Hot Trends in Halloween Christmas Toys

At the end of last month, well-known toy maker Starfair Entertainment released its semi-annual report for 2022. During the reporting period, Starfair achieved operating revenue of RMB777 million, an increase of 46.72% year-on-year; of which, the toys and derivatives business achieved main business revenue of approximately RMB169 million, an increase of 28.32% over the same period last year, accounting for 21.72% of total operating revenue; achieved net profit of RMB139.577 million, representing an increase of 125.32% over the corresponding period of the previous year.

Sales in the global toy market reached US$104.2 billion in 2021, an increase of 8.5% over 2020 and 12.7% over 2019, the best performance in the past 10 years.

As the world's largest toy producer and exporter, over 70% of the global market is produced in China. Despite the impact of the epidemic, rising raw materials and freight costs in the toy industry, and some restrictions on logistics and transportation, China's toy industry has maintained steady and rapid growth.

Since 2016, China's toy exports have achieved five consecutive years of growth. in the first half of 2020, China's toy exports were once hampered by the epidemic, but with the smooth resumption of production by enterprises, China's toy exports have once again entered a sustained growth trajectory since the second half of 2020.

In order to better provide guidance on the business development of enterprises in the industry, on 17 May this year, the China Toy and Baby Products Association released the "2022 China Toy and Baby Products Industry Development White Paper" (hereinafter referred to as the "White Paper").

The White Paper shows that in 2021, China's exports of toys (excluding games) amounted to US$46.12 billion, an increase of 37.8% over . The previous year grew by 37.8%, the highest growth rate in the past five years, with a handsome export performance. China's top toy export destination was the United States, with exports amounting to US$13.48 billion, up 57.3% over the previous year, accounting for 29.2% of China's toy exports and accounting for . 3.7 percentage points higher than the previous year.

China's toy exports not only grew at a high rate, but also in terms of product quality and sales methods. Fundamental changes have also taken place in terms of product quality and sales methods. With the rapid development of global e-commerce, toys are gradually becoming a steadily growing and important category in cross-border e-commerce, with over 70% of toy channel operators surveyed indicating that they have adopted a parallel online and offline sales model.

In recent years, the impact of the epidemic has led to an increase in demand for home entertainment, which has driven toy sales, and since the second half of 2020, the overseas toy market has seen a 'mini-boom'.

As the world's largest toy consumer market, total toy sales in the US reached US$28.6 billion in 2021! This represents a 13% year-on-year increase, contributing to 80% of the global market growth! Between January and April 2022, sales in the US toy market reached US$6.3 billion and spending per capita was US$11.17, an increase of 7% year-on-year.

According to the German Toy Industry Association (DVSI), toy sales in Germany will increase by 4% year-on-year in 2021, approaching the €4 billion mark. This compares to 2010 when German toy sales were just €2.6 billion, a compound annual growth rate of 46% over 12 years.

According to the NPD Group, toy sales in France will increase by 3% in 2021 compared to 2020, surpassing the €3.7 billion mark for the first time, with demand for toys in all age groups, recovering.

Japan's domestic toy market will reach ¥894.6 billion in 2021, up 8.5% year-on-year and the highest in Japan's history since 2001.

In addition to the above major markets, other regions such as Spain and Brazil have seen varying degrees of growth in toy sales, with the global toy market showing new trends as it exudes vitality.

In recent years, the industry has noticed a rapid rise in toy consumption among the older children (12+) group. In the past, toys for younger children under the age of 11 have always been the most popular and largest category in the toy market. However, with birth rates in developed countries declining year on year, the shortage of newborns has led to a decline in the proportion of toys for younger children in the toy market.

In the UK, for example, toys for children aged 0-11 years accounted for approximately 79% of the UK's total toys in 2017, a figure that drops to approximately 71% by 2021, with the remainder being taken up by toys for 12+ older children. When the children's group is further broken down into 0-5 and 6-11 year olds, both groups have seen a decline in toy consumption compared to previous years.

On the other hand, the rise of the 'home economy' has seen a rise in the demand for rituals among young adults. In the toy market. More and more products are going to the buyers themselves rather than to their children.

A survey by NPD in the UK showed that since 2012, the number of adults buying Lego toys for themselves has increased by 65%; during the 2022 Tmall 618 pre-sale, over 2 million Ultraman, 1 million Koda Duck and 500,000 Godzilla toys were bought by post-80s and post-90s consumers.

In recent years, the concept of IP has become increasingly popular and this is the most central factor for adults to buy toys. China's toy industry is not highly concentrated, with a large number of enterprises but on a small scale, and the market share of individual enterprises is low. As a result, many toy companies hope to create pop-up products through popular IP licensed toys.

The prosperity of the film, television and animation cultural industries has provided more material for the development and design of traditional toys. The inclusion of cultural elements in design can increase the value of toys and enhance consumer loyalty and recognition of branded products. The prototypes of the Gundam Warrior, Disney and Superfly series of toys are all based on related film and animation works.

Licensed toys have also contributed a large share of the growth of the global toy market, with sales of licensed toys increasing by 3% in the first eight months of this year compared to 2021, accounting for a record 23% of total toy sales!

In Japan, where anime is most abundant, IP licensing has played a strong pulling role in the growth of the toy market. the best performers in the Japanese toy market in fiscal 2021 were card games and collectible cards, which grew by 45.6% year-on-year and by ¥55.8 billion in value. The Pokémon card game, in particular, continued its high popularity from last year and has been running out of stock.

According to an earnings report by gamebiz, the company's total sales in 2021 will be 70.4% higher than in 2020, totalling 204 billion yen ($1.43 billion), with net profits of 41 billion yen ($290 million), up 123% year-on-year.

LEGO is the "evergreen" toy industry, with brand recognition that has been deeply rooted in people's hearts, and LEGO is not limited to children's toys, but has a worldwide fan base of all ages, and its market share has always been at the top.

As a major IP player in the toy industry, LEGO has a large number of IPs and an extremely wide audience, behind each IP means a constant stream of freshness, a huge fan base and unlimited spending power.

According to LEGO's 2021 annual report, LEGO's revenue in 2021 was 55.3 billion Danish kroner (approximately $7.25 billion), up 27% year-on-year, and net profit still reached 13.3 billion Danish kroner ($1.74 billion), up 34% year-on-year.

As the leader in blind box trends in China, Bubble Mart has achieved integrated coverage of the platform's entire industry chain through artisan mining, IP management and the promotion of trendy toy culture, with high-quality IP resources as its core.

By the end of 2021, Bubble Mart had achieved a revenue of RMB 4.491 billion, occupying the top position in China's domestic toy brands. The company also owns 85 IPs, of which two key IPs, Molly and SkullPanda, generate over RMB 1 billion in revenue.

In recent years, Bubble Mart has also been active in overseas markets, with remarkable results. Its financial results show that in the first half of 2022, Bubble Mart's revenue outside mainland China was RMB 157 million, an increase of 161.7% year-on-year, and its revenue share increased from 3.4% in the first half of 2021. The revenue share increased to 6.6% from 3.4% in the first half of the year.

November-December is the most prime sales time for the toy market and with Halloween and Christmas around the corner, the fever and sales of toy products are climbing.

Frederique Tutt, toy industry expert at NPD Group, said: "With the crisis in life, consumers of all ages are looking for cheaper products and various promotional offers. But no matter how much buying demand changes, there will always be toys under the Christmas tree. Even in the years following the 2008 economic crisis, the toy market never fell by more than 6% in Q4.

In a recent blog post, Amazon revealed its list of 'favourite toys' for 2022, which includes well-known brands such as Crayola, Disney, Fisher-Price and LEGO, as well as products from third-party sellers for under $50. They are:

1. Little Live Pets Interactive Kitchen 2. Gold

3、Squishmallows sleep with soothing plush dolls 4、eeBoo) L Kids Play Puzzles

5、Playmobil World

6、Breyer Horses Unicorn wooden toy set 7、Inklings and Orijin Bees dolls

8、Brui Toy Scene House

9、Mega Bloks Eco House Block Set

10、Lego Superhero Series "Natural Nerd" Groot