Convention Report: New York Toy Fair 2006 - February 12, 2006 - Part 2 (Day One)

By Rick Thornquist
February 12, 2006

After typing up and posting Part 1 of today’s report, I went for a bit of a walk around the fair and then popped into Educational Insights.

Walking around the Toy Fair is a dizzying experience.  Every kind of toy you could possibly imagine is on display here - plus a few that you probably couldn’t imagine.  In addition to the usual big companies there are zillions of smaller ones hawking dolls, remote control tanks, yo-yos, wind-up toys and everything else.

Strangely enough, even though there are zillions of toys around, you won’t actually see any children.  This is a trade show so only people in the business are allowed in, but they are also quite strict about not letting any kids in.  I can understand why - can you imagine the insanity if even a few kids were let in to run rampant among all these toys?

Educational Insights
While wandering the aisles I came upon Educational Insights and stopped to check out their upcoming Blokus sequel - Blokus Trigon.

Blokus Trigon is pretty easy to describe - this is a version of Blokus with triangular pieces on a hexagon-shaped board.  It plays from 2 to 4 players.  The game plays pretty much like Blokus, though there can be different starting positions.  I was told that the game is going to retail for 29.99 US$ and is to be available in about three weeks.

After finishing up my walk around the fair, I headed back up to the press room.  The show was drawing to a close and my plan was to get together with Erik Arneson for a game or two in the evening.  Unfortunately, I’d lost track of him during the day and couldn’t find him (and it seems I wasn’t intelligent enough to get his phone number - that would have helped!).

Once the show closed, I was still Erik-less so I decided to head back home (home, in this case, being a friend’s place on the Upper East Side).  This was easier said than done!  Remember the snowstorm?  Well, even though the snow had stopped falling there was still snow all over the roads and getting a cab in weather like this is a physical impossibility.  There were buses that were set up to take people back to their hotels - I could have grabbed one of those, but they had lineups that went on forever!  I ended up walking crosstown and grabbing the subway - ah, the good old New York subway. 

Tomorrow I have a few appointments and will be checking out more games and game companies.  Stay tuned!

Pictures - Click the picture for a larger version
	Educational Insights
	Blokus Trigon

© 2006 Rick Thornquist

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