toys

Stories 61 - 80 | << Prev   Next >>

How This 'Fastest-Growing Company' Lost Everything

Inc. goes inside the 'cautionary tale' of Fuhu

(Newser) - Nearly a year after the once extremely promising and successful tablet company Fuhu went broke, Inc. sat down with CEO Jim Mitchell and President Robb Fujioka—the "headstrong" mastermind—to sort out what went wrong where. The great unraveling of a company that was No. 1 on the Inc....

Barbie Gets 3 New Body Types
 Barbie Gets 
 3 New Body Types 
Jan 28, 2016 11:00 AM CST

Barbie Gets 3 New Body Types

Tall, curvy, and petite models, plus a slew of skin tones, eye colors, and hairstyles

(Newser) - Project Dawn—mission complete at Mattel. The toy company more fully explained this secret initiative Thursday, and it involves an industry icon getting what the Washington Post calls "the makeover the world has been waiting for." Barbie dolls will now be available in four body shapes: the original...

The Force Awakens Toy Sales: $700M

Franchise's products helped boost toy sales overall by 6.7% in 2015

(Newser) - Is it a trap? Maybe for fanatic consumers, but not for the toy industry, which had a stellar sales year in 2015, partly thanks to the Star Wars franchise. Star Wars toys—including hot sellers such as Kylo Ren lightsabers and BB-8 models—scooped up more than $700 million in...

Instead of Jet Noises, Toy F-16 Plays Muslim Prayer

'We're kind of confused on how this would happen'

(Newser) - Bjorn Thorpe was excited to watch his 3-year-old nephew play with the toy F-16 fighter jet he bought him on Amazon for Christmas. It was advertised as making realistic jet noises, but "we put the batteries in and didn't get what we expected," Thorpe tells KING 5...

New Security Flaws in Wi-Fi Barbie May Be Hackers' Delight

Kids' recordings could be vulnerable, says tech group

(Newser) - One of the hot toys this holiday season is sure to be Orwellian Dystopia Barbie—sorry, we mean Hello Barbie. The $75 Internet-connected doll uses an app to record kids and talk back to them. But Slate reports hackers can turn the Hello Barbie's Wi-Fi connection into "spying...

Toy Figurine Incites Racism Claims

Mom says toy came with 'slave collar' for black figure

(Newser) - A California mother is outraged over what she claims is a racist toy her 5-year-old son received for his birthday, the Washington Post reports. Ida Lockett says she was helping her son put together a Playmobil pirate ship set when she came to instructions to put a shackle around the...

This Year's Finalists for Toy Hall of Fame

You can vote at museum's website

(Newser) - The National Toy Hall of Fame in Rochester, NY, is out with this year's nominees for induction. They range from the specific (Super Soaker) to the general (puppet). Inductees will be announced in early November, and anyone can vote. The 12 nominees:
  • American Girl dolls
  • Battleship
  • Coloring book
  • Jenga
...

&#39;Force Friday&#39; Has Arrived
 'Force Friday' Has Arrived 
Sep 4, 2015 9:51 AM CDT

'Force Friday' Has Arrived

Retailers hold one-day merch event for 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens' movie

(Newser) - On the fourth of every month, it's easy to find random "May the Fourth be with you" platitudes on social media from Star Wars superfans—but today's "Force Friday" may even lure Jabba the Hutt onto the Internet or into a store on Tatooine. Just after...

Fox Anchor Sues Hasbro for Naming Rodent After Her

Harris Faulkner says toy hamster was 'demeaning and insulting'

(Newser) - If Harris Faulkner were a 9-year-old girl, she might have been tickled to have a Hasbro toy named after her. But the 49-year-old Fox Report Weekend anchor is suing the toy company for bestowing her moniker on its Harris Faulkner hamster, part of its "Pet Pawsabilities" line for the...

Target Ditching Girls' and Boys' Labels on Toys

Company decides it's time for GI Joe and Barbie to get to know each other

(Newser) - The days of girls' toys and boys' toys are over—from now on they're all just toys, at least at Target. The company says it will be getting rid of all gender-based signs in its toy sections in the coming months, Time reports. Pink and blue shelves are going,...

Guy Sneezes Out Toy Wedged in Nose for 44 Years

Steve Easton, 51, went to doctor when he was 7 after the item went missing

(Newser) - When Steve Easton was about seven years old, his parents noticed that the suction cup was missing from one of his toy darts, and they were worried he had inhaled or swallowed it. So they took him to the hospital, but doctors couldn't find anything. Yet for decades, he'...

Play-Doh! Hasbro Toy Looks a Lot Like a Penis

Someone missed risque-looking icing maker

(Newser) - "Oh no, Play-Doh" has been the horrified reaction of some parents whose kids unwrapped their Hasbro Sweet Shoppe Cake Mountain playset over the holidays. The reaction of practically everyone else: hysterical, juvenile laughter at the set's icing maker (or, as Hasbro calls it, the "2-piece extruder"),...

Woman Pays $20K in Others' Layaway Costs at Toys 'R' Us

Guy paid $1.2K in fellow customers' bills last week

(Newser) - A little heartwarming holiday news: Shoppers who couldn't pay for items on the spot at a Massachusetts Toys 'R' Us no longer have to worry about the costs. That's thanks to an anonymous older woman who paid off every single account at the store—all 150 of...

Toys Send Kids to ER Every 3 Minutes

Scooters top toy-related injuries, which have jumped 40% over 20 years

(Newser) - A study that shows toy-related injuries have jumped 40% over the past two decades might have parents reconsidering their kids' holiday wish lists. The report, published in Clinical Pediatrics today, shows that the injury rate for toy-related accidents, which affects boys and younger children the most, increased from 18.9...

Worst Part of Breaking Bad Toys Mess: Adult Buyers

Rupert Myers thinks recent controversy is a bad sign of our times

(Newser) - Toys R Us has acquiesced to angry parents and pulled Breaking Bad dolls —sorry, action figures—from its shelves. Nobody wants kids to have meth-makers as role models, but at the Guardian , Rupert Myers thinks there's a much bigger, sadder problem here: These figurines were really for adults,...

X-Ray Scanner Reveals Mystery of Star Wars Toy

And it's a bit of a letdown for UK collector

(Newser) - He wanted a Boba Fett, but he's got to settle for a Palpatine. If that sentence makes no sense, you probably won't have much sympathy for UK toy collector Dave Moss. About five years ago, Moss bought an unopened box that contained a Star Wars figurine—part of...

Again Made in USA: Lincoln Logs

Production of iconic building toy returns from China

(Newser) - Lincoln Logs, the popular toy created nearly a century ago by a son of Frank Lloyd Wright, is coming home to the USA. Maine Gov. Paul LePage announced yesterday that the toy logs, created by John Lloyd Wright and used to create miniature toy buildings, will be made at Pride...

Lego Is Biggest Toymaker in the World

Company overtakes Mattel, thanks in part to its movie

(Newser) - Barbies and board games will always have a place in the family rec room, but it's Legos that rule the roost. The Danish toymaker now ranks as the largest toymaker in the world in terms of revenue, beating out competitors Hasbro and Mattel for the top spot with an...

Mystery Woman Makes Millions With 'Toy Porn'

YouTuber's anonymous videos get billions of hits

(Newser) - Want to make millions on YouTube without ever showing your face? Try posting videos of yourself "unboxing" children's toys (with a deliberate crinkle of the packaging) and showing how the toys work. It helps to have a pleasant, sing-song voice and nicely manicured nails, too. All of this...

Coming Soon: Female Lego Scientists

Toy maker responds to criticism

(Newser) - Lego has apparently heard the criticism that its plastic universe is mostly a boys' club, and things will change this summer. A new line of figurines due out in August will feature a female chemist, paleontologist, and astronomer, reports Time . The set was suggested by a female geochemist in Sweden...

Stories 61 - 80 | << Prev   Next >>
Most Read on Newser