SIMPLY FUN CLASSIC TOYS KICKING IT UP A NOTCH.

Byline: Brent Hopkins Staff Writer

It's a place of children's dreams and million-dollar deals, where whimsical imagination and cutthroat commerce collide.

As companies converge on New York for Sunday's opening of the American International Toy Fair, they find themselves with their annual conundrum: how to convince retailers that their dolls, trucks, blocks, gadgets and dress-up kits are going to be a smash with kids. As those fickle young consumers increasingly abandon the traditional toys in favor of video games, cell phones and adult gadgets, the retail world shrinks and costs rise, it's a difficult proposition.

``It's up to all of us to figure out what's hot for next Christmas now,'' said Jay Foreman, president of Malibu-based Jakks Pacific Inc.'s Play Along division. ``We're all throwing stuff out there and seeing what sticks.''

While Jakks certainly isn't running away from the high-tech trend that has swept the industry, it also is putting considerable backing behind Speed Stacks, a concept involving competitive cup-stacking developed by a former physical-education teacher. Though described as ``high-tech sport-stacking cups,'' the $39.99 play set is, at heart, a throwback to games kids enjoyed long before the phrase ``batteries not included'' showed up on packages.

Funrise Toy Corp. of Woodland Hills took a similar approach, reaching back to the pogs craze of the 1990s. The company reintroduced the colorful caps - which take their name from the passion fruit, orange and guava ads on juice-bottle caps that started the original game - in December and has them positioned to tap into kids' collectible sensibilities.

Taking bubbles beyond the realm of just soap and water, the company also enlisted ``bubble artist'' Fan Yang to help promote a line of megabubble makers. Though not high-tech in a microchip sense, they're a far cry from the wire wands and solutions that moms once created with some extra dish soap to amuse kids.

If the Jakks and Funrise approach to engage the iPod generation is to appeal to its youthful roots, MGA Entertainment Inc. has chosen to take up the challenge from consumer electronics head-on. Isaac Larian, chief executive officer of the North Hills-based company, has long maintained that he sees the future of the toy business in consumer electronics.

On the other hand, his company has also sold billions of dollars worth of Bratz dolls, and while they've got some tech components, they're still, in fact, dolls. The solution: to combine the trend toward electronics with MGA's bread-and-butter.

``Bratz is a big brand, and our demographic either owns or wants to have an iPod,'' he said. ``This takes it to the next level: We've got a very fashionable chair with built-in speakers, so the girl can just plug her iPod in and keep playing.''

The chair, which still hasn't been given a name, will sell for a suggested $39.99.

This problem, how to straddle the line between old and new, has haunted the $20 billion annual industry for years. With sales flat or declining, once an unthinkable condition in a business that gets a new consumer with every newborn baby, companies that traditionally fought only each other now have to contend with electronics powerhouses such as Dell, Apple and Sony.

So companies such as Costa Mesa-based Playmates Toys Inc. call up Moorpark inventor Judy Shackelford and ask her for another addition to her successful Amazing line of dolls. Following on Amazing Amanda, the doll that drew great interest even at $99 apiece over the holidays, Shackelford came up with Amazing Allysen, using voice-recognition technology to allow little girls to confide their secrets and hold conversations.

``After a little girl sets up Allysen, Allysen will ask her questions and very subtly stores it, so it doesn't seem like the inquisition,'' said John Sinclair, Playmates' chief operating officer. ``Then she'll bring it up later on. When a special day approaches, she'll remember and remind the girl. When they're talking about colors, Allysen will say, 'I remember purple's your favorite, right?'''

And since Allysen's likely owner, a girl about age 9 or 10, will probably soon be using a cell phone, Allysen comes with one, though hers isn't real.

``Kids are looking for toys that aren't really toys,'' said Cliff Annicelli, editor of Playthings Magazine. ``There's almost a stigma to playing with toys for too long. They're going from basic, beginner toys to video games or products that teenagers would use, like computers, cell phones and DVD players.''

Brent Hopkins, [phone]

brent.hopkins(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) Shawn Brower, an employee of Funrise Toy Corp., tests a new take on a traditional toy - the Fan Yang Unbubblelievable Bubble Maker - on Thursday at the Woodland Hills-based company's showroom in New York.

Jim Sulley/Funrise

(2 -- color) Amazing Allysen comes with her own cell phone and uses voice-recognition technology to chat with little girls. Moorpark inventor Judy Shackelford came up with the doll for Playmates Toys Inc.