IN THEIR efforts to invent this holiday season’s must-have plaything, several toymakers have attempted to do a 2004 take on a 1980s take of what gadgets would look like beyond 2000.
There’s the Cyclops Camera Car, pitched as an overdue homage to K.I.T.T, the talking car of 1980s TV series Knight Rider, and the Bladerunner Helicopter, inspired by the 1982 futuristic film starring Harrison Ford.
New versions of Atari, Pacman, Space Invaders and Tetris will also be crowding the shelves, while a fresh crop of Cabbage Patch Kids, the doll phenomenon of the 1980s, is being released in the US in time for Christmas.
The move into full-scale 1980s nostalgia has prompted observations from analysts that toymakers and retailers are, at least subconsciously, hankering for the days when selling toys was a simple business.
“Twenty years ago, Christmas for kids was all about toys,” says Richard Hyman, chairman of Verdict Research, a retail market research company. “Today, toy specialists have to share the Christmas spend with other retailers. It’s become a very, very challenging business.”
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Toyland’s main new rivals are the electronic and fashion retailers. As children, particularly girls, become increasingly fashion conscious, they are demanding clothes for themselves, rather than for their Barbie dolls.
“Buying eight-year-olds a few clothing items for Christmas is extremely acceptable nowadays,” Mr Hyman says. “Twenty years ago, this would have been unheard of. They wanted toys.”
Computer, internet and mobile phone technology has also entered the playground to challenge the dominance of traditional toys. Children as young as pre-schoolers want DVDs, computer games, mobile phones and computers. Few toy retailers have been able to move successfully into high-tech and video game sales, which has left the market open to electronic and multimedia stores.
According to the latest figures from the International Council of Toy Industries, video games alone accounted for 27 per cent of the $55 billion (£31 billion) global toy market in 2000. This figure ignores the impact of mobile phones and online games.
Toy retailers, like other specialist outlets, are also facing an onslaught from the large generalist stores, including supermarket chains such as Tesco and Asda. By extending their ranges from groceries to clothing and toys, the supermarkets have been able to capitalise on their customers’ sheer lack of time.
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Although children might prefer a trip to Hamleys, it is far more convenient for their harrassed parents to pick up a birthday or Christmas gift along with their weekly shop.
The supermarkets, given their size, can also provide cheaper toys, either through their purchasing power or because they can use the most popular toys as loss-leaders to attract customers into their stores. Wal-Mart, the world’s biggest retailer and the owner of Asda, has captured more than 20 per cent of the US toy market this way.
In most European countries, specialist toy stores still account for more than 40 per cent of toy market, around twice as much as in the US. However, there is evidence that the supermarkets are gaining ground here. Asda now boasts that it is the top seller of wooden train sets in the UK.
“The scale and muscle of generalist retailers is very advantageous,” one analyst says. “Toys are just one of many things they can sell. Therefore the large generalist players are not dependent on getting their mix of toys totally right.”
Specialist toy retailers cannot afford that luxury as they stock up for Christmas. Given their heavy reliance on the season, the retailers will be under a lot of pressure to correctly predict what children will want this year.
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“They have to pick the winners now,” Mr Hyman says. “If they don’t, they will be completely hamstrung because there won’t be any time to make any changes.”
Fresh in the retailers’ minds will be last year’s holiday season, which proved to be somewhat disastrous for Toyland. Two of the big American toy retailers, KB Toys and FAO, owner of FAO Schwarz, fell into Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the wake of Christmas, while Lego underwent a management shakeout after forecasting the third annual loss in its 70-year history.
The prognosis, however, is not all bad for toy retailers. Analysts say that, despite competition from clothes and electronic gadgets, parents, who are far more affluent than they were in past decades, are still spending more money on toys today than at any other time.
The UK toy market, excluding electronic gadgets, is expected to generate sales of £2.9 billion this year, against £2.1 billion in 1994 and £1.9 billion in 1992. In Europe, parents spend $100 per child on toys each year, against a global average of $32 and $328 in the US, according to the International Council of Toy Industries.
There is also evidence that generation X-ers are finding it harder to grow up and give up their toys. A recent study by Headlight Vision, the strategic consultancy, said that more of us are “playing” in our twenties and thirties than ever before.
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Although this translates into a larger potential market for gadgets and toys, Headlight Vision gives warning that today’s toy buyer is among “the most sophisticated consumer in the world”.
Despite the challenge, niche toy and gadget retailers told The Times yesterday that they remained confident that they would still be able to have themselves a very merry Christmas.
Jonathan Elvidge, the founder of gadgetshop.com, said electronic gizmos were becoming more and more popular with boys and girls, both young and old, because of “today’s revolution and affordable technology”.
He predicted that the best-selling toy this holiday season would be the £80 RoboSapien. The 14-inch toy is designed by a former Nasa scientist and has 67 movement programmes.
RoboSapien is closely followed by the £130 K.I.T.T.-inspired Cyclops Camera Car, with a microphone and speaker function and a colour camera built into the windscreen.
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Firebox.com, the gadget e-retailer, said it was counting on the retro games, such as Atari, to see it through the festive season.
WHAT’S HOT . . .
1. Plasma screen televisions
2. 3G phones (Siemens SL65)
3. DAB digital radios (Hitachi KH-35D)
4. iPod minis
5. DVD camcorders (Sony)
6. PVRs (Personal Video Recorders)
7. WI-FI (short-range high-speed wireless internet)
8. Smart phones (Sony Eriksson P900)
9. Media players (NHJ)
10. Hard-disk drive MP3 players (Mobi DV)
. . . AND WHAT’S NOT
1. Non-plasma screen televisions
2. 2G phones
3. Analogue radios
4. iPods
5. Analogue camcorder
6. Discmans
7. Wired-fixed broadband internet connections
8. Palm Pilots
9. Games consoles
10. Desktop computers
AND MUST-HAVE TOYS . . .
1. RoboSapien (£80)
2. Cyclops Camera Car (£130)
3. Bladerunner Helicopter (£60)
4. Plug & Play Retro Games (£19.95)
5. Lightning Reaction (£19.95)
. . . AND HAD-IT TOYS
1. Trivial Pursuit
2. Xbox and PlayStation 2 computer games
3. Bratz (dolls)
4. Beyblades (fighting spinning tops)
5. Iraq playing cards