Chicago Toy and Game Fair

Bert
33 minutes ago
2 min read

The Chicago Toy and game fair is the unofficial kick off to the Holiday shopping season here in Chicago. The Chicago Toy and Game fair features local toy and game vendors as well as big names like Lego that attend to show off their games and toys for the season. The Fair also hosted several famous game designers and board game influencers. There was also the Illinois state yo-yo competition and the young inventor challenge.

This year there were some great highlights especially in the game side of the fair. The OP had Eric Olsen out to show off the Grinch branded version of the Flip 7. Eric was also a finalist for Breakout Inventor of the Year and The OP marketing team was a finalist for Innovative Marketing and PR Team at this years TAGIE awards. The TAGIEs (Toy and Game Innovation and Excellence) are an industry award for innovations around the toy and game industry.

This year there were some great highlights especially in the game side of the fair.

Daryl Adams (Sagrada), April Mitchel (Disco Island Escape), Grant Lyon (Kind of a Big Dill) and Brady Peterson with Sophia Ricciardi (Rhymes with Duck) were among all the game designers who were at this years Chicago TAG fair.

Chicago TAG isn't just about all the fun industry people that are there its really about fun. There are a lot of booths with Books, crafts, toys, games and activities. The Scouts had a pinewood derby setup and the Girl scouts had a few crafts and projects to do. My favorite Game Store was also represented Fair Game with their own booth that hosted most of the game designers showing off their games.

They had a mic setup so kids could sit on it and toot into the mic...endless fun for kids.

I had my kids with me and one of the favorites of the 5 year old was Fart Monster. This was a a stuffed animal with a self inflating whoopee cushion that smelled good. They had a mic setup so kids could sit on it and toot into the mic...endless fun for kids. Another fun thing was Pixicade an device app that scans in your child's drawing and turns it into a video game. Kids can use different color markers or stickers to create the goals terrain and traps for a player to get through the game.

This event is a fun time for kids and lets you play a ton of toys and games before you buy them and a lot of the time you get to do that with the people who made them. Put Chicago Toy and Game Fair on your list for next November and take the family for a fun day of toys and games.