Day 2 at the NYC Toy Fair 2007

It is Monday. We were dragging a bit when we got up in the am. Had breakfast at the W Cafe again. I had eggs and coffee. Robin had some kind of granola stuff with yogurt. She had to meet with a couple reps. This left me to wander around unattended and unsupervised, like a boy in a toy shop. There is definitely lots to see. There are hundreds of booths, each one with some interesting item.

It requires great discipline to go up and down the aisles. There is only so much time and so much to see. You can tell that the manufacturer reps love their toys. Everyone wants you to come into their booth and tell you about his or her product. In most cases it will take 10 minutes or more to see what there is to see and hear what their is to hear. If you show the slightest interest, you will get another 5 minutes of information at least, along with a catalogue and a card.

Of course, they all want a card from us. Being the junior member of the Toy Crossing firm I was not trusted with business cards. I just told the reps that my wife and I split up this morning and that she took all the cards with her...to Mexico. Most of them understood I was kidding.

I was not really overwhelmed by the numbers, I pretty much knew what to expect from the last Toy Fair I attended in 2005. I made a point of looking for specific things and scoping out items that we needed at the store. I found some pretty neat stuff, including some solar powered robots - our toy store does not sell toys that take batteries, but we have decided that alternative energy is okay (we also sell a fuel cell car kit).

The food was expensive at the Javits Center. Our lunch was $25.00 and it comprised only of a bowl of thin gruel and a crust of bread. Robin at the gruel and I had the bread. After that we both gnawed on shoe leather for a while to get what nourishment we could.

Robin had more meetings with reps while I made a pass at another floor of the Javits Center. Lots more neat stuff. I found a company that makes some interesting books with layer after layer of the anatomies of various animals. However, I only made a mental note of it and when I tried to bring Robin back to the same spot later found it had seemingly vanished. I reality, it took two more days for me to find the place again.

Robin and I were finally reunited at about 3:30. We explored some of the areas I had not yet traversed. Before we went to the Toy Fair we made a vow not to write any orders until we got home. This gives us time to think about what we need and what will fit in with our image and inventory. The manufacturers don't like this policy and throw incentives our way along with a bit of arm twisting to try to get us to commit. Even so, we remain strong and continue the walk about.

It is really quite hard to describe Toy Fair to anyone who has never been there. Row after row of toy manufacturers presenting their wares. There are baby toys, plush toys, gadgets, electronics, wood building toys, magnetic toys, games, balls, rockets, and on and on. At a little after 6:00, and collecting about 10 pounds of catalogues, we finally called it a day. We trekked back to our hotel on 5th Avenue and dropped off our stuff.

At about 7:30 we wondered around for about 8 blocks looking for a restaurant for dinner. We found that our leg hurt in many places (a code phrase in my family which means expensive). My feet already hurt, so we finally compromised on a pain in the ankle. Actually we found a very nice restaurant, 115 W 40th St, New York 10018 Btwn Bway & 6th Ave, called Giggles. I ordered their Pork Chop Espanol. It was so good, it had me speaking Espanol before the evening was at an end. I had a Guiness with it. Although it was rather like eating a mixed metaphor I enjoyed it immensely.

After dinner, we made our way back to our hotel room at the 373 5th Avenue Hotel. On the way back I was struck by the fact that our Hotel was on the corner of 35th street, not 37th as you might expect from the address. In any case we reached our cozy room and crashed for the night, but not before I wrapped my right foot in an ace bandage in preparation for the next day's march.

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W.J. Rayment is the author of How Not To Build an Addition his wife owns and operates Toy Crossing a toy store in Harbor Beach, MI.