I just saw these at TRU the other day - they are some great looking products. It’s hard to tell from the photos, but the form refinement, colors, characters, graphics, etc. are all beautiful:
FP seems to be really digging into the construction category, between this line and the Pop Onz. That’s a category that even Lego started pulling away from in the last few years…
I believe these are dead…consumers weren’t understanding what this toy was about on shelf. They didn’t get that it was a character-based building toy…just thought it was a big plastic book!
That is seriously unfortunate! Sounds like a marketing issue to me.
I hadn’t heard of them until very recently - how long have they been out? I was suprised I hadn’t seen them yet - I try and keep an eye out for stuff this cool…
I don’t think it was necessarily the structural packaging’s fault…more to do with the actual graphic communication on the package. Nowhere on it does it illustrate that this is a ‘construction’ type of toy.
Anymore, it has to be more and more difficult for a toy company to introduce a new line of character-based products without a TV or movie tie-in…sad, but probably true!
Very true, actually. I think the last character line in recent memory to be a success without being a license was the FP Rescue Heroes. That was one of those unusual ones that was a toy first and THEN a tv show… it doesn’t happen that way much anymore…
All very true. I still say that while the graphics do not convey the product well, the actual book like packaging itself does not work for building blocks. I understand the underlying meaning of the book… but I don’t think that it resonates well with the consumer (or the parent that buys the product for the consumer) The cases that building blocks are usually suited for are more robust- heavy duty… with a handle. I am just not sure about the book… even though it’s overall success isn’t based on one thing…
talking about Pop-Onz, do any of you have images of the new Pop-Onz Pro set? “House building” one. I know it was shown at the Toy Fair, I read the reviews, but I can’t find the images…I assume it should be in FP Toy Fair catalog, if any of you have it could you pretty please take a picture/scan it?
I interned a couple of years ago at FP and my final project was a pop-onz walls/roof building set…I’m just very impatient to see how it turned out! Squee!
Expanding on last year’s introduction of the Pop-Onz construction system of blocks and figures, Pop-Onz Pro lets preschoolers build structures with walls, roofs and more. The Pop-Onz Pro Pop ‘n’ Build Village includes 30 building pieces and two articulated Pop-Onz characters.