Terrific Toyfair… Terrific Toyfair …

NEW YORK — You do Javitz, I am heading for the Met.

Our annual pilgrimage to Toy Fair in New York City is now done. We came home a full day early brimming with knowledge of the new toys, the new waves, the new ideas coming down the proverbial pike that are guaranteed to keep our youngsters educated, entertained and enthusiastic.

Getting to New York is always fun. Going home is much better.

But what did I see?

Totally misnamed, Toy Fair is not about fun and frivolity. There is no cotton candy. Toy Fair is when toy vendors, the established giants, such as Mattel, to the little guys with a bright new idea, all head to New York City, in February, with hopes of catching the media, and toy buyer’s, eye.

I eschewed the Javitz Convention Center where most of the toy vendors go. Its too big, too noisy and I send my husband, Joseph Szadkowski.

I make the schedule, so I know where he is going; who and what he is seeing. I know what questions I want to ask. What I want to know about. It fun to hear him talk about all the neat, and crazy new things he has seen.

His coverage is excellent. Visit his blog at and enjoy his humor and videos,

Plus I got a chance to spend some time at the Metropolitan Museum of Art with my son staring at sculptures from the early Egyptians to the Impressionists before heading to the remarkable collection of Impressionist paintings that they have.

I thrill to see the Monets, Cezannes, Degas and so many more great works that grace their walls.

But it wasn’t all Monet and Manet however. I did venture to see Mattel, Hasbro, Jaaks Pacific, Diamond Direct and DC Comics and Goldberger Dolls.

I adore Goldberger Dolls. I always have. They are not much more than great dolls, and that seems ok to me. Just great dolls.

They have some new twists, hypoallergenic dolls that can withstand the rigorous process that a doll must endure before an allergy prone child can love her. They have lavender scented dolls, dolls that play lullabies and dolls that can help little Sammy or Sally learn to tie a shoelace, button a button or zip a zipper.

However, at the end of the day, a Goldberger Doll is a doll. Dolls for a young child to have, hold, hug and love. And even though they don’t eat, poop in a toilet, coo, gurgle or twist their heads around when the sense movement, they are a perennial favorite of mine.

Speaking of poop. Mattel, one might think, has taken it too far. That was until I began reading the reviews people give to dolls that go potty. Basically there is a set of folks out there that have found teaching potty skills much easier to toddlers when those toddlers have a doll to teach too.

O.K., I had a toddler once and though he potty trained fairly easily and without much fuss on anyone’s part, I can see how a doll that can make pee and poop could be helpful.

Now we have Mattel’s newest entrant to the marketplace. She is cute, and doesn’t really expel water or other substances, which according to the aforementioned reviews is a good thing.

Butt (pun intended) when you sit her on the potty, she does make a cute little tinkle sound and then a couple of realistic dropping/splashing noises, a comment on the stinky just made and when she stands up, voila, there in the toilet the lovely blue “water” has changed to an abstract yellow with brown splotches.

It was just more than I needed to experience. But I guess effective. A great gift for your “best friend’s” kids. Or grandkids.

The thing that I saw that I really liked was at D.C. Comics. We are big comic book, comic art, animation, manga, movie and anything else that comes from the creativity of comics’ fans in our house.

But I, along with many other members of the female fan base, have always questioned the sophomoric need to give heroines outlandish, bigger and better than believed attributes.

Some of these girls supported such huge breasts and behinds, they might have floated in water, but they were never going to fly stylishly through the air.

However this year, the figures and collected busts on display shows a new sensibility towards the feminine form. Yes, they still look better than I ever did, actually better than 99% of the population ever did, but at least they looked realistically proportioned and as though they really could walk, sit and possibly fly through the air with stretching the rules of aerodynamics.

I asked brand manager Jim Fletcher about it and he said that the sculptures we were looking at were based on the actual art of the comic books. Bravo boys and girls and creators everywhere.

Flying with triple F’s would be pretty impossible.

Things that moved. Lots of movement in toys this year. Some of my favorites, the Elmo Alive, does a great little dance, tells a cute joke…almost like having a mini-red Martin Short living in the house.

Then there was Hannah. Still young enough to be entertained by the absurd, Miley Ray Cyrus should spend some significant time laughing as she watches her long-armed look alike do the “Bennis” dance (aka The Elaine “you can’t dance” Bennis of Seinfeld fame dance.)

At Hasbro, they have a Spider-Man that literally crawls the walls and a “hokey-pokey” dancing Hulk for little super heroes.

Speaking of comics, I am excited over the fate of the spring movie screen with great new comic inspired films – The Hulk, Iron Man and even G.I. Joe. I have been promised at the heart of the G.I. Joe action flick are two women who propel much of the action amidst the terror of complicated relationships. Yes, G.I. Joe promises to be a great love story.

I am always good for a love story and if I can keep my eight-year old son entertained at the same time, so much the better. Let’s Go Joe!

Robert Downey Jr., an actor I have long admired and have wanted to see more of, takes on the heavy mantel of Iron Man as he brings the life and times of Tony Stark to the big screen.

Before you dismiss this as just another super hero, BusinessWeek has Iron Man as one the Smartest Superheroes of all time, alongside a litany of scientific whiz kids and intelligential everyday men, such as Bruce Banner, aka The Hulk, Reed Richards, Mr. Fantastic, Bruce Banner, Batman, Peter Parker, Spider-Man and Charles Xavier, Professor X.

This is a great story that combines regular guys, challenged by irregular circumstances, to make heroic choices, a story line oft repeated by creator Stan Lee (http://www.stanleeweb.com/).

Supported by favorite actors including Gwyneth Paltrow, Jeff Bridges and Samuel L. Jackson, this is a movie the whole family will love. And it looks absolutely beautifully filmed.

There were other things that caught my eye and you should watch Donne Tempo for further coverage on the Green Movement in toys, Mattel’s Barbie now supports a “Wear Pink, Think Green” message as well as interviews with some dynamic women from the Toy industry, including Bandai Brand Manager Colleen Sherefy and Bette Holtzberger from the aforementioned Goldberger Toys who will be joining us in a new feature, Nurturing our Natural Natures, we plan to launch in the near future.

Toy Fair in New York. Every February. Every year. Hope springs eternal for a change of venue to someplace a bit more hospitable, weather wise.

I would rather bring home a tan than the head cold that made the journey back with me.