The Play Around toy company is ready for its in-person debut at the Spielwarenmesse in Nuremberg, where it will present its exclusive new product lineup for 2023.
Play Around it’s finally make its debut at the Nuremberg Toy Fair this year. The successful toy company, driven by a mission to help children play and have fun, was founded in 2020 by the Pea & Promoplast group, by an experienced team specialised in multichannel concepts for premium collectibles and toys.
As quickly as 2021 Play Around saw strong results. It was appointed Master Toy licensor of the MeteoHeroes and developed the Masha Racconta Storie (Masha Tells Stories) project, in collaboration with Simba Dickie Group, owner of RFID technology, which was a huge success that reached the top of Amazon’s Best Sellers list.
2022 was also very successful. The company’s e-commerce business unit was restructured with a new manager, and with the launch of branded Amazon pages in Spain and Poland. Innovative products and properties were developed, which will be showcased at the next Spielwarenmesse.
At the Nuremberg Toy Fair, the company’s ‘Orange Box’ is located in Hall 12, at Stand H14. The entire Play Around team is present, available to demonstrate established projects, including Tata World, the phygital brand created by Pea&Promoplast. It led to the creation of a storytelling device in collaboration with Giocheria, one of the main Toy novelties of Christmas 2022. It is called the L’Orso Giò Raccontastorie (Giò Storytelling Bear), inspired by Giocheria’s historic mascot. In Nuremberg there is also some exclusive previews, such as the launch of the Satysfriends line, Play Around’s fidget toy label.
The first two projects developed within this new label are Tuuubalù and Fruity Pets. The first collection consists of six different subjects in cute, detailed and colourful shapes. Fruity Pets, on the other hand, are squishy toys for a female target. Until now, the market for stretch toys was exclusively male, with subjects such as dinosaurs or monsters. To make the toy attractive to little girls, small animals with colourful and interesting details were chosen.
The Kawais licence, on the other hand, will see a new phase of development in 2023, with experienced new professionals joining the development team to work on the licensing plan. After the toy line is created and the first projects finished, the contents of the IP will be presented with an initial twelve stories created by the writer Valeria Bellobono, Andersen Prize winner in 2019.
Argon, the brand that encompasses all of Play Around’s blaster and soft gun projects, will be launched in the next few days. Other big news of 2023 is the Disk Blast, a genuine innovation in the toy world: it is a game that combines the modes of a trading game with the challenging elements of an action game. Disk Blast will be developed under different licenses.
In short, 2023 will be a year full of distinctly new products, ideas, and projects, which Play Around will present at major trade events over the next few months. For instance, two new lines will be previewed in the Spring, at Distoys in London (30 May-2 June).
The full news is available in the January issue of Licensing Magazine.
