On Wednesday, July 22, the Fandads attended the first-ever Toy Insider Sweet Suite @ Home event. In the time of Covid and social distancing, this was a great way for toy brands and social influencers to connect and see the exciting new toys coming out later this year. For our first time attending, we were excited and made sure to take advantage of all that was offered.
Ok, so how does an online virtual show floor work? The answer is quite simple: with ZOOM! Here’s how the virtual floor felt like for me. Remember that scene in Ready Player One when Parzival and Aech go on a virtual spending spree and walk to the various kiosks to get their items. The Sweet Suite @ Home was something like that. The brands that were at the event had virtual booths where you can either ZOOM with the brand or chat with them.
When you ZOOMed with the brand, they demonstrated their toys for you and you were able to ask them questions about the toys. If the brand did not have a ZOOM option, you can chat with them about the toys and request press materials about the toys.
With all of the brands that we talked to, we want to share with you the toys that stood out to us at the event.
Bandai
If you are a fan of Rubix Cubes, Charaction Cube is a great variation on them. You can change the way the characters look by turning and twisting them and then trying to put them back into the original shape. While these might be a little easier to fix than a Rubix Cube they do come in some amazing characters that might speak to your fandom: Dragon Ball, Gundam, Naruto, and Gudetama.
LEGO
LEGO had some great pieces coming out later this year and the ones that stick out to this Fandad were the LEGO Art pieces. You can recreate some stunning images that you can hang around your office or home. The Marvel, Star Wars, and Beatles images would be great to display but these are not the only awesome things that they have coming out.
For fans of retro gaming or gaming in general, the upcoming LEGO Nintendo Entertainment System would be an amazing addition to your video game collection. The system not only comes with a retro television but the Mario on the screen actually moves when you turn the crank on the side. How awesome is that!
Of course, as fans of Star Wars, any new Star Wars set is always a must-have and this new Death Star Final Duel is pretty incredible. This set will keep you and your children entertained for hours and seeing the LEGO Emperor mini-figure on his throne is pretty cool.
Tonies
Tonies had a great presentation with their Toniebox. I loved the idea of my children sitting around this speaker and listening to a story and interacting with it. The box is created in a way that your children have to physically hit it to fast-forward or rewind and move the ears on the top to change the volume level. The little characters that are sold for the Toniebox have built-in stories and attach to the Toniebox via magnet. So even if your child knocks the box off a desk or table, the character will still stay on.
One of the great parts of the Toniebox is the ability to record your own stories on a blank character and share it with your children. Imagine having your children’s grandparents tell stories of their youth. This will be a great way for heritage to be passed down and history preserved. I can imagine myself recording some of the blog posts I have written to my children and record them on a character for them to hear as they get older. Toniebox would be a great gift to give this holiday season.
Playmobil
Playmobil hit me in the feels with some of their Back to the Future and Scooby-Doo line of toys. The Delorean is a fantastic piece and the light-up options just make this piece stand out! The Scooby-Doo set with the Mystery Machine would be another fun set to have. Speaking of Scooby-Doo they have a haunted mansion set coming out which is based on the mansion that we see at the beginning of every Scooby-Doo episode.
Educational Insights/Learning Resources
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| Deluxe Base Station |
I wish when I was younger I learned more about coding and I am glad that my children have that opportunity in this day in age. These playsets by Educational Insights are a great way for children to learn about circuits by creating objects that will either make a sound, produce light, or move due to what is needed to be done.
During the presentation, I was shown a rocket that emitted light if built correctly. The sides of the rocket showed the pattern to connect the pieces to make the rocket shine a light. The directions for the projects are straight and simple for any child to read without help from their parents. This was a great selling point for me because it let me know that my children can work on this and not rely on me too much for help. There are three sets in this space series and they all work together and can be used to create anything that your child’s mind can imagine.
Yes, friends, as you can see Sweet Suite had a lot for everyone and I can only imagine how it is at the actual event when you are getting your hands on the actual toys. We had a lot of fun and there are more toys we would like to talk about, but maybe we’ll just highlight them like we did here on a different post.
Tell us in the comments which toys we covered you liked and thanks for reading.
