Aussie woman reveals how super realistic baby dolls 'saved her life'

An Australian woman has revealed how becoming a 'mother' to a set of ultra realistic dolls helped cure her chronic illness and now she's trying to raise awareness for the form of therapy. 

In an essay written for lifestyle site Mamamia, Patrizia Bartolomei explained that her life and health went downhill after she lost contact with her three sons, almost 20 years ago. 

"I grieve for my kids. They're not dead, but I grieve for them because I can't talk to them… I don't know what's going on in their lives," she wrote.

"I couldn't cope. I kept crying all the time. I would just cry and cry and cry." 

Bartolomei wrote that she struggled with depression and fibromyalgia, and was placed on 15 medications by her increasingly helpless psychologist. 

"[Then] three years ago, I got so desperate that one day I just typed 'realistic-looking baby dolls' into Google and [Reborn doll artist] Annette Kravchenko's videos popped up," she wrote. 

"I spent hours and hours looking at her tutorials and her babies that looked so real."

Bartolomei sought out an Australian artist who created 'reborn dolls', which are dolls created to resemble a human infant with as much realism as possible.

"The minute she put that baby doll in my arms I just burst into tears. It gave me a nurturing feeling, the feeling a mother gets when she holds her newborn."

Now Bartolomei "has quite a few babies" and she takes her dolls everywhere she goes, complete with a pram and car seat.

"It's changed my life completely. I'm down to three medications. Even my GP can't believe it," she revealed. 

"Just because I'm 64 and I have a pram and I have a therapy baby, it doesn't mean I'm crazy.

"When I'm out with one of my babies, most of the time, people think she's real. But my psychologist said to me, 'Don't fool people, because it's not right'. 

"If people say, 'Oh, your baby looks gorgeous,' I always say, 'Thank you. She's my therapy baby'." 

As an advocate for the form of therapy, Bartolomei has a YouTube channel where she documents her life and a Facebook support group for other 'reborners'. 

"There's about 20 of us and we meet up every three weeks," she explained. "I want people to be able to find a certain amount of peace, like I have."

There are several online retailers of reborn dolls in New Zealand and similar online support groups for Kiwi 'reborners'. 

Baby Talk: What to do when your child refuses to share with others?

DUBAI: It’s a situation mothers stand confused and embarrassed in the face of. No attempts to explain to the child help, and no reprimand works.

When a child refuses to share a toy with others, it’s simply because they’re defending what they consider an “extension of themselves,” and accepting to share that toy with others means, for them, that they’ve given up “a piece of themselves.”

The truth is that children under age three tend to consider every one of their toys their personal property, even in public play spaces, where they refuse to share them even with a friend. Therefore, quarrels among children are usually about ownership of things or games.

How can a mother behave in a situation like this?

At home, have them choose the toys and things that they like a lot, and agree with them that these are “just theirs” and will not be shared with anyone.

In turn, explain to them that it’s all right if some of the other toys are shared with the friends they love.

Don’t force them to share with other children when they refuse, but show them how wonderful it is to share by saying, “Okay, you can play with your truck now, but it’s all right if you lend it to your friend when you’re done.” When they do, hug them and say, “Look how happy he is that you lent him the truck!”

 Lay down a few rules for shared playtime, by saying, for example, “You can take the toy that no one is playing with; otherwise, you have to ask your friend to lend you the toy they have. If they do, lend them the toy of yours that they pick out.”

Use a timer if the competition for a toy gets heated between your child and another child. Tell them that each of them will have the toy for five minutes and will then give it to the other. Let the beeping of the timer judge between them. Children under three years old may not understand sharing, but they may like the game of exchanging toys at a certain time.

If the children continue to quarrel over the toy, take it away and say that they’ll have to make do with the other toys; then they’ll be obliged to accept the principle of sharing because they’ll find that it’s in their best interest.

Remember that you have to set a good example for your child on the subject of sharing, by dividing a sandwich with their father in the presence of the child, for example, or drawing their attention to your neighbor’s intentions, saying “Look, our neighbor will take the vacuum cleaner and will return it to us in a little while.”

The plastic problem with those Coles supermarket toys

If you’re planning on throwing your kid’s Coles mini-toys in your yellow-topped bin once the craze is over, think again.

While the packaging they come in is recyclable, the Little Shop toys themselves are not.

“While the mini collectables and accessories are not made from recyclable materials, our customers and enjoying and keeping them for the future which means they aren’t heading to landfill,” a Coles spokesman said.

“Customers are able to recycle the wrappers at their nearest store through our in-store REDCycle program.”

The toys have been a hot topic with some consumers, as the plastic toys were brought in around the same time as Coles removed single-use plastic bags from its checkouts.

The supermarket chain then changed tack, announcing it would offer free reusable plastic bags indefinitely, before again changing its mind and ending the free bag offer on August 29.

The spokesman said the idea behind the toys was they were kept and collected rather than thrown out.

“We are already finding Little Shop is popular with many of our customers of all ages and customers have said they are excited about being able to collect tiny versions of the products they buy every week,” he said.

The spokesman added that Coles customers have the option of not accepting a toy – one is offered for every $30 spent – at the checkout.

There is an online market for the toys, as people look to buy the missing ones to complete the set.

Online site eBay has thousands of listings for people looking to sell the toys.

Some of the more extreme prices include a $7000 asking price for a complete set, or $2500 for the miniature version of toilet cleaner or $500 for a tiny jar of Nutella.

There are some more reasonable prices too – like 50 cents for the box of tea or dog food collectable.

Ranveer Singh and Manushi Chhillar come together to promote e-commerce fashion brand, Club Factory

Publicis Beehive, the full-service ad agency from Publicis Worldwide has won the creative mandate of popular Chinese e-commerce fashion brand, Club Factory. As its creative partner, Publicis Beehive will play an integral role in launching the brand in India. To further the cause of the brand in India, Club Factory recently announced Bollywood’s leading star and youth icon Ranveer Singh and Miss World Manushi Chhillar as brand ambassadors. The two together star in a high decibel brand campaign that has been executed and conceptualised by Publicis Beehive. The film portrays the broad range of products available on the platform and how users can own these trendy & factory priced brands at just the click of a button.

Watch the spot:

A popular online shopping brand across the world, Club Factory has a strong presence in South Asia, Europe, the United States, the Middle East and other regions. What makes Club Factory unique is that it allows users to shop through millions of products that are trendy and fashionable and available at unbeaten prices.

Commenting on the partnership and the launch of the brand in India, Aviva Wu, Marketing Director, Club Factory said: “Club Factory has managed to carve a unique niche in the hearts of the consumers across various markets that we operate in. India is no exception with consumers, especially the youth, having taken a liking to the brand in a very short span of time. We have ambitious plans for the market and are glad Publicis Beehive is our creative partner.”

On winning the mandate, Paritosh Srivastava, COO – Publicis Beehive said: “The Indian online retail market is at an interesting juncture right now with a plethora of brands vying for some share of the customer’s attention and also his wallet. Though a late entrant, Club Factory is already a well-known brand and our task was to make it a popular & regular online partner of its patrons and keep them coming back for more. With the inaugural launch communication already out, we are confident of achieving that.”

Sharing her views on the film, Shyamashree D’Mello, ECD & Head of Creative Services, Publicis Beehive said: “It was great fun working on the Club Factory launch campaign, as it challenges the notion of fashion being the fiefdom of expensive brands. The bonus was getting the energy of Ranveer Singh and the elegance of Manushi Chillar, paired together for the first time ever, to do that. The light-hearted reverse snobbery they bring to the fore, really hits home as it’s all about being trendy and original in style choices, but paying a fair price for it. Fashion pundits be damned!”

The film has been launched on various digital platforms and has been receiving some rave reviews from the viewers. It has already surpassed 24million views on Youtube since it went live a few days ago. The campaign has also been launched across various platforms including television, digital, outdoor, print etc.

Campaign credits:

Client: Club Factory
Client Team: Aviva Wu
Agency: Publicis Beehive
MD & CCO: Bobby Pawar
MD: Srija Chatterjee
COO: Paritosh Srivastava
Creative Team: Shyamashree D’Mello, Avinash Parab, Savita Nair, Nikhil Warrier, Harish Iyengar, Shreyas Shetty
Account Management: Smita Das, Khushbu Hisaria
Account Planning: Binita Tripathy
Production House: Prodigious
Production Team: Vandana Watsa, Anup Das, Andalib Patel, Sajid Shaikh
Director: Karan Kapadia

Resource: https://brandequity.economictimes.indiatimes.com/

This disturbing theory will change the way you watch Toy Story forever

Toy story might be the most iconic and memorable animated movies of all times, but a child’s theory might just destroy all your happy memories of the film.

Baron Stigmund took to Twitter to share what his daughter had blurted out while watching the Pixar classic - and some people found it very troubling.

Baron Stigmund wrote, "My daughter just ruined Toy Story for everyone. She said if one of the toys died, Andy wouldn't know and he'd carry on playing with its corpse."

The brutal tweet left people horrified and freaking out.

While one user said: "Totally didn't just ruin my childhood or anything,” another replied, “Well that's just scarred me for life.”

Toy Story has been the subject of a number of bizarre fan theories over the years.

Fans have speculated that the heartbreaking scene where Jessie is ditched by her owner is actually Andy's mother.

There's also the theory that Andy's parents are mid-divorce and that's why his appearances are kept to a minimum in the film.

A Tiny Version Of This Physics Toy Is Revealing Quantum Secrets

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — A simple toy is helping scientists understand new details of a mysterious quantum process.

The rhythmic click-clacking of the metal balls in Newton’s cradle has long entertained physics students. Now, scientists have re-created the toy on an atomic scale, using it to probe how quantum systems reach a balanced state known as thermal equilibrium.

Leave a mug of hot coffee on the counter, and it will gradually cool until it reaches thermal equilibrium, matching the temperature of the room. That process, called thermalization, is well understood on the scale of coffee cups. But at the quantum level, thermalization becomes murky.

“This is an area of physics that we fundamentally don’t understand,” says physicist Benjamin Lev of Stanford University, who presented the work June 26 at the Quantum Thermodynamics meeting at the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics at the University of California, Santa Barbara. That lack of understanding of such a basic process means that “it behooves us scientists to investigate,” Lev says. So he and colleagues studied how introducing chaos into a quantum Newton’s cradle paves the way for thermalization.

Newton’s cradle consists of suspended metal spheres dangling in a row. Pull back one ball on the end and let it fall back to hit its neighbor, and a ball on the other end pops out before swinging back and repeating the process. This regularly repeating motion continues until friction slows the balls’ swing.

The quantum version replaces those spheres with a row of chilled, laser-trapped atoms. Lev and colleagues created an array of about 700 such quantum Newton’s cradles, each composed of around 50 atoms of the element dysprosium, and kicked them into motion with a laser.

For the quantum Newton’s cradle to thermalize, all the atoms must be moving randomly — akin to the jiggling molecules in a cup of coffee — instead of in a regular back-and-forth pattern. To achieve that randomness, Lev and colleagues took advantage of the fact that dysprosium atoms are magnetic. In addition to colliding with one another, the atoms tugged on one another magnetically. That additional interaction introduced chaos that scrambled the atoms’ motions (SN Online: 9/16/13).

By changing the orientation of the atoms’ magnetic poles, Lev and colleagues tuned the strength of the magnetic interactions and studied how the system approached equilibrium. At first, the atoms rapidly progressed toward thermal equilibrium, then switched to a slower advance, Lev and colleagues report in a paper published May 2 in Physical Review X.

The result could be important for designing ultrasmall devices (SN: 3/19/16, p. 18) and quantum computers, which could perform efficient calculations using quantum mechanics (SN: 7/8/17, p. 28). “If you want to have a quantum computer, it will be very far off equilibrium,” says physicist Jörg Schmiedmayer of Technische Universität Wien in Austria, who was not involved with the research. That’s because, in equilibrium, information is lost thanks to the scrambling of particles’ properties.

So understanding how quantum systems reach equilibrium is a rapidly developing topic of study. “In 20 years … we will have this completely different understanding of the thermodynamics of quantum systems,” Schmiedmayer says.

FUNKO ADDS IRON SPIDER AND MORE AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR TOYS

Much like Thanos‘ singular drive to get all of the Infinity Stones to complete his little pet project, we know there are many of you who will not feel complete until you own the entire line of Avengers: Infinity War toys from Funko. Well, just when you thought your collection might be done, the venerable toy company has announced several new additions to their existing Infinity War releases via their official blog.

Warning: a few of these figures can be considered spoilers for the movie, so if you haven’t seen it yet, you best get on that before you check out the pictures.

First off, there’s a new two-pack in the Vynl line, which features the Mad Titan Thanos himself, complete with a fully stoned Infinity Gauntlet, together with the kid who threw webbing in his face, Peter Parker, in his Tony Stark created Iron Spider armor. For the classic Pop! vinyls line, we have a bearded and rugged Captain America in a new pose (a Walmart exclusive), the Iron Spider (a Target exclusive), and the “Stonekeeper,” who we of course know better as Cap’s World War II menace Red Skull, who is a Funko shop exclusive. And the Hulk busting out of his Hulkbuster armor figure is available only at GameStop; it’s a six inch super sized figure. Hey wait…that never happened in the movie!

You can check out images of all the new Avengers: Infinity War Funko products in our gallery below. Each of these new toys should be hitting shelves sometime early this summer.

Which of these toys from the Infinity War line is your must have item? Be sure to let us know in the comments.

Toys for Bob created a special tool called Spyroscope to help develop Spyro Reignited Trilogy

Now that the Spyro Reignited Trilogy has been announced, fans will no doubt want to know more. Lucky for them we have some very cool Spyro Reignited Trilogy details to share.

Toys for Bob is handling development duties on Spyro Reignited Trilogy. Design Director Toby Schadt has revealed a tool the team used to try and make the remaster feel as close as possible to the original.

Spyro Reignited Trilogy Details

Spyroscope is a tool developed in-house at Toys for Bob. Its function is to scan the code and assets of the original game and convert the data into a usable form.

Toys for Bob’s programmers and designers can then use the information obtained to recreate those original games as closely as possible. Schadt describes the Spyroscope as a way for the development team to “magically slurp” information from the originals. He adds;

The Spyroscope is obviously an incredibly ingenious piece of technology that when used with other tools allows Toys for Bob to be very faithful to those old PSX games.

This is something that fans will definitely want when it comes to Spyro Reignited Trilogy details.

From the looks of things, Toys for Bob has done a wonderful job of updating the classics and making sure they remain faithful.

We’ll find out how good a job on September 21.

Buy Your Son Girls’ Toys If You Truly Believe In Equality

“Boyz like to play rough. They climb in trees and play in the dirt. Boyz love finding trouble!” This is an actual quote written on a tag attached to one of my 18-month-old’s shirts. The funny thing is, the shirt is a really dapper little button-down and looks like something he would maybe wear to church — it’s not really a rolling-in-the-mud kind of shirt. Regardless of what the shirt itself looks like, this tag makes my skin crawl. Children start to get messages about gender norms from birth. From the toys we buy them, to the clothes we dress them in, they start to get a sense of what they are “supposed” to do as a boy or girl from the moment they are born. That's why I think it's not enough to be "neutral" about your choices: I think you need to buy your son some girls' toys.

A BBC experiment dressed a female toddler in boyish clothes and a male toddler in girly clothes, and filmed volunteers interacting with them. The strangers gave the babies toys based on their perceived gender. The baby perceived to be a girl was given a doll while the "boy" was given toys related to spatial intelligence like a shape sorter, and wrangled onto the ride-on toys by a volunteer.

I come across this issue all the time when buying toys for my son. I was looking for a toy vacuum once and — rather unlike the range on offer at P.C. Richardson — the overwhelming majority were pink. When I shop for clothes, all of the t-shirts available for boys say things like “mischief maker,” “high energy,” and “mess maker” (I cannot pretend to be innocent here, those are all shirts I have bought myself). But when I take a step back, it’s easy to see that by and large girls are encouraged to nurture and be fancy, and boys are encouraged to be wild, mischievous and get their hands dirty.

These stereotypes have implications that run much deeper than the toy aisle at Target. What happens to the little boy that doesn’t like to dig in the dirt and play rough but, rather, wants to play with dolls and carry a purse? What about the little girl who wants to play with trucks? By creating toys and clothing marketed toward gender stereotypes, we are sending children the message that anything that does not fit inside these two categories is wrong.

On a recent trip to Target, my son came across a pink baby-doll stroller and almost flung his body out of the shopping cart trying to reach for it. He wanted to push around that stroller so badly. I bought it for him and when we got home, we put his doll inside and took it for a walk. As silly as it sounds, I know that some people would take issue with me letting my son play with a pink doll stroller, or with dolls in general. Adults love to project our own insecurities and biases onto our children — we do this all the time whether or not we are even aware of it. Is it wrong to encourage a boy to be nurturing and gentle? Wouldn’t I want my son to grow up to be a loving and warm father?

“Boyz play rough.”

I don’t want my son to play rough. Granted, children play with their whole bodies and sometimes wrestling and rolling around with each other on the floor is part of that, but why the word rough? I want my son to play fair. I want my son to play inclusively, letting everyone join in the game and have a turn. I also don’t really want him to “love finding trouble” either. I want him to love finding joy and beauty in everything he sees. I want him to love himself and be secure in who he is. I want him to love with his whole heart. Climbing trees and digging in the dirt are fine — as long as he knows those are not the only things boys are supposed to like.

The way I see it, so many of the issues we are facing today can be traced back to the way we encourage boys to be rough and at the same time teach girls to be meek people-pleasers. In light of the #MeToo movement and the way gender stereotypes are portrayed everywhere from our toy stores to our media, and even in our White House, we need to be even more mindful about how we are raising our sons. And it starts before they are even born, with "guns or glitter" sex reveal cakes and the like.

We need to teach our children that they can be whatever they want to be, and whoever they want to be. And we're doing a pretty good job of teaching girls that they can be whomever they like, can dress however they like, but the double standard remains: boys don't dress in girls' clothes, don't play with girls' toys.

So yes, I bought my son a pink stroller and some mermaid bibs that he was pointing to (he calls mermaids MEEMEES, it's adorable) and I am not saying that this is the answer to the world’s problems — but if we encourage every child to play with all the toys, and not just the ones we think they’re supposed to play with, I think it's a step in the right direction.

Toy Fair Is Flush With Poo-inspired Games And Trinkets

There’s plenty of potty humor in kids’ books and movies. Now, it seems that toymakers have also gone to the toilet for their latest creations.

Mattel, a company best known for its Barbie dolls, is set to release a game called Flushin’ Frenzy that sends a brown plastic poop flying into the air.

Rival Hasbro, whose water-squirting game Toilet Trouble was a hit last year, stuck with the potty humor this year and released Don’t Step in It, a game in which players are blindfolded and have to avoid stepping in poop that’s molded out of a claylike substance.

Toy analysts and experts say the potty-related toys are hitting stores because of the popularity of the poop emoji, which has also made it more acceptable for parents to buy poop toys for their kids. At this week’s New York Toy Fair, the industry’s biggest gathering of the year, toymakers showed off poo-shaped action figures, squishy toys and other creatures from the toilet.

“Yeah, poop is a theme,” says Juli Lennett, the toy analyst at market research company the NPD Group. “Kids think it’s funny.”

Sticky the Poo, a squishy likeness with eyes, clings to walls and ceilings when thrown. The company behind it, Hog Wild, also sells a rainbow version called Sticky Unicorn Poo. Its Sticky the Plunger is sold separately.

There’s poo for collectors, too. Flush Force, by toymaker Spin Master, sells 150 nickel-size mutant critters that kids can collect. Poopeez, meanwhile, makes tiny, squishy collectibles with character names such as Pooji, Skid Mark and Dumpling.

Poopeez are aimed at boys age 7 and older, says Ashley Mady, who created Poopeez and works for toy company Basic Fun. But she thinks the appeal will spread.

“We really believe poop is for everyone,” she says.

Toy Donations Bring Out The Kid In Animals At Memphis Zoo

The doorway was a little small, but that didn't stop Mwelu from squeezing his way inside for a quick look.

Mwelu, a Western Lowland Gorilla, and his three female companions weren't sure what to make of the new addition to their habitat at the Memphis Zoo, but simian body language seemed to indicate they were impressed.

"It's not about just giving toys to the animals," noted curator Courtney Janney. "It's about changing up their environment. That's not just physical stimulation; it's mental stimulation as well."

Thanks to Janney and plenty of Facebook friends, the zoo's animal population has lots to stimulate them these days.

Janney came up with the idea of collecting children's toys, those the kids had outgrown or in which they had lost interest, and giving them to her animal family.

"I'm part of a Facebook group where I donate or sell my kids' stuff," said Janney, a mother of two. "It's always been in the back of my mind that if I asked for donations to the zoo, people might donate."

And donate they did -- the fort that enthralls the four gorillas; several plastic cars, just the right size for the Sulawesi Crested Black Macaques to sit in or (more likely) tip over; slides, basketball hoops, sand tables and water tables.

"It was amazing to me because people could have very easily looked to sell them," Janney said. "But I posted a picture of a monkey with one of those Cozy Coupe cars, and people just went nuts over it."


It really is a win-win, Janney noted. The donations keep discarded toys out of the landfill, while providing the stimulation animals need. Making sure they get it is part of the zoo's accreditation process.

Jennifer Brown is a regular zoo patron who saw Janney's Facebook appeal for toys. She sent a stock photo of the fort she was willing to donate.

"One of our favorite family outings is the Memphis Zoo," Brown, a mother of three, said in a video Facebook produced for its Community Voices feature. "She (Janney) said, 'You've made every monkey's Christmas dream come true.'

"I chuckle because I think, 'that was in our back yard. Now, primates are playing on our castle.'"

Janney said "it speaks volumes" that the community has been so supportive of the zoo through the toy donations.

"They just donated without hesitation," Janney said. "They were showing it to their kids, and the kids were totally willing to donate too."

There are certain donations that cannot be accepted -- no sharp edges, no metal toys, no toys with lots of parts since some of the animals, Janney notes, are very adept at taking toys apart.

"But," Janney added, "if anyone wants to donate, I'm willing to talk to them about pretty much anything. Some of our animals like to destroy the toys, so we're always looking for donations."

Young Girl Distributes Toys to Marathon Runners in Virginia Beach to Raise Awareness for IBS

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. – A 12-year-old girl has been handing out stuffed Poo-nicorn toys to runners to help raise awareness for Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), which she suffers from.

Anastacia Wartmann also has arthritis, and has handed out toys at the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington D.C. and the Wicked 10k in Virginia Beach recently.

According to Swerver PR, the toys that Wartmann has been handing out are a mixture between a poo emoji and rainbow unicorn.

Wartmann gave her first Poonicorn Droplings to an Angle Runner in September when she raced in the Camp Lejune Marine Corps 1/2 in North Carolina.

“I can be sad about it or I can just be happy. Poonicorns help me do that,” said Wartmann about how handing out these toys, which she believes, makes her feel better about what she goes through with her illnesses.

Her goal is to make runners smile when they see the notes she has attached to the droplings toy. Even though she has arthritis, and it is hard for her to write them, Wartmann write original inspirational and motivational notes for each of the runners who receives a droplings toy.

The 7th graders from Great Neck Middle School is active in Girl Scouts and is also involved with Ainsley’s Angels, where in the last year, she has raced in Triathlons, 5k, 8k, 10k and 1/2 and full marathons as part of representing the organization.

Meet the 2017 Nominees for The National Toy Hall of Fame

IS A MAGIC 8-BALL SUPERIOR to Matchbox cars? Is toy food more fun than the paper airplane? Is sand a more enduring source of joy than Risk? These are just some of the questions posed by this year’s nominees for inclusion in the National Toy Hall of Fame.

The Strong Museum of Play in Rochester, New York, has just announced the finalists for 2017 induction. The 12 playthings up for consideration are the games Clue, Uno, and Risk; brand-name classics Matchbox cars, My Little Pony, Transformers, and PEZ dispensers; vintage holdovers the Magic 8-Ball and the Wiffle ball; and a few broader categories of toys—play food, paper airplanes, and sand!

The National Toy Hall of Fame, curated by the Strong Museum, currently recognizes 62 other toys from over the years, including Etch-A-Sketch, LEGO, the ball (all of them), Star Wars action figures, and the Slinky. In 2016, both Fisher-Price Little People and Dungeons & Dragons made the cut. The museum, billed as the National Museum of Play, has special exhibitions of the selected toys, which are chosen for their ability to inspire imaginative play and wonder over generations.

This group of finalists all seem like heavy hitters, but at most a handful will be chosen for induction, so it’s anybody’s guess. Transformers and My Little Pony have high modern profiles, but neither can match the simple, universal appeal of the paper airplane or a Matchbox car. And it’s hard to imagine any more basic and primal toy than sand (maybe the first toy?) with which kids can excavate pits, build castles, or bury their parents.

The honorees will be announced in a ceremony on November 9, 2017, but until then, let the playground arguments commence

The Lessons Of Fidget Spinners

YOU can spin it on your nose, chin, finger or tongue. Some include LED lights, others resemble a ship’s wheel, or even a skull and crossbones. The fidget spinner has three paddle-shaped blades attached to a central, weighted disc containing ball bearings. Flick a blade and it spins, for anything up to 12 minutes in an advanced version from Japan. It was originally designed to help calm children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder or autism, but swept the world earlier this year as a toy that everyone can play with.

Retail sales have undoubtedly slowed recently, says Mark Austin of ToyWorld, a trade publication—good news for the schools that have banned it as too distracting for pupils. But the spinner has created a new “fidget” category of toys. And the global toy industry, which was surprised by its success, has learned lessons.

The fad started in America in February. By May, all 20 of the top-selling toys on Amazon, an online retailer, were either fidget spinners or fidget cubes, a close relation. There have been many such crazes—who can forget the great loom-band mania of 2014?—but none that spread as fast. Frédérique Tutt, an analyst of the global toy market for NPD, a data company, says that it took just three weeks to cross the Atlantic and go global. No one knows exactly how many have been sold but NPD estimates that at least 19m were sold in the 12 rich-world countries that they track (including America and the biggest European markets) during the first six months of this year. Others put the figure at over 50m.

Big toy retailers, the usual arbiters of what sells, were initially caught flat-footed. Fidget spinners were a plaything that children themselves discovered and shared on social media, particularly on YouTube and Instagram. No person or firm had a patent on spinners, so with no patenting or licensing fees to pay, anyone was able to make one. They are produced in huge quantities in China, often by businesses that previously manufactured smartphone accessories. Others were made using 3D-printing. That has been a boon for small shops, which have been able to stock these unbranded goods from wherever they can find them.

Andrew Moulsher, managing director of Peterkin, a firm that imports toys into Britain, calls it a “watershed moment” for the business. Big retailers usually plan their inventory as much as 18 months ahead of peak seasons such as summer or Christmas; schedules are often tied to toy-filled films such as the Star Wars and Cars franchises. This is where most of their attention, as well as their marketing and advertising budgets, go. So it was easy for big retailers to miss the eruption of fidget spinners on the internet. (Subsequently they reacted as well as they could, says Mr Austin, ordering spinners in by air freight.)

Developing and manufacturing a toy can take even longer than inventory planning—up to three years. But now there is pressure to spot new fads and bring products to market far more quickly. After the fidget spinner, both manufacturers and retailers know they must respond faster to signals from social media. A Californian company, MGA, which was founded in 1979, spotted that children were watching YouTube videos of other youngsters opening presents; to take advantage of this “unboxing” trend, it managed to produce the L.O.L Surprise! doll, which contains several layers of gifts, in just nine months. It has been another best-seller.

The successor to the spinner may be the roller, an oblong-shaped object weighted at either end. Mr Moulsher started importing Japan’s Mokuru brand of rollers into Britain in July. He has sold about 40,000. Learning from the fidget fad, he is hoping that the return of schools this month and a smart social-media strategy will see sales rocket. Teachers, be warned.

Justice League Talking Toys & Action Gear Revealed

Justice League toys are finally stocking the shelves of most major retailers, and some of the newest reveals from Mattel include the new Talking Heroes and Action Gear series. When it comes to toys, most of the recent focus has been on Star Wars thanks to the recent Force Friday II, seeing the official launch of hordes of new collectibles for a galaxy far, far away, and while DC’s merchandising power is nowhere near the behemoth that is Star Wars toys and collectibles, there will no doubt be a variety of tie-in merchandise to purchase before the movie is released.

We’ve already seen a number of items from Mattel, including the full Justice League roster that comes with pieces of a larger Steppenwolf figure, and those figures all appear to sport high-quality movie accurate paint work and versatile articulation, but the Talking Heroes figures diverge from that a bit, offering more restricted motion in the joints, a far more simple paint job, and a giant battery bulge, instead highlighting the built-in speaker that plays iconic catch phrases from each character.

Unfortunately, anyone expecting Superman to utter something spoilery like “I hope you like my black suit,”  “sorry I was evil when you resurrected me,” or “let’s team up with Green Lantern to fight Darkseid!” is in for a letdown. The phrases are unfortunately far more simplistic with Superman saying things like “I’ll use my heat vision,” and Batman resorting to familiar lines like “I’m Batman.”

While those lines are fairly boring, the figures also have some “interactive” dialogue options where they refer to other figures near them (utilizing an IR sensor). Unfortunately, these lines are just as generic, and Superman even says “Batman, join the Justice League,” which we know (with a fair amount of certainty) is now how the plot of the movie plays out.

The other toy line, Action Gear, is targeted at a much younger audience. Meant for ages 4 and up, the Action Gear is inspired (fairly loosely) by the armor and gadget of the league. Each character has a basic Action Gear set that includes a character mask and themed disk thrower. In the case of Aquaman, the thrower is a small trident, while others are less canonically concerned, usually taking the form of some sort of baton, or even separating into two separate batons in the case of Batman and The Flash.

In addition to the basic disk throwers, each character has a separate gear pack that includes a themed utility belt, Justice League communicator, and other character themed gadgets. It’s not exactly the makings of the next big thing for cosplayers, but when it comes to fighting parademons in the backyard, it’s probably exactly what most little DC fans want.

Winnie-the-Pooh Heads To V&A For Big Winter Exhibition

Pattering in the footsteps of David Bowie and Pink Floyd, the Bear of Very Little Brain is heading for the Victoria and Albert museum (V&A) to star in its first exhibition celebrating the most famous bear in literary history, Winnie-the-Pooh.

The museum has been on a roll, with record visitor numbers for the giant rock music exhibitions, but Winnie-the-Pooh: Exploring a Classic will be the first in the main museum targeted at families with young children. It will have playful settings by Tom Piper, the designer whose torrent of red ceramic poppies brought crowds to the Tower of London in the centenary year of the first world war.

The exhibition will be the largest to date on the bear and his friends from the 100 Aker Wood, and will bring together loans from other collections including a Winnie-the-Pooh tea service presented to the young Princess Elizabeth, coming from the Royal Collection, original illustrations, letters, photographs, manuscripts, and the museum’s own delicate pencil sketches by EH Shepard for the beloved characters, which are so fragile they have not been exhibited for 40 years.

There will of course also be hunny from very distinguished bees – from the hives on the roof of the museum.

The museum’s director, Tristram Hunt, said the V&A, which houses the world’s largest collection of Shepard drawings, was the perfect home for the exhibition. “This is our first exhibition specifically for younger families and we look forward to welcoming another generation into AA Milne’s magical, intimate, joyous world,” he said.

The museum will look at the links between Milne’s characters and the real world, most famously his own son, Christopher Robin, whose life was haunted by his alter ego. In adult life he recalled that he hated the girlish clothes and long hair his mother kept him in, that he learned to box to cope with bullying at school, and that his father – apart from the stories – was “not good with children”. He died in 1996.

Winnie-the-Pooh was inspired by bedtime stories about Christopher Robin’s bear Edward, and Shepard studied the toys and the trees in Ashdown Forest near their home to create his enduring images. When We Were Very Young, a collection of poems, came out in 1924 soon after Christopher Robin’s fourth birthday: the initial edition was 5,000 copies, but it had to be rapidly reprinted as 44,000 copies sold in the first eight weeks. Winnie-the-Pooh followed in 1926. Together with the second book of poems and The House at Pooh Corner, the books have since sold millions of copies in every language including Latin and Esperanto.

The exhibition will also feature many objects drawn from 90 years of merchandising, including toys and games, ceramics and textiles, and from the Walt Disney animations that almost overshadowed the originals. Many self-help books have appeared inspired by the bear’s apparently simple approach to life: one aphorism, captured in a Shepard illustration in the museum collection, is “When you go after honey with a balloon, the great thing is not to let the bees know you’re coming”. In one poll the public voted Winnie-the-Pooh the greatest philosopher of all time, and the 19th anniversary of his creation was marked with a talking “Thotful Spot” bench installed at sites including the real wood and near the statue of Confucius at King’s College London.

Milne, already a successful playwright, first met Shepard when they were both working on Punch magazine. The origins of their most successful joint creation lay in the teddy bear bought from Harrods by his parents for Christopher Robin’s first birthday, but the final version of Shepard’s drawings looked more like his own son’s bear, a Steiff teddy called Growler. The name Winnie-the-Pooh (always hyphenated) was inspired by Winnie, a bear at London zoo that fascinated the child, and the setting for the stories came when in 1925 the Milnes bought a large house, Cotchford Farm, on the edge of the 500 acres of Ashford Forest.

The house has a bleaker fascination for a very different group of fans: it was later the home of Brian Jones, a founder member of the Rolling Stones, who drowned in the swimming pool there in 1969.

Popular Toys Linked with Safety Hazards

A U.S. government agency is warning of the safety hazards linked with the widely popular toys called fidget spinners.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has released new safety guidelines for fidget spinners on Aug. 10, after receiving several reports of children choking on fidget spinner pieces, as well as reports of battery-operated spinners catching fire.

"Fidget spinners can be fun to use, but consumers and companies should be aware of some of the safety concerns associated with this product," Ann Marie Buerkle, acting chairwoman of the CPSC, said in a statement.

Plastic and metal fidget spinners may break and release small pieces that can be a choking hazard, according to the guidelines. For this reason, children younger than 3 years old should not use fidget spinners, and children of any age should not put fidget spinners in their mouths. (Some reports of choking have involved children as old as 14, the CPSC said.) [Beyond Fidget Spinners: 10 Ways to Help Kids Concentrate]

In addition, there have been some reports of fires involving battery-operated fidget spinners, the CPSC said. For example, a woman in Michigan told NBC News that her Bluetooth-enabled fidget spinner caught fire after charging on her counter for less than 30 minutes.

The CPSC recommends that consumers be present in the room when their fidget spinner is charging and that they always use the cable that came with the toy. If the spinner didn't come with a cable, consumers should make sure to use a cable that has the correct connections for charging the device. Once the device is charged, consumers should unplug it immediately, the CPSC said.

If the fidget spinner is made for children 12 years and younger, it must meet certain testing, labeling and other requirements, according to the CPSC.

'Lego emergency': Italian cancer hospital flooded with toys

A pediatric cancer association made a plea to the world to help children "pass the time and allow the spirit to travel." Days later, hundreds of boxes of Legos arrived at the hospital, making kids' dreams come true.

Earlier this week, an association working with a pediatric cancer hospital in northern Italy made an earnest request on Facebook to help children undergoing treatment.

"We have a Lego emergency," said the Ageop Ricerca association in Bologna on Sunday. "At any age, building a car, robot or space shuttle is always a wonderful way to pass the time and allow the spirit to travel. Can you help us?"

Ageop Ricerca Director Francesca Tesoni, who made the plea for Legos, said due to health reasons, the children could only play with new toys.

Within days, the Sant'Orsola hospital, where Ageop Ricerca operates, received 500 new boxes of the toy building bricks.

'So beautiful'

On Friday, Tesoni took to Facebook to express her thanks to the people who donated the new Legos to the children at the hospital.

"How fulfilling it is to be able to choose a child and give him what he wants. Thank you world," she said in a post.

But not only were the children delighted with the new gifts. A mother of a child receiving treatment at the hospital told Tesoni that the amount of Legos donated filled her heart with joy.

"It's so beautiful knowing that so many people think of our children. These toy bricks make it clear to everyone that we exist," the mother said, according to Tesoni's post.

Target Is Betting On Dog Toys To Help It Stave Off Amazon's Charge

Target has announced that it will start carrying products from Bark, the pet company behind the pet subscription service Barkbox, starting Sunday. This is the first time that Bark’s products will be sold at retail stores.

While the partnership allows Bark to expand beyond its subscription roots and have a brick-and-mortar retail presence, the bigger story is Target’s ongoing attempt to lock arms with a growing list of e-commerce natives as they grapple with Amazon's growing dominance.

Indeed, the Bark deal comes on the heels of similar partnerships for Target, including the men's shaving brand Harry’s and the disruptive mattress startup Casper respectively.

"Recently, we’ve recognized our unique ability to provide a home for some great digital and subscription-based brands who understand they need a physical space to reach more customers. These partnerships are a win for the brands, for Target and for our guests," a Target spokesperson told Business Insider. "Brands see incremental growth and access to new customers, Target gets the benefit of adding newness to our product assortment and learning from highly entrepreneurial partners, and most importantly, our guests get convenient access to these exciting new brands as part of their regular Target run."

Target isn't alone. Retail incumbents have been coping with the ongoing shopping disruption by making internal investments in digital and e-commerce, going the acquisition route like Walmart with Jet.com, or investing in exclusive retail partnerships with digital natives, like the Bark pact.

"In today’s age, you have to keep innovating," Jason Goldberg, senior vice president of commerce and content at ad agency SapientRazorfish, told Business Insider. "This is Target’s way of making sure that it is on the cutting edge of innovation and digital, and is far more economical than making a direct acquisition or building it organically from scratch."

"Retailers must show consumers continuity through an ‘omnichannel’ strategy, unifying online, mobile and in-store," said Curt Thornton, CEO of Provision Interactive Technologies. "This unification between brick-and-mortar and e-commerce is one of the key strategic aims behind Target’s announcement."

It is also an opportunity for Target to attract a younger and higher-income group of shoppers, which traditional retailers like itself have been struggling to do for years, said Goldberg. Since launching in 2012, Bark has carved a niche for itself in the $69 billion pet industry, becoming one of the fastest-growing brands with 500,000 subscribers and reaching over $100 million in sales last year.

Moreover, it has done that on the back of data. The company has built its toys and treats based on consumer data it has gathered from shipping 50 million products. This is an attractive bet for Target as it gets access to this goldmine of data.

"Almost 70% of our guests have pets at home," Christina Hennington, senior vice president of essentials and beauty at Target, said in a blog post. "So we saw an opportunity to become their ultimate pets destination by offering new and exclusive pet brands they can only find at Target, alongside everyday must-haves they need, saving guests time and money with every Target run."

There is also much more to be learned from these partnerships. Harry’s, Casper and Bark have all upended their industries, by offering a subscription services that sell blades, mattresses and pet products for a fraction of a price compared to their competitors and by successfully building direct-to-consumer brands. They have aced social media, using it to not only market but also sell their products.

On the other end of the spectrum, it is an equally important bet for the upstarts to land in traditional retail stores. While they can initially afford to bypass stores, they ultimately have to look to Target and its competitors to help expand their reach and scale.

"These digitally native brands struggle to get past a certain size if they're only selling via digital," said Goldberg. "But you’re not going to get to a billion dollars that way, there just aren’t enough cheap eyeballs to buy through digital."

Matt Meeker, co-founder at CEO at Bark, agrees.

"While BarkBox continues to thrive, the subscription model isn’t a fit for every dog parent. This launch gives us another accessible channel for reaching pups and introducing Bark to new audience," he told Business Insider. "Target’s nationwide network of stores helps us to reach more pups and their parents with Bark's original toys and treats."

The Target partnership also helped Casper expand its footprint, allowing it to reach new customers including those who prefer to try products out first. The company has frequently set up pop-up stores to appeal to the same audience.

"Since our launch in 2014, we have seen a strong demand from consumers to experience Casper products in the physical world," Taryn Laeban, Casper's chief commercial officer, told Business Insider. "Our strategic retail partnership with Target has allowed us bring Casper to over a thousand locations across the country."

The Bark partnership was one of the several pet-related announcements that Target made Wednesday. The retailer has revamped its own Boots & Barkley pet line with over 200 new items for cats and dogs and will also partner with St. Paul-based style blogger Kate Arends of Wit & Delight for a pet clothing and accessories line.

Roblox Toys Wave 2 Hits Store Shelves This August

Wave 2 of toys based off the hit MMO and game development platform Roblox will be hitting store shelves in mid-August, a PR contact for the game told Heavy.com via email.

The toyline is coming to Toys “R” Us, Target, Walmart, and Best Buy and will feature toys based on some of the most popular games, characters, and developers in Roblox, according to a PR contact. Each toy will come with a code that can be redeemed in Roblox for in-game items.

To bring the toys to life, Roblox partnered with Toy Developer Jazwares who also worked on toys for Mega Man and Sonic the Hedgehog according to their website.

Wave 2 includes six new Core Figures: Phantom Forces: Ghost, Hunted Vampire, Blue LAZER Parkour Runner, MeepCity Fisherman, Queen of the TreeLands, and Skybound Admiral. Each toy comes with the figure, some accessories, and a code.

Also coming is a Prison Life Game Pack, which comes with two figures, accessories, and a code. According to the website for the toyline, the pack is based off of the Prison Life game on Roblox which has over 519 million visits since its release on May 1, 2014.

A new playset is also coming called Zombie Attack, which includes four figures with platforms and accessories to play with. It should pair nicely with the Apocalypse Rising 4X4, a vehicle that includes a figure. The vehicle was based off of Apocalypse Rising on Roblox, which has over 139 million visits since its release on April 1, 2008.

You can also nab one of the Series 2 Mystery Figures. Each blind box comes with a random figure and a code.

Finally, there’s a 6-pack assortment of Legends of Roblox figures. Each figure is based off a popular game developer on roblox: Litozinnamon, Gusmanak, Merely, TheGamer101, Seranok, and Loleris. Many of the creators in this set has attracted millions or even hundreds of millions of players to their games. Seranok is the winner of the Player of the Year Award in 2012.

Wave 1 of Roblox toys were officially launched on February 1, 2017. The PR contact told Heavy.com that while she couldn’t get any specific numbers for sales of Wave 1 toys, she does know that it launched as top selling toys at Toys “R” Us and were sold out the majority of the time during the initial launch. They were even placed in the “Hot and New” section at the front of the store. They were also a top seller in Target and a top selling toy in the boys aisle.