Inside, the garage is warm and bright. Fluorescent lights hum overhead. Sunlight slips through a single window and lands on the curve of a long gray-and-orange racetrack. The thirty-three feet of plastic run nearly the length of the space, perched on folding tables and reinforced with wooden rails and black mesh safety netting.
I call it the tsunami of stuff. It's cresting. There are a lot of baby boomers. America's over-65 population reached 55.8 million in 2020, and an additional 42.4 million are in the 55-64 age group. This adds up to nearly 100 million people who have amassed a large amount of possessions - stuff they bought, stuff they got from their own parents, stuff their kids stuck them with.
The hottest toy of 1998 was sort of adorable, and sort of annoying. It couldn't do much - couldn't do anything, really - but it could look at you, it could say some nonsense phrases, and it seemed uncannily aware of the world around it. That's all Furby needed to pretty much take over the world.
Both LABUBU and Sanrio have passionate fanbases, and this partnership engages collectors and fans alike, blending timeless Sanrio appeal with the playful mischief that has made LABUBU a global icon.
Hasbro's Q4 result was not a mild beat. Revenue came in at $1.45 billion, up 31% year-over-year, beating estimates by over 14%. The engine behind it is Magic: The Gathering, which grew 141% in Q4 alone and nearly 60% for the full year. The Wizards of the Coast segment ran at a 46% operating margin for the full year, extraordinary for a consumer brand.
Mattel operates dozens of brands under its corporate umbrella, each with their own visual identity and brand voice. But, until now, Mattel has never had its own proprietary typeface for its overarching brand, instead opting to license multiple existing fonts on a global scale—an endeavor that was not only expensive, but also came at the cost of visual consistency across Mattel's many product lines.
As a parent myself, I know what I'm mostly looking for when buying another toy is that it'll ACTUALLY keep my kids engaged long enough to bring a sliver of peace to my home (a tough task, to say the least!). From Magna-Tiles and the new Toniebox 2 to colorful sensory tubes and a LeapFrog Touch and Learn eReader, my kids have tried out enough of these items to lead you in the right shopping direction!
Sex toys were pretty basic back then. Most were phallic in shape-even if they weren't necessarily meant to be used internally-made of mystery materials, and required actual batteries. The first sex toy I reviewed was a bullet vibrator that not only needed batteries, but its remote control was connected to the toy by a cord that was probably no more than 10 inches in length. Stockpiling AA and AAA batteries to keep my vibrators working was just as annoying as it sounds.
The traditional museum experience, pausing in front of an object, and absorbing its history visually or by reading its description, has long shaped how collectors and others relate to cultural treasures. Yet, over the last few decades, digital technology has quietly rewritten many of those rules, changing not only how collections are exhibited but also how they are documented, preserved, and even inherited.
My father kept manuals for products we hadn't owned in years, filed alphabetically in a cabinet. When I asked why, he looked at me like I'd suggested burning money. "What if we need to look something up?" The concept of finding any manual online in seconds just doesn't compute for a generation that had to rely on these paper lifelines.
When new stock is added to the site, it very quickly collapses under the weight of incoming traffic, leading to error messages or queues that never resolve. Any who do manage to get in before the site goes down are limited by strict purchase restrictions, except of course for those running the bots that are able to scoop up the stock in milliseconds.
The joint venture is now operational and in talks with major advertisers. Together, Hasbro and Animaj say their digital networks generate more than 50 billion views per year on YouTube alone. "Kids attention and curiosity continue to evolve faster than ever," said Sixte de Vauplane, co-Founder and CEO of Animaj. "With Lumee, we are building a bridge between advertisers and anew generation of digital-native kids."
A celestial projector if you want a night-light that is ~out of this world.~ This has a bunch of different colors and comes with a timer, so it will shut off after you or your little one has drifted off to sleep. The little astronaut projector makes great daytime room decor, too.