Star H.K. Electronic Limited

Creating a galaxy of developmental toy fun for young minds

Toys play an important part in children's life and their development. While playing with their dolls and toy cars, small kids get to experience and learn about the world around them. These little playthings therefore serve purposes more than just giving pleasure, companion and entertainment to the young population. Well-designed infant toys and preschool toys are usually the must-haves for today's parents to help babies and toddlers alike discover and learn things through game play.

Star H.K. Electronic Limited is a Hong Kong-based specialist in infant and preschool playthings. Mr. Peter Law, marketing director of Star Electronics, tells MegAsia that the company has been focusing on the infant and preschool lines since its start-up in 2000. It is now mainly producing developmental toys for children aged below three years.

"There are quite a lot of companies producing infant toys in the market. However, very few companies manufacture top-quality and creative infant toys like we do," boasts Mr. Law.

Star Electronics' products range from rattles, push and pull toys to musical toys and other items specially made for enhancing child's development. According to Mr. Law, the company's product variety is not huge, but each of its products has been well-conceived and developed with great dedication. Star Electronics works hard on its pledge to create the most innovative and thoughtful developmental playthings for infants and preschoolers.

"As creativity has always been the first priority in our products, we normally do not handle OEM orders. Instead, we design, manufacture and market our products under our own brand name ‘Early Star'. We have a strong team of designers who are all talented specialists in infant and preschool toys," he continues. "Just like the fashion world, the trend of toys changes from time to time. For example, infant toys in rich and bright colours were once very popular in the past several years. Our designers, however, decided to adopt a lighter and softer colour tone in the products recently. This was soon proved to be a right choice. Buyers were so impressed with our new products in these new colours. As a result, we have secured even more orders."

Speaking of creativity, Mr. Law introduces one of the company's bestsellers, the Animal Snackers Feeding Bowls, that emit cute animal sounds every time the child takes the spoon out of the bowl. As the cow moos and the cat meows, children will find the meal much more enjoyable, and parents will find the job of feeding a lot easier. The marketing director claims with pride that these feeding bowls have been highly praised and welcomed by international buyers for the very concept of the products that encourage small children to have their meals. By incorporating some "clever" devices like motion and sound sensors, Star Electronics' innovative toys succeed in offering timely comfort for young kids as well as providing added convenience for parents.

The toymaker's supreme creativity is exemplified by the award-winning interactive educational toy, Theatrix. The product has won the Nuremburg Toy Innovation Award 2005 and the Silver Award for Enterprise Group in the Hong Kong Toy Design Competition 2005 for this brilliant innovativeness.

"Theatrix is an interactive puppet theatre combined with interesting sound effects, like applause and laughter, and the dazzling light effects. These special effects can be activated simply by pressing the buttons on the pull-down keyboard. Most toy theatres are made of paper, wood or fabric. This plastic one, however, is an electronic-enbled version so that kids and parents can perform their stories in a even more fun and lively way," explains Mr. Law on the innovative features.

To ensure its products stand out in the competition, Star Electronics strives to perfect the product function and design in every tiny detail. For instance, specially-produced custom IC chips are used to create clear sounds of nature and fun melodies and to produce lights and vibrations that can stimulate the child's senses. Mr. Law says Star Electronics develops its custom IC chips for different products.

Moreover, melodies played from the products are no ordinary ones. They are either original tunes specially composed for small children or popular nursery rhymes rearranged in vivid styles.

Mr. Law cites the Karaokid Music Box as an illustration. "There is a real speaker and microphone that allow preschoolers to sing their favourite songs. The melodies include classic nursery rhymes like ‘Mary Had a Little Lamb' and the alphabet song in new versions. There are also original tunes for children to make up their own songs using their musical talents. Besides that, they can add fun sound by pushing a button while singing. With some twists and a touch of creativeness, the toy gives extra pleasure to the little performers."

Star Electronics currently works with a production partner in Shenzhen of mainland China. It is a carefully-selected and quality manufacturer with a workforce of 3,000 to 4,000 at peak periods. Star Electronics' Hong Kong staff can fully concentrate all their energies to generate bright ideas for product development and marketing.

"Although we have vested the production to another manufacturer, we never compromise our product quality. The production process and the products themselves are all up to international quality and safety assurance standards. We require our staff to uphold stringent quality control at all levels. We have also appointed a professionally-accredited laboratory to carry out safety tests on our products," Mr. Law stresses.

The major markets for Star Electronics' infant toys are in Europe, North America and some Asian countries, namely Japan, Korea and Taiwan. To further penetrate these markets, the company advertises their products in a lot of trade magazines and exhibits at the major toy fairs in Europe, the US and Hong Kong every year.

Looking ahead, Mr. Law says the company is ready to tap the growing markets in East Europe, South America, India and Australia. Star Electronics will continue to deliver on its mission to build "a galaxy of fun for young minds" by rolling out more and more new ideas and innovative products for the young generation.