2017年玩具行业向何处去？科技元素和性别包容或成亮点

商场里的玩具专区，应该是零售界里最幸福的地方之一了。

最近几年，许多餐厅因为价格太高而门可罗雀，各大商超由于消费者购物习惯的变化而销量猛跌，服装行业也被廉价的快速时尚品牌占据了半壁江山，而孩之宝（Hasbro）、美泰儿（Mattel）和乐高（Lego）等玩具公司连续好几年销售额却都非常抢眼。专家们表示，大大小小的玩具公司对创新的适应速度极快，许多老品牌都推出了新卖点。与此同时，很多公司也推出了不少在儿童中大受欢迎的新产品。

本月，美国玩具行业在纽约市的贾维茨会展中心举办了一场盛大的玩具展览会，期间展出了各大厂商2017年的最新玩具创意。我们也得以一窥各大厂商今年将为玩具反斗城（Toys 'R' Us）和沃尔玛等零售企业供应哪些新品。通过此次展会，我们发现了四个值得孩子们以及他们的父母们注意的趋势。

好莱坞光环

好莱坞电影向来是吸引孩子和他们的家长走进玩具店的一个重要因素。近年来，光是沃尔特迪士尼稳步推出的几部《星战》电影，就令整个行业获益不小。归功于这个大IP，星战周边玩具也成了近年来热度回升最快的玩具系列之一。从电影的角度看，2017也将成为玩具行业大丰收的一年，今年有20部左右的电影都会涉及玩具元素。玩具评测网站TTPM.com的CEO吉姆·西尔弗表示：“今年的电影数量令人震惊。”

孩之宝今年计划将围绕六部电影推出周边玩具，而乐高则计划做10部电影的周边，玩具公司Jakks Pacific则更是瞄准了十几部电影。以上三家公司都拿到了今年的好莱坞年度大戏《星战：最后的绝地武士》的授权，这部电影预计将于12月全球上映。孩之宝和乐高今年也将亲自操刀推出自己的电影。孩之宝自家的两个授权IP今年也将被搬上大屏幕，分别是《变形金刚：最后的骑士》和《小马宝莉大电影》。近日上映的《乐高蝙蝠侠大电影》已经取得了非常亮眼的票房成绩，而乐高的另一部电影《乐高幻影忍者大电影》也将于9月登上银屏。

“这是一桌非常丰盛的电影盛宴。”孩之宝公司总裁约翰·弗拉斯科蒂表示，过去几年，与电影有关的玩具的销量明显好于那些并非基于热门电影的产品。“整个行业的玩具销量都在增长，但基于电影的玩具的增长速度相当稳健，而与电影无关的玩具则销量平平。”

性别包容

美泰儿、孩之宝和乐高等知名玩具公司都不约而同地将性别包容的理念融入到了他们的玩具战略中。尤其是在设计和推广玩具的时候，他们会同时考虑到两种性别，而不是将玩具专区分为男孩的蓝色区和女孩的粉色区。玩具行业的高管们表示，这也是一种时代的标志，因为“千禧一代”的家长们并不希望他们的孩子养成对性别的刻板印象。

前一段时间，乐高推出的一款名叫“乐高好朋友”的玩具一度受到不少非议。这个系列的玩具充斥着紫色和粉色的积木以及偏女性化的主题，有些博主和儿童成长专家批评它的性别暗示太过明显。不过乐高表示，这款产品恰恰是为了吸引更多女孩对乐高积木产生兴趣。而现在也果然有更多女孩开始购买一些原本只有男孩玩的玩具，比如《乐高蝙蝠侠大电影》的周边积木玩具等等。

近年来，好莱坞也在电影里添加了更多的女性主角，而这也有助于促进性别包容。乐高系统（LEGO Systems）的负责人斯基普·科达克表示：“迪士尼在确定电影主角时，采用了性别包容性更高的搭配。而我们也有机会通过乐高玩具，将这一特点带入到现实生活中。”

玩偶历来是女孩的最爱，但这个领域也正在迎来一场革命。美泰儿的“美国女孩”品牌31年来首次增添了一个男孩角色。孩之宝最新款的“淘气宝贝”（Baby Alive）玩偶第一次有了“爸爸”的选项——此前它还只会说“妈妈”。美泰儿还在“风火轮小汽车”（Hot Wheels）系列最新推出DC超能美少女主题汽车玩具中，故意采用了性别色彩较为中立的红蓝配色。而以往这个系列基本上都是粉色系的。

孩之宝总裁弗拉斯科蒂表示：“我们想在性别和种族上采取比较包容的做法。在设计玩具时，我们不再纠结于它应该是一个男孩的品牌还是一个女孩的品牌，而是将它打造成一个男孩女孩都能玩的品牌。”他还表示，像星战、小马宝莉、变形金刚这些以往瞄准特定性别的玩具，如今在男孩和女孩中都很有市场。“我们的做法是，品牌是为了消费者而构建的。”

科技元素

当玩具商们刚开始意识到移动设备已经成为一种威胁时，他们的做法是一窝蜂地把桌游、玩偶和各种能想象到的玩具都连接到平板电脑上。然而这些早期实践的反响大多并不好。

今年，玩具商们终于对应该如何将科技元素融入玩具中有了更清醒的认识。有些玩具在这方面做得相当不错，比如Spin Master玩具公司出品的互动式玩偶Luvabella，孩之宝的蓝牙电动宠物Furreal，芭比公司充满未来主义色彩的全息芭比娃娃，乐高出品的用APP控制的编程积木等等。美泰儿也在今年的消费电子展（CES）上展出了一款“智能”婴儿监控器。Wicked Toys公司也复活了80年代的经典玩具“小熊华斯比”——当年这只小熊可以通过磁带给孩子讲故事，现在它已经具备了通过APP讲故事的功能。

玩具行业出版物《Toy Insider》的玩具专家劳瑞·施赫特认为：“全息芭比是虚拟家居助手领域的一个有趣的交互式产品。”她还表示，美泰尔最新推出的“亚里士多德”婴儿监测器，也将成为“智能家居”潮流中的一个优秀工具。

收藏性玩具

这些摆在收银台边上的小玩具通常只卖几块钱，但它们在行业内的表现却相当抢眼。去年，收藏性玩具的销售额跃升了33%，达到18亿美元，约占美国玩具行业总销售额的9%。尤为受欢迎的是所谓的“隐形包装”——这些小小的玩具被包装得颇为神秘，从外面根本看不见里面有什么。

在今年的纽约玩具展上，美泰儿、孩之宝、乐高、Jakks等各大厂商纷纷推出了自己的2017年主打的收藏性玩具。Spin Master公司的热门玩具品牌Hatchimal今年也将加入收藏性玩具的战团。不过西尔弗提醒道：“这个领域今年将是很拥挤的，有些品牌的努力可能会失败。”

不过各大厂商却普遍认为，收藏性玩具未来几年还会继续火下去。前几年凭借ShopKins品牌红极一时的澳大利亚玩具公司Moose Toys表示，事实已经证明，收藏性玩具是一个非常稳定的市场，孩子们玩这种玩具已经有几十年了。

Moose Toys公司联合CEO保罗·索罗门表示：“收藏性玩具对行业来说是一种很好的产品，因为它会吸引消费者回到零售店进行重复购买。关键问题是，如果我们要推出多款收藏性玩具，它们就必须做到差异化。”（财富中文网）

作者：John Kell

译者：朴成奎

The toy aisle is one of the happiest places in the world of retail.

At a time when restaurants are struggling with weak traffic due to high prices, department store sales are sputtering because of changing shopping behaviors, and apparel sales are being upended by cheap fast fashion, toy makers like Hasbro (has), Mattel (mat), and Lego are posting several strong years of sales. Experts say players big and small have been particularly adept at innovating, adding new twists to older brands and also coming up with new properties that are resonating with kids.

The industry met this month in New York City to pitch their newest toy ideas for 2017 at a toy fair held at the the massive Javits Center. Fortune got a peak at what many of the major players are planning for retailers like Toys 'R' Us and Walmart (wmt). We've identified four trends kids and their parents should keep an eye on.

Hollywood Halo

Blockbuster films have always been a big motivating factor that drives children and their parents to the toy aisle. In recent years, the industry has greatly benefited from a steady pace of releases from Walt Disney's (dis) Star Wars franchise—one of the biggest toy properties that is seeing renewed interest thanks to new movies. 2017 bodes well for the industry from a film perspective, with about 20 films to be released with ties to the toy aisle. "It is shocking how many films there are this year," said Jim Silver, CEO of toy review site TTPM.com.

Hasbro has toys planned for six of those major films, while Lego has ties to 10 and Jakks Pacific (jakk) well over a dozen. All three of those toy makers have licenses for the biggest film of them all from: Star Wars: The Last Jedi, which will be released in December. Hasbro and Lego will also benefit from their own movie releases in 2017. Hasbro has two films coming out based on the toy maker's own franchise properties, Transformers: The Last Knight and My Little Pony: The Movie. Lego has The Lego Batman Movie—already a strong performer at the box office—and The Lego Ninjago Movie in September.

"It is a very robust film slate," said Hasbro President John Frascotti. He added that in the past several years, toys tied to films have outpaced those that are not based on hot movie properties. "The overall industry is growing in toys, but movie-based properties have grown at a robust pace, while non-movie toys are flat."

Gender Inclusivity

Mattel, Hasbro and Lego have all embraced the theme of gender inclusivity—essentially creating and marketing toys with both genders in mind, rather than dividing the toy space into pink and blue aisles. Executives say this is a sign of the times, as Millennial parents in particular don't want their children to learn stereotypical gender habits.

Lego got some criticism when it launched a girl-focused Lego Friends line that was full of pink and purple bricks and girly themes that some bloggers and child development experts lamented was too gendered. But Lego said that the line was an entry point to get more girls interested in the toy maker's construction sets, and today, it is seeing girls buy more kits that would have typically been boy focused, like sets made for the Lego Batman film.

Hollywood is also adding more female characters to lead roles, and that's helping as well. "The folks at Disney are coming up with a formula that is more gender inclusive when it comes to the starring roles," says Skip Kodak, who is the head of LEGO Systems. "We have an opportunity to bring that to life in Lego play."

Dolls have been historically marketed to girls but even that category is seeing a revolution. Mattel's American Girl brand added the first boy character in the brand's 31-year history. Hasbro's newest Baby Alive doll now says "Mommy" or "Daddy" for the first time—before only "Mommy" was an option. And when Mattel added DC Girls-based cars to the Hot Wheels set, it purposely made the packaging gender neutral featuring blues and reds. In the past, the packaging would have almost certainly been pink.

"We want to be inclusive in our approach across gender and ethnicity," said Frascotti. "Instead of thinking, that's a boy brand or a girl brand, we see them as dual-gender." He said Star Wars, My Little Pony, Transformers—all of them have fans that don't fall into the legacy gender splits that occurred when those brands were launched. "Our approach is we build brands for consumers," he said.

Toys With Tech

When toy makers first understood that mobile devices were a threat, they rushed to link tablets to board games, dolls, and pretty much every other toy imaginable. Most of those early efforts weren't well received.

But this year, toy makers proved that they finally have a firmer handle on how and when to incorporate tech into a toy. Some of the toys that seemed to do this well include Spin Master's interactive Luvabella baby doll, Hasbro's bluetooth-connected Furreal motorized pet, Barbie's futuristic hologram Barbie, and Lego's app-based coding playset. Mattel also debuted a "smart" baby monitor earlier this year at CES. Wicked Toys is bringing back the classic 80s toy Teddy Ruxpin—which originally 'read' stories using a cassette tape—this time with app-powered storytelling capabilities.

"Barbie Hologram is a fun, interactive take on the virtual home assistant trend," said Laurie Schacht , a toy expert for industry publication Toy Insider. She added that Mattel's Internet-connected Aristotle baby monitor would be a good tool to play into the "smart home" trend.

Collectibles

These smaller toys—often sold for just a few dollars near the register—have been a strong performer for the industry. Sales of collectibles jumped 33% to $1.8 billion last year and represented 9% of the total industry's U.S. sales. So-called "blind packs" have been especially popular—little collectible toys that are sold in secretive packaging so you won't know what's inside.

At New York Toy Fair, pretty much ever toy maker is now in the collectible game. Mattel, Hasbro, Lego, Jakks—all some of the biggest players in the toy industry—all have collectibles for 2017. Spin Master's popular Hatchimal brand is going to dive into the collectible craze this year too. "It got very crowded this year, there is going to be some fall out," warns Silver.

Toy makers, however, think the trend will remain relevant for years to come. Australia-based Moose Toys, which generated a massive hit with the Shopkins brands a few years ago, say that collecting toys is a proven way that kids have played for decades.

"Collectibles are good for the industry, it is a repeat purchase that brings people back into the retailer," said Moose Toys co-CEO Paul Solomon. "But the key is that if we have multiple collectibles, they need to be differentiated."