While the companies that exhibited at New York Toy Fair at the Jacob Javits Convention Center were happy to be there, and the ones we spoke to reported solid booth traffic, there was also an overhang from the events of 2025 on the floor, in the form of a reduced Diamond Comic Distributors presence in the wake of the bankruptcy, and from the U.S. tariffs.
The Diamond space, which in past years had been a bustling center of activity, was occupied this year by NECA and WizKids parent Ad Populum, which acquired Diamond’s comic and toy divisions. In that space were the remnants of Diamond, now Diamond Select Brands, and sister company Enesco, an Ad Populum wholesaler in the giftware and home and garden decor industries (see “Changes at Diamond II“). The Diamond Select Brands display included one line of new figures, from Takatoku Toys, was on display, along with the inventory acquired in the bankruptcy and products in the pipe.
The tariff impact was visible by the absence of companies that had previously exhibited at Toy Fair, and the empty space they left behind. Companies that had just returned from Spielwarenmesse, the international toy fair in Nuremberg, Germany, reported reduced interest in the U.S. market, whether because of the increased expense of doing business due to tariffs or the unpredictability that made it difficult to plan.
Click Gallery below for images from New York Toy Fair.
Source: ICv2
