News
Vtech and Bandai shine at TRA Awards
Samantha Loveday Jan 27 2006, 2:30pm
Vtech and Bandai were the big winners at last night’s Toy Retailer Association Awards, scooping the top two accolades, Toy Supplier of the Year and Toy of the Year 2005 respectively.
Supplier of the Year Vtech saw sales increase by 37 per cent during 2005, thanks to new software launches for its V.smile system and the arrival of the V.smile pocket console.
Meanwhile, Bandai’s Tamagotchi Connexion was crowned Toy of the Year after being the best selling toy for 2005 with £12m of retail sales.
Other winners at the annual TRA Awards, which were held at East Wintergarden in Canary Wharf, included Hasbro, which walked off with three awards for Star Wars Electronic Light Sabres (Boys’ Toy of the Year), Monopoly Here and Now (Game of the Year) and Bop It Extreme II (Electronic Game of the Year).
Toy Range of the Year went to Flair for Sylvanian Families; Mattel picked up Girls’ Toy of the Year for Barbie Pegasus Styling Head; Vivid’s Bratz Babyz won Fashion Dolls of the Year; Character Options’ Dr Who Radio Controlled Dalek was Electronic Toy of the Year; Thomas Aquadraw from Tomy picked up the Pre-School Toy of the Year; while Skoobies (Grossman) and Scoubidou (Purple Rhino/Trends) won Craze of the Year.
Four Special Prizes were also handed out to Radica’s 20Q, The Annoying Thing from Vivid, Phlat Ball from Re:creation and RC2’s Take Along Thomas.
The TRA Awards were sponsored by Flair, Tomy, Vivid and Ravensburger, with ToyNews as exclusive media partner.
