Posts Tagged ‘toys’

The Best Toy You Ever Had or Still Have – Vote, win and raise $$ for charity!

Posted on December 15th, 2009 in The Jammy Rascals Blog by jammyrascals

It’s holiday time and I want to know the most popular toy ever!

And what’s more one of you will win the most popular choice *
Everyone who votes is entered for the draw!
Plus, for every entry we will donate to a children’s charity*.

What’s your favourite? Barbie, Bratz, Transformers, Frisbee, Chess, Marbles, Lego, Knex, the list is endless!

Vote in the comments. Pass this on to friends and family.

I’ll get the result out in time for Santa to get it on the sleigh!

* Terms and Conditions: Each voter can only vote for one toy. We will purchase product up to a maximum spend of $100. Should we be unable to purchase the winning toy for under $100 we will send the winner $100 through Paypal or you can nominate for us to give it to charity. For each vote we will donate $0.10 to charity. We will inform you of the charitable donation size and to whom it has gone in these comments; should we not get many votes then we reserve the right to keep the sum and add it to future charitable efforts. Vote will end 12.00 (GMT) on 24th December 2009.

Toy Reviews will be posted here!

Posted on November 26th, 2009 in Kids product reviews by jammyrascals

Look out for our expert reviews on toys and other kid’s products.

We’ll be bringing you honest, down to earth opinions. We hope you’ll enjoy them as much as well enjoy reviewing them

My first job is to go to Toys R Us and pick my top 10 for Xmas from their store in the UK.

Can’t wait!

Marketing to kids – Dolls – an opportunity!

Posted on November 25th, 2009 in The Jammy Rascals Blog by jammyrascals

Mattel is a worldwide smash as a company. Why is this? it’s a simple answer – Barbie!

The history of Barbie is well documented so I’ll let you do your own research but the rise of a phenomenal brand has mapped the rise of parent company Mattel. In the UK we had Sindy, which for nearly 30 years rivalled Barbie on UK shelves, until Mattel started a campaign to dominate the sector in the early 1990’s; it worked, Sindy has all but gone and Barbie appeared to be in a such dominance that “the world was the petite one’s oyster”! That of course was until…

…Bratz. The urban, shocking, big eyed and rebellious brand took us all by storm and beat the living daylights out of the cutesy, fairy-like queen of dolls and we revelled in the competition, but alas it wasn’t to last. It turned out that MGA had “pulled a fast one” and “stolen” the designs for Bratz from under the noses of Mattel. The subsequent spat went to court and Mattel won; MGA has to withdraw Bratz from retail shelves by January 2010 and the way is now open for Barbie to resume it’s hegemony; or so we thought.

Of course there are other players in the toy world and whilst Mattel and MGA fought out their heavyweight battle they were busy developing brands to fill the gap, to try and keep up the competition; keep Barbie on it’s toes and earn some money from the slap to MGA. So what do we get?

Bratz in disguise! We get new models which are borrowing Bratz rebellious streak, the “look” but brought up to date; but is it new? Moxie girls and Liv doll, and any others that may be out there are just filling a gap and producing “me-too” brands. Easy money, can’t knock it, but I still feel there has been an opportunity missed and to be honest that opportunity is still there.

Funny though, when I mention this to toy manufacturers and designers, no-one seems keen to take up the cudgel. There seems to a resigned look, as if to say “we can’t take on Mattel and Spinmaster” ; we’ll leave it to them.

If anyone out there is a designer of toys and wants to work with me on a new girls doll concept, please give me a shout. I expect you to be slightly mad and completely “out there”, but it can be done. We can change the world!

Someone has to.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/08/fashion/08dolls.html?pagewanted=2&_r=2&ref=fashion