7大必备新锐玩具

在天上游泳的鲨鱼和会跳舞的机器人

    公司名称：Wow!Stuff

    所在地：英国伍尔弗汉普顿

    价格：均为49.99美元

    适用年龄：充气鲨鱼Air Swimmer适合8岁以上儿童；跳舞机器人My Keepon适合6岁以上儿童。

    英国玩具厂家Wow! Stuff公司首次在美国发售玩具就取得了巨大的成功。

    Wow! Stuff是一家仅有50名全职员工的小公司。仅仅两年前，该公司才决定从玩具进口商转型为玩具制造商。

    “我们不想再卖别人的产品了，”Wow! Stuff的CEO理查德•诺斯说。打定主意后，诺斯和其他两名同事组建了一支发明团队，其中一些成员还是科学家。这只团队决定创造出令人兴奋的、具有创新性的玩具。他们的格言是：“要么一鸣惊人，不然啥都不是！”

    Wow!Stuff公司于2009年推出了第一款玩具，那是一只能放在肩膀上的机器猴，它的名字叫Dave。“我们卖出了30万只玩具，但是没有一只在美国卖出的，”诺斯说。一年后，诺斯的一个朋友搓合他与玩具反斗城会面，诺斯也抓住了机会。“我们飞越了整个大西洋，只是为了争取10分钟的机会，把我们的点子展示给玩具反斗城，”他说。但这次会议最终却持续了4个小时。

    诺斯说：“他们非常喜欢我们的创意。”玩具反斗城立即拍板，与Wow!Stuff公司签订了一项协议，决定独家代理Wow!Stuff的两款新玩具在美国和全球的发售，正好赶得上2011年的假期季节。

    第一款产品是一套名叫Air Swimmer的遥控充气飞行玩具，它包括一只4英尺长的鲨鱼和一只巨大的小丑鱼，均由遥控控制，可以漂浮在空中。第二款玩具叫做My Keepon，这是一款互动式的跳舞机器人，它最早是为了帮助自闭症儿童而研发的。捅它、拍它、捏它，或者搔它的痒，它都会做出反应。My Keepon将于11月3日开始在美国销售。而Air Swimmer已于上月到店发售。

    诺斯说：“这两款产品的反响十分强烈。玩具反斗城说，我们能生产多少，他们就愿意采购多少。”

    译者：朴成奎

Air Swimmers and My Keepon

    Company: Wow!Stuff

    Location: Wolverhampton, England

    Price: $49.99 for both toys

    Age: Air Swimmers: 8 and up; My Keepon: 6 and up

    UK-based Wow! Stuff launches its toys for the first time in the United States, and it's doing it with a bang.

    Just two years ago, Wow!Stuff, a toymaker with 50 full-time employees, decided to move away from being a toy importer to a toymaker.

    "We didn't want to sell other people's products anymore," said Richard North, CEO of Wow!Stuff. So North and two other colleagues assembled a team of inventors, some of whom were scientists, and embarked on a mission to create exciting, innovative toys. Their mantra was "Wow! Or nothing!"

    "Dave the robotic funky shoulder monkey" was the first toy Wow!Stuff produced in 2009. "We sold 300,000 of those but none in the United States," said North. A year later, a friend proposed a meeting with Toys R Us, and North jumped on it. "We literally flew across the pond for a 10-minute chance to present our ideas to Toys R Us," he said. That meeting ended up running four hours.

    "They loved our ideas," he said, so much so that Toys R Us immediately locked Wow!Stuff in a deal to debut the company's next two toy products exclusively at Toys R Us stores in the United States and worldwide just in time for the 2011 holiday season.

    The first is Air Swimmers, which include a four-foot-long floating remote-controlled shark and giant clownfish. The second toy is My Keepon, an interactive dancing robot that was initially developed to help autistic children. It responds to poking, patting, squeezing and tickling. My Keepon goes on sale on Nov. 3. Air Swimmers hit stores last month.

    "The response has been tremendous. Toys R Us said they'll buy as many [of the toys] as we can make," he said.