Tech Toys Take Over N.Y. Toy Fair
New York — From a preschool toy designed to teach pre-coding skills to a hands-on molecule-building set for older kids that works with an app, technology abounded at this year’s Toy Fair. The annual showcase of upcoming toys held recently in New York included a slew of tech-related products from the titans of the toy industry and tiny startups, all looking to attract increasingly tech-savvy kids. Here are the highlights. Some of the...
Consumer Confidential: Drugmakers Preying on the Sick
Congress tried to show it feels America’s pain over high prescription-drug costs by calling Martin Shkreli to account. Shkreli is the former head of Turing Pharmaceuticals, currently out on $5 million bail after being charged with securities fraud and conspiracy. He became the face of Big Pharma greed after jacking up the price of a one-of-a-kind infection medication by 5,000 percent. Shkreli clammed up by citing his Fifth Amendment...
Panthers Cam Newton Targets Kids’ Market
Grown-up athletes typically endorse grown-up products. Peyton Manning pushes Nationwide insurance; Tom Brady plugs Movado fashion watches. Cam Newton? He’s 6-foot-5, 245 pounds, and all Nickelodeon. The Carolina Panthers’ 26-year-old quarterback is using his Super Bowl run to establish himself as a pitch-man to America’s youngest consumers. Unlike other professional athletes chasing moneyed older fans, Newton is wooing kids. “He’s...
Real Beards Make Santas More Money
This is a tale of two Santa Clauses: Real-beard Santa and fake-beard Santa. Pay attention. There is money at stake. Real-beard Santa said the heck with the sleigh and reindeer and flew by jet on an all-expenses-paid trip to Shenzhen, China, a couple of years ago. He collected $2,500, free room, free hotel meals, all for sitting in the five-star hotel’s Santa throne for an hour each evening. “That was a highlight,” said Ed Burgh, 68,...
Toymakers Turn to YouTube
San Diego — Children used to gravitate toward the Rokenbok display at mom-and-pop stores to get their hands on the toymaker’s monorail sets, robots and battery-powered dump trucks. But as big retailers like Wal-Mart and Target drove many of those specialty stores out of business several years ago, the San Diego area toy brand struggled to give shoppers a close look at their pricey play sets, which can cost hundreds of dollars. That’s...
