Toy Fair 2010

I'm not saying that ignorance is bliss, but there's something to be said for launching a career and not knowing how incredibly high the odds are stacked against you.

I've been attending Toy Fair, the toy trade's biggest American trade show in NYC, since 1990. That was the year that we introduced TriBond to a very unimpressed, uber-competitive industry. We didn't know what we didn't know, and our youthful exuberance was contagious. My first 5 years in the toy business was a blur.

The next ten years was not boot camp by any stretch, but the fun was plummeting. I recently told a game inventor that if the movie business were like the game business, then your new film would have to try and get into movie theaters where Gone with the Wind, Star Wars, Citizen Kane, Titanic and The Dark Knight all still played to packed houses. Any new game has to try and get on retail shelves alongside Monopoly, Scrabble, Clue, Uno and Trivial Pursuit. It can be a tough, tough business. After TriBond and Blurt stopped selling so well in late 1990s, my job started to feel like work and I lost my enthusiasm.

Well I am happy to say that work is play again and for the past 5 years or so, Toy Fair has gotten increasingly more enjoyable every year. I get to see dear old friends and forge new relationships. This business is not for the faint of heart and so I enjoy, once again, working very hard at play.



It would be easy to assume that I'm excited again because Blurt is selling so well for Educational Insights and is entering its second year back on the market after a three year hiatus. But that guess would be too simplistic.

I love being on a team again. Educational Insights has the best people working for it and they allow me to be a part of a team pitching in for a common goal. Educational Insights hosted signings at Toy Fair with two other inventors and myself and allowed us to give autographed games to many fair goers.

The booth was packed the entire fair and there was a buzz there that is hard to describe. Thank you Etienne, Lisa, Scott, Maria, AnnMarie, Riley, Kent, Ernesto, Amy, Michelle, Julie, Mark and everyone at E.I. I feel like family.

The rest of Toy Fair was awesome. I had four new games that I designed at Daddy-O Productions and RSV Productions and two more from inventors for whom I helped land deals at Imagination Games and Find It Games. Crazy Chins was back all over the Jumbotron and the Bible versions of TriBond and Blurt were hoping over at Talicor/Aristoplay. It was, as we said at the very beginning of this 20 year journey, BIG FUN. Even if, at times, it's been Ugly...