Rachael Simpson-Jones finds out which trends are driving impulse sales in the Playground Crazes & Pocket Money Collectibles category.

It’s no secret that over the previous 18 months, collectibles, pocket money and impulse toys have suffered perhaps more than any other category due to the marked change in consumer purchasing habits brought on by the pandemic. However, there’s an increasingly strong whiff of normality in the air, and we may be about to witness a major reversal of fortunes.

Rachael caught up with Neil Bandtock, MD UK & Ireland, MGA Entertainment, to discuss the L.O.L.Surprise! brand, while Paul Dearlove, trade marketing manager at Schleich, told us how the company’s ranges have bucked the trend throughout the period of upheaval.

Zapf entered the pocket money collectibles space in 2019 with Baby born Surprise, which we heard more about from from Kasia Leskow, Zapf Creation marketing manager. There’s also news of IMC Toys’ Cry Babies Magic Tears Dress Me Up and Cry Babies Magic Tears Storyland.

The feature wouldn’t be complete without a mention for fidget toys, particularly poppers, which HGL, Foxmind (distributed by Asmodee), Tangle, Fat Brain (distributed by Tomy), Hunter Price and many more have been quick to respond to. Richard Belford, sales director at Hunter Price, explained how speed to market has been key to success in this area.

Alongside fidgets, we’ve also been seeing strong sales of trading cards, and Konami, the publisher of the hugely successful Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG, discusses demand.

The back-to-school season this year is clearly going to provide a major boost to impulse buys and the collectibles and pocket money space, and there’s no shortage of new product coming through, which Toy World highlights in detail on the pages following the article.

To read the full feature, which appeared in the Sptember edition of Toy World, click here.