Return of simplicity
Hi-tech fun might have its takers but many toy makers are developing simple, back to basics toys — a fact underscored at the recent Middle East Toy Fair 2003 held in Dubai. Rajeev Nair has the details
IT was the parting shot of profound philosophy from a taxi driver.
The expert observation had come with little prodding:
“Toy fairs are very common today.”
Pause.
“Toys help kids. They also ruin them.”
Pause.
“The elders don’t change. Then why should we expect today’s kids to be understanding?”
Silence. Lost in thought.
Inside the Dubai International Convention Centre exhibition hall, there was little to substantially prove the man’s allegation about toys ruining kids.
But certainly, the Middle East Toy Fair 2003 had showcased a lot that without doubt helps children. And adults too.
Best of all, however, was the prevailing ‘back to basics’ creativity. Somehow, the puzzles, board games and — surprise, surprise — wooden toys had taken the edge out of hi-tech gizmos. While the familiar buzz of the video game monitors and the squeaky, shaky, shrills of IT he/she-men could still be heard, their presence was largely overshadowed by imaginative toys that were simple and friendly.
How about the wooden toys to start with? Tom-Toys, a German manufacturer, had showcased just that. Made from beech wood, the company’s collection predominantly featured a range of trucks that not only capture the fancy of children but adults too. “We launched wooden toys two years back, and it has been welcomed very well by the European and US markets,” asserts Christian C Zimmerman, marketing director of the company.
Wholly hand-made, these toys employ a sweat and saliva resistant varnish, and also correspond to international safety regulations making them “fully safe for children” says Zimmerman.
The beauty of these toys is that you can easily reconstruct the simple mechanics of toy construction with these wooden models, which per se serve as objects of sheer joy for children.
“With these wooden toys, we were essentially going back to basics,” explains Zimmerman, a viewpoint shared by fellow-countryman Hermann Bruns, who handles the international sales of Ravensburger.
His company specialises in a range of games and puzzles, and had earlier participated in the Middle East Toy Fair in year 1999 and 2002. “The response is better than I had expected,” said Bruns, whose products already enjoy a market presence in the UAE, distributed through the Dubai-based Memar International Co.
Ravensburger’s products include such games as the exciting Funny Bunny (where you have to hope over the holes and race to the top to bag the juicy carrot), Here a Chick There a Chick (where you have to move one hen from its nest and put it on another that doesn’t have a hen, and find chicks or eggs), Cat & Mouse (where each player is one of four cheeky mice that scramble around a giant block of cheese), and a lot more — in short, those recreating the basic, simple pleasures of games.
It is not as if Ravensburger had turned its back to technology. It had created game CDs and computer games earlier but dis-continued it. “For us, computer games and CD-ROMs are over,” says Bruns. The reason: “There are a lot of free downloads.”
In the last three years, Ravensburger has therefore decided to concentrate on games and puzzles, its core capability, and its 25-member R&D team works to create exciting new products. “Our target group is from the 2-to-99-year-old,” says Bruns. “So we innovate taking into account the interests of a wide cross-section of users.”
The company had recently launched Hologram puzzles, an idea that struck Bruns at the Hong Kong Toy Fair. “Normally, it is very difficult to combine the plastic for holograms and wood, the base for the toy. Our R&D team found a way out,” he explains. Another innovation has been the ‘Flokati,’ where a special woolly material goes over the surface of the characters making them special toys.
The ‘Frame Puzzle’ of Ravensburger narrates the ‘inside story’ too. For example, in a Frame Puzzle of an aircraft, lifting one piece of the puzzle, say the front end, reveals a picture of the cock-pit and the pilots.
Ravensburger also has a letter puzzle: You can write a full-length note on the back of the puzzle, piece it up, and send it to whoever you wish to, and enjoy the prospect of the recipient working on the puzzle and arriving at your message.
“Our games and puzzles not only help children to be good team-players, they also learn to win, and more importantly, to lose,” says Bruns.
Revell, another German participant, had showcased a series of models that would appeal to both kids and adults. The toys, primarily targeting the men and boys of the world, are to be assembled by the buyer from component plastic parts. “You have to pick the right pieces, paint them, and glue them together to get the toy,” says Marko Rachner, the company’s export manager.
The company targets the six-plus-year-olds, and also has toys that need not be painted making it easier for the smaller ones to work on the toys. A range of aeroplanes, cars, helicopters, ships, sail-boats — the list of Revell’s offerings is seemingly endless. Their recent toy is the model of an Airbus A380, which will fly the skies soon. For girls, the company has a range of horse sets.
While harping on ‘back to basics,’ how about travelling back in time? Back some 1400 years? To the company of Buzur Mehir, the vizier of the Persian emperor who invented backgammon? The game that was sent down to the Indian emperor, who had sent the game of chess as gift with the note:
“Who thinks much more,
Who knows much more,
Who sees further,
will gain.
That’s the life.”
Accompanying the backgammon was the note:
Yes, who thinks much more,
Who knows much more,
Who sees further,
will gain.
But it needs a little chance. That’s the life.”
The Istanbul-based Game Company has developed backgammon boards in three leather-wood combinations. The advantage, says its sales representative E Murat Ermis, is that “the dice does not fall out of the board, and there are provisions to accommodate the chips and dices as well as the facility to record scores.”
Backgammon, explains Ermis, is very popular in Turkey, Syria, Egypt, Lebanon and even the United States.
And if you thought labels and stickers are joys of delight of your childhood, and has little to do with today’s little ones, you must talk to Mohamed Abou El Seoud, president and CEO of Etoile, an Egyptian company, specialising in stickers and book-labels. They also have a rich collection of magnetic and dome stickers. Some of the products are meant for corporates too: Control panels, front panel decorations, trademarks in PVC and polycarbonate coated with flexible polyurethane resin.
“The volumes are high and prices low in our segment,” says Seoud. “Therefore, it is crucial to develop fresh ideas and extend our product range.”
Exercise machines to improve balance, speed of reaction and co-ordination; balloons of many hues showcased by the Dubai-based Pallone International; edutainment and entertainment concepts developed by Fun City; bowling games; fun tools for toddlers — the Middle East Toy Fair had a varied fare, and while toddlers were not around to enjoy them, the event being a trade fair, surely, the market will soon have enough objects that would thrill them.
Box:
Cork to toy: A success saga
Meet Edoardo Tusacciu, president of PlastWood, the inventor of Supermag, the fastest selling toy in Europe that fetched five awards in the US including one for being the ‘best family integrator’
THE TV screen at the pavilion of PlastWood at the Middle East Toy Fair 2003 has been blaring out images incessantly. In the midst of a conversation, Edoardo Tusacciu, president and CEO of the company diverts your attention to the screen.
The occasion is the opening of the company’s new product range. Out of a plane comes first a sheep followed by a smiling Tusacciu.
“The sheep is a symbol of my place, Sardinia, an island in Italy,” he says through his interpreter. “I wanted to change the perception that Sardinia is not just sheep; we can also make the world take notice of us for PlastWood’s toys.”
And that indeed has happened.
PlastWood’s creation, which hit the European market in January, Supermag, has been reported as the fastest selling toy in Europe. In the US, it fetched five awards including one for being the ‘best family integrator,’ which brings together kids and adults.
To think that just a few years back Tusacciu was running a cork factory like virtually every other entrepreneur in Sardinia. “We have only cork companies and now we have PlastWood too,” he says.
He had 50 employees in his cork factory, and he retained them all and added another 100 more in his toy factory, which creates, what can essentially be termed, a ‘building block’ toy. Only Supermag is magnetic — as the name suggests. “Super stands for its exclusivity, and mag for the magnet,” says Tusacciu.
A construction toy that would appeal to anyone from a 3-to-99-year-old, Supermag has been proven to be totally safe for children, says Sharon Harvey, who works with PlastWood’s Dubai Liaison Office. “It is a very educational toy, and has been appreciated greatly by engineers and architects too,” adds Enrico Basevi de Alcubierre, also with the Dubai Liaison Office.
A simple toy comprising ‘building blocks’ in sphere and rods, you can construct anything using Supermag. It helps children develop manual skills and creativity, and architects enjoy its company as it helps them visualise their models.
Tusacciu demonstrates the versatility with structures including that of Burj Al Arab that he has created with Supermag.
The man truly loves toys, and in his table he does not have a computer but a Supermag box. “Working with toys has always been my hobby,” he says. “In fact, as a child, I have made my own toys, starting with the simple wheel.”
Tusacciu is not against the inroads made by hi-tech computer games. “We need both, ” he says. “But with computer games, the child plays with just the computer, an inanimate object. With such games as Supermag, he or she is encouraged to play and share his emotions and feelings with friends and family members.”
He is working to add on more variants to Supermag, and create five different lines with variants in colour and shape. He has also created Catch Mag, a board game that involves player luck and strategy.
The television screen now has Tusacciu cutting a giant-sized cake. The next shot shows him with cake splattered over his face.
This man loves fun.
And the cheer augers well for his creations.
– RN
