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My Trip through New York TOY FAIR 2017

Under Construction

American International Toy Fair is a 4 day event being held from 17th February to 20th February 2017 at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York, United States Of America. This event showcases product from toys, video games, kidult toys, educational toys, toy packaging material, toy spares and such other products. This event in the presence of entertainment professionals, licensing executives, inventors and designers, graphic artists, design firms and others has emerged as the country's largest youth and kid entertainment show that gives an unmatched exposure to businesses in the trade

Just got to Toy Fair and the adventure begins.....

The Most Innovative, Creative, Puppet Maker in the World!

I've been going to New York Toy Fair for over 35 years and my first stop is always at the Folkmanis booth.     

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Folkmanis 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.

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A gift of a puppet encourages imaginative, open-ended play, endearing hugs, and snuggly companionship.

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The legendary ELOPE Hat company is always on my hit list to visit first at Toy Fair. In 1988, two brothers embarked on a journey to the far corners of planet Earth collecting and designing hats that made everybody feel good. Today, elope offers a huge collection of high quality hats, glasses and accessories, to cover you in fun from head to toe!

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For over forty years, Schylling, Inc. has specialized in timeless toys. They started out making delightful playthings from a bygone era. Over time they built a distinctive collection of innovative gifts and traditional toys with nostalgic appeal for all ages. As an award-winning toy company located in North Andover, MA on the beautiful North Shore of Boston, Schylling works to create the future in toys by captivating new designs and intriguing refreshes and innovations of toys from the past

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Mezco Toyz is a toy company that makes action figures and other collectibles based on original and licensed properties. Its most popular product is the cult hit toy line Living Dead Dolls.

 

Other popular licensed properties include Family Guy, South Park and Hellboy. Outside of action figures and doll releases, Mezco is also known for their original block-style figures line: Mez-Itz.

 

Mezco Toyz was created by Michael Markowitz (Mez), the President of Mezco, who maintains himself as the driving force behind all aspects of design and development. Working with the best talents in the toy industry, Mez conceives and directs each line from start to finish.

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          Big Chief Studios.co.uk

The company specializes in bringing 50 years of British pop culture to the collectors market.

Company Directors Mark Andrews and Tony Leetham always like to hear from fans with suggestions. Mark@bigchiefstudios.co.uk Tony@bigchiefstudios.co.uk

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THE JAMES BOND GOLDFINGER COLLECTORS EDITION
Sixth Scale Figures

 

I'm really impressed by the remarkable detail in the faces of Sean Connery as James Bond, Gert Frobe as Goldfinger and Harold Sakata as Odd Job. The outfits look and feel like they were hand tailored, and the workmanship is outstanding.

 

 

SHERLOCK The Abominable Bride 1:6 Scale Collector Figures.  Sherlock is a crime drama television series based on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes detective stories. Created by Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss.If your a fan of the show you'll be impressed by the facial sculptures and custom tailored outfits on it stars Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock Holmes Martin Freeman as Doctor John Watson, Andrew Scott as Jim Moriarty and Mark Gatiss as Mycroft Holmes.

Now this is exciting for fans of Gerry Anderson's

THUNDERBIRDS & CAPTAIN SCARLET. 

Big Chief Studios.co.uk

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Gerry Anderson, was an English television and film producer, director, writer and occasional voice artist. He was known for his futuristic television programmes, especially his 1960s productions filmed with "Supermarionation" (marionette puppets containing electric moving parts). Anderson's first television production was the 1957 Roberta Leigh children's series The Adventures of Twizzle. Supercar (1961–62) and Fireball XL5 (1962) followed later, both series breaking into the US television market in the early 1960s. In the mid-1960s Anderson produced his most successful series, Thunderbirds. Other television productions of the 1960s include Stingray and Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons.

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                                                     Gerry Anderson publicity shots in 2000

Anderson also wrote and produced several feature films whose box office performance was unexceptional. Following a shift towards live action productions in the 1970s, he had a long and successful association with media impresario Lew Grade and Grade's company ITC, continuing until the second series of Space: 1999.

 

After a career lull when a number of new series concepts failed to get off the ground, his career began a new phase in the early 1980s when audience nostalgia for his earlier Supermarionation series (prompted by Saturday morning re-runs in Britain and Australia) led to new Anderson productions being commissioned. Later projects include a 2005 CGI remake of Captain Scarlet entitled Gerry Anderson's New Captain Scarlet.

Gerry Anderson and his wife Sylvia 1966

Rubie’s Costume Company

is the world’s largest designer, manufacturer and distributor of Halloween costumes and accessories.

 

A family owned and operated business celebrating 65 years in business, Rubie’s offers a vast selection of products that extends well beyond Halloween helping people around the world celebrate holidays and special occasions from Easter to Mardi Gras, St. Patrick's Day to Christmas, New Year’s Eve to bachelorette parties and everything in between.

 

With costumes and accessories from the hottest licensed properties and our stellar in-house design team, Rubie’s offers something for everyone in the family… even your pets!

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Spiderman, Wonder Woman, Captain America, Batgirl, Ironman, Harley Quinn, Supergirl

NECA

National Entertainment Collectibles Association

is one of the largest manufacturers of wholesale licensed merchandise anywhere. They offer retailers an incredible selection of products based on a wide variety of licenses from movies, TV shows, video games, comic books and more.

 

Whether it’s wholesale products from movies like Aliens and Godzilla, or from Marvel and DC Comics

Catwoman, Penguin, Doctor Strange ,Daredevil,

Iron Man, Captain  America, Batman Vs Alien, Terminator, Predator, Rocky 3, Evil Dead 3

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GUND is a manufacturer of plush stuffed animals. The company is based in Edison, New Jersey, and distributes throughout the United States and Canada as well as in Europe, Japan, Australia, and South America.

 

GUND is currently run by third generation family owner Bruce Raiffe whose grandfather Jacob Swedlin purchased the company from the original founder (Adolph Gund) in 1925.

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The company is best known for its line of Teddy bears, and holds or has held licensing agreements with companies such as The Walt Disney Company, Sesame Street, Uglydolls, Boo, the World's Cutest Dog, Grumpy Cat, and Pusheen.

Diamond Select Toys was founded in 1999 by sister company Diamond Comics Distributors to create collectibles for adult collectors, and has since licensed a variety of pop culture properties, including Marvel Comics, Star Wars, Star Trek, Transformers, Ghostbusters, Halo, G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Indiana Jones, Battlestar Galactica, 24 and Back to the Future. While they have made collectibles in numerous product categories, including action figures, plush, banks, busts, statues and prop replicas, many of their licensed properties are released in the form of Minimates mini-figures, which has helped make Minimates one of the most prolific and diverse toy brands in the world.

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Funko is an American company that manufactures licensed pop culture toys. Funko is most known for producing over 1000 different licensed vinyl figures. In addition Funko produces licensed plush, bobbleheads, action figures, and licensed electronic items such as USB drives, lamps and headphones.

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Founded in 1998 by Mike Becker, the company was originally conceived by Becker as a small project to bring back various low-tech, nostalgia-themed toys in the high-tech world of today. Funko's first manufactured bobblehead was of the restaurant advertising icon Big Boy.

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Sold in 2005, Funko LLC is now headed by Brian Mariotti as president.[2] Since 2005, the company has increased the scope of unique toy lines, and has signed licensing deals with Marvel, DC Comics, WWE, Lucasfilm, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Paramount Pictures, Nickelodeon, DreamWorks, Hasbro, CBS, Fox, Warner Bros, Disney, HBO, Peanuts, BBC, NFL, Ubisoft, NBCUniversal, Cartoon Network, 2K Games, Bethesda Games, and many more. Funko products now have worldwide distribution. According to Mariotti, "We were in the $40 million range for revenue [in 2013] — and $28 million of that was from Pop figures alone."  In 2015, Funko added Mopeez, Dorbz, Vinyl Idolz, Vinyl Vixens, and Super Deluxe vinyl to their existing lines.

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ALIENS ACTION FIGURE COLLECTION by SUPER7


The original large size figures of the ALIENS collection released by Hasbro in 1979 are selling for hundreds of dollars mint in a box.

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But every once in awhile a creative toy company like SUPER7 out of a secret location in San Francisco is wise enough to reproduce our favorite action figures like ALIENS to satisfy our planetary collecting sensibility.

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SUPER7 OATH: "We grew up with giant monsters, comic books, punk, science fiction, skateboarding, robots & rebellion. No one made what we wanted. So we made it ourselves."

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The History of Lego began in 1932 in a Danish carpentry workshop and continues into the 21st century as a popular and very profitable line of construction toys and related products and services, including Lego board games, retail stores, Lego video games, Lego films, Legoland theme parks, and Lego Serious Play consultant services, with a significant impact on various areas of popular culture. Despite its expansion, the company remains privately held.

Bluefin built its reputation as a leading distributor of toys, collectibles, novelty and hobby products. In recent years, Bluefin has grown to include a range of high quality collectible lines from Japan, the United States, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore and established itself as the official North American consumer products and retail development partner for Studio Ghibli.

 

They do so by scouting out the latest trends and working with manufacturers to reflect demand in the American market. This combination of leading edge, two-way information flow allows Bluefin to best meet today's market demand for classic models and new releases. ​They currently sell to thousands of specialty, chain and independent stores and are the official North American distributor for Bandai Hobby, Bandai Shokugan, and Capcom. They are also the sole provider of Bandai Tamashii Nations products, and are the exclusive and official distributor for Blitzway, Iron Studios, Kids Logic, Beast Kingdom, Hero Cross, Mr. Hobby, SEN-TI-NEL, Terada Mokei, and X-Plus. Bluefin also represents TruForce products worldwide.

© 2017 Ira H. Gallen 220 west 71st Street New York City 10023 (212) 724 - 7055 VIDRES@AOL.com   youtube.com/TVDAYS 

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