Mattel Shifts Focus of Apptivity Brand to Only Fisher-Price Products

The Apptivity strategy change had nothing to do with how such products sold in 2012, said Van Vliet. Mattel “learned a lot” in 2012 and decided to “leverage” the power of its various brands in 2013, he said. Apptivity has become a brand name in and of itself and Mattel decided to allow its older brands such as Hot Wheels and Barbie to be the focus of products that feature them, he said.

New Fisher-Price Apptivity products that Mattel highlighted at Toy Fair included the Create & Learn Case for iPads that it said will ship this fall at $39.99. The device protects the iPad while kids draw and play with the Apple device, Mattel said in a news release (http://xrl.us/bogrnm). The case’s included Alphabet Animation cards “come to life in 3D” on the iPad screen when seen by the tablet’s camera, “enabling children to watch and interact with the pictures,” Mattel said. A version of the device for iPhones and the iPod touch will ship in the fall at $19.99, it said. Laugh & Learn apps have generated more than 6.5 million downloads to date, it said.

We were also given demonstrations of the $34.99 Apptivity Gym (out now) and Imaginext Apptivity Fortress (fall, $49.99). The Apptivity Gym is a mini toy gym for infants that houses an iPhone or iPod touch and can be used “to customize unique interactivity” for babies, Mattel said. The toy works with two iTunes apps and is compatible with the iPhone 3G, 3GS, 4G, 4S and second- to fourth-generation iPod touch, it said.

The Apptivity Fortress makes augmented reality available to young kids -- it’s targeted at children 3-7 years old -- and combines a playset with app functionality. The Imaginext Fortress app is available as a free download on the App Store and an iPad slides into the playset’s clear screen that Mattel said protects the tablet while kids play. When using the app with the Fortress playset, the iPad “recognizes and interacts” with the toy’s knight toy figure and cannon, it said. Children can touch an on-screen button to activate the iPad’s camera function and watch “interactive enemies such as trolls and evil knights run towards them, as if they were in their living room,” it said. The Fortress is compatible with the first- to third-generation iPads, the iPad with Retina Display and iPad mini, Mattel said.

Mattel has been “exploring” the use of augmented reality for “quite a while,” said Van Vliet. It worked with Qualcomm a few years ago on a Rock ‘em Sock ‘em Robots app for Android that used augmented reality, Mattel Brands spokesman Bret Ingraham said. That was merely a “proof of concept” project, he said. The technology was also used in Mattel’s Avatar product line, he said.

The company shipped a Laugh & Learn Apptivity Monkey last year, a plush toy in which an iPhone or iPod touch can be slipped into the case with a clear screen that’s in the monkey’s stomach. It will add an Apptivity Puppy in July, at $29.99. The new Apptivity line also includes the Laugh & Learn Apptivity Storybook Reader (out now at $19.99), Laugh & Learn Apptivity Creation Center (fall, $39.99) and Little People Apptivity Barnyard (fall, $39.99).

Outside of the Fisher-Price Apptivity line, Mattel introduced the Barbie Digital Makeover Mirror that it said “uses facial tracking technology to transform an iPad into a digital mirror that invites girls to select options like eye shadow, lipstick, color, and glitter to apply to the girl’s live image on the iPad screen without the mess of makeup.” It will ship in August at $69.99. For now, the toy is only compatible with the iPad 2 and iPad mini, Mattel said.

"We are” going to support Android devices with Mattel apps, said Van Vliet, not saying when. It remains focused on iOS devices for now because that is the operating system being used by the most potential Mattel product users, he said. Another advantage of iOS is that there are fewer devices that compatibility must be achieved with in order to offer precision and accuracy when functioning with Mattel toys, he said, pointing to the huge number of Android devices there are in comparison. But Mattel is “making architectural decisions on the back end” that will allow it to support other mobile platforms in the future if the installed bases of other devices warrant it, he said. There was a technical limitation with supporting the initial Kindle tablet because that device offered only two touch points, he said. The newest Kindle tablet, however, offers 10 touch points, making it more feasible for potential use with Mattel products, he said.

Mattel has yet to jump into the growing kids tablet market. But “nothing’s ever off the table,” said Ingraham. For now, Mattel is focused on providing the best play and figuring out “how to enhance what is already available,” he said.

Toy Fair Notebook

There are about 40 million visitors to the Roblox website each month, including 11 million unique visitors, CEO David Baszucki said during a keynote at the Digital Kids Conference at Toy Fair. More than 3 million kids are building and playing its massively multiplayer online building game each month, the company said. There’s an “enormous opportunity” for companies to combine building with digital functionality now, he said.

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"Now is a good time” for an expansion of the number of toys that use digital functionality for three key reasons, Sifteo President David Merrill said at the Digital Kids Conference. First, while toys have used “cheap” microprocessors for many years, a $1 chip does a lot now, he said. Also, wireless functionality is becoming easier to incorporate in such products and new specialty retailers -- online and brick-and-mortar -- are doing “innovative things,” he said. Retailers carrying Sifteo’s interactive gaming cubes include Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Toys R Us, he said. Sifteo is “broadening that this year,” he said. -- JB

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Warner Bros. Interactive’s Traveler’s Tales studio released Lego City Undercover for the Wii U, among the first titles based on the toymaker’s products, a Lego spokeswoman said. Traveler’s has created the main versions of Lego-based videogames since 2005, but most, including Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga, have been based on themes Lego licensed from others. In Lego City Undercover, a family-friendly takeoff on Take-Two Interactive’s Grand Theft Auto series, police detective Chase McCain returns to Lego City to find Rex Fury, a criminal he put in jail, has escaped and is creating havoc. Lego City is a building toy aimed at children five or older that comes in transportation, airport, coast guard and police and fire department themes. Lego Legends of Chima, a building game that features anthropomorphic creatures, will be released as a video and mobile game this year, a company spokeswoman said. The Land of Chima that is threatened by war is populated by eleven tribes divided among lions, crocodiles, eagles and other animals. Legends of Chima premiered as an animated series on Cartoon Network in January with two episodes and will resume this summer, a company spokeswoman said. The Chima theme will continue through at least 2015, she said. Lego also is in production with Warner Bros. on the Lego-themed movie Lego: The Piece of Resistance that will be released in February 2014. Lego has 65 company-owned stores in North America, including 60 in the U.S. and five in Canada, the spokeswoman said.