Hasbro ToyFair 2010 Event

These snowy days in Boston have been filled with researching and planning our Toy Fair 2011 plan in New York City, starting February 12th through the 16th, 2011. Last year attending Toy Fair for the first time was such an exciting and overwhelming experience, as we were honored amongst the first to preview some of the newest and most exciting toys and games that had yet to hit production or the stores! You can read about my favorite celebrities of Toy Fair 2010 last year here.

As the days draw near, we are contacted daily by both large and small companies gearing up for one of the largest toy shows in the Western Hemisphere! Please let us know if there are specific products or companies you would like to know more about!

February 14, 2010 - New York, NY - Keri WIlmot from www.toyqueen.com at the Disney preview of Toy Story 3 in New York City gets shown some of the new toys for 2010 by one of the Disney executives

Like last year, we hope to bring you interviews with company executives and imagery of these new products to help you as a parent or caregiver make more informed decisions about the products that you purchase for the learning enhancement of the children you love.

Here is a link to some of the other Toy Fair coverage from ToyQueen.com in 2010!

Keriann Wilmot from ToyQueen.com, pediatric occupational therapist, shares photos and videos of some of her favorite products showcased at Time to Play Magazine’s Holiday Showcase in NYC on Tuesday Septemer 28th, 2010. Products included from companies such as Leap Frog, Mega Brands, Lego, Disney Consumer Products, Blip Toys, Mattel, Hasbro, Jazwares, Jakks Pacific, Spinmaster, PlaSmart, VTech, Pinkalicious, Learning Curve.

LEGO incorporated a Passport program, where after children completed activities at different sponsored stations, they were able to turn their passport cards in for a free prize.

Some of the areas included monochromatic building stations, where children built their own designs collectively out of the same colored LEGO’s. My favorite station was the Creation Nation where children were given a green LEGO base and could create their own design. When it was complete it was added to a basketball-court sized map of the United States!

Though I think the coolest feature was the LEGO Club. For children who signed up online prior to the event and paid for a special event ticket, they received a gift bag that included a t-shirt, some LEGO goodies, and access to a special LEGO session taught by a professional instructor. The session occurring when we stopped by was on how to build special Star Wars designs. So if you plan on attending in another city and you have a LEGO enthusiast, this special session may be of interest to you.

Here are some of my personal opinions and observations:

1. FYI there was a LEGO store set up inside the event. The program guide identified that hard to find, exclusive LEGO sets could be purchased in the store. However, the line was enormously long.

2. There were special interactive racing games that kid’s had a lot of fun at, but they required a minimal fee of usually about 2 dollars per game. If you check the program guide these areas are listed with a green $ sign, so you can plan accordingly.

3. Strollers were not allowed at our venue, and thankfully we decided to bring Gavin in the backpack, so those of you families with small infants bring your infant carriers!

4. This is definitely an event that is geared for the children to have fun and did not have as much adult appeal. Though these days I’m beginning to learn that watching my son’s enjoyment in any particular activity is absolutely worth every penny for a price of admission!

5. Considering flu season is among us, there were some hand sanitizing stations but you may want to pack some with you just in case.

6. Many kid’s entered their LEGO’s into the Cool Creations contest, so make sure you stop by and vote for your favorite!

From now through May 2011, LEGO Kidsfest is traveling to other cities such as Chicago, New York City, Hartford, Atlanta, Philadelphia & Los Angeles.  The LEGO Kidsfest website has all the dates and locations.

LEGO has graciously agreed to provide a LEGO Creator Ferocious Creatures set for giveaway to a lucky reader on this site. LEGO is also in part sponsoring the Ultimate Block Party which is this coming Sunday October 3rd in NYC. Please click here and comment under my Ultimate Block Party post to enter. Contest ends Wednesday October 6^th.

We received three complimentary tickets to LEGO Kidsfest Boston for the purpose of this review. The opinions expressed in this post are purely the bloggers own.

Photos by: Derek Wilmot

My little “Lego Lover” friend was very eager to help construct the pyramid.  With only a bit of cueing for placement of the pieces, after 20 minutes, we had maybe put together 1/4th of the game, so thinking we’d have time to play the game faster, I began assembling the pyramid in super-speed, giving him a few suggestions of bricks to find along the way. It took us a solid 45 minutes to get the pyramid together, with me hustling for about half of it.  Due to time constraints we had to postpone playing the game, but my friend was happy to play with the pyramid.

A week later we got together to play the game. I started to read the directions and initially got seriously confused. The goal of the game is to move your LEGO adventurer first around the base of the pyramid and then ultimately up and down the pyramid, trying to get to the top to defeat the mummy King Ramses. Along the way the adventurer collects colored crystals and looks under the secret temples to guess what color crystal is hiding underneath. Players will need to use their memory so that later on they can remember what colored crystals are hiding underneath each secret temple.  With each turn guessing the correct color of a crystal will allow them to move  move up, down and laterally to different levels on the pyramid.  Simultaneously, with a roll of the dice, mummy’s are released from the top of the pyramid, preventing your adventurer from accessing different levels on the pyramid, as well as allowing for rotation of the levels of the pyramid to change the path to the top. Once the first adventurer reaches the top of the pyramid and rolls the dice to a mummy, they defeat King Ramses and get access to the treasure room hidden in the base of the pyramid.

In the manual I found a link to games.LEGO.com, where there were animated tutorials providing the directions using a visual demonstration.  They made so much more sense, I would recommend this over trying to read the directions.  If your child has difficulty with multi-step directions they will most likely need some assistance in remembering the sequence.

So as is typical of LEGO’s in general, fine motor skills and hand strength are required in the process of building the pyramid. This particular game includes visual memory, as each person has to remember the color of the crystals located in the secret temple to gain as many crystals as possible to make moving up and down the pyramid easier. Visual spatial skills are involved to determine exactly how many spaces are between the edges and temples when building the pyramid. Though I was not successfuly in learning this game right out of the box, after 30 minutes of play, we became much more confident. I think this game would appeal very highly to the 8-12 year old boy. Not only does it include the ability to recreate a very detailed and cool Egyptian pyramid, but this game does promote customization with changing the rules and team building through cooperative group play.  At the very least, this makes a rather cool pyramid where children can create their own imaginative play.

Though LEGO provided a free copy of Ramses Pyramid for review, the opinions are purely the bloggers own.

February 14, 2010 - New York, NY - Toy Story toy soliders decsend from the ceiling at the Toy Story 3 event at Toy Fair 2010

February 14, 2010 - New York, NY - Toy Story 3 event at Toy Fair 2010 John Lasseter holds a lego replica of himself

February 14, 2010 - New York, NY - Toy Story 3 event at Toy Fair 2010 John Lasseter poses next to lego replica of himself

February 14, 2010 - New York, NY - John Ratzenberger poses with Keri WIlmot from www.toyqueen.com at the Disney preview of Toy Story 3 in New York City

February 14, 2010 - New York, NY - John Lasseter poses with Keri WIlmot from www.toyqueen.com at the Disney preview of Toy Story 3 in New York City

February 14, 2010 - New York, NY - Keri WIlmot from www.toyqueen.com at the Disney preview of Toy Story 3 in New York City gets shown some of the new toys for 2010 by one of the Disney executives