This Year’s Most Innovative Holiday Toys

Having gotten my start in the toy industry 35 years ago, I’m still amazed by the relentless creativity that shapes this field. Year after year, new and inventive toys appear, despite the highly competitive nature of the business. This ingenuity is fueled by the toy industry’s wholehearted embrace of open innovation. These companies not only invite independent inventors to contribute, but actually rely on their seemingly endless flow of fresh ideas.

One tried-and-true strategy for producing innovation? Combining play categories. By mixing and matching elements from different types of toys, inventors create something entirely new. I used this technique myself when I designed the Michael Jordan Wall, which transformed the backboard of an indoor basketball game into a poster of Michael Jordan.

To explore this year’s standout innovations, I spoke with Azhelle Wade, also known as the Toy Coach. Wade helps creators break into the toy industry, make connections, develop stronger ideas, and craft better pitch materials. Her insights revealed a treasure trove of exciting trends and products.

One major takeaway from Wade? Toys that combine elements from different categories of play in unique ways are trending. By appealing to multiple senses, these products invite more elaborate and sustained forms of play. 

As an example, Wade cited Jelly Blox by Goliath Games. Think Lego, but bigger, softer, and filled with putty and glitter. Jelly Blox combines the core actions of construction play — building, stacking, and creating — with a new sensory experience: These are building blocks you can squeeze, stretch, and squish. Appropriate for children ages 3 and younger, Jelly Blox have been nominated for Infant/Toddler Toy of the Year. 

Other examples of crossover category products trending this year include Monster Tails by PMI, which mix collectible figures with story time: Each figure in the collection comes with a miniature book filled with educational lessons. The game Cornhole Shootout by A Better Design Company — also up for a TOTY award — combines cornhole with basketball. (It was invented by Martin Lombardini, an independent designer and coach at my company inventRight.) 

The Disney Real FX Stich puppet from WOW! Stuff combines puppets and animatronics. The company is committed to creating high-end licensed products that bring beloved intellectual properties to life. As an example, Wade pointed to the success of company’s Harry Potter Invisibility Cloak.

“Imagine ribbon dancing, but motorized,” Wade told me. It’s a small device invented and developed by two university students that spins a loop of string in a mesmerizing circular motion — you may have seen it on TikTok, where it went viral. It’s low-cost and fun to play with at night: The glow-in-the-dark version has been nominated for Educational Toy of the Year. 

To find the most innovative toys located in a store near you, visit the website of the specialty toy association ASTRA. To stay abreast of new toys that are truly enticing to kids, Wade recommends following Richard Derr, the owner of Learning Express in Lake Zurich, Illinois. On his social media profiles, including his LinkedIn page and the Instagram page for his business, Derr passionately introduces his audience to companies and products they may not know about.

“He’s the best trend-spotter in the industry,” says Wade. His team is well-trained in analyzing products from the perspective of kids. “[For them,] it’s not just the media buzz a toy is getting, but does it really work and is it something that kids are going to be engaged by and want to leave with,” she added. 

The value of the “mixing and matching” method to produce a new hit extends well beyond the toy industry. Earlier this year, Inc. noted the surprising smash success of Nerds Gummy Clusters. By mixing a product that hadn’t changed in years (Nerds) with a category of products that have exploded in variety (gummies), Nerds landed a major hit. Just six years ago, all of Nerds generated less than $50 million in sales. By Halloween of 2024, Nerds Gummy Clusters alone has already generated over $500 million.