Photo by Anton Olsen
Every year the Toy Industry Association hands out a number of prizes to showcase the best and most innovative toys of the year. This year was exceptionally good for a number of small companies and pretty nice to a few big ones as well.
Boy Toy of the Year might sound like the latest pop idol, but it is an actual category won by Bakugan with their 7-in-1 Maxus Dragonoid. My son was happy to hear that and quickly asked me when I would buy him one. Bakugan also won the Property of the Year.
GeekDad favorite LEGO NXT Mindstorm 2.0 made off with the Educational Toy of the Year award. I was quick on the draw and sent a quick email to our contact with Mindstorm in Denmark with a congrats. He was quite pleased with the news.
The Original HEXBUG was up against some stiff competition and got beat by Captain Owen’s Dolphin Explorer Boat in the Specialty Toy of the Year category. I was a bit disappointed, but there is always next year.
A small company, Cepia, with only 18 employees, walked away with a whopping 3 awards for their Zhu Zhu Pets line of Robot Hamsters: Girl Toy, Innovative Toy, and overall Toy of the Year. I’m very happy for them and it shows that even a small company can bring popular and interesting toys to market.
You can get a complete list of the winners at the TIA website: Toy Industry Celebrates the Best of the Best at Annual TOTY Awards Celebration
