Barbie Goes Hollywood and Your Toothbrush Gets a Soundtrack

Feb. 14, 2007 — -- At the 104th annual American International Toy Fair that ends today in New York, children's toys are a decidedly adult affair.

More than 20,000 buyers, manufacturers, importers and other toy industry professionals descended on the enormous Jacob K. Javits Convention Center and additional sites throughout the city, but there was nary a child in sight -- just those proverbial "kids at heart."

Kathy O'Keefe, owner of Noah's Ark Children's Specialty Store in Lockport, N.Y., emphasized that point when she said that the best way to determine whether a toy would be success with kids was to imagine yourself as a kid.

Would you want to play with it?

That must explain why this reporter suddenly found himself slam-dancing, and then head-butting an 8-foot-tall foam uglydoll named "Ice Bat." He had it coming.

The toy fair has it all: games, toys, activities, costumes and even arts and crafts It draws the big names in the toy industry like Hasbro and Mattel as well as smaller companies like AquaStruct, which sells a shower-spray kit that turns bath time into surf time.

And they've brought out all their wares.

There are glow-in-the-dark globes, infrared remote-controlled mechanical rhinoceros beetles, Easy-Bake Ovens and even "Librarian Action Figures." There are dolls that drink water and then a few seconds later, well, let's just say that what happens next is really realistic. Or there are dolls that swim the freestyle, the backstroke, and even do a flip turn.

Little tykes can even say goodbye to the age-old Slip 'N Slide and hello to a new backyard water park-in-a-box. For $600, parents inflate the park, add water, and can watch their kids hit the slide, hide in a cave or jump on the little trampoline.