New York Post: Not toying around

I played with toys yesterday.

Not because I was bored - really, I wasn't - but because the annual Toy Fair is taking place this week at the Javits Center.

There are more than 100,000 toys that'll be viewed by 31,000 guests - and how retailers react to the dolls, electronic games, tiny racing cars, etc., will go a long way to determining how healthy the US toy business will be this year.

Last year, the $16.5 billion US toy business had a so-so year. Sales were down slightly from 2011 and it appeared that moms and dads had more important things on their minds - like keeping their job, making tuition payments and paying for gas.

But this is a new year and every toy maker is optimistic that 2013 will be a turnaround year.

But how hopeful should they be? How would a couple of kids react to some of the 100,000 toys on display this year?

Since I am, chronologically speaking, a grown-up and have adult children, I "borrowed" two co-workers' kids to do some reconnaissance at Toy Fair.

One of my helpers, Rahm Kosman, a 6-year-old first-grader from Brooklyn, said one of his favorite toys at the fair was the Feber Ferrari F430 by Famosa.

"I liked the remote-controlled car because it is easy to control," said Rahm, as he tooled around a West Side showroom in a much larger toy automobile.

What did he think of the competing, larger toy car?

"It was too loud," he said. "Not as many buttons as a real car and the buttons did not work."

You got that toy makers? Lots of buttons and they have to work.

Emily Wilner, an 11-year-old from New Jersey, said she liked the Nancy doll by Famosa because it had lots of accessories that allowed for different looks and the company's Pinypon dolls, which came with "many interchangeable parts, which means I could make all sorts of different looks."

It appeared doll makers had to compete with video games and give kids lots of different looks to keep them interested.

This may sound odd but the Toy Fair is all business - kids are barred from the Javits floor.

I know. Such discrimination is incredible!

Needless to say, I didn't let Toy Fair's obstinate anti-youth attitude get in the way of a good column idea. So, with the help of Southard Communications, Rahm and Emily were invited into a showroom about a block from Javits to view, review and play with toys from 20 different manufacturers.

I'm going to give the names of a few of Southard's clients so they get publicity and the toy makers stuck on the child-despising Javits floor will be jealous. Some of the nice clients are Beatrix Girls, Fairy Tale Academy, Zuru's Robo Fish, Pinypon from Famosa, Ohio Art's nanoblock and Mobo Tot.

I decided to change the pace of this column today because I fear that I will have to write - and you will have to read - a lot about deficits, debt and other grown-up things over the next few weeks. Writing about "sequestration" doesn't make for a fun column.

These money topics are, of course, important to even toy makers. They won't be able to sell their products - no matter how entertaining they are - if moms and dads are broke, as is likely to be the case if Washington continues to behave as it has been.

So consider this a mental health column.

By JOHN CRUDELE