TOY FAIR SHOWS HIGH-TECH STUFF WITH RAZZLE-DAZZLE.

Byline: Brent Hopkins Staff Writer

At the American International Toy Fair, toys seem to be the last thing on peoples' minds.

Manufacturers are still bringing their blocks, their trucks and their dress-up clothes, but to really turn heads at the four-day showcase that starts in New York today, they've got to pack a circuit, some noise and some electronic flash. Barbie's hawking cell phones, the Bratz are pushing DVD players shaped like lips, Ms. Pac-Man's back in force. After several years of flat and declining sales, observers say the $20 billion annual industry has finally awakened to the fact that kids are acting a whole lot more like adults these days.

``If I went to Toy Fair and saw the same toys I did in prior years, I'd be saying 'awww, man!' '' said David Riley, a senior manager for the sales tracker NPD Group. ``But I'm not - they're really different now ... The industry is finally stepping up to the plate and consumers are responding positively.''

Which is definitely a welcome change for the battered business, which NPD reports turned in sales of $20.1 billion in 2004, down from $20.7 billion the prior year. With mainstays KB Toys and Toys R Us reorganizing, FAO Schwarz a shell of its former self and discount chains taking an increasingly large slice of the toy retail sales, manufacturers can no longer afford to do things the way they once did.

So as kids start clamoring for a trip to Best Buy, rather than reaching for their dolls and action figures, toy-makers have wised up.

``The majority of the best selling toys are all tech-based,'' said Anson Sowby, director of marketing for Jakks Pacific Inc.'s TV Games line. ``We absolutely think that's going to continue, so we're going to keep pushing the technology to see what we can do.''

The company still has its full complement of low-tech racing toys, stationary and plush, but the 2-year-old TV Games have become a huge part of Jakks' product offering. Jakks' President Stephen Berman noted that the video games, which plug a controller directly into a television to replicate classic games, have swelled from 12 titles last year to 20 in 2005. As new twists this time around, the company announced both a $29.99 wireless version of ``Ms. Pac-Man'' and Gamekey expansion packs, which attach to the controllers to add new games to the original platforms.

For El Segundo-based Mattel Inc., even Barbie has caught the modern bug. The icon's playing off the DVD in which she stars, ``Fairytopia,'' as the company builds a line of dolls around the film and debuting a singing version of its ``American Idol''-themed line. While Mattel is trading on its long-standing brand equity, both with Barbie and with its boys lines revolving around Batman and Superman, each has a modern twist.

Would-be caped crusaders can battle it out with Batman's gadgets, which reach to television and light signals using a technology known as Video Encoded Invisible Light. Superman's cape has also been hot-rodded up with motion sensors and surround sound speakers, allowing kids who don the costume to mimic flying and fighting sounds.

``My view has always been that there's no such thing as the toy business,'' proclaimed Isaac Larian, the brash president and chief executive officer of North Hills-based MGA Entertainment. ``It's the kids business and you've got to make what they want - if it's a doll, we make that. If it's furniture, we make that. If they want a TV in their room, we want a piece of that, too.''

That's an odd statement, coming from someone who claims billions of dollars worth of Bratz doll sales. MGA's still pushing the big-eyed dolls, but it's leveraged their cutesy fashion sense into a whole series of consumer electronics under the name Plugged In. From a $149.99 portable DVD player that resembles lips to a $99.99 camcorder in the shape of a purse, the company is pushing hard into realms outside the toy world. Larian expects up to 60 percent of the privately held company's revenues to come from ``nontraditional toys.''

But with all this focus on whiz-bang gadgets, don't write off the toys of yesteryear just yet. The retro theme that's dominated the industry for the past few years is still hanging around and for all their adult leanings, kids haven't completely grown up.

``Nothing's going to replace traditional toys and play patterns - building, jumping, running, skipping,'' said Maria Weiskott, editor-in-chief of Playthings Magazine. ``You can use the TV, the digital players and there is some cool stuff there, but parents may eventually say, all right, enough of this. I want my kids to play the way I used to. And they'll just go outside and play with 'em.''

Brent Hopkins, [phone]

brent.hopkins(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

4 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) Ashley Cebollero looks around in front of a bank of Barbie Fashion Fever dolls in a display at the annual Toy Fair.

(2) New Bratz dolls by MGA Entertainment are on display during the Toy Fair in New York, which officially opens Sunday.

Gregory Bull/Associated Press

(3 -- 4) Mattel's storied Barbie franchise gets a modern twist with the American Idol line, above, debuting this week at the American International Toy Fair. Jakks Pacific will introduce its latest installment of its popular TV Games series, right, this week at the fair in New York.

Mattel Inc.

Jakks Pacific Inc.