The German toy company works with licences such as Star Wars, Disney Frozen, Mia and Me, and Dragons.

The company will be presenting a range of products at Distoy, including The Craze Bladez spinners, which are not just a spinners, they are also a strategical game. Children are able to build their own spinner by using the different parts, as they decide during a battle how they combine the different parts to create a spinner for defence or for attack. They are available in different packaging and SKUs. There are six different starter sets available, and they all have different colours and different attributes as well. Also available is the Craze Bladez Duel Set with two different spinners, two starter units and an extra large starter cord for increasing the power from the starter unit; the Craze Bladez Mega Arena, a huge arena for a great battle performance; and the Craze Bladez Battle Set which contains spinners, starter units, different starter cords, one arena and some special features.

Also available is the Craze Magic Dough, intelligent and smart putty which is the most successful one in the German market (NPD Eurotoys June 2017-April 2018). It was also nominated for Top 10 toy of the year in Germany.

On display will also be the Galupy collectible horse figurines and play sets, the Craze Splash Beadys which connect together just with adding water and are available in more than 60 SKUs, and the Craze Advent Calendars, which are toy advent calendars with 24 different toys inside, including figurines, accessories, stickers, and more.

Retailer’s Payroll Giving initiative, launched in 2011, makes it easier for employees to make donations through their pay.

Over half of employees at The Entertainer are now giving regularly to 180 different charities in the UK from their pay. The company matches every donation pound for pound, with employees new to the scheme also enjoying an additional £25 for their chosen charity when they first sign up. With charities losing around £600m in unclaimable tax each year, Payroll Giving provides 100% tax effective donations for all givers.

As a result of the money raised, The Entertainer will be one of the first companies from this year’s National Payroll Giving Quality Mark Awards to receive the new Diamond award for its ongoing success in engaging employees with the initiative. This is in addition to having previously been awarded Best Sustained Scheme in the Medium Sized Employer category, and the unexpected Best Overall Campaign at the 2017 National Payroll Giving Excellence Awards for its achievement and dedication to tax-free giving.

Gary Grant, founder and chairman of The Entertainer, commented: “Giving back is very important to The Entertainer, which is why each year we donate 10% of our profits to a number of children’s charities and organisations. We also encourage all of our employees to support a charity of their choice in whatever way they can, and we’re absolutely thrilled to announce we’ve raised £750,000 together.”

 Yoyo Factory, distributed by Wilton Bradley, started a mini tour of England yesterday in conjunction with The Entertainer.

World champions Gentry Stein and Hans Van Dan Elzen of YoHans fame will be staging demonstrations this week, on the hour throughout the day.

Children will be invited to learn new tricks, win prizes and learn from the masters of the craft. Anyone who saw them perform at London Toy Fair knows that they put on a jaw dropping show.

Visiting Hartlepool, Warrington, Birmingham, Uxbridge, Crawley and Brighton, the Kings of Spin will be setting shopping centres on fire in the half term break.

Tom Ellyatt, marketing manager of Wilton Bradley, commented: “This is just an example of our support for our brands, we are always open to suggestions of how we can work with retailers to help them to sell through. We also hope to generate publicity and drive footfall by supporting the events in the local media.”

Parent company Ludendo, owner of the toy brand La Grande Récré, will close 53 out of 252 stores in France.

After two months in receivership, La Grande Récré’s parent company, Ludendo, has announced the closure of 53 integrated, unprofitable La Grande Récré stores. The company, which generated 460m euros in sales for the year ending at the end of February 2017, will keep 109 stores open from a total of around 250. A further 88 franchised stores are not involved in the planned closures, meaning that the majority of profitable stores will remain open.

In total, more than 200 employees could be affected by the closures, plus approximately 50 staff based at the company’s headquarters.

Founded in 1977 by Maurice Grunberg, the Ludendo group, whose flagship is La Grande Récré, specialises in games, toys, parties and recreation for children and families.

At the end of 2015, after initial financial difficulties, the group had been forced to close some 50 stores and to transfer around 40 other franchises. But business did not recover, and after a disappointing Christmas season which saw the company down 5.6%, Ludendo was forced to declare itself in cessation of payments. The company was plagued by rapid growth of its fleet and a series of expensive acquisitions, including that of the British Hamleys, which was then resold. Ludendo, which was finally released by its creditors, was struggling under a debt of 105m euros, a situation that forced boss, Jean-Michel Grunberg, to announce the search for a new investor in late 2017.

A spokesman has stated that the group’s priority is a continuation plan, denying rumours that suppliers are no longer delivering to stores. To this end, shareholders have met with various sources of funds as well as English investors.

Steve Reece, CEO of Kids Brand Insight, is of the opinion that the news is not catastrophic: “How many times have we seen retail chains keep expanding until they have a bottom 25% of stores which may be driving up topline sales but which really can’t be adding much by way of profit?” he wrote, pointing out that, “a quirk of the company is that nearly 90 of total stores are franchised, and are unaffected according to the recent announcement. So the group would keep the most viable 109 stores going. We have firm action towards addressing the challenges for the company but with promise of a smaller but stronger group emerging from the debacle, with the majority of stores intact – here’s hoping this is enough to turn things around and keep this much valued toy retailer trading.”

PlayMonster has announced from the London International Toy Show for Distributors, DisToy, that the company has acquired privately held, UK-based toy company, Interplay UK.

The companies have enjoyed a successful, strong partnership since 2016, when PlayMonster acquired a North American licence for Interplay’s top-selling My Fairy Garden brand, which has enjoyed success in over 10 countries to date.

Now PlayMonster, based in Wisconsin, has acquired Interplay’s operations and full brand portfolio. This opportunity builds on the natural fit between the two companies and creates real synergy through complementary brands and scale of resources. Both have been among the fastest growing companies in their respective territories over recent years and this new relationship will mean increased growth potential for both PlayMonster and Interplay in existing markets through new and incremental product categories. With the combined depth and breadth of resources from the two companies, the new business is expected to become a stronger performer in the worldwide marketplace.

Bob Wann, ‘Chief PlayMonster’ of PlayMonster and Chairman of the US Toy Association, commented, “This is PlayMonster’s first international acquisition and its largest acquisition to-date. This important step will strengthen the excellent team we have, as well as expedite the growth of PlayMonster and Interplay brands around the world. With Interplay becoming the first subsidiary, with an office and employees who will continue the business as usual from their headquarters in Marlow, it gives both companies an outstanding opportunity to grow their business globally.”

Ross Ainsworth, founder at Interplay commented, “Our team at Interplay shares with PlayMonster a common philosophy of the importance of play, as well as a passion for creating high-quality, enduring products at affordable prices. We have incredible respect for what the PlayMonster team has been building, and we are looking forward to expanding our brands into North America and beyond.”

Bob Wann attributes the success of Interplay to its founder, Ross Ainsworth, who has nurtured the company since its conception. He commented: “Ross’s passion, creative excellence and team of employees are what got Interplay to where it is today, and it will be an honour to take his vision the next level.”

The toy shop was voted one of the UK’s best retailers by consumers, alongside Lush and Savers. 

More than 10,000 shoppers were quizzed by Which? to get the survey results. The resulting scores are based on two questions: how satisfied customers are with a shop and how likely they are to recommend it to a friend.

Smyths Toys did not make last year’s top 10, but scored a very strong 81% this time around.

In a post on LinkedIn, Smyths commented: “We are delighted to have been featured in the latest publication of Which? Best & Worst Shops for 2018, coming in at joint first place for our ‘friendly and cheerful staff, and great range of toys’.”

Two of the retailers in the survey, Toys R Us UK and Maplin, had already gone into administration by the time of publication – but not before Toys R Us and Babies R Us were ranked joint 95th, only five places away from becoming the worst in the country. In April, Smyths announced the acquisition of  Toys R Us’ operations in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, which will allow it to add a further 90 rebranded stores and on-line operations in the three European countries.

For the eighth year in a row, WH Smith was ranked in the bottom two of the survey. Customers complained the shops were out of date, products were expensive, and staff were rude.

Character Options, the distributor of the popular toy Soft’n Slo Squishies, has issued a response to a recent article (29th May 2018) in the Trinity Mirror and Mirror.co.uk

“At Character Options Ltd, the safety of consumers is always the top priority and we have therefore looked into this matter without delay.

Steve Tull, quality assurance director for Character Options, commented: “We believe that this Soft’n Slo Squishies toy has been heated in some way causing the inner foam to melt and the toy to burst. Soft’n Slo Squishies absolutely cannot burst in this way whilst simply playing with them; it is physically impossible in the way they are manufactured unless the foam is heated.

“Unfortunately, there has been an uplift online and on social media of toys being abused and often irresponsibly heated and microwaved to see what the outcome is.”

“We reiterate that the brand of Soft’n Slo Squishies should be played with responsibly and away from any naked flames or heated elements.”

“It would be our next steps to be able to examine the product that has caused this injury so that we can verify that this is the case. We are hoping therefore that the customer in the article will contact us in order for us to do this.”

In the meantime, should anybody have any concerns, please do not hesitate to contact the Character Options Customer Services team on 0161 633 9800.

Golden Bear’s Barry Hughes is organising the toy industry tournament, with half of the takings going to the Toy Trust.

Football fans from the toy industry, as well as their friends and family, can sign up for the fun online tournament by clicking here. The mini league code required to join is 647995.

The scoring system explained
• Players get 3 points for predicting an exact score
• They get 1 point for predicting the correct result (ie. correctly predicting the winner, or correctly predicting a draw, but by the wrong number of goals).
• There is a 2 point bonus for predicting the correct result, if that result was predicted by less than 20% of a player’s competitors.
• There is 2 point bonus for predicting the exact score if that score was predicted by less than 5% of a player’s competitors. If two people are level on points their position in the table will be determined by goal difference.
• For each incorrect number of goals predicted per team, players lose the difference in goals. E.g. predict 3 and the team scores 2, player gets -1 goals.
• For each correct number goals predicted per team, players receive a positive goal difference based on the following scale:
– Predict 0 or 1 goals and the team scores 0 or 1, player receives +1 goal difference.
– Predict 2 goals or more and the team scores that number, player receives double the number of goals predicted, ie. predict 3 and the team scores 3, the player gets +6 goal difference.

Payments are to be made by bank transfer. Please contact Barry for bank details – b.hughes@goldenbeartoys.co.uk or 07899 902443. Only those that have paid their £5 before tournament starts will be eligible, with 50% going to the winner and 50% to the Toy Trust.

Alternatively, people can give Barry cash at this week’s Distoy event.