Merchandise Monday: The Merch Awakens!

Not so long ago in a warehouse very, very close… In honor of “Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens,” which opens in theaters next month, we thought we would showcase some new merchandise we just got in from the Dark Side. These items are sure to please fans of all ages and make great gifts since the holidays are right around the corner! Whether you’re a longtime collector or just starting out on the epic journey, these fun – and functional – items won’t disappoint!

American Tourister® Star Wars™ BB8 or Kylo Ren 18-inch Softside Upright

Just in time for the new movie, American Tourister proudly launches its collection of Star Wars™ character luggage products. Built to AT's traditional quality specs, the AT/Disney® product is perfectly sized for children. Due to Disney regulations, this item will ship during week two of December.

American Tourister® 21-inch Hardside Spinner - Star Wars™ Darth Vader or Stormtrooper

Prepare for your trip to a galaxy far, far away by securing your belongings in a sleek Star Wars™ suitcase. The hard shell has the same cool Darth Vader or Stormtrooper graphic on both sides and an expansion zipper for extra packing room. Spinner wheels ensure during smooth travels across the Empire.

Bulb Botz™ Star Wars™ Darth Vader or Stormtrooper Light-Up Alarm Clock

Become an elite soldier of the Galactic Galaxy with the Darth Vader or Stormtrooper alarm clock! The easy-to-read LCD screen is powered by the Dark Side. Push down on the head to activate the light and set the alarm with the buttons on your evil new friend’s back.

LEGO® Star Wars™ Darth Vader or Stormtrooper Clock and Watch Bundle

Feel the power of the Dark Side with the Darth Vader or Stormtrooper clock and watch bundle. This menacing decor features a digital lighted display and alarm clock. The snooze and backlight functions are activated by pushing down on the minifigures head.

LEGO® Star Wars™ Imperial Assault Carrier™

Transport TIE Fighters into battle against the rebels! Load a minifigure into the cockpit, grab the lifting handle ready for flight and push the triggers to release the four mini TIE Fighters. Twin spring-loaded shooters and rotating gun turret with dual stud blaster are at your disposal! Includes Agent Kallus, Imperial Officer, Sabine Wren in Mandalorian outfit and two TIE Pilots, plus an Imperial Astromech Droid, and assorted weapons

LEGO® Star Wars™ Shadow Troopers

Defeat the enemies of the Empire with the elite Shadow Troopers battle pack! Protect the Empire with the silent and mysterious Shadow Guards. Defeat the toughest enemy with their deadly Lightsaber staffs and when backup is needed, call in the Shadow Stormtroopers on their flick-missile-armed speeder.

LEGO® Star Wars™ Snowspeeder™

Speed over the icy planet of Hoth with the agile Snowspeeder™ microfighter. This miniature version of the Rebellion’s attack craft is perfect for mini battles and includes two flick missiles and even a mini cockpit for the pilot to sit in. Power up and get ready to take down some AT-ATs!

Merchandise Midweek: Outdoor Fun for Kids

Happy belated Memorial Day – and happy unofficial start of summer! If the kids aren’t out of school yet, they soon will be, and they’ll be full of energy – and free time – to burn. Lucky for all you parents, grandparents, nannies and caregivers out there, Hinda is fully stocked with great outdoor kids’ toys for all ages! This is just a smattering of the fun and functional items we have to keep kids occupied and in motion. Nap time should be a breeze!

Huffy® 12” Pro Thunder Boys' Bicycle

A perfect starter bike for your little one, this single speed, 12" boys’ bicycle is for ages three and up and features steel diamond frame and unicrown fork with pressed dropouts, rear coaster brakes, a junior padded seat with graphics and training wheels.

Huffy® 12” So Sweet Girls' Bicycle

This So Sweet bike is the girl’s answer to the Pro Thunder and offers all the same features, including steel rims, an integrated seat post and crossbar pad. This is a great first bike for kids ages three and up who are just learning to ride!

Lego® DUPLO® All-in-One-Box-of-Fun

OK, so LEGO® is more of an indoor thing, but the kiddies will need something to do on those rainy summer days! This set has a whole load of DUPLO® bricks for fun building and rebuilding for creative play. It’s a perfect set for a toddler’s first introduction into Lego!

Power Wheels® Barbie™ Jammin' Jeep® Wrangler

Gear up for a music-filled driving adventure! This redesigned Wrangler looks just like the real thing – with the added fun of Barbie™ colors and graphics! Realistic details include a pretend radio with six jammin’ tunes, working doors and a rear storage area – plus plenty of built-in safety features.

Power Wheels® Dora and Friends Lil' Quad™

This sporty ATV features fun Dora and Friends graphics and colors and is designed specifically for toddlers with easy push-button operation and comfortable footrests. It’s sturdy and rides low so it’s easy for little ones to get on and off by themselves.

Power Wheels® Ford F-150

Kids can take off on a real driving adventure in the Ford F-150, which features realistic side-view mirrors, a built-in windshield and a roomy truck bed! They can even lift up the hood to find a realistic-looking “engine.” The truck’s big, rugged tires make it easy for kids to take their adventures off-road, too!

Power Wheels® Kawasaki KFX®

With its twist grip throttle and sporty styling, kids can experience the excitement of real ATV riding in their own backyard! Ruts, wet grass, gravel, mud and rough terrain are no match for this Kawasaki. It won’t get stuck where the others do — taking kids on a thrilling adventure

Sagaform® Water Bottle with Ice Piston

All this outdoor fun really works up a thirst! Make sure the kiddies stay hydrated with these colorful summery bottles from Sagaform®. This sturdy plastic water bottle has a pop top spout and screw on lid with lid strap – not to mention the self-contained ice piston that keeps your water cold!

Merchandise Monday: Keep the Cold Out!

The official start of winter is merely a week away and there’s no better time to start working on those winter projects and hobbies that will help warm you up and keep the cold where it belongs – outside! Hinda’s got everything you need to do just that. Whether you prefer to snuggle on the couch or spring into activity our assortment of items to keep out the cold is sure to please everyone in your household this winter!

Anchor Bay Entertainment Bob Harper: Beginner's Weight Loss DVD

Warm up with a great workout - drop pounds and renovate your body to its best form. Push yourself and punch-up your heart rate to annihilate calories, attack fat and reconstruct your body completely with this beginner’s DVD.

GLD Products® Mainstreet Classics Micro Bag Toss Game

Don’t let the cold keep you from playing your favorite outdoor party game – with the Micro Bag Toss you can play inside or out! It features two portable boards with carrying handles and eight micro bags. Stir up some friendly competition year round!

KidKraft® Play Teepee

It might be too cold for camping, but your kids will have fun pretending with this teepee. These toys stand at over 3.5’ H and were built to last. Mesh window allows parents to look in and kids to look out. Quick assembly – just a few easy steps and you’re ready!

The North Face® Thermoball™ Full Zip Jacket

Designed to imitate down, Thermoball™ is constructed with low-weight, high-loft clusters that retain heat even when wet. Just as compressible as down, Thermoball insulation provides phenomenal warmth in cold and wet conditions.

Waring Pro® Belgian Waffle Maker

Nothing warms the soul and starts your day off right like a hot, hearty breakfast. Professional quality lets you create extra-deep, 1” restaurant-style waffles that are crispy on the outside and light and fluffy on the inside. Delicious!

Yankee Candle®Perfect Pillar Candle – Sparkling Cinnamon

There’s something about the smell of cinnamon and other spices that warms you right up! This slim, contemporary style fits easily with pillar holders and candle accessories. It is made with a smooth wax blend, has a wider flame for quicker fragrance release and burns up to 95 hours. 

Merchandise Midweek: It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Shopping Season!

We know you’re not quite recovered from your sugar coma, but the end of Halloween signals the three Ss of the holiday season - shopping, shopping and shopping! Before you head out in the cold and snow to hit the hot and crowded malls, take a peek at what we’re anticipating being some of the most popular items and categories of the 2014 season.

From fashion and fragrances to fitness and fun (yes, there are a lot of Fs) you’ll find something great for everyone on your list – all ages, interests and price points! And remember – while you’re busy running around, making lists and shopping ‘til you drop, there’s no harm in picking up a little something special for yourself! Hey, you earned it!

FASHION

Citizen® Ladies' Two-Tone Stainless Steel with Swarovski® Bezel Watch

Add some sparkle this season with the Swarovski® Bezel Watch. It features a two-tone stainless steel bracelet, a round 26mm case with Swarovski crystal bezel, mother-of-pearl dial with gold-tone stick indices, minute track, day and date window and luminous hands.

Citizen® Men's Black Dial Stainless Steel Watch

Industrial detailing sets a masculine tone on this watch by Citizen®. It features a stainless steel bracelet, round 38mm case, black textured dial with silver-tone Roman numerals, date window, stick indices, three hands and logo, quartz movement and is water resistant to 100m.

FITNESS

Fitbit® Flex™ Wireless Activity + Sleep Wristband

Drop those holiday pounds with Fitbit® Flex™. Wear this slim, stylish device all the time and get the motivation you need to get out and be more active. It tracks steps, distance and calories burned and shows you how you’re stacking up against your daily goals.

Garmin vívofit™ Fitness Bracelet

vívofit™ learns your current activity level, then assigns an attainable daily goal. As you meet your milestones, vívofit will adjust your goal for the next day, gradually nudging you toward a healthier lifestyle. Earn virtual badges and view your progress at the Garmin Connect™ online community.

FRAGRANCE

Georgio Armani Acqua Di Gio 1.7-oz. Men's

This fragrance for men is a scent of freedom, full of wind and water – perfect harmony of salty sea water and sunny Mediterranean warmth play on the skin. Bitter citrus, rosemary and spices are softened by a woody base with a warm, musky trail.

Marc Jacobs Daisy

Always elegant, always enchanting, but not too serious, Daisy is a sparkling floral bouquet, spirited and fresh, wrapped in comfort and warmth with vintage edge. Sophisticated with a touch of whimsy, violet captures the eclectic, timeless flavor of Marc Jacobs' groundbreaking feminine designs.

FUN!

Bose® QuietComfort® 25 Acoustic Noise Cancelling® Headphones

Enjoy your favorite holiday tunes like never before with Bose®. Proprietary Active EQ and TriPort® technologies give the music you love a deep, clear sound. At the same time, noise cancelling technology monitors the noise around you and cancels it out, helping you focus on what matters.

iLive™ Bluetooth® DUO Wireless Headphones + Speaker

Fill your head – and the world – with music. With the flip of a switch, Duo transforms from headphones into a portable speaker system. Listen wirelessly with Bluetooth® or attach the included audio cable to listen to non-wireless devices, offering amazing versatility.

LG 49/55-inch Smart 3D LED UHDTV with WebOS, 2160p

Watch your favorite holiday classics on the 49” or 55” Smart 3D LED UHDTV, which pairs the stunning clarity of ULTRA High Definition with elegant Cinema Screen design. Witness the breathtaking quality of both 4K and near-4K: the Tru-ULTRA HD Engine converts your SD/HD video to near-4K resolution.

Loopdeedoo™ Spinning Loom Kit

Design friendship bracelets and make them in minutes with the Loopdedoo™ spinning loom. It's fast, easy and fun. Just wrap the threads around the Loopdedoo device, turn the knob, guide the thread and minutes later it’s done! Make necklaces, anklets, belts and more for almost instant holiday gifts!

Playvisions® Sands Alive! Deluxe Set

Consisting of all-natural ingredients, the sensation of Sands Alive! is similar to cookie dough yet totally dry to the touch. Pack it hard to make roads, then lift it up and watch it flow. Mold it into hard, durable shapes and with a soft touch, it will break apart and appear to move, almost as if it were alive!

Merchandise Monday: Summer Break Fun!

The kids have been out of school for over a month and, unless they have an unlimited supply of toys and entertainment options, chances are they’re going to get bored. Stave off this dreaded day with fun new toys for kids from our assortment. Some of these items are great for rainy days while others are definitely enjoyed best outside. Everybody wins.

                                    LeapFrog® LeapPad2™ Custom Edition Green

Customize the best-selling, kid-tough learning tablet with sticker skins and digital wallpapers—100-plus ways to make it unique! Choose from 10 fun sticker skins, including ones your child can color. Mix and match them with 11 wallpapers. Removable sticker skins come off easily, so your child can swap styles without any mess.

LeapFrog® Scribble & Write

Light up early writing skills! The LeapFrog® Scribble & Write provides stroke-by-stroke guidance and features a new mode that provides instant accuracy feedback. Children trace the lights to get practice writing uppercase and lowercase letters and numbers.

LEGO® Friends Heartlake Pet Salon

Celebrate the grand opening of the Heartlake Pet Salon – everyone's excited to check it out! Help Emma to shampoo her friend Joanna's pretty white poodle in the bubble bath, then trim and clip her on the rotating grooming table. Use the blow dryer and brushes to make her perfect!

LEGO® The LEGO Movie Cloud Cuckoo Palace

Revel with Unikitty in Cloud Cuckoo Land, the happiest, most positive and creative place in the universe! Join Emmet, Wyldstyle and all the master builders in this multi-colored playful paradise where the sun is always shining and a cute snail glides between the bright flowers.

nabi® DreamTab™ 8-inch Kids Tablet

The DreamTab™ 8” Kids Tablet features nabi® OS 3.0 Blue Morpho™ which starts with Android™ Kit Kat and adds over 400 kid-focused, parent-approved features. Dream Pro Studio™ is a powerful suite of creative tools that teach your children how to draw, animate, author their own books and edit movies like a pro.

Swimline CoolJam™ Floating Basketball

This great pool game puts all the rules of basketball into the water for extra fun! The frame and rim are constructed from PVC that will insure longevity. Featuring a full-color, blow molded, hard body backboard for extra support, every cannonball will turn into a slam dunk.  

Swimline Remote Control Submarine

Fun for the pool, lake or bathtub, the Remote Control Submarine climbs and dives below water surface, turns left and right and comes complete with a search light and long range transmitters – 27 MHz frequency.

Merchandise Monday: Holiday Season is Just around the Corner!

Part I: Toys

It might still be early in the season, but now that Halloween is over and Thanksgiving in on the horizon, there’s no denying that the holidays are upon us! Whether or not you’ve finalized your shopping lists, we’re here to tell you all about the trends we’re seeing for this year’s gift-giving season. Get ready to make that special someone’s holiday extra merry!

Let’s start by keeping the kids happy and talk about toys. LEGO®, Barbie®, nabi® - a new brand at Hinda – and Power Wheels are all forecasted to be big hits this shopping season. Our wide selection of LEGO building sets includes Legends of Chima™, Star Wars™, Marvel Super Heroes and LEGO City. We’ve also got an assortment of LEGO Friends, geared toward girls and LEGO Duplo® - larger blocks for smaller hands!

Your favorite girl will love the new Barbie Color Chalk Hair doll. Barbie’s never looked better than when the young stylist in your life uses the included chalk pods to dream up the trendiest, most cutting-edge ideas in hair color. The blue, pink and purple pods contain enough chalk for 100 applications and the chalk washes out easily with soap and water. Let your kids’ imaginations run wild with this fun new Barbie toy.

Hinda is proud to introduce its new partnership with nabi®. The 16 GB Nick Jr.® Edition features the Wings™ Education System, which tailors courseware to the strengths and weaknesses of the child's skill set level in math, reading and writing. Your kids will have fun with the apps, games, books and videos featuring favorite Nick Jr. characters like Dora the Explorer™, Ni Hao Kai-lan™ and Go Diego Go™.

Staying within the more educational vein, Hinda’s got a Vivitar® 30mm refractor telescope and 3-objective compound microscope set that will keep your favorite budding scientist busy for hours! This kit's telescope includes a tripod as well as 20x, 30x and 40x eyepieces. The microscope is capable of 300x, 600x and 1200x magnification. The set includes specimen slide, blank slides, slide covers, specimen collection vials and tweezers.

When it’s time to get outside and burn off some of that seemingly endless energy, the Ford F-150 from Power Wheels® is just what your little one needs. With realistic side-view mirrors, built-in windshield and roomy truck bed, kids will feel like they’re driving a real truck! They can even lift up the hood to find a realistic-looking truck engine. With big, rugged tires, kids can take their adventures off-road, too!

This is just a small sampling of the wide range of toys and children’s merchandise we have here at Hinda, but these are some of the items we predict will be popular this coming holiday season. Stay tuned for the next installments of our 2013 holiday trends preview, where we’ll cover entertainment/technology, outdoor recreation, home and housewares and more!

Merchandise Monday: Trends from Toy Fair 2013

      

The 110th American International Toy Fair drew nearly 20,000 retailers, wholesalers, importers, buying groups and trade guests to scope out 150,000 innovative toys, games and youth entertainment products across a record-breaking 375,000 net square feet of exhibit space.

Toy Fair 2013 took place February 10-13 at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York City, and Hinda merchandising director LeeAnn Schumacher hit the show floor to report back on the trends she sees taking place this year and as we move into the future.

To begin, we can expect to see games and gadgets that evoke a memory. Classic toys, nostalgic products and vintage items will be popping up on the toy shelves this year. For example, Power Rangers is celebrating its 20^th anniversary, while the Cabbage Patch Kid® doll turns 30. Also, remember the Fisher-Price® record player? It’s back!

Reality TV seems to be influencing toys kids want to play with. Available at Toy Fair this year were “Project Runway” and “American Idol”-inspired items such as the Project Runway® Fashion Design Light-Box Set and the Kidz Bop Glammerati™ Mini Melody Microphone. These toys let kids tap into their creativity and individuality and keep them entertained when their favorite shows aren’t airing.

Toymakers are finding ways to leverage technology, as many physical toys now share an online component. For example, Skylanders™ is the combination of video games and figurines and lets players explore two worlds at the same time.

This will make parents happy:  teens and ‘tweens still want outdoor activities and board games - it’s not all about electronics and smartphones! Board games are now based on apps – such as “Words with Friends” and “Farmville,” – and branded with pop culture figures. It’s all about capturing young adult eyes and holding their attention long enough to keep them coming back.

Following this “offline fun” trend, 2012 saw a 20 percent uptick in the building set category. From classic building blocks to other types of building sets, expect new innovations and an increasing number of new licenses. Lego® has introduced several new lines, including Friends, Legends of Chima and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles®, while Mega Bloks® is also is the forefront, launching Barbie™ Pool Party.

This is just a sampling of the trends and products emerging this year. Check back frequently for updates via our weekly “Merchandise Monday” column right here on Hinda Blog!