A visual tour of Toy Fair 2012

We had a great time at Toy Fair this year, where Little Pim was exhibiting with hundreds of other toy companies.  So what's new this year? Take a tour through Toy Fair 2012, with our photo and video tour of the exhibition floor!

If you follow my blog, you'll know I was at CES last month checking out cool new tech toys.  I've been noticing a more toys that integrate your iPad or iPod touch into physical play.

Here's one that's a bit like space invaders, if you remember that.

These are the Heart to Heart dolls. Kind of like the American Girl Dolls, except they're from all over the world and age a little younger. We love the idea of introducing kids to different cultures and countries, what a cool new line!

Lego has just launched a new line of "girl-friendly" pink and white legos. They are doing a big marketing push to get more girls to play with legos, which seems to involve just making everything pink! Above is a gal made of legos, and her little dog too...

Walking my ladybug! These balloons have little legs and were a big hit this year.  Also available in giraffe, elephant and puppy.

Little Pim-ers at our booth!

Dolls after my own heart! They're made by Corrolle, a French company that has made its way to the US.

My boys have spent hours making marble mazes but I was never able to crack the code (my towers would fall over as soon as I dropped the marble!).  This new version from Mind Ware is so much easier to use that even I can use it, without asking any help from my four year old tower builder!

No Toy Fair would be complete without a huge lego creation for photo ops.  Here's the Hulk snaring another victim.

Toy Fair 2011: From Bubbles to Blocks to Floating Fish!

We had a great time at Toy Fair last week. It was fun to reconnect with owners of some of the 800 book, toy and gift stores that carry Little Pim and make new friends and partners. Read on to see some of the cool new products we found this year. Little Pim’s Booth:

And our team (including our French distributor, Jean-Bernard Tanqueray, on left).

Why didn’t I think of this? Kids love silly hats and these new “Air Hedz” take the cake. Pirates, frogs and nurses… and great for water gun fights! Here I am as a pop star, complete with microphone.

Crocodile Creek has come out with new lightweight travel “pouch puzzles.” I especially like the World one, great for young global citizens!

Who doesn’t love bubbles? Who doesn’t hate the mess? Finally a bubble machine that doesn’t leak. In fact, it whirls and emits bubbles in a 360 degree spin. Wish I had this at my son’s third birthday party last week! Ours made a gooey spill that was a slip hazard, but the kids had a blast popping them so it was worth it.

Haba’s new “Animal Upon Animal” game is for kids four and up, and reinforces hand eye coordination, fine motor skills and just plain old silly fun of seeing cute wooden animals come tumbling down! Plus the game rules come in 6 languages! (English, Spanish, German, Dutch, Italian, French).

This new “Clock” from Zazoo Kids tells your toddler when it’s ok to get up … long before they know how to tell time! Invented by a mom, of course. It’s also nice that its 7" LCD screen turns into a digital picture frame once you get past that particularly unpleasant stage where your kids wake up before six am (I wish I could say we are past it in my house). You can program your own customized image for your child (it can even be his or her picture). I got one of these for my three year old.

A remote control fish swimming around the Toy Fair (actually a remote helium balloon). A great party trick!