After a few years of forced hiatus the New York Toy Fair returned to Manhattan. The last Toy Fair was held at the end of February in 2020, just weeks before the city and country shut down due to COVID.
After trying to hold the event in 2022, New York Toy Fair finally returned on September 30th. Which meant it was only two weeks before New York Comic Con, also held at the Javits Center. This gave us a ton of toy related news and announcements and meant we at Toy Store Guide had to replenish our EZpass balance repeatedly.
For those not in the know, Toy Fair is an industry event where toy companies showcase products for store buyers from around the world. Toy Companies also use this venue as a way to announce new products to the masses and build hype for their brands. The expo is not open to the public but the press is invited to attend. In these modern times they understand that social media influencers, podcasters, and YouTube personalities are the best way to help get the word out.
New York Comic Con on the other hand is one of the premiere comic conventions in the world. “Comic Convention” is a loose term because anything and everything that has a fandom is represented at Comic Cons. It is my quasi professional opinion that comic cons are slowly turning back to being more comic centric in the past few years. This is probably due to the rising number of specialized conventions for things like Anime, Toys, and Meet & Greets. I say, give the comic collectors back their convention, I personally have more fun at local Toy Cons.
Watch Below for a Recap of New York Toy Fair by Hunting Nostalgia’s Nick Bartley.
I’m gonna jump around alot because both events blurred into one another.
First stop: Nacelle
The Nacelle Company’s Founder and CEO Brian Volk-Weiss made some time to chat with us at Toy Fair. We discussed the packaging for the Sectaurs line, which was shown for the first time at Toy Fair, and the upcoming wave two of RoboForce. Wave two’s design will lean more towards the designs used for the upcoming animated series. As a surprise Nacelle will release a wave 1.5 of RoboForce consisting of a new character invented for the series… CRMGM. CRMGM (sound it out) will be a smaller member of RoboForce who will apparently constantly curse but in his own robot language (parents need not fear foul language when watching the show).
At Comic Con Nacelle discussed their slate of animated series and the NacelleVerse. They advised us not to become too fixated on the order of shows, most likely the schedule will change, hopefully with more exciting announcements. Volk-Weiss stated at the NacelleVerse Panel that it is his hope that animated series act as a springboard to eventual live action television shows, much like how Star Wars: Clone Wars and Rebels have evolved into Asoka.
Back at Toy Fair I got to chat with Michael Goodman, VP of Management & Development for Nacelle. Mike paid us the best compliment.. that he uses toystoreguide.com to find stores and help get Nacelle Toys into local toy stores. This is another way that the Nacelle Company helps local independent toy stores stay open. The first being their widely popular “A Toy Store Near You” television series which helps spread light on amazing Toy Stores all over the world.
I asked Brian Volk-Weiss about what it’s like to see his figures on shelves in toy stores?
Walking through, it is the weirdest feeling. I will walk in and see a Wrecker… For a second in my head I am like “Where did you get that?”
Volk-Weiss went on to say that the toys and cartoons feel much more personal than other endeavors in his career.
We also talked about Biker Mice From Mars. At San Diego Comic Con Volk-Weiss and his team announced that the bikes were to be released (available now for preorder) and that they would come with a base and feature working headlights. At Toy Fair Todd McFarlane announced a release of a Batman: The Animated Series Batcycle that also featured a base and headlights. When asked if he thought McFarlane was stealing their ideas Brian replied, “Highly unlikely, I think McFarlane has (toy designing) down.
Speaking about McFarlane, at Toy Fair attendees needed an appointment in order to see what they had to offer.
The coolest diecast cars in stores today are put out by GreenLight Collectibles (sorry Hot Wheels). They continue to release detailed Police Cars, Race Cars, and coolest cars based on popular movie franchises like RoboCop’s 1986 Ford Taurus.
They had some big news to talk about at Toy Fair. They have undergone a change in ownership and named Vincent Tang as the new head. Tang is a lifelong die-hard collector of model cars. In talking to the team manning the GreenLight’s booth, there is an earnest excitement for the direction they are moving.
Every child and collector likes cars in one form or another and just like Funko does with POPs, GreenLight Collectibles is striving to have cars for collectors in every fandom.
Many displays from Toy Fair were also at New York Comic Con. Super7 and NECA had displays that only had to be altered in between shows. With Super7 showing off the giant Cobra Mothership. At Toy Fair NECA displayed a clock tower right out of Disney’s Gargoyles animated series adorned with their line of Gargoyles Ultimate figures.
Diamond Select, another toy company whose main distribution is through small Toy Stores and Comic Shops showed off their upcoming Gargoyles Goliath figure. As previously discussed, Diamond Select’s Gargoyles line design will be more cartoon accurate than NECA’s line or the original line from the 90’s. As much as I admire and respect NECA’s realistic design for the characters, I am looking forward to the Diamond Select line to fulfill my nostalgic itch.
Something that wasn’t represented at Comic Con was Franklin and their partnership with Nerf. Nerf, which started as a soft foam ball you can play with the house, is now synonymous with toy dart blasters and indoor sports. Nerf is continuing with the evolution of the bow and arrow foam dart set and fencing sword that every 90’s kid had.
Franklin will now be the direct manufacturer of Nerf products like the Vortex football and Nerfoop basketball. So many nights of my youth were spent shooting at the backboard on the door while watching the Knicks. Franklin Youth Sports will ensure the continuation of children pretending to be their favorite quarterback or basketball player.
As in recent years, the best part about walking the floor at New York Comic Con is getting a chance to chat with owners of toy stores who made their way to the big apple.
As much as we try, the team at Toy Store Guide can not visit every store we feature (it is the dream tho). KnoWhere Toys made the trip up from Florida again. As a Floridian bonus, Bitz & Buttons made the trek up I95 for a NYCC debut.
Making a shorter but still long drive up from Delaware was our friends at They’re Action Figures. And the pink suited wrestling aficionado, Hasttel Toy & Collectibles made the trip from his new location in Ohio.
New York locals from the outlying boroughs were in attendance. Collectors Cave from the Bronx and the legendary Royal Collectibles hopped the bridge to set up. We can’t forget to mention that Lost 4 Toys fought their way across the LIE to be at New York Comic Con.
It was most definitely a busy few weeks at the Javits Center and going in and out of New York City. Bridges, Tunnels, Parking, and Traffic could become tiring… but the Pizza is great.
Article By: Dave Conca
@ToyDeLorean on Instagram