Well, the annual Canadian Toy Fair was this past weekend in Toronto, and it was GREAT!
I went to the Hasbro booth first, and asked the burning question:
Question: WHY DTC isn't available to us.
Answer: That's up to Hasbro U.S. - Not CND Hasbro. They ARE going to look into getting me stock sent up from the U.S.
While at the Hasbro booth, I saw the Sigma Six toys. They're not bad.... but they're still not 'my' Joe. I asked if these are available to Canada now and was told no. They'll be available by Aug/Sept this year.
The rep I spoke to this year was great to speak to. He said HE has actually been to yojoe, joecustoms, joesighting, AND JoeCanuck.com.
I told him who I was, and he said 'we' like to bitch about the U.S. Hasbro alot.... which we do. I told him to give us a reason not bitch about them - he said he'll try.
Then we say down for awhile, looked over some other product and prototypes (I dropped a Star Wars titanum ship.
OH!! and this was sweet - Titanium Transformers!
They look amazing... just amazing. The Transformer Star Wars ships suck in my opinion, but folks seemed to be ordering them.
Over all, Hasbro was a good booth to stop at this year. I can spot a bullshitter a mile away, and this guy either fooled me - or legitimately thinks he can get me stuff.
:thumbsup:
Toy Biz/ Grand.
Oh my god. The Mojo is awesome! ONSLAUGHT is in the 'Bring on the Bad Guys' wave and looks HUGE! The Marvel Legends TWO Packs are pure sweetness in a blisterpack!
Red Skull looks great, The Kingpin - amazing. And the new unmasked Daredevil - perfect! I'm SO looking forward to carrying ALL of these.
I was playing with the Onslaught, and I couldn't believe how well it was done!
I also saw a TON of TNA Wrestling figures - and WILL be carrying them.
Turns out my distributor hasn't brought in the TNA from Grand because of low interest - the rep I spoke with told me "Without YOU telling us people want it, we have no clue if there's a demand". When I told her who my distributor was, and the 'run arounds' I've been given, she got her boss - I told him as well. He apoligized.
How's that!?
Next I stumbled into a 'high end' booth.... mainly expensive props and rare items. According to the booklet they gave me, I SHOULD be able to order the new Joe/TF statues, and (because I was playing with them for 10 minutes with Denise and my friend Bill ) - Star Wars Master Replica Lightsabers! Not just those, but anything by Master Replicas. Code 3 (the 3-d poster folks) are also now available to me. It seems these guys were more thrilled to be at Toy Fair than I was. And why wouldn't they!? They get to play with Lightsabers all day!
I visited a ton of other booths with a wide range of product.
Neca, McFarlane, Mattel, 21st Century Toys, and a TON more.
Was given a TON of freebies. Some WWE Chocolate 'eggs' with mini-wrestling toys in them. So far I have Eddie, Batista and Triple H. These were actually cool - and tasted amazing.
Watched the Superman trailer 3 times - and was given 2 'Coming Soon' theatrical posters.
Got some 'pens' that changecolor WHILE you write with them.... hey - it was free!.
Also got hugged by a giant cat. (Sagwa?!)
One thing that I did stress was how dumb it was for a toyline to NOT bring a wave up here JUST because a show isn't here.
Example:
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles:
They have some 'Dinosaur' wave coming out. The show on YTV will have shows to do with this line on. The NEXT wave will be 'Future Turtles'. Since the Cartoon won't be shown in Canada - the toys are NOT available to me.
Same with some other lines. If there is no show to back it up here in Canada - then there're no product.
So if YTV drops or doesn't carry Sigma Six - then we get none.
This year was by far the best year at Toy Fair.
I'm so pumped up by it that I honestly couldn't sleep last night. I spent about 3 hours (after the WWE Royal Rumble) going through booklets and looking at pictures of product.
Neca is something I'm going to start having more of. This company is amazing and their items are super.
That's enough for now.... I'm sure someone will have some questions. I just hope none of them are stupid ones. ;-)
Talk to you later guys.
mike