The Toy Monitor: Top 10 Emerging Toy Trends for Holiday 2012

If you have been to your favorite multi-purpose retailer recently, you've probably noticed that the school supplies are dwindling and the fall/holiday resets are well underway. This means one thing: new toys are coming soon!

While the best is probably yet to come, here are my initial observations and biases about the toy-aisle transitions I have seen so far. These aren't in precise order, but these are my top 10 observations based on recent trips to Target, Toys R Us and regional retailers.

1. Ipad and Ipod enabled toys are coming on strong.
2. Squishy, sparkly and cutesy collectibles are emerging in surprising amounts.
3. Tiny is back in style. Micro-sized cars and characters of all sorts are emerging in just about every toy category. One of my favorite toys so far are some micro-sized rechargeable cars. Watch for a blog post soon.
4. Both new and old technologies are blending for surprising results. On the new side, near field communications (NFC) chips are bringing toys to life, while old-school tech as simple as a magnetic switch are achieving the same results for less. Unfortunately we will also see more voice bending and voice changing products this holiday season.
5. With the exception of the upcoming Wii U, there's very little excitement in the video game space.
6. Licensed products featuring Angry Birds and Angry Bird Space are arriving on the shelves in every conceivable manifestation.
7. Those darned Hex bugs (toothbrush-like tiny robots) seem to be growing in prominence, commanding even more shelf-space than last year.
8. Lots of new rolling stock. Branded race track sets, roundish vehicles and ball bearing based cars are starting to appear.
9. We might be seeing the start of a minor resurgence in board games, thanks in large part to the popularity of games like The Settlers of Catan.
10. A ramp up in pocket sized fun for girls. Looks like there will be more pets, fairies, mermaids and tiny dolls than ever before, all value priced to maximize their consumption.

So far, no super hot toy has emerged as this season's must have sell-out, but I am keeping my eyes peeled.

A final note: Although not quite a toy, just about every tablet other than the iPad seems to have been relegated to toy like status and are among the items on many kids (or parents) holiday wish list. The three notable exceptions, all trying to fight for their tiny share of relevancy are: the Nexus 7, Samsung Galaxy Series and the Kindle Fire.

Watch for more toy news coming soon.

Ashley