Toy World Publisher John Baulch looks ahead to a promising second half of the year for the toy market
WRITTEN BY JOHN BAULCH — PUBLISHER OF TOY WORLD MAGAZINE
We’ve almost reached the halfway stage of 2025, and the first half of the year has certainly been… interesting.
For the past few months, the US toy community has been consumed with attempts to deal with the introduction of tariffs on Chinese-made products. To make matters worse, the situation has changed frequently: at the time of writing, the US Court of International Trade has just announced that it has blocked the tariff plan. Trump will appeal, naturally: but the latest twist in the long-running saga suggests that the courts believe that nobody – not even the President – has the unilateral right to bypass Congress and ride roughshod over the Constitution.
So after several months of pandemonium, maybe there is light at the end of the tunnel. Has it come in time to save Christmas for US toy suppliers? It will be touch and go for some, but for others, there is a lifeline dangling… let’s just hope that it isn’t pulled up at the last minute.
Meanwhile, across the wider global toy community, while toy companies and retailers are thankful not to have to deal directly with the tariff nightmare, there are still knock-on effects to contend with. The need for cool, calm heads has rarely been greater – and with a respectable start to the year for most European markets (according to Circana, the UK market was +7% to the end of April), and so many great new products set to launch in the coming months, there is every reason to be excited about prospects for the remainder of the year here in the UK.
A huge summer of movies is already in full swing: Disney’s Lilo & Stitch has got off to a flying start at the box office, while we have the How to Train Your Dragon live-action movie, Superman and Jurassic World Rebirth still to come before autumn draws in. Come autumn, toyetic properties like Paw Patrol and Gabby’s Doll House will have movies of their own being released, while the announcement about Peppa Pig’s new baby sister Evie has garnered huge media attention in recent weeks.
Whenever you speak to retailers about the first six months of the year, two brands stand out as the star performers – Lego and Pokemon.
Lego’s sales continue to grow in very market, across every consumer demographic; indeed, it is Lego’s adult-focused introductions which appear to be driving its momentum, with the new Formula 1 range proving to be a massive hit as soon as it left the starting grid. Meanwhile, Pokemon has enjoyed a resurgence this year, after a slight dip last summer – the treading cards have been especially popular, and each new release (and there have been quite a few in recent months) has seen queues forming outside retail stores across the UK. Inevitably, stock has been in short supply, but no toy company ever went bust selling everything it made…
While the success of Lego and Pokemon has seen a significant percentage of overall market sales going through just a couple of companies, it has nevertheless put money in retail tills and given retailers confidence to invest in new launches for the festive season, so the benefit of a strong first half of the year should hopefully be felt across the wider market as we approach the Christmas trading season.
All we need now is sanity to prevail in the USA, and the global toy market can look forward to a successful holiday season.
Here’s hoping…
This article originally appeared in Edition 16 of The Toy Universe Magazine
