Page 12 - Toy & Hobby Retailer Magazine May-July 2019

TOY FAIR SHOWCASE
MOOSE TOYS
Out of this world
Moose Toys has expanded its highly popular Treasure X line into space aliens. The range has been so well received, it’s already won an award, before it’s even on the shelves.
innovation,” says Moose Australian marketing manager, Khia Pledger.
“The [reaction to the] aliens has been super positive. I just came back from a meeting with the US team and they noted that the toy is also generating a lot of top-toy buzz in their market, which is always a good sign,” Pledger says.
Sparking this excitement is the combination of many current hot trends in toys.
“It's the mixture of slime and surprise, which makes it very distinctive. Plus, we've mixed
the compound play in with the unboxing experience,” Pledger says.
“Another key element is the dissection. You cut open the alien sack and there is a rib cage and a heart inside and you then have to pull all the gross-ness out to reveal the surprises,” she says.
In terms of the creation, Pledger says the idea for an alien dissection toy had been kicking around at Moose for a while, however, getting the slime element exactly right was a long process.
“There were quite a few different slimes that we had to go through before we found the one that really worked in this instance. Obviously the trend-of-the-moment is tactile play, so it was really important to get that compound exactly right,” she says.
“It can't be too sticky and it can't leave any residue on the hands because you don't want kids to have to go and wash their hands after they play.
“The slime we've got at the moment completely comes off the hands and there's no residue left behind, there's no cleaning involved,” she says.
There's more to come for both the core Treasure X line as well as the Treasure X Aliens range and judging by how the first line has taken off, you'll be hearing about this brand for a long time.
“We'll still continue to work on the core range of Treasure X, which kids are loving at the moment, but definitely in the subcategory of Treasure X Aliens there is more to come,” Pledger says. ❉
IN 2018, Australian toy business, Moose Toys, introduced its Treasure X boys collectible.
The toy – which combines exploration, surprise-reveals, rarity and a unique unboxing experience into a collectible toy – hit the market with a bang.
Optimising the ideal time to launch – action figures and accessories sales were up 10 per cent in the US – the largest toy market – in 2018 according to NPD – as well as capitalising on the strength of collectibles, as demonstrated by Lol Surprise, Moose brought an innovative boys collectible to market, targeting that ever-difficult five-and-up boys category.
On the back of that success, Moose has introduced a new, alien-version of Treasure X.
This new iteration takes the surprise, exploration, rarity and unique unboxing experiences from Treasure X and introduces a dissection element and sensory play, in the form of slime.
Treasure X Aliens requires kids to cut through the alien's skin, remove the rib cage and other organs and dig around in the slime to find the Galactic Treasure Hunter. Once they extract the Treasure Hunter, they can dig around further, with the opportunity to find a real Peridot gem. Once the treasures are uncovered, kids can put the slime back into the alien's head and squeeze it, watching it ooze out from the mouth, nose and eyes, providing them with a gross and fun repeat play pattern.
The collectibility comes in the form of 18 Treasure Hunters to collect, as well as different treasures to uncover within each alien.
Treasure X Aliens will hit shelves in June, but has already earned itself an award from the Australian Toy Association (ATA).
Being crowned the Action Figure of the Year at the ATA's Gala Dinner in March, Treasure X Aliens has already made waves with retailers.
“We felt that Treasure X Aliens was really unique to anything else out there
in the market [and winning an award] is always a really
nice way to get recognition from the industry for our
12 TOY & HOBBY RETAILER MAY / JULY 2019
For more information, contact Moose Toys. T: 03 9579 7377
W: moosetoys.com