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CNN Live At Daybreak
Kids Test Toys for "Family Fun" Magazine
Aired August 07, 2001 - 07:51 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
COLLEEN MCEDWARDS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, this hour and next, we're going to explore the wonderful world of -- you see it here -- toys.
VINCE CELLINI, CNN ANCHOR: What a wonderful world. And even though the winter holidays are months away, kids are playing with toys, testing them to determine which ones will make the cut and become the toys for the holiday season.
MCEDWARDS: Yes. Kids testing toys seems to make sense.
Well, Bob Domine, "Family Fun" magazine, is joining us. It's one of the organizations that's actually doing these tests. And he is joined by Jamie Leprestee (ph), 8-year-old, an expert toy tester.
Thank you both for being here.
BOB DOMINE, "FAMILY FUN" MAGAZINE: Oh, thanks a lot. How are you?
MCEDWARDS: Good, Bob. Can I start with you? Tell us what you learn from kids about these toys -- why you have them do the testing?
DOMINE: Well, you learn a lot from kids right now. I tell you, you were talking about a storm a minute ago, we're in a bit of a storm here ourselves in New York with "Family Fun's" 10th Annual Toy of the Year Toy Test. I mean basically what we learn here is that kids are the best judges of toys. We go up to over 1,000 kids around the country, starting a week ago Monday and ending a week from Friday, to vote on this year's hottest new products. Sometimes I say I've been chained to this contest forever.
CELLINI: Hey, Bob, kids are good judges of toys, too, because they're so brutally honest. I mean you'll see a kid, if he doesn't like it -- he or she doesn't like a toy, he'll set that toy down in about five seconds, right?
DOMINE: Yes, absolutely, boom, it's out of here. At "Family Fun," we talk about two things: one is fun factor. That is does a kid want to pick it up and play with it, and as you could see a minute ago, a lot of kids are playing with these products. The key thing, though, is long-term play value. You want to make sure that at the end of three weeks they're still playing with the toys -- that they haven't found their way to the closet. MCEDWARDS: Hey, Bob, is Jamie handy there? Could you maybe bring him over and tell us what he was doing or get him to tell us what he's doing?
DOMINE: Yes. Hey, yes, Jamie?
JAMIE LEPRESSEE, KID TOY TESTER: Yes.
DOMINE: Let's talk a little bit about what's going on here.
LEPRESSEE: OK.
DOMINE: I am chained to this darn animal, that's My Pet Monster, but, Jamie, you know these guys want to know a little bit about this. What's going on here?
LEPRESSEE: Well, we're playing, and I don't know, I guess you'd shine...
DOMINE: No, go ahead and show them. You got some balls over there?
LEPRESSEE: I don't have any balls here.
DOMINE: Where they'd all go?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Here's some.
CELLINI: Well, Bob, ask Jamie what he considers a fun toy. What makes a fun toy?
DOMINE: Well, a fun toy is an action toy. Go ahead and play, guys. See, basically this boccerball, and these kids came in this morning and they would not leave this alone. You put the soccer ball in the middle and then they keep trying to shoot it through the other guy's hoop with these little metal balls. And I mean we had to pry kids away from it in order to do this.
Now can you come in here -- can you come in here a little bit on Jamie, too? We go from the ridiculous here with My Pet Monster over to Jamie you have the sublime. You see he has this paleontologist costume on. This is from Learning Curve Toys. There are eight different costumes. They allow kids to actually role-play in different kinds of careers. Kids love them and you can see we've gotten his little mic right here in his pocket, convenient that we had that, isn't it, and also his little paintbrush over here so he can, oh, I guess brush some of the toy testing dust off of him.
Jamie, what do you think makes a great toy?
LEPRESSEE: I think this one. I really like this one. I don't know. I think it's really cool.
DOMINE: Cool.
MCEDWARDS: Hey, Bob? DOMINE: Yes.
MCEDWARDS: Have you ever -- have you ever been wrong about something? Have you ever had a toy that tested really well with the kids but then turned out to be a dud when it went to market?
DOMINE: Wrong, Toy of the Year Awards, surely you jest.
(LAUGHTER)
DOMINE: No, we've had a couple of products that the kids loved that actually didn't turn out to be hot sellers. But you know, often that's because toy buying decisions are made really early in the year by adult toy buyers at Toy Fair, and sometimes our kids will say we love something but it just isn't out there and therefore it doesn't really do that well.
CELLINI: Hey, Bob, rule of -- is there a rule of thumb when developing toys for kids? I mean is there an old standby method that you go down that same road when you want success?
DOMINE: Yes, actually a lot of research goes into developing toys for kids. There are companies out there that actually specialize in doing focus groups and concept tests where they'll bring a lot of kids together and say, hey, we got a great idea, what do you think? And the kids all go thumbs down, you know, and so they go back and scratch their heads and so forth. But kids have a lot of input in the development process.
CELLINI: I like this talking tool bench. Now this is a great gift for a young kid.
MCEDWARDS: Yes, well you've been through this with all your kids, you know what they like.
CELLINI: Yes, they're a little big for this stuff but this is a good gift. Actually I would recommend.
DOMINE: Now what are you guys liking?
MCEDWARDS: Stuff they can learn from, Bob. I think -- I think the paleontologist outfit is great.
DOMINE: The paleontologist is it, oh!
MCEDWARDS: All right. We're going -- we've got to let it go here, Bob, but we're going to check back -- check back with the kids...
DOMINE: OK.
MCEDWARDS: ... next hour to see how they're doing with some of the toys and get some of the ratings. So, Bob Domine and Jamie Lepressee, thanks very much. We'll see you later.
CELLINI: We'll see you later. DOMINE: All right.
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