The aging world
Due to a worldwide fall in fertility, the number of new-borns in the developed countries which are also the hotspots of the toy market, is also shrinking over these years. In Japan, official statistics reveals a negative population growth starting from 2005, and experts believe that this is merely the beginning of a 10-year downward trend that would result in a largely reduced Japanese population in 50 years’ time.

Across the Pacific, the “baby-boom” generation in the US, which was the pillar of American economic growth throughout the past 3 to 4 decades, will retire in mass after 2010. Moreover, the ratio of people aged over 65 years old will be over 20% of the total population in the country by 2020. “The greying majority” is also evident in the European Union countries, the third largest toy market in the world.

Toys as stress-reducers
Other than aging issue, the ever-increasing work and living pressure also contributes to the growing demand for small games and gadgets that help divert attention away from the sources of stress, at least for a few moments. In major hectic financial centres such as New York, London and Tokyo, hobby shops and collectors’ items shops are springing up to offer small games and ornament sets that can be put on office desks. Karl Jordon, the owner of ‘Karl’s Gaming’- a hobby shop in New York’s Lower Manhattan district, has told ‘New York Tribute’, “Our best-sellers include a miniature golf game, a super-small size golf set that allows you to fantasise yourself on the green field. It is so small that it won’t take up much space of your desk. We also carry the variations of Rubick’s Cube, a small toy simple in design yet intricate in skills requirement.”

“Redeeming” the missing childhood
The grown-ups today are also keen to recap the “missing part” of their childhood. Popular cartoon icons of the 1980s, such as He-Man in the “He-Man and the Master of the Universe” and the Starfleet figures from the 1987 show “Star Trek: The Next Generation”, have once again become revived collector items in the western world. Sean McGowan, a toy industry analyst at the New York-based market research firm PlayDate Inc., told Detroit Free Press in a recent interview, “It is natural for toys to return as the generations change. You get old, and you miss the great time with your toys, so you would like to get these toys for your children.”

Most importantly, the 80s’ children have now grown up with their own income. They can pursue their “missed” favorities which they couldn’t get hold of during their childhood due to parental restriction, financial affordability or other reasons. Val Staples, the creator of the He-Man comics and the owner of Virginia-based MV Creations explained, “They are simply re-living their youth. Boys will never be too old for toys.”

Toys for minds
Toy makers generally agree that grown-up toys are literally more skill-centric and they should be able to offer a lot more of new twists for exploration.

In North America, one of the latest hits in the grown-up toys market is the self-assembling building sets, featuring landmarks and famous buildings from around the world. According to a report of TD Monthly, a renowned American toy industry journal, companies like Bojeux Inc. and Matcharchitecture are now dominating the market. Adults are “playing” with the building sets to re-create famous architectural landmarks such as the Eiffel Tower, the Empire State Building, the Taj Mahal of India or even the Bank of China Tower in Hong Kong. Normand Bramucci, director of sales and marketing for Bojeux Inc., said, “Yes, these building sets are definitely toys, but they are definitely not for anyone under the age of 14.”

A more complicated challenge is the “Anchor Blocks” building set from Richter. The renowned building game set features real stone building blocks and a blueprint. For advance models aiming at the aged 18 or above, the players have to tackle with 2,000 or 3,000 pieces of building blocks at the same time. Customers include students as well as engineers and architects.

Other than creating own landmarks, the adults are also opting for some mind-twisting challenges that require higher logical mind-works. The Oregon-based Ikoso Kits, boasting “building one of our kits is easy enough to hold the attention of older children, yet challenging enough to interest engineers, architects, mathematicians and scientists!!”, has recently unveiled its 3D Color Cube Puzzle, a cube set that consists of 64 smaller cubes that are attached together by plastic connector rods. If the player assembles correctly, cubes of the same color will be congregated on the same side. It is by no means an easy game.

Toys are ageless friends for all
Across the Pacific, the grown-up toys market exhibits slightly different characteristics in Japan, itself a big toys inventor and customer. The aging trend of the Japanese society has been forcing major players of the Japanese toy industry, such as Konami and Bandai, to develop new products for the mature age groups.

For old “children” in Japan, toys are also ‘virtual companions” in addition to its fun and mind-twisting aspects. To fulfill the demand, Japanese toy-makers are leveraging their excellence in artificial intelligence to turn out mini robots or virtual pets to become “virtual friends” to the owners. In addition to the stunning success of Sony’s “Aibo”, the famous virtual dog that stirred up frenzy over artificial intelligence in the mid 1990s, other companies have also turned out their own successful “virtual friends”. Tomy Inc., another major Japanese toy manufacturer, has made good sales success over its recently-launched “Nohohon” mini robot series. Once fully charged, the robot can sing with corresponding body movements. Players can also create their own choir by hooking up several “Nohohons” together, with one robot as the main singer while other robots can jam with the chorus. Tomy Inc.’s spokesman said that Nohohon is to “provide a good companion to the city’s tired souls”.

Over these years, the moves have been phenomenal. According to the statistics of the Japan Toys Association, the total value of the Japanese toy market is weighted at 900 billion Yen (US$81 billion), among which 65% of the sales come from customers aged 20 or above.

ODM the key to market success
Summing up the challenges ahead, toy makers are advised to adopt more new technologies, as well as to exude more creativity in their product designs, as urged by Mr. Derick Louie, a toys industry group leader and consultant at the Hong Kong Productivity Council. Sharing with MegAsia, Mr. Louie added, “In today’s highly mature market, toys with higher adoption of IT elements definitely instill more value-adds to one’s products. Moreover, it is important that toy makers must pay attention to roll out more adult-specific items in the hobby category.”

Moreover, Mr. Louie acknowledges that Hong Kong toy makers have been making some good progress in their market quest in recent years. “Hong Kong toy companies have been exporting hobby items, like the models of trains and planes, and die-cast model cars based on licensed models,” said Derick Louie.

While China may have the biggest toy manufacturing capacity in the world, Derick Louie stresses that to achieve ODM manufacturing remains the biggest challenge ahead for China/Hong Kong toy makers, especially to cater for the grown-up market. He concluded, “Simply competing on cost terms would not help in the long-term. China/Hong Kong toy makers still operate mainly on OEM mode now, and they are somehow in short of ODM and OBM (Original Brand Manufacturing) skills. The attainment of full ODM status should be the most imminent objective they should strive for.”