leave an indestructible memory. If one crosses the Georgia line into Alabama one can lose an hour in time as the Eastern Time zone changes to Central time. However, as one enters the sleepy little town of Roanoke, Alabama time becomes irrelevant: big churches, family owned businesses, and lots of [...]


Cabbage Patch Kids: The Fantasy Continues

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Virginia Davis, Doll Reader People dream of magic, and they tell stories of magical things, and every child believes in magic. But in Georgia, just over Yonah Mountain, there lies a valley that really is a magical place. Here the Koosas climb the trees, and the Bunny Bees sip nectar from magical plants, and the [...]


Bicycle Safety Tips

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by Allan Goldscher, U-Bike Inventor, Bikes 'r' Us Bicycling is a fun and healthy exercise. Before allowing your child to ride his or her bicycle on roadways, take the time to teach them the important safety rules. Many bicyclists are seriously injured in accidents because they are less protected than drivers of automobiles and/or they [...]


Dr. Toy Joins EcoLogo Team’s Advisory Committee

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PHILADELPHIA Jan. 25, 2010 – What do Dr. Toy, Edward Schmults, former CEO of FAO Schwarz, and a large toy retailer have in common? These industry experts are all interested in making “greener” toys available for children. The EcoLogo Team’s Advisory Committee is pleased to report that progress on the Program’s first standard for Toys [...]