Australian Toy Hobby and Nursery Fair

The 45th Australian Toy, Hobby and Nursery Fair opened today, Thursday 11th March, with the presentation of the Product of the Year Awards.
Lego was a winner this year with Awards for best preschool product for their Lego Duplo Play with Numbers together with an Award for best game.
On the girls’ side, prehaps predictably, Zhu Zhu Pets New Generation from Hunter Products won the Award and the boys’ toy of the year went to Paper Jamz Guitar, again from Hunter. Paper Jamz, in fact, won overall Toy of the Year for 2010 which appeared to be a popular choice amongst the attending audience.
On the licensing side, the Australian Toy Association, organisers of the fair and the awards, have three specific licensing awards – boys, girls and preschool. Licensed boys toy of the year went to Lego for their Harry Potter Hogwarts Castle whilst Disney Fairies Super Studio picked up the girls’ award. The preschool award went to RC2’s Wooden Thomas set – which was also named overall Licensed Product of the Year.
Walking the aisles of the fair it became fairly clear that not only were dress-up costumes (particularly those for girls in pink and glitter) popular categories but remote controlled vehicles in all shapes and forms from basic small cars to the super-techno helicopters and gunboats – presumably aimed more at fathers than their small sons.
Wooden toys, too, have a strong presence at the fair as well as games – more so than electronics. And outdoor toys were in abundance, from bikes and trikes to garden trampolines and other activity products.