2020 Toy Fair New York Day 1 Recap: Hasbro, YuMe Toys, and More!

Every year, Toy Fair New York brings together the world’s largest toy companies, tosses them in with some independent brands, and throws them in New York City’s Javits Center for four days of fun. It’s been a few years since I attended TFNY, and this year I have a full schedule, so I’ll be doing daily recaps on all the things I see on the floor. Let’s get started with TFNY Day 1.

TFNY Day 1 was occupied mostly by Hasbro. The Hasbro showroom was actually located in The Times Center, near Times Square, and the opening of the showroom was preceded by a two-hour presentation where representatives from each of the major toy lines got up on stage and wowed the audience with announcements and exclusive footage. Because of this, it took up almost the entirety of my afternoon.

I also had an appointment with YuMe Toys earlier in the day, and between the two I stopped at some other booths – Diamond Select Toys, Good Smile Company, and Pyramid America – to check out their wares. In this post, I’ll recap the highlights of what I saw on the floor on this first day of TFNY 2020.

Hasbro

I tweeted along with the presentation as well as I could, considering photos and videos were not permitted. But anyone interested in watching can check out the Hasbro Pulse Facebook page, which live-streamed the entire event.

The other The Geekiary editors were very clear about their expectations of my coverage, and that was basically, “Find all the Baby Yodas you can,” so naturally the Star Wars section was one of my first stops when I finally hit the showroom. Admin Angel has been keeping everyone apprised of all major Baby Yoda merchandise news, and make sure to check out our Twitter for a couple of videos of the animatronic in action!

But Baby Yoda isn’t the only Star Wars draw coming out this year. It’s the 40th anniversary of The Empire Strikes Back, and so a lot of the presentation focused on the new Kenner card-backed toys, with more realistic faces.

There was a lot of Marvel news for Hasbro. Several new Storm figures are coming soon, plus they’ve gone back to the original X-Men films and are releasing two Hugh Jackman Wolverine figures. You can also grab Charles and Erik figures that come with faceplates for both actors (James McAvoy and Patrick Stewart, Michael Fassbender and Ian McKellen, respectively) so you can display whichever pair you prefer.

I was a big fan of the figures from Deadpool 2 – including Domino and Negasonic Teenage Warhead – as well as the Venomized figures of Miles Morales and Gwen Stacy.

A big surprise at the presentation was an appearance by Ivan Reitman and Jason Reitman. Ivan created Ghostbusters and directed the original two films, and his son Jason is helming the upcoming Ghostbusters: Afterlife. So, of course, I had to venture over and see what’s coming up from that line. No figures from Afterlife were on display, but I did check out the re-released figures from the 1980s cartoon along with the hyper-real figures from the first film.

Big news from Hasbro is, of course, the relaunch of G.I. Joe. There weren’t a whole lot of reveals for the new Joes, but they are putting out a line of 6” figures – G.I. Joe Classified – and had a few on display.

If you’re a fan of the original Power Rangers show, you will get a kick out of the new Green Ranger dragon dagger, which you can actually play. It has pre-programmed music, but you can also play it like a flute. (I mean, it’s more like a trumpet but whatever.)

Last but not least, there were plenty of Transformers. A lot of the focus was on the new Netflix anime trilogy War for Cybertron – which we got to see some sneak peeks for – and there were a ton of figures from the series. The second installment of the trilogy, Earthrise, will follow the Transformers on their journey to Earth, which has never been depicted before, and we’ll get to meet some new factions.

YuMe Toys

But I started TFNY Day 1 at YuMe Toys, which has some adorable chibi versions of classic franchises. Their big focus this year is on the Harry Potter Magical Capsules, a blind box item with some interesting reveals. The opening procedure involves a heat reveal – which shows you the house color associated with the toy – and a water reveal – which shows you a spell associated with the character.

I was also amazed by the Advent Calendar. The calendar “unfolds” to reveal more days, and each box contains a little item. There are two different versions, an 18-day (which is available through Barnes & Noble) and a 24-day (which is available through Amazon).

They also have a “designer” line of chibi plushes, including Batman and Space Jam, as well as “classic” and “modern” Scooby-Doo plushes. YuMe Toys offers a variety of plushes from pop culture franchises, with DC Comics, My Little Pony, and Looney Tunes. They also have a line of seasonal products, a line of horror products (featuring heat-activated mugs and a motion-activated Pennywise whose head rotates 360 degrees), and some more classic plushes.

Diamond Select Toys

Diamond Select always has premium collectibles on offer. If I had more money, I would happily blow it all on their sculptures. Their booth was quite large, and I didn’t have time to document everything, but I grabbed some pictures of some of my favorite figures from Marvel, Avatar: The Last Airbender, Star Wars, and Boku no Hero Academia for all y’all anime fans.

Good Smile Company

Now, Good Smile is definitely a vendor who takes all of my money. I have more Nendoroids than a person of my income should, but they’re just so darn adorable, and for some of my shows it’s difficult to find other merchandise. They had a small booth, but they’re one of my favorite companies, so I made sure to stop by and see what they had to display. If you’re a fan of BNHA or Demon Slayer, you will probably enjoy it.

Pyramid America

Since my mission was to find as many Baby Yodas as possible, a framed print from The Mandalorian caught my eye as I was walking the floor. I checked out the rest of the booth and found a variety of amazing prints (did you see the holographic Star Trek one?), some really awesome journals (oh man, that Captain America one!), and some geeky welcome mats.

And those are my 2020 TFNY Day 1 finds! Keep following The Geekiary for more from the Toy Fair. Tomorrow I have appointments with Spin Master and Playmates, but I have a list of other booths to check out once I’m finished with those.

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Author: Jamie Sugah

Jamie has a BA in English with a focus in creative writing from The Ohio State University. She self-published her first novel, The Perils of Long Hair on a Windy Day, which is available through Amazon. She is currently an archivist and lives in New York City with her demon ninja vampire cat. She covers television, books, movies, anime, and conventions in the NYC area.

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