Toy Award Winners Nominated, Honored
By Staff -- Gifts & Decorative Accessories, 12/1/2008 10:30:00 AM
The Toy Industry Association (TIA), New York, nominated toys by 74 companies for the ninth annual Toy Of The Year (TOTY) Awards. The awards ceremony will kick-off Toy Fair Week and will be held at Pier 60 at Chelsea Piers on Sunday, February 15th at 6:30 p.m.Of particular interest to gift retailers is the Specialty Toy of the Year category. Nominees include the Deglingos by All New Materials; Create Your Own Pop-Up Books by Creativity for Kids/Faber-Castell USA; 18" Fancy Nancy Cloth Doll by Alexander Doll; Totem Boys/Girls from Kids on Roof; Circus Ring by Playmobil USA Inc.; Sprig Adventure Series Discover Rig by Sprig Toys; and Wind Power from Thames & Kosmos. Voting runs from December 1, 2008 through January 16, 2009. Each TIA member and associate member can vote once per category, as well as for the overall “Toy of the Year.” Jack Pressman, founder of Pressman Toys, and Joan Ganz Cooney, creator of Sesame Street, will be inducted into the Toy Industry Hall of Fame.
In related news, The Chicago Toy and Game Group recognized outstanding toy and game inventors at the first Toy and Game Inventors Event (TAGIE) award ceremony on Friday, November 21. Winners were determined by toy and game fans who voted online at the TAGIE Web site. The TAGIE award for Inventor of the Year for Excellence in Toy Design went to Steve and Jeff Rehkemper of Rehkemper Invention & Design; Inventor of the Year for Excellence in Game Design went to Gary Donner and Michael Steer of Random Games & Toys; and Inventor of the Year for Rising Star/Rookie Inventor went to Colleen McCarthy-Evans and Joyce Johnson of Toying with Games. Jeffrey Breslow, creator of the Ants in the Pants board game, was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award. Breslow recently retired as president and co-founder of Big Monster Toys toy and game inventing studio.
