Next up! New York Toy Fair! During NYTF, we are celebrating the 25th Anniversary of our POP Pub Party AND the 20th Anniversary of our Young Inventor Challenge on Monday March 3rd! Tickets are $20 and all funds go directly to the Young Inventor Challenge. Get your tickets HERE. Join us for casual networking… come and go, or stay the whole evening and enjoy dinner at Connolly's! We’ll have the entire second floor! ​​Past photos HERE!​

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​At Nuremberg Toy Fair, Warren Jacobs, Jonny Henton, Mary Jo Reutter, Don Ullman and I noted the many couples in our industry, such as Warren Jacobs and Sally Bean Jacobs, Richard Gill and Catherine McMillen Gill and a few others nearby.

We started a list and would love your help to add as many toy couples as possible by the the 12th. If possible, with a link to a POP Profile (free or paid) that we can link to and show their happy faces. And... it would be fun to share the story how they met. (100 words or so.) ​This is a perfect story for Valentine's Day next week! Send your own or others you know - I can't wait to see how this turns out! ​​​

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​Thank you for reading the Bloom Report here or on the Bloom Report 24/7 News Feed! Please support our work by advertising and/or setting up a POP profile.

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Mary and the POP Team 

• "Mary, I'm building a wholesale distribution business in Australia. Another wholesaler told me about you and said it would be invaluable to get the Bloom Report." - Scott McCall, mishmashed

"I go to work 6 days a week and magic happens! On day 7 I read the Bloom Report." 😁 - Rick Derr, Learning Express
"Tell me you're in the toy industry w/o telling me you're in the toy industry: Friday Morning = a cup-a-Joe & Bloom Report!" -Tim Walsh, The Playmakers
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"I am a long-time reader and champion of the Bloom Report. The quantity of quality articles on so many different aspects of our industry  is unmatched and  I regularly share and discuss them with my management team as an important business tool."  - Jim Engle, President & Founder, Little Kids Inc. 

ive years ago, I shared a story in the Bloom Report about somebody who contacted me out of the blue to share that a game I designed a lonnng, long time ago has held an important place in his heart over much of his life. That one email meant a lot to me, and once in a while when I think about it, it makes me smile out loud.

Guess what? It happened again. Recently this email appeared out of thin air (or perhaps from heaven) and landed squarely in my inbox…

Message: Hi! I was wondering if anyone makes King's Court anymore? My brother and I played it all the time as kids and now as adults, we had our childhood set that passed back and forth between our houses to play with our own kids- the box was all taped up and falling apart but we had all the pieces and the board! Unfortunately, it was at his house when it burned down in the Eaton Fire this last week. I'm trying to track down a copy to replace it. Thank you for any information!  -Ashley

GULP. No way.

A little context…   

The Eaton Fire is one of the ferocious wildfires that devastated a large area of Los Angeles.

King’s Court was the very first game I ever worked on. I sculpted the play pieces out of modeling clay, did their part drawings by hand, and worked with the people at the factory to disable the mixing screw on the supply hopper of the injection molding equipment to make the colors of the play pieces swirly like marble instead of solid colors.   Read More...