HABA always has some great games for the family, and they’re usually pretty stocked with new releases. This year was no different.

Monster Laundry – $19.99 – Ages 7+

Monster Laundry is an odd-monster-out in a world of HABA yellow boxed games. The game comes in a sturdy tin, in which you’ll find a large elastic cord, clothespins, and monsters. The cord wraps around all the players and they have to scramble to get all their monsters attached to the cord. All monsters with one pattern must be clipped to the cord segment to your left, the other to the one on your right. Once they’re on they need to be taken off. There’s several different ways to play. You can bet your bottom I made the PR rep play this one with me right then and there. I’m sure we looked quite amazing scrambling to clip monsters to a cord that was wrapped around ourselves. Available in the Spring.

Princess Magic Fairy – $12.99 – Ages 4+

A cooperative game, Princess Magic Fairy has players drawing symbols in the air or on players’ backs with a magic wand. If the symbol is guessed, its card can be added to the Fairy Circle. Get it wrong and the goblins get it. Once eight cards are placed in the Fairy Circle the game is won. This one was really cute, and looked super portable. The best part is the 4+ age range, so even little ones can get in on the magic action. Available now.

Crash Cup Karambolage – $27.99 – Ages 6+

Crash Cup Karambolage was one of the cooler games I saw at Toy Fair this year. A dexterity game, and modular, players have to flick their wooden discs around the course by using a string provided with the game. Pull the string taught to propel your disc and win the game. Lots of chunky wooden pieces. Enough to fill a good sized table. The pic to the right only shows a fraction of what’s available in the box. Available now.

Ghost Blaster – $14.99 – Ages 5+

Matching tile games are a dime a dozen these days, but Ghost Blaster adds a bit more excitement to the usual fare. Match tiles and blast ghosts. Be careful as ghosts can lock you away, then you’ll have to wait for another player to save you. There’s also a clock that counts down to the witching hour, so you need to be quick! Available this Spring.

Taxi Wildlife – $19.94 – Ages 5+

A really cool little game where you’re trying to pick up the most animals with your truck and create the longest route possible. A modular board keeps things exciting. Available now.

My Very First Game Series – $15-$35 – Ages 2+

Not all the games in this series are new, but it’s the first time I’ve ever noticed them. These games are meant for tiny hands, and are super simple to play. They help develop the very most basic skills of game playing, along with fine motor control and other skills. All packaged with cute themes, each game focuses on different things for baby to learn. With a one-year-old in the house, I’ll be picking up a few of these soon to get the little man started.

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This is the final summary post you’ll get from me before I start digging into the meat of my Toy Fair experience this year. Promise!

Today I technically only did a half day at the fair, as I needed to make sure I got home in time for other things. After waiting around 45 minutes for a shuttle, due to an inch of snow on the ground, I was able to get to the Javitz with a little time to explore before my visit with USAopoly. Thankfully I had that bit of time, as I found an area of the show I had completely missed the previous two days, and there just so happened to be a booth with a game there! The game was TAG, and it was a charming game about creating a collaborative art piece by all the players.

That was pretty much it, though. After seeing some pretty impressive offerings from USAopoly I hoofed it to the Port Authority to catch a bus to Hoboken where I could get in my van and make the 2.5 hour drive home. I barely made it through the door before being attacked by my 3 oldest wondering what I brought home for them, and my newly-walking 1 year old!

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You had to have seen this one coming. I mean, come on, I wasn’t going to attend Toy Fair for only a day!

By the way, this article needs to be more popular that David’s Toy Fair 2015—Jurassic World Games, Toys, and Lego post. Share it out, tell your friends. Make this post shoot right to the top of the Trending list on the page’s sidebar. I’ll love you forever if you do. Truly.

Anyway! Nothing starts off the day like a free cheese danish and a chat with W. Eric Martin in the Press Room. After that it was a morning of exploration, stopping at Blue Orange Games, All Things Equal, Griddly Games, AEG, KidPlay, ION, and Konami. A quick lunch and it was back to the grindstone, starting with Fantasy Flight Games and finally getting a look at the X-Wing Imperial Raider. Sadly, it was a bit smaller than I expected, but still impressive. It’s an inch longer than the Tantive IV, but side by side it’s pretty hard to tell the difference in length. It was kind of hard to get a pic through the glass, and there was no way they were taking it out to let me get a better look (and feel.)

I hit up a bunch more indie games that I’ll go into more depth with later, Zoch games (including a new version of Bandu!), then saw an amazing $15 plastic dice tower and Kosmos’ new editions of Kahuna, Lost Cities, and Ubongo.

Top that off with a ChiTAG get together to chat with some amazing people and that makes for an awesome, and tiring day. Tomorrow I’ll be hitting up USAopoly and a few other things I missed, and will then be heading home. Then all the gory details of what I saw will start emerging.

With that, I’m off to sleep!

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Scheduled for release in the spring, ahead of the film this summer, are two Jurassic World games from Hasbro.

The Brawlasaurs Battle Set features fighting wind-up dinosaur figures. A small slider on the underside of each figure is used to select bash, bite, or slash fighting styles for a simple rock-paper-scissors type resolution. But the real exciting part is the way the dinosaurs whack in to each other, spinning and knocking each other down.

The Wreck ‘N Roar Dinosaur Game includes tubs of Play-Doh to attach as additional “meat” on the sides of plastic dinosaur toys. The toys also have trigger-handles and operating jaws, so that players then try to bite off as much as they can of their opponents’ meat.

And since we’re on the topic of Jurassic World, here are some pictures of additional Hasbro toys and Lego construction sets also based on the upcoming movie.

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While technically not the first day of Toy Fair, today was my first day at the show. It involved getting up at 3:30 in the morning, braving the icy roads of Connecticut, enjoying a brief visit with my cousin in Hoboken where I parked, and taking a bus over to the hotel. After that it was off to the Javitz center to hit the floor and see what was going on!

My first two appointments were with LEGO and Hasbro, and both David and I will be posting about items from there in the days to come. I also met with Haba, Peaceable Kingdeom, AEG, a bunch of indie developers and more. Th day wrapped up with an after hours event at Steve Jackson’s pop-up Munchkin store, which was pretty amazing.

I got to checkout the new Magic the Gathering: Arena of the Planeswalkers board game, some great cooperative games, and some pretty amazing independent games like, Poop, Mobscenity, Funemployed, What the Food!?, Letter Tycoon, Billionaire Banshee, 49, The Appalachian Trail game, Hogger Logger, Twirk, and more. I saw a new party game for Hollywood Game Night’s Four Letter Words. I saw lots, and lots, of Munchkin.

In the end my feet are tired, I’m exhausted, but at the same time I’m having a ball. Toy Fair is unlike any other convention I’ve been to, and there’s nothing like being surrounded by toys & games, and the people who make/sell/love them. As the week goes by I’ll start posting more in-depth about what I’ve seen here, and what you can expect to see on store shelves throughout the year.

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A follow up on our previous posts about the Magic the Gathering Board Game, we now have some pictures from Toy Fair! The game, Magic the Gathering: Arena of the Planeswalkers, will be out this August, and follows in the footsteps of Heroscape. Note that awesome interconnecting cardboard base terrain for quick setup!

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There wasn’t a whole lot of game news today out of Hasbro’s annual Toy Fair presentation to investors. It was, however, the first time I’ve seen Dungeons & Dragons make an appearance at any of these events. It was only a logo listed next to WOTC and MtG. But still… progress!

Additionally, the company revealed a few statistics about Magic: The Gathering in 2014. The number of active players was up 6 percent, player spend grew by 11 percent, and the number of store play locations expanded by 5 percent (according to Hasbro’s 4th quarter financial report, to approximately 7,000).

Nevertheless, Hasbro continues to see a lot of additional growth opportunity for the property. In the United States, Hasbro believes that it has only hit about 40 percent of its potential consumer base, while internationally that percentage is closer to 10.

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New York Toy Fair begins Saturday and you can expect extensive coverage from Purple Pawn. Watch for reports beginning Sunday and continuing possibly for several weeks.

With all the great reporting we do from Toy Fair, Gen Con, and other events, I thought though that you, our readers, might also be interested in what it’s like working a convention from a press perspective.

The most important factor in how we cover a major show is time. We typically report from Toy Fair, for example, with two correspondents for 3 days. But that’s still not enough to cover everything. Last year, I saw more than 200 new games (and by that I mean games that were not just new to me but also new to the market) and still I missed a number of companies with which I had hoped to meet. This year’s list of exhibitors showing board or card games includes 169 different companies!

With all that time pressure, meeting game companies at a convention is primarily about getting just enough information to give a quick report on the latest products. Some good examples of reports from last year’s Toy Fair include Goliath, Gamewright, and Wonder Forge. Good Gen Con examples include Mayfair and Catalyst. There are occasions for covering a game in greater depth but convention reporting isn’t one of them.

While in most cases company representatives don’t need a lot of prompting to pitch us their products, I always remind them at the beginning that I’m just interested in what’s new. Otherwise, they might spend a lot of time going over products that aren’t news. Sometimes I also have to remind them that we cover all types and levels of game. Some assume that we only cover games for adults, or teens, or board games (but not card games), or some other subcategory.

In order to keep things moving along, I frequently have to cut a pitch short, decline a demonstration, or say “that’s enough” once I have the highlights. On most of the products, I’m only writing a couple of sentences anyway. Convention articles aren’t reviews, they’re first looks at products just coming on the market (or as often the case at Toy Fair, planned for release later in the year).

Of course, there are games that catch my interest enough to make me pause or even play through a demo. And sometimes I spend a few extra minutes talking to a company representative about business trends or the company’s future plans.

Also, no matter how tight my schedule is, I will always defer to a buyer. It’s a matter of professional courtesy. As important as publicity is to a game company, I understand that sales come first.

Besides the scoop on new products, the secondary benefits of meeting with companies at conventions include establishing a relationship, reminding them to send announcements later in the year, getting background information and news tips, learning about aspects of the industry from those involved, and arranging for review copies.

While we’re on the subject of review copies, the rules of Toy Fair prohibit press from soliciting free products. That’s not a problem for us here at Purple Pawn, as we’re a news site and only do the occasional review. However, I find it rare to meet with a company at Toy Fair and for them not to offer samples. Gen Con is the opposite. There the exhibitors are hit up for free samples by many reviewers, enough that they seem relieved when I don’t ask (which I rarely do).

Toy Fair and Gen Con differ in other ways as well, and in almost every respect, I have to say that Toy Fair is a much better experience from a press perspective than Gen Con. Registration is easier and not limited to one representative. Arranging for lodging is simpler, more flexible, and not appreciably more expensive in Manhattan than it is in Indianapolis. And most importantly, the Toy Fair exhibit hall is huge but not nearly as crowded, and so is much easier to get around than the exhibit hall of Gen Con.

A rule that is the same at both of these shows (and at every other I’ve been to) is that press are not supposed to photograph a booth or products without permission from the exhibitor. In all the meetings at all the shows I’ve attended, only once has my request to take photographs been refused. Unfortunately, I regularly see other people taking photographs without even asking.

One more thing I should address is the issue of appointments. Personally, about half my meetings or booth visits are by appointment. Only a few—Hasbro, Mattel, Lego, and Spin Master—who’s booths are entirely walled off—absolutely require an appointment. For a few more, it’s a very good idea because they can get so busy I wouldn’t catch them otherwise (and it’s only by trial-and-error that I’ve learned who’s likely to fit this category). And in a number of cases, particularly with companies that I haven’t met before, I set up appointments to make a certain impression. It tells the person I’ve made an appointment with that I consider that company important enough to commit time in advance.

So now you have some idea of what it takes to cover an expo as press. By the end of 3 days, my feet are sore and my throat is raw. I’ve written dozens of pages of notes and run through many batteries in my camera. And yet I love it!

 For a peak in to Toy Fair from an inventor’s perspective, take a look at Kim Vandenbroucke’s article on the subject from 2011.

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Steve Jackson Games has announced a pop-up store in New York City to coincide with Toy Fair NY 2015. In addition to items in the Munchkin line, the store at 353 W. 46st (between 8th and 9th Avenues) will feature a open gaming space, a three-day Munchkin Invitational event, and signings by Steve Jackson, John Kovalic, and Andrew Hackard.

Munchkin World NYC will open on Friday, February 13, 2015 and close Sunday the 15th. Toy Fair NY 2015 runs from February 14th through the 17th.

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