My apologies for the late blog posting regarding this year’s NY Toy Fair.  The tradeshow wrapped up exactly two weeks ago.  It is just sooooooo hard to find a spare moment to think – let alone write a blog posting – during the hectic post tradeshow craziness.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly was a 1960s western starring Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef, and Eli Wallach.  The movie follows three gunslingers competing to find a buried Confederate treasure.  The film is arguably the best and most iconic “Spaghetti Western” ever filmed.

With snow causing havoc at airports across the United States, and the uncertainty over how this would impact the NY Toy Fair, it felt as if we were in a Steve Martin and John Candy film.  With this being our unlucky number 13th year exhibiting at the NY Toy Fair… maybe we should have seen this coming!

The Good

I cannot recall in recent years seeing the aisles at the Javits Center so busy.  At times the cross aisles were so jammed with people that it was hard to move without bumping into someone.  Our booth was far busier than in the past few years.  Even the dreaded “last day” was busy.

Not only was the traffic up, the quality of buyer was excellent.  We had some really good meetings with great potential.  This includes international retailers.  There were plenty of Canadians of course.  But we also had productive meetings with buyers from South America, Europe, and Asia.

The Bad

It seems like the NY Toy Fair is a magnet for bad weather.  This year was no exception.  Travelling into the city was challenging.  Two of our staff got stranded for 24 hours in Chicago and San Francisco, and two other staff were delayed by half a day.

The day before the tradeshow started, exhibitors were quite concerned about how the traffic would be.  In the end, as mentioned above, traffic was great so our worries were all for naught.  But not only did the weather impact travel, it also complicated move-in for the 1,000+ exhibitors.  We know of one exhibitor who never got their booth…

The Ugly

… and that exhibitor was us!  And let me tell you, renting a booth 24 hours before the start of a tradeshow is a painful experience.

Fortunately, we managed to pull off a nice looking booth.  Everyone eventually arrived safe and sound.  We had product to show.  We had productive meetings with buyers, sales reps, and suppliers.  NY Toy Fair was a success… and in the end, that is what matters the most.