The Toy Insider Sweet Suite 2020 Recap
What is The Toy Insider Sweet Suite?
Have you ever wanted to see some of the years hottest toys before they are released before the big holiday’s? (Uh, I have. Haha!) Then Sweet Suite is one of the places you will see them. The best way I can describe The Toy Insider Sweet Suite is it is one of the biggest toy events/conventions. Over 70 toy companies usually attend and it is held in-person in New York.
I have always wanted to go, but it is an invite-only event and the stars have never aligned for me. Until this year. Covid-19 has changed how many companies do business and The Toy Insider made a pivot and moved its massive event to an online event. On a whim, I decided to apply to attend and to my utter delight, I received an invite. Below is my experience with The Toy Insiders Sweet Suite and my favorite toys from the event.
Change to virtual format
First I want to talk about the event it’s self. It must have been a task to switch an event attended by over 400 people and over 70 vendors to an online platform. But The Toy Insider did it. I will admit when I first logged into the online platform I was confused and things were not working properly. I would hear pings and dings and I knew I was receiving messages or notifications and I could not see them, but after logging out and logging back in the situation fixed its self. Haha!
Once I got everything fixed I realized the platform was just like a high tech 3D tour of a house. You “walked” up to a booth and had the option to review information/videos on the toys and also have a zoom meeting with representatives from the companies. During these zoom meetings, you got to watch the toys in action and actually talk with the reps just like you would if you were there in person.
Even though the event was online it still took me hours to go visit all of the vendor’s booths and attend any scheduled meetings I had made prior to the start of the event. I will admit it felt kinda lonely. Haha! There were only a couple of people in a zoom meeting at a time and I only ran into someone I knew once in 5 hours. Virtual events will always have the drawback of not allowing you to network as you would during an in-person event, but I feel The Toy Insider did a fantastic job putting together their event given the circumstances.
Companies
Alright, so I have talked about the event, but what kind of companies attend and present their products at The Toy Insider Sweet Suite? Major brands such as Bandai, Crayola, Nintendo, Fat Brain Toys, Mattel, PLAYMOBIL, and more attended. With all the companies who attended there had to be over 100 toys to preview and learn about. That is a lot and gives attendees a lot of information to digest, but a few toys did stand out to me. Below are little briefs on my favorite toys from The Toy Insider Sweet Suite 2020 event. (In the coming months, I will be able to show you and review some of the below toys and will make sure to link these reviews once they are completed.)
My favorite toys
From Funrise Toys, I really liked Bright Fairy Friends. It is a blind unboxing toy. The jar and fairy light up! There are 12 different fairies to choose from, but you don’t know which one you will get! You can read my review of BFF HERE.
Bandai – Who here had a Tamagotchi?! Who here had a hard time keeping it alive? Haha! Well, Bandai America has added to the Tamagotchi family with TamagotchiON. You can now take your Tamagotchi to daycare, out to restaurants, and more! It is so different from the original version and just goes to show you how far technology has come.
Tonies – My kids could not stop talking about Tonies after our zoom mtg with them. This toy will play music and tell stories based on which Tonie you have attached to the Toniebox. You can even use a Creative Tonie and record your own messages! This one is perfect for young kids and Tonies also offers a wide range of Tonies which includes Disney Characters. You can check out my full review of Tonies Toniebox and Tonies HERE.
Sunny Days Entertainment, LLC. – Ravel Tales. Is also a blind unboxing toy that incorporates DIY projects for kids! Super cute and affordable. This is a toy that I feel offers hours of fun and less waste than most blind unboxing toys! You can read my review of Ravel Tales HERE.
Skyrocket – There were 2 toys from Skyrocket’s booth that I absolutely loved Blume Dolls and the Chocolate Pen. Anything Blume Dolls is super cute, but the new Blume Petal Pets take the cake. Their petal pets are adorable! As for the Chocolate Pen… Who wouldn’t want to be able to create beautiful chocolate masterpieces! My daughter went crazy for the Chocolate Pen. It will make a great gift for any budding chef, and is now on her birthday list!
Whew! That’s a lot of toys…
Imagine it. In this post, I recapped only 6 toys that were shown at The Toy Insider Sweet Suite event. What do you think of the toys I talked about above? Let me know in the comments! If you attended the event which toys were your favorites?
