A new rumor is floating around via the NY Post which has Hasbro pulling out of New York Toy Fair next month due to ongoing pandemic concerns. This would have been their return to the main exhibit hall in the Javits Center for the first time in over 10 years. Hasbro has yet to make a statement to confirm this, so things may change. Until then, prepare for another round of virtual reveals in place of our normal February surprises.
JT-bob
I have no problem with this. It's a shame that small media outlets won't get to cover TF, Star Wars, GI Joe, Marvel, and all the rest in person, that's the only real drawback in my eyes, but human safety far outpaces anything as trivial as this.
Dragonclaw
Could not agree more, especially as someone who was lucky enough to attend toyfair as a buyer once (and placed orders for what would end up being the cancelled G2 waves!)
I miss the HUGE Toyfair updates and what really saddens me is that this hurts a lot of the little guys who are just trying to get their names and products out there…much like how comic book stores closing doesn't hurt Marvel and DC anywhere NEAR as much as it hurts the Dynamites, Xenoscopes, Dark Horses and IDWs. There's a lot of fun toy products where toy fair is really the only shot at getting big or small buyers attention.
RKillian
I miss the industry events and feel it's a real shame their fading out is so casually dismissed by others. Many years ago, I really looked forward to CES because of Nintendo Power's coverage of all the new games and hardware on the way. It made the industry look like a big fun club I might be able to hang out with someday. E3 was never quite the same and then the majors mostly bailed on it for their own shows anyway and now I don't really follow games. Companies bailing on NYTF to run their own mini-events (or not) sounds eerily similar. It really does seem like even more isolation as if we as a society aren't isolated enough already.
fallenspartan
Depends on which events you are talking about. I liked some of the kingdom reveals we got.
f-primusunicron
not if they keep doing underwhelming virtual events like they have done countless of times already with their fans first fridays and the transformers tuesdays
Robogeek28
Agreed.
R3M1NGT0N
Yeah if I remember correctly Fan Fest was 2 months after NYTF was originally scheduled. Seemed a bit late, though maybe not this time around since they’ve yet to reveal wave 2 of Legacy, unlike last year with Kingdom.
fallenspartan
I think they’re better coordinated with events this time. But we’ll see I guess.
Fenrys
We got Fan Fest last year so they're likely to do that again, hopefully not as late this time though.
fallenspartan
I’m sure we’ll get a Virtual event instead. I think that’s the better route to take.
llamatron
Nytf is for retailers. It's for Jim from Hasbro to talk to John from Walmart, to line up a game of golf or a free meal and then slap each other on the back and agree to do money things. It is not for Hasbro to appease middle aged neckbeards. In addition, TF is not the only property that Hasbro makes and would be trying to exhibit and sell at a trade show.
DutyBeforeAll
Well, honestly does Hasbro need to be there?
In the age of the Internet and Hasbro pulse they can easily put out the information that they want to when they want to, without having to work around other timetables.
gambitprime
I think we will get a fan first event instead of this panel
Q Prime
In that case sorry, hadn't seen/remembered any of the more closely Covid related posts.
Dachande
Yeah, now.
As for NYTF, without Hasbro involvement, I'll just watch for the ToyArk coverage. Don't really think much will interest me.
Robogeek28
There was a lot of thread clean up earlier.
Q Prime
See highlighted. Covid has only been mentioned in regards to Hasbro's backing out of NYTF.
Dachande
Just as a friendly reminder of rule 3a:
No Direct Covid-19 Discussion
Discussing the event directly – it's origins, it's current state, what organizations and governments are doing – is disallowed here. Casual reference to it in the course of normal hobby discussion is OK. AKA – factory delays, retailer issues, event cancellations. Please see here for a deeper explanation of our stance.
fallenspartan
It would be nice to see what the next TF cartoon is like. Maybe whenever the next fan first Friday arrives.
Fenrys
Probably not. It's not like Rise of the Beasts would have been the only thing for them to show off. They usually show off at least 2 waves of whatever the mainline at the time is in addition to Studio Series and occasionally stuff from the kids media line.