About theToyGuy.com

Our goal at theToyGuy.com is to provide an overview of some of the most popular toys being introduced right now, the toys that the kids in your life may be talking about.We also maintain and add to our growing database of toys released in the past; the ones you might have just won in an online auction or found at a garage sale.

We hope that you find theToyGuy.com a useful source and that we provide you with more information than you would find in a commercial, or on a box.That's why all reviews on theToyGuy.com are structured to help you figure out What a toy is, Why it's fun, Who's going to love it—and last but not least, What to be aware of.

Our goal is to get you thinking about toys and kids, and helping you enrich your child's life.

Meet the Crew:

The Toy Guy, A.K.A. Chris Byrne

Over the past 25 years, Christopher Byrne has spent some part of every day playing with new toys-not a bad job, if you stop to think about it. His first job
in the toy industry was writing assembly instructions for toys. It was during this time that he was working for CBS Toys, (a division of the CBS network), and their five toy brands: Creative Playthings, Gabriel, Wonder, Gym-Dandy and Ideal.

At the time, he didn't know this first job would mark the beginning of a lifetime of toy study and fun. The more he got into playing, the more he became fascinated by the toy industry. Over the next years he would become more captivated by trends and marketing in the toy business. He worked for many companies at this time, writing copy, fulfilling marketing needs, and performing duties in public relations. Still, he had no idea where his career was heading. Then, one day, Chris got his "big break." He got a call from a former boss who was working with a new company that had just founded a new board game,
which was becoming all the rage in Seattle. She was putting together a marketing team for the game, and asked Chris if he wanted in on the action. That popular board game ended up being Pictionary. "Well, I went to the interview, got hired on the spot, and spent the next eighteen months playing Pictionary," he says. Of course it wasn't all fun and games. He spent a great
deal of time traveling with the inventor, Rob Angel, and created promotions for the marketing firm of Pezzano & Company to spread the good word about Pictionary. At the end of this period, Pezzano & Company could say they had definitely helped put the game on the map, selling more than a million
Pictionary games, when selling 100,000 games at that time was considered a
big hit.

"People tell me that I'm like the kid in the movie Big," he says. "That's not really true. After all, he was a kid who was suddenly thrust into the grown-up world. I'm a grown-up (sort of) whose primary job is to get into the world of kids. But what I've always loved about that movie is that the character understood what kids think is fun. It doesn't matter what the toy is, the fun is what really counts. You never see a toy become a big hit that isn't fun, whether it's a game, a Cabbage Patch doll, or even today's Pokémon." After working on Pictionary, Chris started writing for different magazines, consulting on marketing programs, and began studying the toy market. He wrote for several trade magazines, including Toy & Hobby World, Licensing Today, and Trim-A-Tree Business. It was about this time he began to make television appearances. "I
got a call one day from the Today Show. They needed to talk to someone about toys and what was going to be new for the year. I'd never done TV before, but I thought, 'Hey, that sounds like fun.' And it was." Today, Chris is the editor-at-large for Toys & Family Entertainment and Royaltie$ and a contributing editor
for Toy Wishes.

The Toy Guy is available year-round for speeches to parenting, business, community or faith-based groups; media interviews; in-school programs; and,
to answer questions about the business of toys.

E-mail The Toy Guy at mail@thetoyguy.com.

Jeff McKinney
Online Editor
TheToyGuy.com

Jeff originally hails from Philadelphia, PA, but grew up around the country and
as far away as Brussels, Belgium. And, no, his family is not gypsies or traveling circus folks. They just got around. Jeff’s love of toys began at a young age in Europe where he first discovered the Smurfs. After moving back to the states
he was introduced to Star Wars and his life-long love of action figures, which continues today, was born.

Jeff’s expertise covers all kinds of toys—mass, market, specialty and especially video and board games, which he enjoys even outside of work—in addition to action figures.

In addition to writing toy and game reviews and articles for theToyGuy.com,
Jeff has contributed to Toys & Family Entertainment and Royaltie$, two U.S.-based trade magazines.

There is no fee for reviews.

If you have a product you would like to submit to theToyGuy.com for review, please send a sample to:

The Toy Guy
attn: REVIEWS
1010 Avenue of The Americas
Suite 302
New York, NY 10018

Please include the following information:

Appropriate Ages, Suggested Retail Price, Where the product is available and your contact information. Also a Press Release or Fact Sheet is very helpful.

Products are examined and selected for review with many factors in mind, including the following: Safety, Value and most importantly, Is It Fun?

If we review your product, it will be featured here on theToyGuy.com and possibly on theToyGuy blog.

Media Segments

The Toy Guy regularly appears on media segments nationwide. Selection of products that are featured in these segments is exclusively and completely an
editorial decision based on the merits of the product as determined by The Toy Guy's review process or in
concert with allied editorial outlets. In all cases, the final decision of inclusion of products is made by the media outlet's segment producers and editors with whom we work to craft segments that are appropriate and provide useful and relevant information to readers, listeners and viewers.

The Toy Guy receives no compensation from toy manufacturers for the use of their products in these segments.