Word: toying
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Traditional toys and games account for two-thirds of the $24 billion toy market. And retailers Wal-Mart and Target report that toys are one of the few categories showing sales growth this season. That's welcome news for toy giants Mattel and Hasbro, and even more encouraging for retro-toy niche players like K'Nex, which projects revenue growth of 30% this year...
Despite plummeting sales of Furby- and Pokemon-related items this year, Hasbro returned to profitability in the third quarter, boosted by its slashng 750 jobs and consolidating toy operations at headquarters in Pawtucket, R.I. More sculpting and modeling is now done in China, closer to manufacturing plants. And the company points to rising sales of G.I. Joes--which began before Sept. 11--as vindication of its strategy of refocusing on core brands...
...will the toy trade be any less volatile next year? Probably not. Kids' fickle tastes ensure eBay auctions for the hottest toys, overstocks of past winners and frustration all around. But the prospect of more oldies being "refreshed" seems to suit Tyler Brown, 9, of Houston. On his wish list: "More PlayStation 2 games, lots of rescue heroes and more Lincoln Logs...
...Running on Empty The headlines were too much about Gary Condit, a conservative California Congressman, and too little about Chandra Levy, his intern, whose disappearance made the anonymous pol, who ultimately admitted to a friendship with the 24-year-old, Larry King's favorite chew toy. His shameless efforts to save his rep instead of aiding the investigation confirmed the public's worst views of politicians. He apparently interpreted September's events as a reprieve: Levy is still missing, Condit is running for re-election...
...sign of a welcome change in animation. Cartoons have bridged kids' and adult entertainment since the heyday of Walt Disney and Chuck Jones, but the field went through a long creative slump in the '70s and '80s, as programmers churned out Saturday-morning knock-offs made mainly to shill toys (My Little Pony) or repurpose sitcom characters (The Fonz and the Happy Days Gang). Today cartoons have undergone a renaissance, as kids' channels such as Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network have given their animators the freedom of auteurs. Smarter and more idiosyncratic, these animators have created shows like Cartoon Network...