Word: toying
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There are many reasons for the enduring popularity of the Rubik's Cube, according to its reclusive Hungarian inventor, Erno Rubik. The iconic toy is an intellectual challenge, it's accessible to people from all cultures, and it helps provide a sense of order and stability in an uncertain world. But the fundamental reason 350 million cubes have sold since 1980, Rubik says from his studio in Budapest, is its design: "People like its beauty, simplicity and form. It's really not a puzzle or a toy. It's a piece...
Whatever the magic, it's still working. As toy stores around the world feel the chill of recession, the Rubik's Cube is in the middle of a comeback. Global sales reached 15 million last year, up 3 million over 2007, according to Seven Towns Limited, the British firm that licenses all of Rubik's creations. When New York City toy retailer FAO Schwarz reintroduced the Cube 18 months ago it became one of the store's Top 20 selling toys within weeks; sales have stayed steady despite the economic downturn. In Britain, Cube sales are up 300% over...
...economy has spiraled down over the last few months, firms have executed a laundry list of liquidations. The Mervyn's department store chain, Levitz furniture outlet, Steve & Barry's apparel stores, Whitehall Jewelers and Linens n' Things have all shut down. KB Toys, the second largest toy retailer behind Toys R' Us, and Boot Town, a Western clothes outfitter, are running liquidations now, along with Circuit City. Look for more to come. Schaye says Hudson Capital's revenues increased tenfold in 2008. According to Erickson, the Great American Group saw a 300% revenue jump in 2008. He predicts similar growth...
...Silberhaus home, and there is the same wind-up Harlequin and Columbine—an almost eerily perfect Melissa Hough, whose triple pirouettes, wide unblinking eyes, and general look of tart, wooden sweetness was even more ideal than that of an actual porcelain doll. Rather than a toy soldier, though, Nissinen gives a virtuoso turn to a life-size bear danced brilliantly by Paul Craig in a costume that seemed impossibly restricting until he whipped out several 180-degree split saut de chats. Josephine Pra and especially Altankhuyag Dugaraa were an entertaining Grandmother and Grandfather, respectively, each pulling...
...hoarded the kind of toy soldiers that struck extravagant poses, and left those that stood stiffly at attention to the other children. At the age of nine, Andy did a book of watercolors, full of musketeers and damsels in distress, and romantically titled The Clang of Steel. When he was twelve, Andy staged a memorable performance, Lilliputian-style in a theater that he made himself, of the battle in The White Company, the Arthur Conan Doyle drama of a staunch medieval company of soldiers, which N.C. had illustrated. The old playroom castle still sits in Andy's studio...