Purpose
This document presents the learning gathered during my visit to Kids India 2018.
I hope it would provide insights into a variety of toys & educational content exhibited there.
Introduction
A rain-free day was just what I needed for my rendezvous with ‘Kids India’. With a hop and 2 stops at the train station, I made my way to the grand entrance at Hall 4, NESCO. This time NESCO was holding the 6th edition of Kids India.
It’s a platform to showcase new trends, technologies and products available in the market. It also gives a chance for visitors to collaborate with various companies and brands, thus expanding their own areas of interest.
A quick run by the security gate, registration, and off I was to ‘infinity and beyond’ (Toy Story)
Funskool
was one of the very first stalls I visited. It displayed their newest brands like Play Mobil, Engino, Meccano and Kinex.
PlayMobil
provides small assembling parts to kids (aged 1-12) to build their own homes and city. Thus, unleashing their imagination as they role-play. There is also an action set wherein characters move powered by batteries.
Engino
had some cool boxes displayed on the rack. One that caught my attention was the 'Inventor 8 in 1 cars'. Let your imagination run wild and you could end up with not 8 but 8+ ways to design an automobile.
Meccano
caters to engineering and robots. Armed with a box containing screwdriver, few other tools and hundreds and hundreds of tiny pieces to assemble, a child can get lost in it for hours. Meccano is recommended for children aged 6 years and above.
K'nex
for creative minds is for kids with an interest in mechanics and construction. Funskool stall had a display of a Ferris wheel which grabbed a lot of attention. I also noticed it being showcased on the television at the registration counter. It is available in the box of '3 in 1 classic amusement park'. You can build up to 3 different thrill rides. It's powered by AAA batteries.
Funjoy and FitSpree
I couldn’t just walk past the hop-scotch mat.
I had to try it.
A must buy on my list for home and educational use.
Kinder Art
had some great toys to enhance motor skills. The wall toys were eye-catching and I would definitely want the jumbo jet up on my wall.
The price is a tad too high so if someone wants to be generous and gift me, I don’t mind!
Here you see me enjoying a slice of pizza with tomatoes, broccoli and mushroom.
Well, how did it taste, you may ask?
Absolutely enjoyable. Especially the mushroom (see it’s missing). Good to pretend and play.
Peacock
put up a display on its range of building blocks. This is a better alternative to Lego.
Desi Toys
‘Khelni’ as I called it or ‘Kitchen-Kitchen’. This has been a favourite play during my growing years. Now it is outsourced to a lady. But I do enjoy my part of baking, cooking and trying out new recipes for my family and friends.
One thing I always expected in these playsets was a proportionate size. The kettle looked bigger than the gas stove.
Desi Toys also had Mancala. A tool to help learn to count. Since it cost a lot, DIY is an alternate approach.
Right beside there was a neatly packed Lagori set. Complete with 7 flat blocks of different sizes decorated beautifully and a red rubber ball. I have not seen kids playing Lagori lately, have you?
There you have it. A great gifting idea!
The Hape
The stall had wooden guitars perfect for kids. Look at the details and bright colors.
A big sized fire station, a train station environment complete with engine, coaches, tracks and support vehicles.
Vishal Marketing housed many educational toys.
ImagiMake
This was one of the highlights of my visit.
It has 2 wonderful products – Spyrosity and Fleximos.
Spyrosity comes with a Spyro station that’s a boon to Quilling fanatics. It helps you wind up your quilling strips in no time. It is powered by batteries. While at work it looks like a sewing machine winding up thread in a bobbin.
It’s entirely hands-free and no glue required since the strips have sticky backs.
In case you use your own strips, you will need to use glue.
The lever near the coiler will adjust basis how wide, big and ginormous you want your coils to be.
That's automation.
Stick on Spyros – a quick way to design. You peel and stick on a framework given or create your own design.
ImagiMake had some really cool products and adding to their list is ‘Air dry foam clay’ used for Window Art.
You can take these tiny beads and place them on the design. The beads have an adhesive property (secrets are not revealed) due to which it sticks on to a surface. However, it will not mess your hands.
Will it attract dust, especially since these will be on the windows?
That I must try and see.
I tried to use the beads to stick. No Glue, no mess. I loved it.
Fleximos aged for 5+ is a new product that will be out in Oct or Nov. This will be a big hit.
One box of Fleximos contains –
Glupty – a flowing dough, Crystalite – that has a property to crystallize immediately, Jello, Fluffy, Bloomer – These are papers that bloom, Spectra – you can color the dough and see it change its color. A great way to teach ‘mixing colours’ to kids. Create your own rainbow dough.
Magneto – the dough has magnetic property.
What more! Fleximos can also conduct electricity.
Mapology is another product from ImagiMake that have desk and wall display maps made from foam sheets. They are in the form of a puzzle and enable creative ways of teaching kids about the world, countries and many famous places.
Caring cats
A product from Chalk and Chuckles is all about promoting kindness.
It revolves around 5 characters with their own unique different hairstyles.
The intent of these characters is to breakdown kindness with kids.
‘Chatty Choo’ is kind with words.
‘Goody Garn’ has something to give
‘Make a Max’ always makes to give
‘Helpfully’ helps with her time
‘Lotto Thought’ is thoughtful and polite, saying the right words.
The point they are driving at is that there are many ways to be kind.
Kindness is an everyday act.
There are also some DIY crafts. The concept is ‘creativity with a purpose’. So, you make things and gift it to others. These DIY key chain dolls serve the purpose.
There is also a board game that helps the player go around the town and perform acts of kindness. Each time an act of kindness is done, a charm is earned. The player with the most charm wins the game.
Although the thought is good, I personally wouldn’t want to raise a ‘trophy generation’ where each act is done with an expectation or reward in return.
I would rather desire the younger generation to understand the moral values and believe that a good act touches and transforms life. Be a life-giver!
PS: No photographs were allowed at this stall.
Brainsmith
has a wide range of wooden toys. These toys are fun and educational too. They are made from rubberwood and can be maintained clean by wiping with a moist cloth. The design takes place in Mumbai. However, the product is made in Thailand.
Look at the kitchen set with a refrigerator and a phone attached to it. The eye to detail, colour and size was very impressive.
Playmais
a German product you can expect good quality.
What you see in the picture, are beads almost like thermocol beads. But they are not!
It’s made from corn and organic colour.
Claims to be bio-degradable. Pop it in and check for yourself!
The way it works is – Dampen a piece of cloth with little water and press the beads gently to the cloth.
Then place the bead on to the surface you want it to stick on.
It can stick on any surface – paper, cardboard & glass.
I got a freebie here. Will need to try it out.
Pustefix
from Germany brings you the world of bubbles. There is all sort of crazy things here when it comes to bubbles. (I mean good crazy).
A bubble wand, Multi-bubble launcher, Party bubbler, Bubble pipe, Bubble trumpet, and then to burst those bubbles you have a Bubble Snapper too (you see it in the pic with the man)
‘Go discover’
had some good interactive boards. E.g. Musical, Countries, Places, things.
It works with the help of a small sensory device attached at the end of the microphone.
When that tip is touched on a specific part of the board, the microphone recognizes the text and narrates a pre-recorded audible information to the user.
Personally, I would prefer Google.
YoYo factory
had an instructor put a brilliant performance.
Yo-Yo for me was just a toy with simple up and down movements.
But what he did just went beyond imagination.
He showed many moves – around the world, the elevator, the basic throw, walk the dog (u see in the pic), around the corner, forward toss, rock the baby etc...
Skipy
is a cool app, that uses a smartphone, a sensory unit and any drawing surface.
The app will assist a kid draw and interact with the story that is being narrated.
The drawing is a step by step process and can come to life as soon as it is complete.
Emotix
presented Miko – India’s first companion robot. They call it a chatty little genius. This is a product manufactured in China.
Miko comes pre-loaded with information and moods. Games can be downloaded onto Miko via an app.
I did find a parallel with Alexa. But Miko is on wheels, can move and detect a change in tones and mood.
There are also specific parental controls that provide parents with extra assurance of safety.
A new version of Miko 2 will be launched in a few months. This has some more improved features like - no separate app required, recognizes moods of a child and communicates with the child accordingly. It can also create geospatial information about a location. This way it remembers each room in the house and hopefully not bump into furniture 😊
My opinion, it’s can be a great companion for children with learning or physical limitations.
Skoodles
was an exciting stop.
Some of the products that caught my attention were ‘paper-pencil’ and ‘plant-able pencil’.
The paper-pencil is made of recycled waste paper and compressed to wind around the lead. It functions just like a normal pencil.
The price was higher than the usual pencil.
Well if it's recycled, why the high price?
They are manufactured in Surat, India. But do have other plants in China, Taiwan and the USA.
‘Plant-able pencils’ had a capsule attached at the top of a pencil and carried 2 seeds. (see the green tip on the pencil)
After the pencil shortens, you can simply plant it and you can have a small kitchen garden for you 😊
A great way to also teach your kids gardening and how to care for nature.
I got some freebies for mustard and coriander. I Will let you know how it turned out.
Smartivity
Smartivity showed me one of their innovations. It was a ‘Theatre’ which could be constructed right from scratch. It comes complete with characters, 5/10 backgrounds to suit the story narration, colored shade panels to change the mood and create an appropriate effect, accompanying music to set a dramatic effect for scenes.
The current pack comes with 3 stories and 50 or 60 characters. There can be 3 characters present inside the theatre at any given time. They move in and out based on a flywheel that is also a part of the assembly.
The characters can be easily removed and plugged in appropriate slots
The entire assembly looked impressive and brilliantly made. The purpose of the toy is to let kids make, narrate and enact stories out of their imagination.
This is great educational content for kids.
PS: Pics were not allowed at this stall.
Explore stall
showcased a huge display of DIY. Make your own perfume, soap, Chocos, candle, chalk etc.
Basically – ‘make your own everything’.
Geo Chem
is involved in testing. This is a vital part of any manufacturing unit and toys or educational content is no exception.
India now enforces imported or exported goods to comply as per the standards they have set.
I was taken through one of the contents printed on their brochure. It is as follows:
• Mechanical and physical safety tests
• Flammability
• Heavy Metals
• Formaldehyde
• Plasticizers / Phthalates
• Flame retardant substances
• Organic tin compounds
• Carcinogenic and Allergenic Dyestuffs
• Fastness to saliva and perspiration
There are national and international toys safety standards that need to be upheld to ensure that a product is safe for kids and people around them.
Summarizing:
I saw great passion in a few developers. They showed a purpose behind every innovation.
It was good to see older kids aged 50 + anchoring the stalls.
Skipy, Miko, Skoodles (plantable pencil), K’nex, Pustefix, Playmais, Spyrosity, and Fleximos were the highlights of my visit.
However, I would have enjoyed the presence of Lego, Flintobox and other established brands.
Parting words:
I believe the right toy can build a child. Keep it simple, fun and fuelled with imagination.
For fun reading, I have a pdf attached here with pics.