In the heart of Serbia, within the capital city of Belgrade, there is a fantastic toy store hiding in plain sight.

Dexy Co Kids, is a toy store which is conveniently located on the top floor of the Rajiceva Shopping  Center in the heart of Belgrade.

Rajiceva Shopping Center, a classy mall with modern shops, is located down the pedestrian walkway behind Republic Square. On the top level of the Rajiceva Shopping Center is Dexy Co Kids, a fantastic toy store.

Dexy Co Kids is a store which sells both toys and items for babies and kids, all under the same roof. Dexy Co Kids, with its bright vibrant colors, attracts all people, both young and old.

When I first entered Dexy Co Kids, the first thing I noticed were the Back-to-School displays, filled with crayons, backpacks, and more. Located behind all of the school supplies were the rows and rows of toys from a multitude of companies. There were thousands of toys everywhere, making Dexy Co Kids a toy paradise. Since this was my first time in Serbia and my first time in a Serbian toy store, I was curious to see the following:  (1) how the toys were presented on the shelves and  (2) what languages were present on the toy boxes, especially for the toys created by American toy companies, like MGA, Mattel/Fisher-Price, and Hasbro.

The following is a detailed description of my observations of the Dexy Co Kids toy store in the heart of Serbia. The observations are in alphabetical order based on the toy company.

Toy Company Products

BASIC FUN: 

CUTETITOS BABITOS: These toys were neatly stocked on the shelves, and a portion of the display had text in various languages.

+++

BBURAGO:

Many Bburago toy boxes proudly display the Italian flag, acknowledging the birthplace of the company.

   This company seems to specialize in toy cars. The name of the company was clearly displayed on the shelves and there were many different types of toy cars made by Bburago, as well as car tracks, like the Dual Loop toy and the Hyper and Loop and Launch toy.

+++

CICABOOM:

Cicaboom is an Italian company.  Dexy Co Kids stocked their toy, ELASTIKORPS: These are stretchy figurines which come in various colors and monster looking figures. Some of the Elastikorps can even glow in the dark. This toy lone has multiple collections, such as Monster Collection 2 and 3, and more.

+++

CLEMENTONI:

Clementoni is an Italian toy company, which seems to focus on STEM toys. Dexy Co Kids toy store stocked many toys made by Clementoni. Many of the Clementoni toys were labelled as “Science and Play” and there were various subgroups under that heading, such as “build” and “TechnoLogic”.  They also have various categories of toys, such as the Mechanics, Mechanics Laboratory, and Science Museum categories. Some of the toys available in the toy store included: Mechanics: Floating Shuttle, Haul truck, Firefighting Helicopter, farm Equipment, Aeroplanes and Helicopters (Mechanics Laboratory), Bulldozer (Mechanics Laboratory) Cyber Talk Robot, Physics and Engineering, SumoBot, and many more. The front of the toy boxes had text in English.

+++

COCOMELON:

There was a selection of Cocomelon toys, labelled in English boxes.

+++

DEXY BOX:

The store also sold  “Dexy Box”. Dexy Box is a box which contains a variety of toys.  As stated on the box, it is a “box full of joy.”

+++

EPOCH CO LTD: 

SYLVANIAN FAMILIES: These toys were present and there was English text on the boxes.

+++

FISHER-PRICE

Not only are the toy boxes in a foreign language, but text on the actual toy is in a foreign language as well.

1. Laugh & Learn Rock and Record Microphone (foreign language on box- except for the words “ Fisher-Price” and “ Laugh & Learn”)
2. Rock A Stack – text in multiple languages.
3. Laugh and Learn Smart Stages Puppy (color coded- blue and pink)—the box is in a foreign language as well as the button on the bear’s paw.

+++

GOLIATH:

Pop the Pig: many boxes of this toy were available on the shelves, but it was not only branded under Goliath, but under Dexy Co Kids as well. The name of the toy and the text was all in a foreign language as well. POP the PIG (English name) versus BUCKO PUCKO( foreign text).

+++

HASBRO

In the Dexy Co Kids toy store, it seemed like Hasbro had various sections throughout the store. First, I noticed the board game section. Later, I noticed that the Transformers had their own special section and shelves, as well as the NERF toys. In the board games section, there were quite a few board games, made by Hasbro.

The Hasbro board games were located on shelves labelled with the words “ HASBRO GAMING”

Board games: MONOPOLY was the most prominent board game in the Dexy Co Kids toy store. There were several varieties of Monopoly. There were at least 4 different MONOPOLY board games, and none of the text on the box was written in English, except for the word MONOPOLY..

--HUNGRY HUNGRY HIPPOS, GUESS WHO,TWISTER, JENGA, OPERATION, and CONNECT 4 were also available and only English text could be found on the boxes,

- The Game of LIFE board game (all of the text on the box was in a foreign language, including the name of the game.

RISK( the name of the game remained as RISK but there was also text written in a foreign language)

The TRANSFORMERS had their own section and shelves. The following TRANSFORMERS were available:  Bumble Bee figurine , Hot Rod, Scourge, Shockwave ,Soundwave, Slugtron, Megatron, Dinobot Slug, Arcee , Autobot Jazz,  and toys from the Rescue Bots Academy

STAR WARS: Chewbacca and C-3PO figurine

NERF:  A corner of the store was dedicated to and overflowing with NERF products, which sat on NERF Branded shelves. You name it, this store had it. Specifically, the following products were available: Alpha Strike BOR RC-6, Star Wars Branded Super Soaker, ROBLOX  Adopt me! Bees!, ROBLOX Jail Break Armory,  ROBLOX Boom Strike, ROBLOX Ninja Legends Shadow Sense, ROBLOX MM2 Shark Seeker, ROBLOX Super Soaker  Big Paintball Guass, DinoSquad Raptor Slash, Dinosquad Armorstrike,  NERF MEGA Tri-Break, NERF Minecraft Pillager’s Crossbow, NERF Ultra Two, NERF Ultra Amp, Super Soaker FortNite, NERF Elite 2.0 Ranger PD-5/ MEGA Bigshock.

Play-Doh : Hasbro’s  Play-Doh brand was also represented quite well. There were more than 6 different types of Play-Doh products available in the shop, all located in the same area. Play-Doh Kitchen Creations:.  If you want to make believe and make a cake, donuts, desserts, grilled meat and khebabs, or make pasta, all of the play sets are available.

In addition to Play-Doh Kitchen Creations, the following Play-Doh brands were also available: Play Doh Slime Hydro Glitz, Color Burst, Sparkle, Foam, Crystal Crunch, Slime Fluff, Cloud, Animal Crew Sherrie Sherrin’ Sheep

FurReal: Apart from board games, figurines, and Play-Doh, other HASBRO toys were available, such as the Furreal  toys. One thing I noticed was that HASBRO had branded shelves. The shelf always had the name of the HASBRO Brand ( whether it was  HASBRO Gaming, NERF, Trannsformers, or Furreal) .

The FurReal brand of toys (Flitter the Kitten and Airina the Unicorn) and the wide selection of FurReal toys were present in the toy store, including Dazzlin’ Dimples my Playful Dolphin, Poopalots, Walkalots, Fuzzalots, and Peealots.

Other HASBRO Toys available: Baby Alive, and Cluedo.

+++++

LEGO:

 There was a whole wall filled with LEGO products. All of the LEGO toys you could possible imagine were all present in the Dexy Co Kids  toy store.Lego, Lego City, and Lego Friends were all available for purchase in the Dexy Co Kids toy store.

+++

MATTEL

The following Barbies branded toys were present on the shelves:  You can Be Doll, a variety of Barbie Extra dolls, Barbie accessories,  Dream House, and Dream Summer Villa.

+++

MGA

MGA is a toy company based in California, USA. In the Dexy Co Kids toy store in Belgrade, Serbia, there were many MGA branded toys.

Rainbow Junior/High/Cheer: A wide collection of Rainbow dolls were nicely placed on shelves, giving the customer a wide variety of dolls to choose from. Rune Anderson, Skyler Bradshaw, Sunny Madison, Poppy, Sheryl Meyer, and other characters were prominently displayed on the shelves.

LOL Surprise!: There were also many displays for LOL Surprise! The 4-in -1 Glamper was readily available, as well as the Spicy Babe Fashion Doll, , Skatepark QT, Color Change Surprise Bubble Surprise, Chillax Fashion Doll, Class Prez Fashion Doll , Na!Na!Na! Surprise, and Da Boss box.

+++

MOOSE TOYS:

There was a wide variety of Moose Toys available in the Dexy Co Kids Toy store.

LITTLE LIVE PETS : Gotta go Turdle, Lil’Turtle, Lil’Dippers NEON, Pig, Bright Light Chameleon, and other animals were available. In terms of language on the boxes, the Gotta Go Flamingo toy box had multiple languages on the box, apart from English.

GOO JITZU: There were serval Goo Jitzu toys available in the toy store. These are oogey gooey squishy toys which come in so many shapes and sizes.

PIKMI POPS: Pikmi Pops were also available for purchase in the Dexy Co Kids toy store.

+++

PERTINI TOYS           

The Dexy Co Kids toys store had many dolls, manufactured by a variety of companies. Pertini Toys, a Serbian toy company, also had their dolls displayed at the toy store. Specifically, their beautiful dolls,  Nina ballerina and  Jana were available for purchase.

+++

PIKA PAU(Ecolino)       

Ecolino is an ecofriendly company, based in the country of Serbia.All toys are hand made in Serbia. This company produces eco friendly wooden toys. Under the brand name Pika Pau, there was an array of wooden toys which assist children with various skills.Pika Pau had one of the most beautiful displays at the Dexy Co Kids toy store. There were many toys on display, including  Cipelica, Valjak, pogodi oblik, kamion, and more.

+++

SPABAM

 “Sbubble Guantone”, made by the Sbabam toy company (based in Italy) was present in the store. This toy is a fun bubble toy, which is packaged in the shape of various animal heads.

+++

SPINMASTER

The following SpinMaster toys were present in the toy store: Paw Patrol: Adventure City Tower, Total City Rescue Set and Castle HQ.  The toy shelves also had Paw Patrol labels.

+++

VTECH BABY

                        There was one VTECH Baby toy-the 2 in 1 House Shaped Activity Panel.

+++

ZURU:

   The following ZURU toys were available: ZURU Sparkle Girlz : Sparkle Girlz princess, and the Dog Walker

Thoughts:

 When you go into a toy store in a foreign country, you can not help but to think about the following : Who decides which toy boxes will be translated into the local language? Does such translation happen in the USA or does it happen in the country? Who is responsible for making sure that the Fisher –Price toy box is translated into Serbian and who is responsible for ensuring that it is translated correctly? How come some toy boxes are translated and others are not? Do toy boxes in the local language sell more than toy boxes which are left in English? How are the toys marketed on the local television channels? 

Dexy Co Kids truly has toys from all over the world, including toys from the USA, China, Serbia, and Italy.