Christmas in February

February 16, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

Thousands get sneak peek

into Santa’s 2010 workshop

Some 100,000 products are featured at the preview for the holiday season.

Los Angeles Times

HHeads up, parents: In the coming months, your kids could be begging you for a moonwalking Mickey Mouse, a UFO that hovers above your hand or a video-camera-equipped Barbie.

Those toys — and thousands more — are on on display this week at the American International Toy Fair in New York, providing attendees with a colorful peek into Santa’s workshop months ahead of the Christmas season.

Retail buyers, licensors and other industry professionals packed the trade show’s galleries and showrooms to check out the latest offerings by big-name toy giants and small, independent toy makers. The four-day event is expected to draw more than 32,000 attendees and feature 100,000 products, including action figures, stuffed animals, remote-controlled cars, board games, costumes and jewelry-making kits.

Coming off a decent holiday season for the toy industry, buyers said they were optimistic business would pick up this year and were increasing inventory orders, although many said they continued to look for products that stressed affordability.

“I just can’t quite move fast enough,” said Matt Hannifin, manager of Science Toy Magic, a toy store in Fort Collins, Colo. “I’ve been buying so much.”

Taking place each winter at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, the toy fair serves as a major buying event for the holiday season — although it doesn’t take itself too seriously.

A band of clowns dressed in red and yellow marched through the convention center in the morning as exhibitors lugged in boxes and suitcases full of toys. Throughout the day, professionals dressed in suits strummed toy guitars and kneaded green pieces of Bubber, a non-sticky modeling dough.

In Mattel Inc.’s showroom, attendees gushed over a 3-month-old golden retriever puppy who was modeling Puppy Tweets, the El Segundo company’s new toy that posts pre-written tweets to the social media Web site Twitter when triggered by a dog’s bark or movement.

Downstairs, women wearing trench coats decorated with dozens of TY Hello Kitty Beanie Babies posed for photos.

By the end of the day, greeting card company Up With Paper had received at least 40 percent more orders compared with the same day a year earlier.