SUBMITTED BY jimillo

February 15, 2001 —
Reuters published a report today from "Toy Fair" being held this week in New York. Jim Silver, publisher of The Toy Book, a magazine regarded as the ``bible'' of the toy industry, got a look at some "Monsters, Inc" toys, and revealed a few minor plot details as well.

``Looking at the movies coming out,'' Silver said. ``Pixar's success is the key ... The name is great.''

Silver believes ``Monsters, Inc.'' merchandise will be bigger this year for its targeted age group of children ages 3 to 7 than toys based on ``Harry Potter,'' the boy wizard and hero of the best-selling series of books by J.K. Rowling from Scholastic Inc. This past holiday season, ``Harry Potter'' toys ``did very well,'' but the plot of the books and the toys, especially the trivia game, are geared more for children ages 10 and up.

The plot line of ``Monsters, Inc.'' is simple and plays well at both levels: the all-too-real fear of the dark that small children have and the sensibilities of busy parents who struggle to get their kids in bed each night.

Once parents have tucked a child safely into bed at night, the monsters come into the child's room through the closet door, scare the child, and collect the kid's screams for Monsters, Inc., the biggest scream-processing factory in the monster world. All havoc breaks loose when a little girl named Boo accidentally stumbles into the monsters' world -- and scares the monsters.

The monsters ``live in a different world,'' Silver said, and the plot has a twist: It's the monsters' job to scare little kids. But they're more scared of humans than people are of them.

From Hasbro, the world's No. 2 toy maker, based in Pawtucket, R.I., the ``Monsters, Inc.'' toys run the gamut from plush versions of one-eyed Mike and big Sulley, to interactive Mike and Sulley from the company's Tiger Electronics division, to games, plastic toys and mini packs of collectible ``Monsters, Inc.'' characters. The mouths, eyelids and eyes -- or make that eye, singular, in Mike's case -- move on Tiger's interactive Mike and Sulley. They can talk to you or each other.

Hasbro, which has the master toy license for ``Monsters, Inc.'' merchandise, also has a toy in this line called ``the Obliterator,'' which caters to the satisfaction little boys get from smashing things.

From Spin Master Toys, Light-Up Mike and Wild-Eyed Sulley in plush will retail for $24.99. Ditto for the little girl, Somersault Boo, in plastic. Squeeze Mike's hand and his face lights up. Sully's eyes can vary their expression, from sullen to flirty to silly. A big Sulley puppet represents the top price point in the line and will sell for under $40. These toys are geared toward specialty stores, such as FAO Schwarz and Zany Brainy.

Competition to get a ``Monsters, Inc.'' toy license was so keen last September that two members of the Spin Master Toys presentation team wore fur coats when they called on Disney and Pixar, said Chris Beardall, vice president of marketing.

``We wanted them to know, 'We're from Canada. We understand fur.' It was crazy, two guys driving in a convertible along the California freeway in fur coats in September,'' Beardall said.