Page 10 - Toy & Hobby Retailer Magazine June-July 2020

AUSTRALIAN TOY HOBBY & LICENSING FAIR 2020
2020 ATA Product of the Year Awards
THIS year, the ATA presented its refreshed awards program to the industry. Switching from a predictive framework to a retrospective one, the revamped awards program became aligned with other global toy industry associations.
Presented at the Gala Dinner on the first night of the fair, the awards celebrated successes of 2019.
Taking out overall product of the year was small supplier Even Toys & Games with The Genius Square product.
The game works on a simple premise; players roll dice, place ‘blockers’ in the slots where the dice indicated and then race to fill the rest of the 6x6 cube with the remaining Tetris-like shaped blocks. There are 62,208 possible puzzles to solve, but there will always be one solution.
Even Toys & Games wasn’t the only smaller supplier to come away with an award, with Artiwood snagging the Specialty Award for the I’m Toy Pastel Melody Mix. Artiwood director Andrew McGregor told Toy & Hobby Retailer this win was especially poignant for the business as it was recognition that pastel colours impact sales
and perception. Meanwhile, Lego took the judges’ breath away with Lego Dots, taking home the gong for Judges Choice. The brand also won Hobby
Product of the year with its Land Rover Defender Technic set. However, it wasn’t just Lego taking home two awards, All Brands, Modern Brands, Moose Toys, Innovation First International and Mattel all took home two awards each.
All Brands owner Darren Hunter said that taking home two awards – for Rainbocorns and Bakugan – was great recognition for not only the company but for the brands as well.
“The wins are a great acknowledgement to the company. The team does a great job in sales, customer service, distribution and finance to ensure the product flows through to our retailers.
“We have a great partnership with our suppliers and together it works very well. The awards
have a great impact on the business and more importantly on the product or brand. It’s great recognition,” he said.
Innovation First national sales director Nic Eagle agreed and said that the awards for the VEX Offroad Truck and Build Blitz products brings heightened awareness to the STEM-based lines.
“We were very proud to win two awards with our VEX products. I feel we have a fantastic product and it is great to see it being recognised by the toy industry. I hope this recognition within the industry leads to further opportunity and sales for us and hopefully further recognition by consumers.
“These awards give greater confidence to retailers to give us stronger placement in their ranging and hopefully give us greater ammunition to build bigger and better kits for the future so
we can push ourselves to greater places in the construction and STEM fields,” he said.
“A huge congratulations to all the winners,” ATA executive manager Alice Sanderson said. “With so many amazing products submitted, I am sure it would’ve been hard for the 17 independent judges to choose just one,” she said. ❉
LEFT: The 2020 ATA Product of the Year Award winners.
BELOW: The 2020 Licensing Award winners.
HALL OF FAME INDUCTEE – DAVID TOLMER
David Tolmer was born in Melbourne in 1945, son of Australian toy pioneer and Hall of Fame legend Alex Tolmer, founder of Toltoys. Toys were clearly in the Tolmer blood and David worked in toy factories during school holidays, and as department manager for G.J. Coles when he left school. In 1965 he joined Toltoys, the largest toy manufacturer in Australia, selling the TV advertised ‘craze’ items – Superball, Superstuff, Monster Bubbles, Frisbee and Hula Hoops. In 1971 David married Deirdre and moved to Sydney, and later to Kenner Products USA, working on the development of the Six Million Dollar man toys and Play Doh. In 1984 David started Tolmer Toys, selling it in 1988 to join Kidz Biz as joint MD, responsible for sales with David Hendy. In 1993 David Hendy and Tolmer founded the toy company Funtastic.
RISING STAR WINNER – SAMANTHA ATKINSON – BENSONS TRADING Bensons Trading
GM of marketing and product development Samantha Atkinson won the ATA’s Rising Star Award at the Gala Dinner. Atkinson came
out on top against
finalists from
Warner Bros., Vuly, Moose and My Creative Box. “Samantha has a kind nature and infectious sense of humour that brings her colleagues together,” Bensons Trading said of her. “’Visionary’ best describes Samantha
- whether it be for product development or new business opportunities. Samantha has
a unique ability to change direction in the blink of an eye, moving from marketing, to sales to product development, to financials, to licensing. Sam is always seeking new opportunities to add growth and we have no doubt in coming years Sam will be the CEO of Bensons Trading,” the business said.
10 TOY & HOBBY RETAILER MAY / JUNE / JULY 2020