We kicked off 2025 with our first event, the amazing Toy Fair in New York. It was one of the biggest shows we've ever been too with some incredible people there and every product you could imagine.
We went to promote some of our latest product launches for both ourselves and our clients like Light Motif, The Little Things Shop and Konami. We brought some incredible merchandise that had people stopping in their tracks as they walked past, yes there were some expletives said in the awe of seeing our Naruto vs. Pain and Escanor vs. Estrossa statues. We also uncovered some secrets while at the event.
1/ Collectibles is a growing sector
While this is our first time at the event, we spoke to people who had been coming since it's inception and all of them said how the collectibles section is growing. The amount of companies focussing on creating collectible pieces ranging from high-end to low-end is steadily growing year on year as more consumers look to buy collectibles items over misc merchandise that is just going to clog up their shelves.
Amongst the growing concern of the worldwide economies, this increase in collectibles is signalling a shift in consumers mindsets that they are becoming more decisive on where to spend the money they have and want something that is high-quality and unique. More people are turning away from the mass-market and towards celebrating their fandoms.
With everyone talking about digital, ecommerce and AI, there was a refreshing look at the Toy Fair with a lot of companies still maintaining brick and mortar stores around the world, but changing the strategy of those stores. Instead of being a warehouse of all the products like they used to be before the internet, stores are evolving to be third-spaces where consumers can meetup and have new experiences in. Part of this strategy to get people coming into stores more often is to create more interesting and engaging displays, if consumers want to just purchase something they can go online, so a store has to set their imagination alight.
We struck up one conversion about this topic with a global retailer, they weren't looking for us specifically, but after walking past our stand and seeing how amazing our pieces were, they had to come back and discuss having them in their stores as installations. Their plan is to create some unique zones that will engage those fandoms, and having stand-out statues will help with that.
3/ Manufacturing quality is still hard to find
With the rise of collectibles comes a key challenge, to provide the level of detail and quality that a consumer expects when spending more on a product. You don't go to buy a designer bag and expect it to have missing stitches, just the same as you don't buy a collectible piece and it not have all the detail you expect. This is causing a lot of companies pain as they aren't used to searching for that level of quality in their factories that we provide.
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