Rolling for Initiative is a weekly column by Scott Thorne, PhD, owner of Castle Perilous Games & Books in Carbondale, Illinois and instructor in marketing at Southeast Missouri State University. This week, Thorne offers up his thoughts about some of the news from New York Toy Fair 2026.
I have never been to New York Toy Fair, but I’m always interested in new releases. It appears that exhibitors were down this year, and there was empty space they occupied in 2025 that was used for lounges or cordoned off this year (see “A Quick Tour“).
A few other things of note I heard from friends attending the event.
Blind Boxes. Although blind box items have been very popular in game and comic stores and those dealing with Japanese pop culture items for a number of years, they crossed over into mainstream awareness with the craze for Labubus (see “San Diego Comic Con 2025“). As a result, many manufacturers at Toy Fair showcased their versions of blind box creatures, hoping to tap into the fad.
I’ve seen a lot of knockoffs and variants of hit products in my time (see “Knockoffs and Licenses“), such as all the variants of Cards Against Humanity after it became a smash hit. When knockoffs hit the market, it generally means that the fad has crested, interest in the product has reached the maturity stage and interest in that product type will slowly decline. There will be interest in the blind boxes but, as with the Cards Against Humanity clones, none of them will reach the sales levels that Labubus have seen.
Kidults. I first heard this term at the 2024 ASTRA Marketplace (see “ASTRA“). Essentially, these are adults who want to reclaim part of their youth by buying the toys they remember, but since they have greater incomes now, they buy more expensive versions. The kidult is the target market for expensive Lego sets (see “First Ever ‘Dungeons & Dragons’ Lego Set“). At a $359.99 price point, kids may look longingly at the toy, but it is the kidult who has the money to purchase it. A number of companies at Toy Fair were releasing products with similar price points targeting that audience.
Kidfluencers. Along with the rise of social media over the past two decades, we have seen the birth of the kid influencer or “kidfluencer.” A kidfluencer is generally a very enthusiastic teen or pre-teen who presents well on camera that other kids like to watch as they try out new toys or create entertaining content like older influencers do.
The most successful kidfluencer is likely Ryan Kaji of the eponymous Ryan’s World, which has proven successful enough since its launch in 2015 to make Kaji at one time the highest paid YouTube creator, and to spawn the launch of a 4-foot section of Ryan’s World toys at Walmart. A number of lower profile kidfluencers appeared at Toy Fair making appearances at assorted vendor booths.
Some new game releases appeared at Toy Fair. We are already getting inquiries for the upcoming Flip 7: With A Vengeance, which adds “take that” mechanics to the basic game. It will certainly be interesting to see what customers come looking for in about six to eight months.
Comments? Were you at Toy Fair? Any trends you spotted? Send them to: castleperilousgames@gmail.com.
The opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff of ICv2.com.
Source: ICv2
