At the end of the day, robotics are wonderful, but the market always goes back to basics. Then it re-invents itself and goes back to high tech, where everybody gets impressed, then get tired of it and return to traditional. Toth believes robotic dogs have been overdone, with more simple toys due to re-emerge within the next two years or sooner. Japan a tough market to open Hong Kong exhibitors continue to rely on what they see as their forte, qualities which include a higher degree of regulation, safety and value for money than many of their competitors in Asia. However a number are not optimistic about getting orders for their more traditional products.
Japan is a very special market and it takes a great deal of time to enter it.
Chan says direct contact and introduction might be a better way to secure business. Robert Fuhrer, president of Nextoy, has been an inventor and an exhibitor at the Tokyo Toy Fair for the past 20 years, and feels that for a trader to succeed in Japan, it is important to customise products. At the Nuremberg Fair there are a lot of hobby toys. One Hong Kong booth, Star Electronics, has been getting plenty of attention for its product in this line, an interactive telephone. Another company, Maxwise Productions, has come up with a small portable monitor for kids which can be used in a car to play video games.