Toy Fair 2016: Play Fair

Bringing play back to Toy Fair.

This year at Toy Fair, LEGO and Nickelodeon, in association with the Toy Industry Association and Left Field Media, presented Play Fair.

Play Fair was a two-day (Saturday and Sunday) event that took place in the Javitz North section of the Javitz Center. It was run simultaneous as Toy Fair, and, unlike Toy Fair, this event was open to the public.

Featured were demonstrations of upcoming toys as well as play areas from brands like LEGO, Warner Brothers, Nerf, Nickelodeon, Toys R Us, and Crayola, just to name a few. This was a family event that emphasized the idea of play.

I got a chance to get in early on Saturday and walk the floor of Play Fair. As you can guess, when I went the floor was extremely empty, but when I started to leave I could see a huge line that went out of the Javitz Center. A lot of people were excited about this event, and I can’t say I blame them. Crayola offered a place to draw with crayons… Nerf had a shooting gallery for their dart gun line… LEGO had a section to freely build or you could build a LEGO car and see how it performed on track.

The event was free with a Toy Fair badge, but for the general public, it was $30 per person, for a four-hour slot. This is not an unreasonable price, but at the same time, for a family of four we’re talking about $120.  I didn’t get a chance to get back there to see how the event was doing, but I heard that both days were packed.

I do hope it was a success for Toy Fair and that they do it again next year. If they do, I think I’ll bring my family so they can enjoy Play Fair, while I take care of things at Toy Fair.