Summer film lineup lifts toyland’s spirits

HACKENSACK, N.J. — In the toy business, hope springs eternal.

After a year of flat sales capped by a disappointing Christmas season, toy manufacturers who gathered in New York last week for a spring showcase were confident that their new products, ranging from a wristband activity tracker for kids to bubbles that are less breakable, will be hits.

“It’s still a very large business, and there’s a lot of business to be done,” said Bob Weinberg of Ramsey, a former Toys “R” Us executive. Weinberg has joined another former Toys “R” Us executive, John Sullivan, to launch the Y’all Ball brand of inflatable play balls and fitness balls, based in Franklin Lakes, N.J. Even when overall industry sales are flat or down, Weinberg said, “It’s all about market share. You can have a very nice year even in a down year.”

Overall, toy manufacturers and sellers are expecting the spring and summer toy business to be much better than they were last year, even if the weather doesn’t cooperate, because of a positive outlook for the key sales drivers — summer movies.

“We expect sales to be up hundreds of millions of dollars this year” because of a half-dozen movies expected to be hits in theaters and in the toy aisles, said Jim Silver, chief executive of TTPM, a toy review website that draws more than 100 million views a year. Last year, Silver said, the only summer movies with significant toy tie-ins were “Despicable Me 2” and “Planes,” while this year “Spider-Man 2,” “Godzilla,” “Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy,” “Transformers 3” and a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie are expected to be hits.

Spring and summer sales traditionally account for about 10 percent of toy revenue in a typical year, Silver said. This year he is expecting that share to be as much as 15 percent because of the strong movie lineup.

The fourth quarter — the three months when Christmas toys are purchased — rings up 70 percent of toy sales. This Christmas was particularly difficult for toy sellers because of a dearth of must-have toys. Snowstorms and a frigid polar vortex kept shoppers huddled at home in much of the country. Wayne, N.J.-based Toys “R” Us, the country’s largest retailer specializing in toys, saw its fourth-quarter sales decline 4.1 percent.

But Toys “R” Us executives are also upbeat about the prospects for the year. On Thursday, the company had an exhibition at the TTPM event highlighting some of the products it expects will sell well in coming months, including a line of toys tied to the hit Nickelodeon cartoon show “Paws Patrol” that will be sold exclusively at Toys “R” Us.

Toys “R” Us this year has received a major boost from the success of the Disney animated movie “Frozen,” Silver said. Dresses, dolls and other toys related to the movie have been selling out, and moms searching for the toys have been increasing traffic at Toys “R” Us stores. Silver said the dress-up costumes from the movie are selling for as much as $1,500 on eBay, “It’s a ‘Frozen’ phenomenon,” he said.

Arnie Rubin, chief executive of California-based Funrise Toys said in a phone interview that while “it wasn’t an easy season” for the toy industry last Christmas, he is optimistic about this year. “Our industry reinvents itself every year,” he said. “My take is that it’s going to be a decent year.”

Funrise, which makes the Gazillion bubble brand, is selling bubble soap made and bottled in the United States for the first time this spring. “We were able to actually lower our cost and offer our consumers a better value,” Rubin said.

Among the toys attracting interest Thursday were the LeapBand, a wearable activity tracker for kids that gives them points for jumping and moving that they can use to play digital games on the device.

Virginia Gudiel of Garfield, N.J., who writes about toys and kids for the “Mom in Love Forever” blog, saw the device at the event and called it an “awesome idea.” She said the device responds to the childhood obesity problem.

Sullivan and Weinberg of Y’all Ball also were motivated by the need for activity toys for children to create a fitness ball called Y’all Fit. The balls have an inflatable center and removable cover and are large enough for children to roll around on and use for exercise.

The Massachusetts-based company Little Kids was showing its Combat-A-Bubbles — bubble soap that produces bubbles sturdy enough to catch in one’s hand. The company is pairing the solution with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle-themed toys that engage in combat to see who can pop the rival’s bubble, hence the name.