Start your engines! Disney’s newest virtual world, World of Cars, is at the starting gate! World of Cars recently went live and is the latest online community for kids. The LA Times posted a great interview with Rachel DiPaola (shown in photo above) who is the Product Director for Disney Online and commander in chief for Cars Online. Reading the piece reminded me that just a few months earlier I had a conversation with Lane Merrifield (also in photo above) about Cars. Merrifield, founder of Club Penguin, now oversees all virtual worlds for Disney. Below are highlights from our conversation together as he discusses the thinking behind Cars Online. This interview was conducted in the Spring of 2010 and has been edited for clarity purposes.

QUICK QUESTION PICKER:

In our last interview together, Club Penguin had just been acquired by Disney. Today you’re in charge of all virtual worlds for Disney. How many virtual worlds are you managing?

You were made the Executive Vice President of Disney Online Studio. Where do you start with this role?

What makes World of Cars unique compared to other virtual worlds?

What 3D solution are you using for Cars, Unity?

Was John Lasseter involved with this project?

In addition to Cars Online, what else can Cars fans look forward to in the near future?

INTERVIEW:

Scott Traylor: In our last interview together, Club Penguin had just been acquired by Disney in August of 2007. Today you’re in charge of all virtual worlds for Disney. How many virtual worlds are you currently managing?

Lane Merrifield: We have four actively launched virtual worlds. ToonTown was the first, Pirates of the Caribbean Online, Pixie Hollow, Club Penguin, and soon to be World of Cars. That’s four live currently with a fifth virtual world actively being worked on. It’s a lot of worlds to manage, but we have really strong teams who own the product, who are passionate about it, and passionate about their audience. For me, I’m less inclined to feel like I have to manage the worlds themselves, and more inclined to make sure that the values are lined up, the priorities are right, the expectations on quality are consistent. (Return to Question Picker)

Traylor: You’re under Disney’s wing now, which was nothing unfamiliar to you since you first worked in the parks at Disney as a teenager. You’re brought on as the Executive Vice President of Disney Online. Where do you start with this role? Do you focus on business models for these virtual worlds? Do you coordinate branding? Do you modify these virtual worlds to meet the business objectives of Disney Online or maybe the entire Disney enterprise?

Merrifield: When I first came onboard, almost all of these worlds, with the exception of Cars, had already been launched. So all of them had a nature. They were all in different parts of their life cycle. Some were struggling a little more than others. Pirates, which had great content, was not technically functioning as well as it could. It wasn’t working well on all machines. The team had reached pretty far with what they could do technically, but as a result, had made the site less accessible. For Pirates, we put a halt on a lot of new development, went back to the drawing board, and retooled to get it to a place where it is now. Recently we started to move the content ahead again, and the experience is far more accessible. You can play it in a browser now. Anyway, these virtual worlds are all on different paths, and a lot of my focus has been stepping in, bring the two studios together (the Club Penguin studio in Kelowna, now called Disneyland Studios Canada, together with the Disneyland Studios LA,) and bring together a lot of shared learning.

It’s interesting, the two studios are almost identical in size, although one was focused on just one product and the numerous facets of that product, and the other was focused on multiple products. One studio wasn’t involved with as many languages. The other wasn’t as tied into their consumer products and other things. One was driving very deep, and the other was focused on all the pieces. Internationally, Club Penguin was really leading the way, and now the infrastructure that we developed for Club Penguin is going to allow all of our virtual worlds to be able to grow internationally in the same way that Club Penguin did. The sharing between the two studios has been a great cross learning experience. (Return to Question Picker)

Traylor: What makes World of Cars unique compared to other virtual worlds that compete in the same space?

Merrifield: Well the most obvious is that it starts from such a strong place in terms of its intellectual property. People know the product, people know the characters, they know what Radiator Springs should look like and feel like, although they haven’t necessarily experienced it like this before. There’s great strength in that, but it’s also a double-edged sword. It means people’s expectations are going to be higher. We already had a head start in the narrative, and in the environment and the characters. I don’t like to focus on the technology, but we’ve also created a way of doing 3D in Flash that’s pretty unique and different from Papervision and some of the other technologies out there. (Return to Question Picker)

Traylor: The front-end is in 3D using Flash? You’re not using Unity?

Merrifield: We’re using Flash, at least until some of these other tools get to the same adoption rate. Our goal is never to try and perpetuate the technology. We’d rather come in behind it once it’s already reached a significant adoption level. This is not to say we’re not looking at all of these other new tools, playing with all of them. Just the same, we’re not locked into Flash either.

We always talk about being technologically agnostic. That’s a big focus for us. It’s difficult to bring a Pixar 3D movie to life in 2D. Not to say we didn’t experiment with it, but it just wasn’t the same thing. The character of the cars, and the ability to bring them to life, and the way they are articulated, we knew we had to address that problem. And yet, the requirement was always not to chase technology. If we’re going to do it in 3D, it has to have a 98 percent install base, which is what Flash has. It was a tough challenge, but the team rose to it. In part, it’s also why we’re making sure everything will work right for the launch. This is a technology approach that hasn’t been done before. We need to make sure when there are 60 cars driving around on the same page at the same time, that it’s still as strong an experience as if there were just two cars driving on screen. (Return to Question Picker)

Traylor: Was John Lasseter involved with this project?

Merrifield: Yeah, John’s been pretty involved. He would do check in meetings throughout. He also has the dedicated gurus of Cars at Pixar who are involved in work on Cars II and the Cars Land Experience. The relationship has not been like a licensing situation where we say “Okay, can you tell us everything about Cars, and we’ll go make it.” It’s been a real collaboration. In fact, there are elements of what we’ve created that are being incorporated into the Cars manual, the Cars bible. Some point down the road, it could be incorporated into future movies or theme parks or whatever else. It’s neat to see this. It’s a collaborative effort, more than it is one way. John’s been a big fan, and he’s very interested in this because it presents a new medium for storytelling. (Return to Question Picker)

Traylor: What you have shared with me so far is that there’s a new Cars Virtual World, a new physical world theme park called Cars Land, you’re also talking about the next Cars movie. I’m seeing a “tent pole” approach with the Cars brand that has many different elements circling around that center pole. Fans of the Cars franchise are soon to see much more than just the Cars virtual world, is that correct?

Merrifield: There is a lot of cool stuff coming out. The neat thing about everything you mention is that the center pole IS the story and IS the narrative. People sometimes say, “The virtual world is the connection point.” The Internet may be the connection, the vehicle, and Cars Online will be a browser experience. However, as devices get more and more connected and smarter, as we connect more with mobile, as we connect more with console games, as we connect more with the physical environment, my hope is that this next evolution of engaging with the Cars franchise will be more about this connected experience. Disney has been making similar connections from a franchise perspective for years. It’s not just about the replayability of these various experiences. It’s really about one continuous story across multiple experiences. (Return to Question Picker)

‘Tis the season for a whole new crop of toys to find its way into your home. I’ve noticed that a number of “must have” toy lists have been announced in the past few weeks. These lists include:

• FunFare Magazine’s Hot Dozen Toy List
• KMart’s Fab 15 Toy List
• Time to Play’s Most Wanted List
• The Toys R Us Fabulous 15 List

I thought it would be interesting to see what could be learned by mashing together all of these lists. After doing so, a few trends did make themselves apparent. From this new mashup list of 44 toys, I could see:

• a little more than half of the toys are technology-based
• a little less than a quarter of this list uses well known branded characters
• four of the toys cited involve some sort of virtual world along with a tangible toy (Dora’s Explorer Girls, Littlest Pet Shop Adoption Center, Liv Dolls, Nanovor Nanoscope)
• only two toys on the list could be considered educational (Color Me a Song, Zippity Learning System)
• two toys on the list are video games (Beatles Rock Band, Wii Sports Resort)

I also found that three toys in my mashup list were recommended on three out of the four separate toy lists:

Bakugan 7-in-1 Maxus Dragonoid is a toy that folds up, expands, and connects to build a much larger toy. This toy feels a bit like a mashup itself between Transformers and Pokemon. From what I’ve heard from classroom teachers, many 8 year old boys are buzzing about this product.

The Nerf Strike Raider is a full sized, automatic toy machine gun and looks pretty threatening. The Nerf line is a very popular toy product for Hasbro, but I wish that toy guns didn’t make it to the list!

Zhu Zhu Pets are little robotic hamsters that react in some way, with noise or motion, when you touch them. These critters can be sent to live in a super hampster wonderland, similar to the real world animal Habitrail concept, complete with its own hampster ball. This product is just a little misleading. The price of the pet itself is really affordable! What parents will most likely miss is that if you buy the pet, they will also end up spending a fortune on all the accessories. None-the-less, I think this toy will be the hot product for kids under the age of 10, if you can find it. It already looks like stores are already all sold out of this product.

This next list below includes toys found on two of the four lists:

The toy I think will be a big seller from this list is the Girl Gourmet Sweets Candy Jewelry Factory by Jakks Pacific. It’s a little like the old Easy Bake Oven, but instead of making baked goods, it makes candy jewelry. The catch to be aware of with this product is that it does not come with the special 40 watt bulb you need to make the product work. It has to be purchased separately.

I’m also watching the Printies Design Studio by Techno Source. This is a clever product where a child can create all kinds of unique crafts using a specially prepared (and pre-perfed) paper that your child can design, print, cut out, and then stuff with cotton. It uses low end color printers, like the kind you most people have at home.

Some surprises? First, I was surprised to see the LeapFrog TAG & TAG Jr. reading systems did not make it onto any list. Once I realized that LeapFrog was missing from the list I then noted that not a single toy from VTech was on the list either. Maybe just a bad year for electronic learning products? Also, WowWee, the amazing robotic toy experts did not have a single mention as well. The Nintendo DS and DSi were not on the list either, but that may be more of an issue with toy experts not specializing in reviewing software and gaming platforms than anything else.

I was also surprised not to see more website toy tie ins on the list. There certainly are a number of them out there, but not so many captured on these more traditional toy lists.

If you are interested in my complete mashup toy list, you can download a copy as an Excel file here. Note the tabs on the bottom of the spreadsheet, I have arranged the list by product, age, cost, etc.

Let me know if you see any other trends. I’d enjoy hearing what toys are on the top of your list!

For those that follow my blog, you may remember a post I wrote last winter where I explored the world of children’s television commercials, just before and after the last holiday season. At the time my focus was mostly on the world of technology toys, and how toy companies promote their wares to children through television. Over eight consecutive weekends, I had watched about 100 hours of children’s television across seven stations, which loosely added up to over 3,000 commercials viewed. That many commercials edited end-to-end would fill an entire day of watching nothing but commercials.

A couple of months ago I was reviewing the data I had collected, deciding if I might undertake a similar effort again this year (I’m looking for sponsors), when I realized I was sitting on a ton of stats related to virtual worlds and kids. After pulling my head out of the world of toys, and instead focusing on social and virtual worlds for kids, I realized that many virtual worlds were advertised for the first time ever on television during the latter part of 2008.

In the months leading up to last year’s Christmas holiday, at least nine virtual worlds were advertised in the US to older kids and younger tweens. These destinations included Bella Sara by Hidden City Games, Build-A-Bearville by Build-A-Bear Workshop, Mattel’s UB Funkeys, Cartoon Network’s Fusion Fall, Irwin Toy’s Me2 Universe, Disney’s Pixie Hollow, Hasbro’s MyEpets and LittlestPetShop, and Wizard 101 by KingsIsle Entertainment. Most companies offered commercial spots in 15 and 30 second lengths to promote their online virtual worlds. All commercials were placed on channels that aired children’s programming with the heaviest rotation appearing on weekends.

The company that had the most commercials in rotation was for Cartoon Network’s virtual world Fusion Fall. Cartoon Network ran an AMAZING number of spots in 10, 15, 30 and 45 second lengths to promote Fusion Fall, but all of Fusion Fall’s advertising was on a single channel, that being Cartoon Network. The shorter spots were placed strategically as bumpers around all show entry end exit points. I can’t cite the exact number, but the amount of Fusion Fall impressions per hour was impressive and more than any other competing site.

The Pixie Hollow and Wizard 101 virtual world commercials were the next heaviest in rotation after Fusion Fall, but for these worlds, they were advertised across multiple channels. Next in line was Build-A-Bearville, Bella Sara, and Funkeys. Each virtual world destination experienced an increase in unique visits to their virtual world but none more than Fusion Fall and Wizard 101 in the November to December 2008 time period. Both of these desitinations experienced an increase in web traffic 3 to 5 times more than before those on air campaigns began. All virtual worlds lost traffic to their sites after the holiday season as advertisement campaigns wound down, all except for Disney’s Pixie Hollow. However, gains remained for seven out of nine of the virtual worlds advertised when measured over a two month period, though only three out of the nine had experienced any significant gains. Out of the collection of these nine virtual worlds, seven companies offered a tangible product that was sold as part of their virtual world service.

Over the summer months, I’ve had the opportunity to check in on a few children’s channels to see what’s being advertised. A new crop of virtual world commercials are running on air this summer. One big surprise to me was MapleStory which is a virtual world that started outside the US. It makes sense to try to reach out to kids during these months to grow an audience base. I’ve been thinking that this might be a better and cheaper way to gain visibility as opposed to winning kids over during the winter holiday season.

Outside of children’s television, I’ve also been keeping a close watch on a number of virtual worlds for kids. Every now and then I’m surprised by how some site just explodes. Moshi Monsters has had my interest most of this summer. This is a UK virtual world for kids that has yet to take off here in the states, but has been doing great at home. I’ve wondered why it has been so successful in the last two months. Only recently did I came across an interview with Michael Smith, CEO for Moshi Monsters on YouTube. (Thanks Joi Podgorny for the tip!) In this interview Michael discusses the growth in visitors and subscribers to his site as a direct response to advertising on TV.

If you’re interested in learning more about the data I have, shoot me an email. One thing is certain though, we should all be prepared to see many more commercials of virtual world advertised to kids in the months, and years, ahead. What used to be a vital part of toy promotion is now expanding to the virtual world as well.

[The following is an article I wrote for Playthings Magazine which appears in the May 2009 issue.]

When toy companies talk about new toy products, there’s often a lot of discussion around a toy’s play patterns. What is it about the toy that resonates with a child? What play patterns will the toy tap into? Will the play pattern extend across age and gender differences?

Sometimes answering play pattern questions like these are pretty straight forward, other times their answers are not as clear cut. Potentially even more complicated is describing the play pattern around a toy product tied to a virtual world or online experience. What kind of play pattern are we talking about now? How does the play experience through an avatar in an online world differ from that of a child playing with a physical toy in the real world?

These are hard questions to answer, but they are ones I’m betting more and more people will be asking in the world of youth marketing.

The 2008 American International Toy Fair was a big year for virtual world toy products. Unlike years before, 2008 saw many virtual world product announcements, a first for the show. Some of the biggest announcements came from the likes of Disney and Techno Source with Pixie Hallow and Clickables, iToys with the Me2 Universe, Ty with Beanie Babies 2.0 and TyGirls, and 10Vox with Tracksters and KooKeys. Each of these companies offered a virtual play experience through the purchase of a tangible toy product—the business model of preference being one in which the consumer buys a tangible product that grants access to an online world.

Fast forward to 2009. It seems almost every few days we learn of a new virtual world for kids. While a number of virtual worlds were announced on the show floor during the 2009 Toy Fair, even more were announced outside of the walls of the Javits Center. What was surprising was the number of new product announcements, not just updates to old products launched a year or two prior. Take note for the future: February could very well become the product announcement month of choice in the virtual world space. Such announcements started in 2008 and today appear to be picking up steam.

As you can imagine, any announcement attached to a toy industry event will include some tangible toy product as part of the virtual world offering. Most often plush toys are the vehicle of choice for promoting virtual worlds to kids, but changes are underway within the toy-related niche of the virtual world space. Just about anything these days can include a password key on a piece of paper to allow access to an online destination. Also added to the mix are new solutions that include USB thumb drives that plug into your computer and become the keys to playing in these online destinations.

When I look back on the last two years of tangible toy/virtual world product announcements, I notice two trends, in particular, related to the software portion of the announcement:

1. At the time when a company first makes a virtual world announcement, the virtual world is generally far from completion. If the virtual world has been in development for a long time and is in the process of a sizable public beta effort (meaning many actual consumers are testing the virtual world to flush out problems and improve the quality and stability of the product), this is a good thing. A sizable public testing effort should be the norm with all such products, but sadly it is not. As a result, first-year launches can be challenging for both the companies that make the products as well as the children who use them, typically resulting in poor reviews out of the gate.
   
   
2. After a product has officially launched, it tends to be improved and expanded upon as sales grow or as web traffic proves what is working and what is not within the virtual world. These sorts of improvements are generally seen with products that have been in the marketplace for at least two years.

As it relates to the overall offering of both the physical and virtual parts of the product, I have these additional observations related to the buying and selling of these items that can lead to consumer success:

• How “giftable” is the product? For example, one of the things I love about Webkinz is that the current line of plush toys makes for a great gift idea. They are priced right and are easy to give. Also, the cost to get online is attached to the purchase of the tangible item. This removes the burden from a child of figuring out how they may have to pay for the online experience.
  
  
• Related to cost, are there any hidden fees to gain access to the online world? Sometimes the purchase of the tangible product will not allow full access online. Some virtual worlds can be tiered or gated in a way that premium content is restricted until a credit card is used. A number of different financial models exist related the sale of such products. Be sure to ask if the purchase of the tangible good is the only fee involved or if other fees are part of the online experience.
  
  
• What kind of tangible toy selection is possible? Are there only a small number of items at one specific cost or are many SKUs available across a variety of price points? A variety of products and pricing options can be of benefit to sales.
  
  
• Is there more to the virtual world than just game play? Few of the latest virtual world announcements offer an experience beyond games. Two products to watch that offer something more include Jacabee’s The Jacabee Code, which promotes a unique approach to learning history and Tales 4 Tomorrow, a destination that is all about animal conservation (with plush toys from Fiesta).
  
  
• How deep is the online experience? How many activities and how much content is available? What is the mix of games to creativity tools? Newer sites may not have as much depth as sites that have been on the market for some time.
  
  
• Who does the product appeal to, boys or girls? Historically, very few of these virtual world offerings have had an appeal to boys 9 years old and older. However, this too is changing. New destinations with a greater appeal to boys include products like the car-centric Tracksters, Revnjenz (Revnjenz) and KizMoto (KizToys); and the dinosaur-themed Webosaurs (Reel FX) and Xtractaurs (Mattel).
  
  
• What about younger users? While it may be surprising to find even younger users interested in similar online destinations, many of the social and communication tools available to older users are just not of interest to younger users. Age-appropriate products for young users have been in short supply. However, Ganz recently announced a younger version of Webkinz called Webkinz Jr., and since 2007, Gigapals has offered an eponymously-named site with related toys for the same audience: ages 3 to 6. When thinking up products for younger children, consider the amount of reading and audio instruction provided within these worlds. This demographic may be computer savvy enough to get to your site, but they may still be challenged by the inclusion of too much text once they arrive there.
  
  
• If the online world allows its users the ability to communicate with one another, is the method of communication “canned chat,” “filtered chat” or “open chat”? In addition, what kind of monitoring is provided to prevent inappropriate conversation or cyber bullying?

It’s hard to easily describe the appeal of online worlds for kids. An answer may be found with the sense of independence or a feeling of being in complete control over the digital universe. There might also be an aspirational component to these worlds, as well, that is hard for an adult to fully understand. Part of this new play experience may be an extension of pretend play we’re all so familiar with, related to kids and toys in the real world. One thing is certain, virtual worlds are an expanding part of a child’s play options, however you choose to define the play pattern. And because new virtual worlds are being announced more frequently, chances are there’s one that’s a perfect fit for any girl or boy, or maybe even the child at heart.

Three years ago I bought my then seven year old daughter her first Webkinz. She has always enjoyed pretend play offline with the tangible toy and equally enjoys the virtual play online. Both methods of play are done either with friends or alone. These days she plays in the online Webkinz universe a few times a week. She plays games, collects in-world currency called KinzCash, and builds out her Webkinz living space in the virtual world. I asked her recently if she would show me around the online world she had built for her stuffed animal friends. What I saw looked like a sizable, and very detailed build out effort she calls home for her pets. I imagine the size of this virtual home reflects her years of play online and asked her how many Webkinz she owns today. She wasn’t sure, so I suggested we find all of her Webkinz, scattered about her room and around the house, and count them. How many Webkinz plushies did we find? 26 Webkinz in all! I knew she had a good number of them around the house, but was surprised by just how many.

Young fans of Webkinz have many pets in their collection. Sometimes many more than you think possible! Above is a photo of most of the Webkinz in my daughter’s collection. (Click image to see larger photo.)

She received her first Webkinz as a gift from me while I was doing research about the ever expanding online world for kids. After this flagship friend was received, a small number of birthday parties resulted in a few more as gifts from friends. A couple were even earned for successfully completing challenging at-home clean up requests. However, a majority of the Webkinz in her collection were purchased by my daughter, through diligent savings of her small weekly allowance.

If you have young children in your home between the ages of 6 to 10, chances are you’ve already heard the Webkinz buzz. While there are many tangible pets to choose from, and too many features online to count with many more being added regularly, let me pull back the curtain of this online destination to show just one small part of this universe. One central online activity includes the ability to build out a virtual home for your newly acquired animals. The more pets your child acquires, the bigger this virtual home becomes.

Illustrated translations of tangible Webkinz toys in the virtual world.

As many parents will probably already know, every Webkinz plush comes with a card that includes a secret code to gain entry into the Webkinz site. One of the very first activities you child will participate in online is decorate a place for your new pet to live. Your child will receive one “starter” room to decorate. Additional rooms can be added by either a.) saving up KinzCash by playing online games/activities to purchase additional rooms, or b.) through buying additional Webkinz in the real world. My daughter pointed out that you only get an additional room for the first ten Webkinz you buy. After that, no more free rooms. The rest can only be purchased online with KinzCash.

This map, stitched together from multiple screen captures taken within the Webkinz World, shows all of the rooms that have been purchased and designed within my daughter’s collection of Webinz online. She started with just one room and built out this large living space for all of her pets. Clicking on any one of the squares from this map within the Webkinz World will bring you into an orthographic view of the individual room itself. Note the different sizes and themes to each room. (Click image to see larger photo.)

Rooms can be decorated with a wide selection of items for purchase through the WShop, the online equivalent of a home furnishings store. There are plenty of items available to spark a child’s decorative imagination. Chairs, beds, games, TVs, wall paper, you name it. Also, some of the items you can acquire are considered “exclusive” and are only made available from “adopting” your 10th, 15th, 20th (etc.) pet. (Translation of adopting — the purchase of additional Webkinz in the real world.)

The front step to the WShop which displays all the different categories of home furnishings you can buy within the Webkinz World. Selecting a category will bring you deeper into the store, showing the store visitor pictures of the item they may wish to place within one of their pet’s rooms. (Click for larger individual images.)

There are three different room sizes and a small number of different themed rooms. For example, you can purchase themed rooms that reflect a certain holiday, like Halloween, or if your pet lives underwater you can purchase a water room. Your pet moves around the room by clicking on an invisible tile matrix that covers the floor of the room. Large rooms are made up of a 10 x 10 grid. There are also medium sized rooms, 7 x 7, and small rooms, 5 x 5. This grid system also helps with the positioning of items purchased from the WShop within the room.

There are three main room sizes available in Webkinz World and a variety of different themes as well. If one of your Webkinz is a fish, chances are you will want a water room. Ask your child what happens when a non-water animal enters a water room. (Click for larger individual images.)

I’m fascinated with the technical logistics of this room making activity within Webkinz. There are a number of individual parts that need to work perfectly together, and need to scale just right with every new addition to your child’s collection. If your child is a Webkinz fan, ask them how many pets they own. Ask your child’s friends as well. You may be surprised at the answer! I’m amazed at the number of Webkinz my daughter’s friends own. Just this week we met a new friend that had over 20 Webkinz in her collection. One boy in the neighborhood who she sometimes plays with boasts owning 46 Webkinz! What sorts of stories about Webkinz do you hear from your children? What do they like best about Webkinz? How many pets do they own? Thanks for reading and for sharing your comments below!

NY Toy Fair 2009 – Cool Tech Find Number 3

Portable entertainment devices for kids have been on an amazing journey over the last five years. Advancements with small video displays, fast and affordable chip sets, and battery technologies that last longer than ever before have brought fascinating possibilities to the marketplace, and to this year’s Toy Fair.

Enter the latest handhelds for kids: The iPix, a portable video player for the preschool set, and the VEO for older children. Both devices were part of a stellar rollout of products from toy maker itoys. The two products are similar in that they both contain a small, backlit video display for watching popular television shows from Cartoon Network, HIT Entertainment, Nickelodeon, and Nelvana. Both have enough onboard memory to hold up to sixteen half hour shows. Onboard lithium ion batteries can last up to six hours on a single charge. While both devices have similar guts on the inside, their exterior form factor is made to appeal to either a younger or older audience. The video choices for each device are also age appropriate for the two different age groups.

So just how do you transfer TV shows onto the iPix and VEO? Each device can be connected to a computer via the USB port. Once connected, a visit to a unique itoys website allows users to purchase their favorite TV shows and transfer them onto their iPix or VEO. The whole experience is similar to that of loading content onto an iPod, but these online tools are customized specifically for itoys products.

The cost of the iPix is just under $70 and half hour television episodes can be purchased for between $2.49 to $2.99 each. The VEO has the exact same pricing structure as the iPix. Watch for these technology toys to become available in June of 2009.

NY Toy Fair 2009 – Cool Tech Find Number 2

Have you ever had something fall behind the couch, just out of reach, and you think to yourself “If I just could use my mental abilities to reach that item, I would have it by now.” Well, we’re a whole lot closer to successfully making this happen than ever before. Soon you’ll be able to channel that mental energy and grab that item by using your powers of the Force. That’s right! The Force.

At this year’s Toy Fair, the toy company called Uncle Milton announced their latest creation, the Force Trainer. It’s part of a collection of science products recently unveiled at the show called Star Wars Science.

The Star Wars Force Trainer comes with a headset that reads certain kinds of brain activity, and a base station that receives those brain signals. Inside the base station (the Training Station) is a ball (the Training Sphere) enclosed within a clear tube. As the headset captures focused thoughts from the user, it converts those signals into instructions to power a fan within the base station, which in turn lifts up the ball within the clear tube. The more the user concentrates, the higher the ball floats. The less concentration, the lower the ball floats. The voice of Yoda helps you attempt to master 15 different Force Training activities included within this technology toy.

The ability to capture brain activity and channel it towards some device may be something we see more of in the future. A number of video game companies as well as other business enterprises are exploring this brain wave capturing technology for commercial use. One company in the San Jose, CA area called NeuroSky appears to be the way out in front with developing the technology, and currently offers a licensing and training program to learn more about it.

The Star Wars Force Trainer will become available on July 23, 2009 and will sell for just under $120.

Now, if I could just use my newly acquired powers of the Force to find my car keys, I’d be on my way to saving the universe from powers of the dark side. Check out the video below to see how you too can master your feelings with the Force Trainer.

NY Toy Fair 2009 – Day 1 Cool Tech Find

On opening day of the 2009 Toy Fair event in New York City, I began my search for new toy products that include unique application of technology for the benefit of enhancing play. While I only covered a small fraction of the show’s floor (7 hours of isle wandering), I came across a few products that caught my eye. One being a digital facelift to the classic Rubik’s cube, promoted by a company called Techno Source.

Let me start off by saying that I am not a Rubik’s cube fan. I never could figure out those darn things. But I thought a couple of tech features applied to this toy were really groundbreaking.

First, users interact with this non-twisting cube by touching the different surfaces with a finger. It immediately comes across as an iPhone touch interface. Slide a finger along a row of lighted tiles made the cube “rotate.”

Next, the cube has a built in accelerometer used to determine the active display face. Once the accelerometer has figured out which way is up, it only allows the upward face to be changed through touch. This way a users holding the cube with both hands from the side will not alter the puzzle’s surfaces in unexpected ways.

There’s a button to give you a hint if needed. Also included is multiple levels of undo so you can roll the surfaces back to a point where you think you may have made a mistake. When the TouchCube is rested in its docking bay to be recharged, the cube puts on a unique visual display. Think of this as your new digital lava lamp.

The Rubik’s TouchCube is available for purchase in the Fall and is being offered for a suggested retail price of $149.99. Check out video below to see the product in action.

[The following is a brief article from my observations of watching over 3,000 commercials that target children. It was picked up by Playthings Magazine and is running in their February 2009 issue. I have many more thoughts and hours of edited video to share (teaser clip at end of article). If you're interested in additional findings, shoot me an email or give me a call.]

Most people use TiVo to fast forward through commercials. For eight weeks this past fall, I fast forwarded to the commercials. Specifically, to commercials aimed at kids.

My curiosity about television ads that air during children’s programming started quite by accident. While incorrectly programming my TV’s digital recording device, I inadvertently found a wealth of new product information being advertised to children. Intrigued, I began to watch what I’d captured.

The numbers game

In any given hour of children’s television programming—especially during shows that air on Saturday or Sunday mornings—you’re likely to find about 10 to 16 minutes of commercials, depending on the station being watched. That’s about 25 to 40 commercials in an hour. During that time, you’ll see ads that promote other children’s television shows, places junior might like to eat, shoes and clothes kids might like to wear … and a wealth of technology products they might like to do just about anything with.

In fact, it would seem that 60 to 75 percent of child-targeted commercial time is dedicated to promoting technology of all types. This includes both electronic and traditional toys, dolls, video games, virtual worlds and websites. As you can imagine, all the big toy names are buying up ad time in bulk; companies like Hasbro, Mattel and Disney, Spin Master, Techno Source, Jakks Pacific, MGA Entertainment, WowWee, Play Along and Crayola are all promoting through television.

Video games grab attention

Having started my experiment just before the holiday season, I found a number of companies I didn’t expect to see in such heavy rotation, like Nintendo, Electronic Arts and UbiSoft—all biggies in the video game world. In that same hour, you were as likely to see as few as two or as many as eight different commercials for Nintendo’s DS or Wii. And because this was during kids’ programming, Nintendo’s campaign didn’t include ads for the Wii Fit or other products primarily for adults.

Some big items that first jumped out at me with technology included toys that require being connected to a computer in order for kids to fully experience their value. Two toys of note were LeapFrog’s handheld Didj or Bandai’s Mega Mission Helmet, which includes a USB cable as part of the play experience. Build-A-Bear Workshop also ran a series of ads to promote a unique virtual world along side its tangible teddy bears. Commercials for other virtual destinations included Disney’s Pixie Hollow, Radica’s Funkeys and Cartoon Network’s own FusionFall, a massively multiplayer online game featuring characters from many of its most popular shows. According to advertisements, animatronic robots also continue to evolve, be it Thinkway’s Wall-E toys, Fisher-Price’s interactive version of Ming Ming from The Wonder Pets, or even Kota the robotic dinosaur from Hasbro’s Playskool division.

And so, after consuming volumes of weekend commercials, I began to develop a sixth sense for advertising in the toy space. No matter when I watched, my newly acquired powers allowed me to notice other product differences across time slots. For example, preschool toys, on the whole, were promoted most heavily during weekday mornings. However, learning products’ ads have a different time slot; they aired during both weekday mornings as well as early/late evenings, presumably after parents have tucked their little ones into bed.

While toy advertising remained largely daytime fare, video games spanned all hours, but even then there were some surprises. Nintendo DS and Wii games’ ads could be found just about any time of day or night. However, commercials for Microsoft Xbox 360 titles only appeared during the day if the title being promoted was also released for the Nintendo Wii. Otherwise, Xbox-exclusive titles didn’t appear at all until later, during the nighttime hours.

And as much as there was to learn about technology products advertised on television, I stumbled upon a unique find regarding what was not being promoted. In all the time I watched, I did not see a single Sony ad. Not one for the PSP. Not for the PS3, nor for any Sony product whatsoever. I’m not sure what this means, but I found this absence odd—and surprising.

The other tech ‘toy’

After looking at so many child-friendly technology-based products, I also started to wonder about cell phones and kids. The number of kids ages 9 to 12 that own a cell phone is growing. Whether that’s good or bad, there’s no denying the trend. I asked myself, after seeing so many great Apple iPhone and iTouch commercials, how long would it be before I start to see similar Apple ads targeting children? Could Apple make a play for the younger set with an ultra-slick tech toy? Or could we also someday see cell phone plans being promoted specifically to kids during children’s programming?

Midnight madness

After the holidays, I noticed some differences in commercials for kids’ products; primarily, almost all of the toy offerings went away, literally evaporating the very first minute into December 25th. However, ads for video games, virtual worlds and web-connected toys did not. The difference between toy product and video game product promotion couldn’t be more striking as I watched in the days and weeks after the holidays. What does this say about the earning potential of technology toys in general? Can toys that are considered “platforms” benefit from ongoing advertising in the same way that video games do?

My exploration only included advertisements found on television, though there are a number of other media outlets where tech products for children can be promoted: online, magazines, radio, movies, email, even in-store events. While it may seem that technology products will be the future “must have” item for kids, I often remind myself that in order for toy companies to successfully benefit from a large investment in technology-based products, large advertising budgets must follow in order to increase exposure, revenues and profits to cover that investment. This might just mean that the economics for tech-free toys do not require as much of an advertising commitment, but product awareness certainly appears to benefit all.

Frankly, I can’t tell exactly what all of this says about the future of technology and kids, but I do spend a lot of time looking at the play patterns of children with traditional toys and how these patterns change when technology is introduced.

I think that if we see more technology at this month’s Toy Fair—more even than in prior years when companies did debut a lot of technology toys—we might well get a glimpse of an answer.

Most people use TiVo to record their favorite televisions shows. Currently I’m using it to watch commercials. For the last eight weeks I’ve been channel surfing to find for one thing… technology toys commercials. It’s pretty amazing what you can learn about this year’s crop of holiday toys by watching TV commercials that air on a Saturday morning. This is not to say that everything I see on air wasn’t announced many months earlier. I’ve seen a number of these same toy products announced at this year’s NY Toy Fair, the countries largest toy conference held ten months earlier.

I’m organizing my notes to write a longer article on technology toys for sale this holiday season. All kinds of interesting things are coming up by watching, like USB connect toys, digital cameras, experiences that are driven by a screen, be it a computer or a toy’s screen, virtual world tie-ins, and much more. I’m also noting many interesting trends related to video game advertisements. Almost as interesting is what is not promoted on air.

I welcome you to view the video clip below that includes a small sample of commercials that aired before the election. (Some toy companies held back on airing their advertisements until after the election.) Please fire away any questions you’re curious about. Where do you think the future of toy technology is headed? What do you notice? Thanks for watching!