It really was another great three-day event at Olympia’s London Toy Fair and with more than 250 exhibiting companies unveiling thousands of new products, there was a lot to see.
It was a busy three days all round connecting exhibitors with buyers, licensors, inventors, media and the wider industry, all under one roof, establishing new connections as well as building on existing relationships.
Highlights included The British Toy & Hobby Association (BTHA) and Circana presenting their annual industry insights unveiling a whole host of positive trends gleaned from the previous 12 months’ sector-wide performance, with licensed toys and building sets leading the way in 2024.
While the UK economy may have continued to present a challenging picture during 2024,
Circana’s figures show that the UK toy market remained resilient, generating
£3.4billion in overall sales, which was bolstered by a surge of Christmas sales (up 51%) in the week leading up to Christmas. While sales in 2024 may have been down by 3.7% several toy categories achieved growth in 2024, adding to the positive trajectory.
The BTHA also announced top 30 Hero Toys. Rebecca Deeming-Mitchell, senior communications & events manager at the BTHA said: “This year’s winners showcase a brilliant cross-section of the toy industry and represent some of the top toys launching in 2025. We are confident that Toy Fair’s Hero Toys for 2025 underpin everything our industry is about”
Highlights included Lego Botanicals Pretty Pink Flower Bouquet, Care Bears Sweet
Serenity Bear, Sesame Street Nom Nom Cookie Monster, 2 in 1 Plasma Globe & Energy Stick and a
Bullseye Board Game. A big trend coming through in 2025 is a subsection of the Collectibles category; Mini Collectibles and this is represented by Sylvanian Families Skytop Fairy Castle. Licensed toys are expected to remain strong with Paw Patrol and Spiderman making the Hero Toys selection and new releases including Lilo and Stitch, which will help to drive toy sales.
It has also been announced that the 2025 Toy Trust Media Auction has raised an incredible £76,700.
The 2025 auction saw airtime, print and digital media slots donated by children’s media channels resulting in £100,000+ of media space (which included from ourselves).
Toy Trust Committee Chair, Christine Nicholls commented: “Our thanks as always go to the Toy Trust’s generous media partners for their continued support, as well as Jeff Taylor and Matt Smith for their hard work and dedication in securing media items, and to Jonathan Chambers of Generation Media for helping in promotional activity during the event. I’d also like to thank my industry colleagues for their generous bids, which have got our 2025 fundraising off to a magnificent start and will help us in our quest to support small UK children’s charities this year.”
Toy Fair TV returned to the show captured appearances from a host of familiar faces, including Stephen Mulhern, Matt Edmondson and Touker Suleyman from Dragon’s Den, all promoting exciting new launches. The Traitors’ stars Armani and Lisa made an appearance promoting the popular The traitors boardgame, and Luke ‘The Nuke’ Littler attracted a buzzing crowd demonstrating his new dart range. You can catch up on all the highlights of Toy Fair TV on YouTube here. Toy Fair and its exhibitors gained coverage in The Guardian, The Sun, The Mirror, BBC News, The Daily Star and BBC Regions Radio, with more to come.
Majen Immink, Director of Toy Fair, commented: “Thank you to all our exhibitors, visitors, and contractors who once again made this year’s Toy Fair such a vibrant and exciting event. Your continued support has helped us to create a colourful and bustling event to kick off the business year in the best possible way. The energy and enthusiasm at this year’s show was palpable and we hope it sets the tone for a successful year ahead for everyone involved. We are already looking forward to welcoming the industry back in 2026!”
Applications for Toy Fair 2026 will open in March 2025 on the Toy Fair website www.toyfair.co.uk. To keep up to date with the latest Toy Fair news you can follow us on Instagram @ToyFairUK.
Toy Fair 2025 testimonials
Ali Brown, Marketing Manager, Orchard Toys: “’We’ve had such a positive response to our new Baby and Toddler Collection and the launch of our exciting new Bluey character license and three Bluey games. The enthusiasm and support from our trade partners has been great, plus the new additions to THE WORLD OF PETER RABBIT collection, and our new educational games, have been brilliantly received by retailers. It’s been another successful Toy Fair and we’re looking forward to the year ahead, working with our retail partners to bring learning made fun to families across the UK.”
Brea Brand, CEO and Co-Founder, CONNETIX: “’What an exciting and successful Toy Fair, it’s been great to connect with current partners and meet so many new and potential retailers.”
Clive Richardson, VP Sales & Marketing, Vtech:
“Toy Fair is a unique opportunity to present over 100 brand new toys for 2025 to all our customers in one place. The feedback we’ve received over three busy days has been fantastic and very encouraging for the year ahead.”
Phil Hooper, Managing Director at Epoch Making Toys commented: “Toy Fair is the best opportunity to connect with UK trade. We have a very long-established relationship with all retail bases and this is an event where we can get quality time with retailers from every sector but a lot of independents as well. The face to face meetings are invaluable.”
Ashleigh Rainy, Senior Account Manager and Olivia Mair, Account Executive at Little Dutch in the UK and Ireland:
“Our first Toy Fair has been such a positive experience. The whole process, from applying and the setup, to the show, has been easy. We’ve had a great show, meeting fantastic retailers, including people we really wanted to connect with.
Being a part of a large event such as Toy Fair, means we’re able to have proper conversations with people, rather than feeling like we need to cram everyone in. Everyone has been so nice and welcoming, creating a lovely atmosphere.
We are absolutely thrilled to have won the Best Stand Award, especially as this was our first time exhibiting at Toy Fair. A lot of thought and effort went into the design to make it stand out from the crowd, so it’s really rewarding to have that hard work recognised.
It’s been an amazing experience, and we’re excited to follow up on all the business opportunities. We’ll definitely be back!”
John Bentley, Howleys Toymaster:
“Toy Fair is the highlight of our year seeing new product, new people and new innovation which will give us a boost going into 2025.”
Zoe Griffin, The Independent:
“The Toy Fair is a great way to start the year on a productive note, meeting lots of toy companies and PRs en masse. Connections that I make at the Toy Fair help me to generate content for the whole of the year.”
Chris Pollard, Senior New Reporter – Daily Mail:
“Journalists are given top-notch access to this brilliant event. I was given free rein to explore the booths and made some excellent contacts in the process. The facilities offered by the press office were superb and the press pack was extremely useful.”
About Toy Fair
Toy Fair is the UK’s largest dedicated toy, game and hobby trade exhibition taking place at Olympia London. The event takes place over three days at the end of January each year and plays host to hundreds of exhibitors, from start-ups to some of the biggest toy companies, launching thousands of new toy lines.
