Room Escape Artist

On one special day in October 2023, I – along with David and Lisa – attended the North American International Toy Fair, or Toy Fair for short. This is an annual event in New York City’s Jacob Javits Convention Center that for some strange reason hasn’t taken place since February of 2020.

Toy Fair is an event that would be the highlight of any child’s year – except that this is a trade show and they don’t allow children. That means the entirety of the convention center is chock full of new and upcoming toys and games, and only industry representatives and press are allowed in. It made for an exciting day of walking the aisles and looking for the hot new thing.

There were a huge number of things to see, and searching for puzzle games became a sort of all-day scavenger hunt. Ultimately, we didn’t find many products that were escape room specific. We did find a couple of items that crossed the puzzle threshold and deserve to be mentioned.

Crime Scene

Hailing from Finland, the Crime Scene Game display immediately caught our attention; yellow police tape that says “crime scene” was a good indication that we were seeing a mystery that needed to be solved. Crime Scene is a series of stand-alone boxed games that take place across time and space – series titles include Brooklyn 2002, London 1892, Helsinki 2012, etc. Each box contains a detailed photo of a crime scene, a police report/ story book, and a deck of large cards that act as the puzzles, hint system, and so on. Look out for a full review of Brooklyn and London in the coming weeks!

Zelda Hanayama Puzzles

We appreciate a good mechanical puzzle, so we were excited to see a new line of Hanayama puzzles. If you’re not familiar, Hanayama is a brand of relatively inexpensive high-quality metal disassembly/ reassembly puzzles with a wide range of difficulty levels. They recently produced a series of three puzzles based on the eternally popular Legend of Zelda series. These three are based on familiar Zelda items and symbols: the master sword, the triforce, and the Hyrule crest. Coming across these new products was doubly exciting, as they got us hyped for new Hanayama puzzles and Zelda at the same time.

Thames & Kosmos

Thames & Kosmos is a company that we cover fairly often. Their Exit: The Game series of boxed escape games and advent calendars are well-regarded and enjoyable. At Toy Fair, the Thames & Kosmos booth had plenty of Exit games on display, but there was also a focus on getting little solvers in the mix, too.

T&K’s “Spy Labs Incorporated” line contains a variety of investigative tools for a budding detective. The Secret Voice Recorder and the Listening Device are sure to annoy siblings, but the really exciting tools are the escape-adjacent ones. They offer a Secret Codes and Ciphers box as well as a Cryptic Puzzle Safe. It’s never too early to start developing a love of puzzles and hidden things! Pair those with T&K’s Exit: The Game – Kids offerings and the young ones will be TERPECA voters in no time.

Quick Thoughts

• Abacus Brands’ Cold Case VR used your phone placed inside a “VR” headset to look around crime scenes and find evidence in the murder of a rising internet star. Abacus had a series of entertainment products in this category aside from Cold Case. They also had titles with tie-ins to Penn & Teller and television’s MasterChef.
• Mayday Games’ Escape from the Asylum promises 10 hours of cooperative escape room-style play. Players take on the role of someone attempting to escape from an asylum, solving puzzles over a series of 10 one-hour chapters.
• We saw the above-mentioned Zelda Hanayama puzzles at the University Games booth, but that wasn’t the only interesting product they were showing off. The Night Hunter caught our eyes with its many, many pieces of tangible evidence to examine. The story and the art worked together to create a very intriguing atmosphere.
• ZAKCOpuzzleboards were gorgeous wooden tables, purpose built with raised borders for making jigsaw puzzling a little neater. They also offered accessories you didn’t know you wanted, like a stand for puzzle box tops to make the guide image easier to see.
• Yarto‘s booth was a definite attention grabber. Yarto makes an absurdly large variety of rubber ducks, but beware – they are a wholesaler, so you can’t just order a single Boris Johnson Duck. They will, however, work with you to design and manufacture custom ducks for your next event! It’s not cheap, but can you put a price on having a bespoke rubber duck?

Toy Fair 2024 2025

We thoroughly enjoyed our time at Toy Fair 2023. There was a lot of ground to cover and many, many booths to visit. And while we look forward to being able to visit Toy Fair again, there will not be a 2024 version. Market forces have decided that late winter/ early spring is a more opportune time to host the event, and so the next New York Toy Fair will be March 1 to March 4, 2025. Starting in 2026, Toy Fair will be moving south to New Orleans. New Orleans in January may be more welcoming in terms of weather than New York, but we’ll miss having Toy Fair right in our backyard.

Toy Fair 2023 was a great opportunity to scout out the next big thing. Maybe it’s a little early to be thinking about the next holiday season, but it’ll be here before you know it! Some of the products we saw may end up on our 2024 Holiday Gift Guide. Until then, check out our 2023 Gift Guide using the button below.