Winner 2020
Baby & Infant
PreSchool
SchoolKids
Teenager & Adults
Startup
Baby & Infant
WINNER
PLAYMOBIL 1.2.3 AQUA
Splish, splash! In the compact water play world of 1.2.3. AQUA from Playmobil, our little ones are completely in their element. The crank on the side produces a stream of water in which figures, boats and water toys spin merrily. The jury praised not only its high-quality design but also its intuitive functionality. All play features are marked red and the little paddlers can playfully train their fine motor skills by turning and pressing the buttons. Expandable: a slide, cute yellow ducks or a swing are available as add-ons to the water play world.
NOMINEE
Baby Walker Whale
The Baby Walker Whale from Legler is a genuine all-rounder. Play features such as side flaps, a shape-sorting game with blocks and the integrated storage space for toys are hidden away in the rolling blue whale. The compass displays images that can be reproduced on the top. The jury praised the stability of the baby walker made of high-quality wood, its reliable braking system and its aesthetic design!
NOMINEE
Play & Crawl Hedgehog Mirror
Follow that hedgehog! The cute hedgehog face of Mattel‘s Hedgehog Mirror, which babies who have already reached the crawling stage can push in front of them on large wheels, really gets them going. Moreover, the mirror awakens babies‘ fascination with their own reflection. When being rolled, small balls in the tyres make exciting noises that remain pleasant even over a longer period of time. The jury‘s view: a beautifully shaped baby toy made of a colourful mix of materials.
PreSchool
WINNER
Knight’s Castle Ball Track
With the Knight‘s Castle Ball Track, GoKi offers fans of chivalry a unique marble run. The lightweight wooden elements can be extended in many different ways to form a stately fortress, one that can be redesigned over and over again thanks to its modular construction. The coloured wooden balls roll from tower to tower at lofty heights and the lords of the castle can develop their motor skills and sense of three-dimensional space. The colourful wooden components, the unlimited design variety and the simple plug-in mechanism delighted the jury, who chose Knight‘s Castle Ball Track as the winner of the PreSchool category.
NOMINEE
MAN TGS Street Sweeper
BRUDER has created a detailed duplicate of a street sweeper: its MAN TGS Street Sweeper. At the touch of a button, the side brush can be lowered to street level or retracted after cleaning; the dirt container can be tilted and the flap at the rear opened. The large suction hose at the rear is also very stable. Just the right thing for little fans of large trucks, the jury judged.
NOMINIERT
Mini Chef Bird’s Nest Café
A lovingly decorated café with a sales counter is what is behind Jet Young International‘s Mini Chef Bird‘s Nest Café. In pastel colours, it is full of loving detail: cappuccino with an image on the milk foam, tea bags and pastries can be served in the coffee shop. The café easily fits into children‘s bedrooms thanks to its space-saving size – with enormous play value!
SchoolKids
WINNER
Balloon Puncher
The Balloon Puncher from Silverlit Toys Manufactory brings fun and action into children‘s bedrooms. Two balloons are clamped onto the remote-controlled bodies as heads: one robot-like base each on rollers with two arms. You can already see from the ninja eyes that things are about to get dangerous. The aim of the game is to make your opponent‘s balloon burst by boxing with your own Balloon Puncher. The colourful boxers are remote-controlled. The jury especially liked the mix of a balloon bursting game and technology coupled with the amusing concept of the entertaining game.
NOMINEE
Octopus Party
Skill and fun are the main focus at the Octopus Party from TREFL. With tentacle arms on their fi ngers, the players com-pete against each other and try to recreate daring structures with the colourful cups. The entertaining skill game wins over players with its attractively illustrated action cards and the easily comprehensible game principle: open up the box and start playing!
NOMINEE
Green Science
Young scientists can learn exciting things about the environ-ment and sustainability with the Green Science experiment kit from SCIENCE4YOU. The manual explains over 15 experiments step by step and imparts knowledge about natural phenome-na, including upcycling – such as making an astronaut’s hel-met from an old cardboard box.
Teenager & Adult
WINNER
Mystery House: Adventures in a Box
Escape rooms are currently very popular with young and old alike – so it’s great that there is an exit game for home enjoyment with the Mystery House from Cranio Creations! The cards are placed in the mysteriously designed 3D playing field according to coordinates. Each player can now peek into it and look for clues. Whoever finds one types the coordinates of the card into an accompanying app on the tablet – and receives items that help further solve this puzzle.
NOMINIERT
Uno Braille
The card game Uno Braille is a popular classic that’s been given a new look by Mattel. The card values, printed in braille, are located in the upper left and lower right corner of the cards. Since Uno is now available in this format, children with visual impairment can now also play without restriction: a nice idea for inclusion – and the jury agrees!
NOMINEE
Proxi – Your micro:bit Coding-Robot
With Proxi – Your micro:bit Coding Robot, Kosmos Verlag offers prospective engineers a high-quality set to build their own programmable robot. After assembly, the robot‘s chip is programmed on the computer. The display shows the robot’s facial expressions. The robot can also walk like a spider and even display text messages. Proxi offers educational value and can also be controlled by tilting the tablet.
StartUp
Following a detailed investigation, Spielwarenmesse eG is stripping the product „Calculix number bricks“ of the ToyAward, presented in the Startup category at the 71st Spielwarenmesse. During the event, serious doubts about the originality of Calculix were expressed to the organizer. After research and intensive review of the situation, Spielwarenmesse eG is exercising its right, as stated in its terms and conditions, to strip the company of the ToyAward, presented on 28 January 2020, with immediate effect.
NOMINEE
Pigcasso
In the action-packed game from Kade, entitled Pigcasso, two teams play against each other. Turning the wheel gives you your fi rst task: draw the way out of a labyrinth or retrace the sketch of a picture. Sounds simple? But it‘s not, because the player has to do it with a little pig’s nose with a pen stuck in it. Looks funny and is guaranteed to make children and parents howl with laughter!
NOMINEE
PIXIO®
PIXIO®, the magnetic building blocks from TRENDFORMER, are a game and a design object in one. With these colourful blocks – only about 8 millimetres in size – you can build objects in the Pixel art style. Initial instructions can be found in the attractively designed brochure and more is available online. Thanks to the small size of the blocks, your imagination has no boundaries. And the finished products are ready to be exhibited anywhere!
Jury 2020
Since 1992 Dr. Maria Costa is the Research Manager at AIJU, a private children’s research center located in Spain, and deals with the usability testing of children’s items. For 25 years she has been, the coordinator for the “Games and Toys Guide”, during this time she has also managed the analysis of several thousands of toys. She is the author of numerous posts, articles and books on this topic.
Axel Dammler is Managing Director of iconkids & youth international research GmbH in Munich, Germany’s largest research institute specialised in kids and youth research. He has been working with young target groups since 1992 and has carried out numerous studies in national and international consumer and media markets.
As founder of the British consulting company Gameplan Europe, Andrew Dobbie advises and publishes throughout the world on the consumer behaviour of children and products and markets for children and young people. As former European Marketing Director of Mattel Toys Inc, Andrew Dobbie has an extensive knowledge and many years of experience in the international toy industry.
Since the beginning of 2016, Konstantin Frishberg is the Director of the Toys and Games Department at Detsky Mir. Detsky Mir is the biggest children’s goods retailer in Eastern Europe with more than 600 stores in Russia and Kazakhstan.
Dr. Thomas Märtz has worked for VEDES AG since 1999. As the cooperative buying and marketing group with the longest tradition in the German toy industry, VEDES offers SME retailers numerous services and in particular an efficient wholesale platform.
Jörg Meister studied product design at the FH Coburg. In 2010, after working for five years as an industrial designer for a globally operating company for baby hardware and toys, he joined forces with Eva Stemmer to set up the service agency for product design, consulting and PR with a focus on children’s products.
Nadine Müller has been testing toys with children aged 0 to 14, parents and pedagogical institutions for more than seven years and, as a trend scout, is always on the lookout for premium toys guaranteeing long-lasting playing fun. As a consultant to companies in the toy industry, her customised market research solutions are spoken highly of by those in the know.
Thorsten Paedelt works for duo schreib & spiel since 2001 and became Managing Director for Marketing and Sales in 2002. The retail trade co-operation from Berlin covers 460 toy shops in Germany and Austria. The range extends from stationery and toys to products from the creative and lifestyle segments.
Jochen Pohle is Head of Department in the business area family at the multi-sector network EK/servicegroup in Bielefeld, Germany. Before that, he had been Purchase Director at the Spiele Max AG and worked in serveral managing positions for the Metro Group in Germany and Asia. Jochen Pohle is enrooted in the toy industry for nearly 15 years.
Since October 2011, Andreas Schäfer is the managing director at idee+spiel, one of the most successful toy trade co-operations for leisure, hobbies and games. Mr. Schäfer is a trained retail salesman. After working for an EDP-equipment store he got into the toy industry in 1990, where he gained experience over the last 20 years in Germany and abroad.
Dean Smith is the co-owner of jaZams toy & book stores. jaZams has been in business for 22 years and has been rated as one of the 25 best toy stores in America. Before becoming part of the jaZamily Dean was an organic farmer.
Vincent Stozicky has worked for the JouéClub Group for over 25 years and since 2000 as Commercial Director of SIDJ responsible for the import-export and sales platform of the whole JouéClub network and for the development of the corporate image at European level.
Following her core studies on working with people with an intellectual disability and sensory impairment and open child and youth work, Marietheres Waschk became a lecturer in the pedagogy of play at the Remscheid Academy and also runs an adventure playground in Cologne, where she conducts projects focused on the pedagogy of play and culture.
Since 1993, Rainer Weiskirchen works as a spokesperson for TÜV Rheinland, a state-approved independent trade agency that also checks the quality and safety standards of toys. The TÜV Rheinland tests and certifies products according to the German and/or European Consumer Product Safety Act. Their “tested safety” certification mark (GS) guarantees a high quality of products.
Thomas Wodzicki is an educationalist specialized in games. He also works as a teacher of adult education and project developer for the German Federal Association Spielmobile e.V. Spielmobile is a Germany-wide network of working groups and the proper authority for the gap year, usually taken to do voluntary work in the social sector in Bavaria. n mark (GS) guarantees a high quality of products.
Tracy Wood is a mother of two children from the UK, who used her experiences of toy buying for her children and turned it into a successful toy and game review website, which was voted the best toy blog in the UK in 2014. Gaining a working knowledge of toy trends, and working with brands and retailers along the way, she has been running the website Toybuzz for over 10 years.