The Force awakens optimism for toy industry’s best year in decade
Hype around Star Wars film, Black Friday deals bolster projection for holiday sales
Yoda, Elsa and the Skylanders Superchargers have a busy four weeks ahead of them.
This holiday season is projected to be an epic coda for what is shaping up to be the toy industry’s best year in more than a decade, one in which a crop of new movies and a spate of technological innovations have already had toys flying off shelves. And on Black Friday, customers were out in droves to make sure they pounced early on the must-have toys on their shopping lists as they worried that in-demand items might sell out if they waited to buy them.
Toy sales are projected to surge between 6.2 and 7.3 per cent this year, according to researchers at NPD Group, after swinging between modest growth and declines for a decade and improving somewhat in 2014.
One of the greatest tailwinds for that growth, experts say, is the hype around the forthcoming Star Wars: The Force Awakens film, which is scheduled to hit theatres on Dec.18th and has reportedly already pulled in a staggering $50 million (U.S.) in advance ticket sales.
When the first new Star Wars toys were released in September on a Dis- ney-designed holiday called Force Friday, one dollar of every $11 spent on toys that week was on Star Wars gear. Analysts say the franchise is likely to gain more steam as kids — not just longtime fans and collectors — get more familiar with the characters after seeing the movie.
Star Wars isn’t the only movie propping up the toy industry this year. Jurassic World and Minions were also blockbusters whose characters were easily transformed into toys. Even Frozen, whose heroine Elsa was a fixture on many Christmas lists last year, continued to heat up the toy industry in 2015, though not quite to the extent it did last year.
Walmart U.S. chief executive Greg Foran told reporters this month that he thinks the big-box retailer is in for one of its best holiday seasons for toy sales in a long time, saying that “the electronic componentry is now getting put into these toys and they’re becoming interesting again for customers,” Foran said.
In other words, the technology built into these toys is giving them fresh appeal. Experts said this marks a shift from just a few years ago, when manufacturers were aimlessly larding up toys with the tech feature du jour, even if it didn’t add much value. These days, experts said toymakers are getting better about incorporating technology in ways that feel more natural and useful.
“The further we get away from the (economic) downturn, the more the toy companies take out projects that they may not have been eager to take to market in weaker times,” said Gerrick Johnson, toy industry analyst at BMO Capital Markets. “There’s a little bit more risk-taking.”
Among the more innovative toys to hit shelves this season are Playmation, a smart toy from Disney and Hasbro in which kids can carry out live-action missions with guidance from a tablet or smartphone app; and Mattel’s Hello Barbie, a doll that can converse with a child thanks to voice-recognition software.
And there’s expected to be strong competition in the toys-to-life category, in which kids can play action figures that, when placed on a console, leap into a video game. Skylanders, the original toys-to-life property, is out with a new iteration this year called Skylanders Superchargers, which will compete for dollars with similar offerings from Disney Infinity and Lego Dimensions.
But plenty of toys with fewer bells and whistles also have seen healthy sales lately. Lego has surpassed Mattel as the world’s largest toymaker and is expected to ring up big sales this quarter thanks to items such as its Star Wars- themed sets and its girl-oriented Lego Friends line.
“It’s just across the board, and it’s across manufacturers big and small,” said Juli Lennett, toy industry analyst at NPD Group.