Designers from Lego, Posh Paws, Spin Master, Ravensburger, Moose, Golden Bear and Character Options are among those nominated for Play Creators Awards this year.

Mojo Nation has unveiled the finalists for the Play Creators Awards 2020. The awards celebrate figures in the toy and game design community that have excelled over the last 12 months, including in-house design teams, outside invention studios and freelance design partners.

Panels of expert judges, comprising R&D execs, inventors and figures from design agencies and invention studios, will assess each category and select winners based on design merits in a series of virtual roundtable sessions.

As nominated by their peers, the finalists are as follows:

Toy Designer of the Year (Sponsored by The Toy Association)

• Annalee Robbins (Spin Master) – Rainbow Jellies (Spin Master)
• Big Monster Toys & Alpha Group’s Eric Dong & Glenn Yu – RC TerraTrax (Alpha Group)
• Chantal Drenthe & Paul Martinsen (Fuse London) & Moose Toys – Oh My Gif (Moose Toys)
• Lego – Lego Dots Range (Lego)
• Moose Toys & Character Options – Heroes of Goo Jit Zu (Moose Toys/Character Options)
• PlayMonster – Snap Ships (PlayMonster)
• Seven Towns – Junk Bots (Hexbug)

Game Designer of the Year (Kids/Family Game) (Sponsored by Cartamundi’s Shuffle)

• Adam Borton (Creating Unique Toys) & Jeremy Posner (Shenanigans Toys and Games) – Silly Seal (Entertoyment)
• Big Monster Toys – Sky Score (Hasbro)
• The Fantastic Factory – Trapped (Golden Bear)
• Gary Pyper (Fun-Damental) – Windy Knickers (John Adams)
• Heather Yates (Orchard Toys) – Mammoth Maths (Orchard Toys)
• Nextoy – Puglicious (Mattel)
• Nir Doran & Gilad Podgor – Slam Cup (Blue Orange Games)
• Simon Toms (Spring Loaded Concepts) & Fuse London – Seasick Sam (Drumond/Tomy)
• Tomy – Screwball Scramble Level 2 (Tomy)

Game Designer of the Year (Party Game) (Sponsored by Cartamundi)

• Alex Hague, Justin Vickers & Wolfgang Warsch – Wavelength (Palm Court)
• Ceri Price & Natalie Podd – Confident (Confident Games)
• Chris Naylor & Rich Walton – Think Fast! (Ridley’s Games)
• Dan Penn & Rich Coombes – Herd Mentality (Big Potato Games)
• Identity Games – Nightmare Horror Adventures: Welcome to Crafton Mansion (Identity Games)
• Oleksandr Nevskiy – Detective Club (IGames)
• Peggy Brown – Bye Felicia! (Big G Creative)

R&D Team of the Year (Sponsored by Wynne-Jones IP)

• Big Potato Games
• Gibsons
• Hasbro
• Orchard Toys
• PlayMonster
• Ridley’s Games
• Spin Master
• Tactic Games
• Tomy

Design Agency/Invention Studio of the Year (Sponsored by Hasbro)

• Bang Zoom
• Big Monster Toys
• DesignbyTouch
• The Fantastic Factory
• Fun-Damental
• Fuse London
• Open 2 Design
• Seven Towns
• So Sound

Toy Designer of the Year (Licensed Product)

• Big Monster Toys – Paw Patrol Split Second 2-in-1 Vehicles (Spin Master)
• Denny Wong (Posh Paws) – Love Hearts Plush Range (Posh Paws)
• Dominic Yard (This is YARD) – Little People DC Super Friends 2-in-1 Batmobile (Fisher-Price)
• Eric Dong & Glenn Yu – Subway Surfers Spray Crew (Alpha Group)
• Lego – Lego Super Mario Range (Lego)
• Matt Bland & Matthew Jordan (Tomy) – Ricky Zoom Range (Tomy)
• Open 2 Design – Peppa Pig Mud Kitchen (Character Options)
• Paul Martinsen (Fuse London) – Batman Mega Gear Action Figures (Spin Master)
• Gil Zalayet (StudioPlay) & Ryan Kratz (Sound Machine) – Rapid Change Utility Belt Batman (Spin Master)

Game Designer of the Year (Licensed Product)

• Andrea Chiarvesio & Eric Lang – Marvel United (Spin Master/CMON)
• Anthony Boydell & Andrew Harman – TfL Race the Rails (Gibsons)
• Barry McLaughlin & Jason Lautenschleger – Anchorman: The Game (Barry & Jason Games)
• Daryl Andrews – Titanic: The Game (Spin Master)
• James Vaughn (Big Potato Games) – Top of the Pops: The Game (Big Potato Games)
• Prospero Hall – Horrified (Ravensburger)
• Richard Heayes (Heayes Design) – Disney Race Home & Home Sprint Ranges (Cartamundi)
• Sam Roberts (So Sound) – Race to the Triwizard Tournament (Cartamundi)

Play Innovator of the Year

• Audrey Tam (Spin Master) – CoolMaker Hollywood Hair (Spin Master)
• Brian Whitehead (Briology Ltd) & Fuse London – Easy Knit (Character Options)
• Dave Emblin (Moose Toys) – Team Gem (Moose Toys)
• Emma Peat (Spin Master) – Go Glam Nail Salon 2.0 (Spin Master)
• The Fantastic Factory – Trapped (Golden Bear)
• Lego – Lego Art Range (Lego)
• Melbot – Melbits POD (Melbot)
• Phil Sage, Scott Clarke, Mel Hershey, James Brown and Colleen Dolan (Hasbro) – D-O Interactive Droid (Hasbro)
• Tomy – Rizmo (Tomy)

Rising Star

• Chantal Drenthe – Fuse London
• Elif Atmaca & Ögeday Uçurum – Toyi
• James Vaughn – Big Potato Games
• Jacques Priestner – Seven Towns
• Jason Loik – Loik Studios
• Jessica Livingston – Gund/Spin Master
• Ollie Hobbs – So Sound
• Ross Monks – Moose Toys UK
• Sam Roberts – So Sound
• Steve Moore – Tantrum Innovation

The Design Icon award does not have a shortlist and the winner will instead be unveiled, alongside all the other winners, on Friday 11th September in a special Mojo Nation newsletter.

For more information on the Play Creators Awards, visit www.playcreatorsawards.com. The winners of last year’s awards can be viewed here.