Ms. Rachel Toys   Spin Master has expanded their preschool line with a fresh set of Ms. Rachel toys! Ms. Rachel, a key figure in early learning, is not just on your television screen anymore. The online sensation can now be found on the shelves of your local toy stores, including Spin Master’s latest collection. I had the pleasure of sampling three different products from the new drop, including My First Learning Farm, the Sing & Learn Tractor, and the First Words Wooden Magnets, made in collaboration with Melissa & Doug.   My First Learning Farm This farm playset, a two-sided, interactive red barn includes a Ms. Rachel figure plus a pig and a cow to move about the set. The barn also features a windmill that really spins, a bathtub for the animals with bubbles that pop up with a press of a button, and a trough for the animals to eat from, with carrots that pop up and down. There are a number of buttons to press, spots for Ms. Rachel and the animals to click into place, and of course, interactive prompts from Ms. Rachel, sing-along songs, and animal sounds.   The two-sided design makes for lots of opportunity for pretend play, and all of the movable pieces are easy for little hands to grasp. The different interactive prompts from Ms. Rachel keep kids engaged while still encouraging independent creativity and curiousity.   Sing & Learn Tractor If My First Learning Farm is a hit in your household, it’s definitely worth it to add the Sing & Learn Tractor into your play routine. The musical tractor sings “Wheels on the Tractor” when a Ms. Rachel figure is clicked into the driver’s seat. The tractor also tugs along a detachable trailer that comes with a fresh harvest of corn. Of course, the Sing & Learn Tractor can be used independently from the farm playset, but the pair makes for an excellent combination of toys that are not only fun to play with, but also encourage developmental play. Skills like communication, fine motor skills, social-emotional learning, and cognitive development are all practiced when engaging with these toys. Thanks to Spin Master, it’s a seamless transition from Ms. Rachel on your screen to Ms. Rachel actually part of your toys.   Melissa & Doug Ms. Rachel First Words Wooden Magnets I also had the opportunity to check out Ms. Rachel’s collaboration with Melissa & Doug, the First Words Wooden Magnets. The set comes with 20 magnets shaped and colored like recognizable first words, like “cat,” “milk,” “book,” and “shoes.” Obviously perfect for helping babies recognize early words and shapes, plus it begins to introduce tactile play and motor skills development. These can stuck onto a refrigerator, or even used as tummy time toys—they’re easy for little hands to grab and hold on to and stick well to magnetic surfaces.     All of the toys I had the pleasure of reviewing from this drop were the perfect balance of educational and entertaining. Kids get to play with one of their favorite teachers through fun, colorful toys that are engaging and supportive of early child development.  

Historic Five-Year Partnership Reinforces New York City as the Global Marketplace for the Toy Industry   NEW YORK, NY | August 24, 2026 — The Toy Association™, the leading industry trade association representing more than 800 manufacturers, retailers, licensors, and related organizations involved in the toy and youth entertainment industry, and the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, a world-class facility in the heart of New York City, announced a five-year partnership for Toy Fair®, the largest toy, play, and youth entertainment marketplace in the Western Hemisphere. This shared commitment provides long-term certainty for the global toy industry to set its business calendars and plans for the coming years.   Following the 121st Toy Fair, taking place February 20 to 23, 2027 at the Javits Center, the show will be held on the following dates: February 26 to 29, 2028; February 24 to 27, 2029; February 23 to 26, 2030; February 22 to 25, 2031; and February 21 to 24, 2032.   The announcement follows a comprehensive strategic evaluation by The Toy Association that included open feedback, candid discussion, and broad collaboration to align the long-term timing and location of the event across key stakeholders representing the diverse constituents within the toy industry. Through this process, a clear consensus emerged after all options were carefully evaluated: a four-day, February show in New York City remains the preferred timing and location for Toy Fair.   “We provided industry leaders with a blank canvas and every reasonable option for review, and after a thorough evaluation, it was clear that New York City in February best meets the needs and goals of our diverse global toy community,” said Greg Ahearn, president & CEO of The Toy Association. “We’re grateful to the leadership team at the Javits Center for working alongside us to make this vision a reality.”   Toy Fair’s longstanding relationship with the Javits Center dates to the venue’s opening in 1986 and has helped establish New York City as a global epicenter of the toy business. Following the industry’s preference for a February event, The Toy Association and Javits leadership worked together to identify dates that met stakeholders’ needs while navigating one of the busiest convention calendars in the country.   Each Toy Fair will run for four days, from Saturday through Tuesday, with show dates intentionally avoiding both President’s Day and Valentine’s Day each year — two priorities consistently identified by exhibitors and attendees throughout the consultation process.   “As a partner with the Javits Center for 40 years, we shared what mattered most to our industry and Javits leadership rolled up their sleeves to work with us to find a solution,” Ahearn said. “Their willingness to make a five-year commitment is a remarkable demonstration of confidence in our industry and Toy Fair’s importance on the global trade show calendar.”   “Toy Fair and New York have grown together for generations, and we are thrilled that the next chapter of that story will continue at Javits Center,” said Joyce Leveston, president & CEO at Javits Center. “For Javits Center, it’s not just about providing space, it’s about the partnership we have with our customers. We work closely to create experiences where connections are made and business gets done. It is truly a delight to welcome Toy Fair back to Javits Center for the next five years, and we look forward to all that lies ahead.”   Every year, Toy Fair brings together thousands of toy, game, and youth entertainment professionals and international media from roughly 100 countries to discover the latest products, build business relationships, and explore the latest trends and innovations in toys and play. The multi-day marketplace serves as the industry’s premier platform for product launches, retail meetings, media engagement, trend discovery, and educational programming.   For more information about The Toy Association or Toy Fair, visit toyassociation.org and toyfairny.com.   About Toy Fair® toyfairny.comProduced by The Toy Association, Toy Fair® is the largest and most comprehensive play-focused experience in the Western Hemisphere unifying the toy industry’s entire ecosystem with key players to help with business development and sourcing the latest products from across all forms and stages of play. Featuring thousands of new and unique toys, games, edutainment, entertainment-driven experiences, and more from around the world, Toy Fair offers attendees a competitive edge no other trade event can match.   About The Toy Association™ toyassociation.org / toyfoundation.org / peopleofplay.com / thegeniusofplay.org / playsafe.orgFounded in 1916, The Toy Association™, Inc. is the business trade association representing all businesses involved in creating and delivering toys and youth entertainment products for kids of all ages. The Toy Association leads the health and growth of the U.S. toy industry, which has an annual U.S. economic impact of $155.7 billion, and its roughly 800+ members drive the annual $45.6 billion U.S. domestic toy market. The Toy Association serves as the industry’s voice on the developmental benefits of play and promotes play’s positive impact on childhood development. The organization has a long history of leadership in toy safety, having helped develop the first comprehensive toy safety standard more than 40 years ago, and remains committed to working with medical experts, governments, consumers, and the industry on ongoing programs to ensure safe and fun play.    As a global leader, The Toy Association produces the world-renowned Toy Fair™ in New York City; hosts marketplace activities in Los Angeles; engages in state, federal, and international advocacy on behalf of its members; supports the inventor and design community through People of Play™ and its numerous assets and events, including the consumer-facing Chicago Toy & Game Fair; sustains the Canadian Toy Association; acts as secretariat for the International Council of Toy Industries and International Toy Industry CEO Roundtable; and chairs the committee that reviews and revises America’s widely emulated ASTM F963 toy safety standard. The Toy Association’s philanthropic arm is The Toy Foundation™, a 501 (c)(3) children’s charity that acts as the uniting force for the collective philanthropy of the toy industry. To date, The Toy Foundation has delivered the joy of play to 33 million children in need worldwide.   About Jacob K. Javits Convention CenterThe New York Convention Center Operating Corporation (NYCCOC), also known as the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, has played a critical role in New York’s recovery and resurgence since it opened in 1986. Located in the heart of Manhattan’s West Side, this iconic six-block-long facility is an economic driver for New York State and New York City by hosting blockbuster events of all shapes and sizes. New York is constantly evolving and so is Javits Center. It’s more than just a convention center; it has evolved into a wildlife habitat, a community partner, and a nationwide nexus where the latest ideas in business and pop culture converge under one large green roof. With a significant investment in infrastructure, Javits Center has quickly become a leader in sustainability, security and technology, setting a new standard for convention centers across the country. Learn more about Javits Center at www.javitscenter.com.    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Kristin Morency GoldmanThe Toy Association514.880.8219 kmorency@toyassociation.org

The $2.98 Toy Submarine That Alarmed the Father of the Nuclear Navy Did a Revell model kit really reveal America's Polaris submarine secrets to the Soviets?   Imagine walking into a toy or hobby store in 1960, spending $2.98 on a model submarine—and potentially walking out with information that one of America's most powerful admirals believed was valuable to Soviet intelligence.   It sounds like an urban legend. Except part of it really happened. The story involves Revell, a plastic model kit, America's revolutionary Polaris nuclear submarine program, and Admiral Hyman G. Rickover—the legendary and famously demanding “Father of the Nuclear Navy.”    And more than 65 years later, it's still a wonderful example of what can happen when the toy industry's obsession with authenticity collides with something considerably more serious.   The Most Important Submarine in America   To understand why a toy model could cause such a commotion, you have to go back to the height of the Cold War.   The United States was racing to develop a nuclear deterrent that would be extraordinarily difficult for an enemy to destroy in a first strike: ballistic missiles carried aboard nuclear-powered submarines, hidden beneath the ocean. The result was the Polaris program. At its center was the USS George Washington (SSBN-598), America's first fleet ballistic-missile submarine.   On July 20, 1960, submerged off Cape Canaveral, the George Washington successfully launched Polaris missiles in the first full-scale test of the Navy's Fleet Ballistic Missile Weapons System. The achievement fundamentally changed strategic deterrence: a submarine could remain hidden beneath the sea and launch a ballistic missile from underwater. The Polaris program was enormously consequential—and information about it was understandably sensitive.   Which brings us back to the toy aisle. For $2.98...   At roughly the same time, consumers could purchase an elaborate plastic model of a Polaris nuclear submarine. The model was produced by Revell, one of the giants of America's postwar model-kit industry. This wasn't simply a gray plastic hull sitting on a stand. It was a “show-off” cutaway model designed so that one side could be opened to reveal the submarine's interior. The model itself was roughly 18 inches long. That sort of detail was exactly what made model kits exciting. Builders didn't just want the silhouette of an airplane, automobile, ship or submarine. They wanted to understand what was inside and how the real thing worked.   But apparently Revell's pursuit of authenticity went a little too far for Admiral Rickover.   Rickover Goes to Congress   The most important part of this story isn't hobby-industry folklore. It's documented in the record of a congressional hearing. In 1960, during hearings concerning the naval reactor and Polaris missile submarine programs, Rickover raised the issue of a commercially available model Polaris submarine. The hearing itself took place aboard the USS George Washington, and the published congressional record notes that classified material was removed from the public version.   Rickover complained that the model cost only $2.98 and that accompanying material claimed it had been prepared using official Navy information. The admiral's point was essentially: Why are we making information about one of our most important weapons systems this easy to obtain?   He suggested that if he were working for the Russians, he'd be quite pleased to acquire useful information for $2.98 rather than spending enormous sums obtaining it through espionage. It's an irresistible story. A Soviet spy didn't need a trench coat, a secret camera or a clandestine meeting. He just needed to visit the toy department.   Or did he? Was the Toy Really Giving Away Nuclear Secrets?   This is where the story becomes more interesting. Over the decades, the tale has sometimes been retold as though Revell accidentally produced a miniature blueprint of America's top-secret nuclear submarine and the Navy panicked. The evidence doesn't support going quite that far.   Model historians have pointed out that the Revell interior was not an exact reproduction of the real submarine's interior. In fact, one historical discussion of the kit notes an obvious discrepancy: an early version depicted only eight missile tubes rather than the 16 carried by the real submarine. That raises an intriguing possibility.   Rickover may not have believed that a child could disassemble a Revell model and discover the secrets of America's nuclear deterrent. He may instead have been using the $2.98 toy as an extraordinarily effective prop to make a much larger point: Why was information about sensitive military technology finding its way so easily into the public domain? And if that was his objective, it worked. We're still talking about it more than six decades later.   Real Polaris missile emerging from the Atlantic after its historic July 20, 1960 submerged launch from the USS George Washington.   The Irony Is Wonderful    There is something wonderfully toy-industry about the whole episode. Model companies competed on authenticity. Consumers wanted detail. Designers researched the real machines. Packaging celebrated accuracy. The closer a model looked to the real thing, the better the product. Until, apparently, someone from the United States Navy said: Maybe not that real.   The very characteristic that made Revell's product compelling was the characteristic that attracted Rickover's attention. And remember what this model represented. The actual USS George Washington wasn't some decades-old piece of military history when children began building versions of it. It had been commissioned in late 1959 and made its historic submerged Polaris launch in July 1960. This was cutting-edge technology. Kids were building the future on their kitchen tables.   Toys Have Always Been Windows Into the Adult World   Perhaps that's what makes this more than just an amusing Cold War anecdote. Toys and games have always reflected the world around them. Space Race toys let children imagine becoming astronauts. Model airplanes brought aviation engineering into bedrooms and basements. Chemistry sets turned kitchen tables into laboratories. Construction toys gave children their first experience designing and engineering structures. And a $2.98 plastic submarine let a child peer inside one of the technological marvels of the Cold War.   That's something our industry still does today. We take technologies, occupations, stories and ideas from the adult world and translate them into something children can hold, explore, understand—and sometimes improve upon. The Revell Polaris submarine just happened to take that mission into unusually sensitive territory.   So, Did a Toy Give America's Nuclear Secrets to the Soviets?   Probably not. At least, there isn't sufficient evidence to make that sensational version of the story a fact. But a $2.98 model submarine really did concern Admiral Hyman Rickover enough that he brought it up before Congress while discussing one of America's most important military programs.    And that's arguably a better story. Because somewhere between the legend and the reality sits a fascinating moment in toy history: a manufacturer tried so hard to make a toy feel authentic that the Father of the Nuclear Navy took notice.   Not bad for $2.98.   A note on the history... The core elements of this story are supported by the published record of the 1960 congressional hearing Naval Reactor Program and Polaris Missile System, historical material from the U.S. Navy concerning the USS George Washington, and surviving records of the Revell Polaris submarine model. The oft-repeated claim that the model itself revealed actual classified nuclear secrets is much harder to substantiate, which is why we've treated it here as part of the legend rather than established fact.

Hello. This is my first blog post on POP, so I wanted to say a bit about me in this post.   My name is Katherine. I am a Bop It historian, community archivist, and a technical analyst. I have the largest Bop It collection ever, and I share a lot of my archiving and analytical findings on my YouTube channel, which is the most popular Bop It channel on the platform. I developed my brand Bop Diva at the start of 2024 to best align with my identity. Bop It has been a passionate niche interest of mine all these years, and I don't plan on stopping anytime soon.   When I was 7 years old, I got my first Bop It for Christmas. It all started after I played a Bop It at a first-grade event, like a Halloween party or something, and then I got my first one for Christmas shortly after. Here I am now, almost 25, celebrating the achievement of reaching 300 Bop It units in total. I have analyzed every unit for archiving, from the cosmetic details to the revisions of the internal programming.    While I have reached 300 units, I am also in the process of attempting a new Guinness World Record category for the largest collection of Bop It memorabilia, which alongside of the 300 units I have over 100 pieces of Bop It merchandise and promotional material. I have to make my world record evidence video probably in the next couple months, and that's gonna be a lot of work, but in the end it's worth it.   I will release a video on my YouTube channel of unboxing my 300th Bop It unit, as well as including some fun lore to the channel, on September 26, 2026, my 25th birthday.   This year I am also celebrating something that is more minor than reaching 300 Bop It units, and that is 10 years since I did my first Test Mode on a Bop It. A Bop It's Test Mode allows the manufacturer (or whoever figures it out) to test all the actions and components of a Bop It (actions, lights, microphone, sensors, speaker, etc.), as well as playing every single sound programmed into the microcontroller on the main circuit board.   Alongside physical archiving, I have been using my knowledge of the sound Test Mode order, as well as my graphic design and video editing skills, to make unofficial Bop It concepts. I make unofficial Bop It concepts complete with the sound Test Mode, a custom Revision Number as every other Bop It has, and the realization that due to licensing, Hasbro would not actually make these a reality with their research and development. I have made multiple Bop It concepts this year alone, including ones based on Freddy Fazbear (Five Nights at Freddy's), Pomni (The Amazing Digital Circus), and a Dalek (Doctor Who). I create the voice for the concepts with voice cloning technology through AI, and I will often use real sound effects from the series or franchise. Note that these concepts are not meant to violate copyright; these are fanmade concepts that seem official due to the realistic aesthetic and vibe they give off. They are made for entertainment purposes only on my YouTube channel. Besides concepts based on just characters, I even made a 3D model from scratch of myself to put a Bop It inside to create my own character Bop It of myself.    After reaching 300 Bop It units this year, I plan to actually try to reach 500 total units by 2029, which will mark my 20th anniversary of collecting. This means I will need to get about 6 Bop Its a month, or 66 Bop Its a year for the next three years. At that time, I plan to upload my very first Bop It video I ever made in 2009, if I can find it. Last I saw it was over 10 years ago on a hard drive from an old laptop that who knows if it's even still on the drive anymore. I plan to upload that as a lost episode for the 20th anniversary.   I will share my concepts and other technical discoveries with Bop It on my profile here, so feel free to check out what I've been up to, as well as the content on my YouTube channel, which includes Bop It unboxings and checking them out to update the Counter to how many I own.

  On August 19, 2026, the U.S. Court of International Trade issued an order in the Section 301 forced labor tariff legal challenges, selecting Toy Association members Learning Resources, Inc. and hand2mind, Inc. as the sample case in an effort to streamline and accelerate the litigation. The two other lawsuits challenging these tariffs, Burlap & Barrel, Inc. and Collective Horology, LLC v. Greer and State of Oregon v. Trump, have been stayed. The summary judgment hearing for Learning Resources, Inc. et al v. United States will take place on September 30th in New York.    Learning Resources and hand2mind filed this legal challenge on July 24th, the same day the Section 301 forced labor tariffs went into effect. These tariffs impose duties of 10% or 12.5% on imports from 60 economies, representing 99.4% of all U.S. imports. Learning Resources and hand2mind previously brought the landmark Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump case challenging the International Emergency Economic Power Act (IEEPA) tariffs, which the Supreme Court held were unlawful on February 20, 2026.   The Section 301 forced labor tariffs represent the third time in less than 18 months that the Administration has sought to impose substantially similar global tariffs, first under IEEPA, then under Section 122, and now under Section 301. The Section 122 tariffs were previously declared unlawful by the Court of International Trade in May and that decision is now under appeal (Burlap and Barrel, Inc. v. Trump).