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Category: Blue Orange Products

Check Out the Buzz at New York Toy Fair!

Posted on March 3, 2016March 11, 2016 by Corinne Marcot-Jones

New York Toy Fair was such a blast! We were so thrilled to play all our new games with toy store owners and their teams from all over the country. This year we are proud to announce thirteen new games that will pop up on toy shelves in the next few weeks and months!

New Games for 2016

Gigamons

[box]Everyone at Toy Fair adored the cute monster figures and the refreshing illustrations while enjoying Gigamons‘ unique game play that combined a memory game with superpowers![/box] Enter a realm where magic reigns and the world’s elements are creatures with mythical abilities! Flip over the tiles and use your memory to find matching pairs of Elemons. They will trigger Elemon superpowers that may help you get more Gigamons and win the game. Gigamons is a game artistically designed to engage the player’s imagination and carry them away to a new world. Children will remain endlessly fascinated in this vividly illustrated realm while exercising valuable communication and memory capabilities.

Dr. Eureka

[box]Our live Dr. Eureka stole the show with his giant molecules and mixers. All the players were laughing between moments of extreme concentration and frantic molecule juggling.[/box] Stir up crazy molecular mixes in Dr. Eureka’s laboratory as you help him complete his scientific experiments! Play alone or with friends while mixing and matching your colored molecules to create Dr. Eureka’s winning formula. But watch those particles! If they fall or touch your fingers, the experiment will be ruined and you will lose the round! Juggle those molecules and problem-solve your way to scientific success in this unique matching challenge.

Vroom Vroom

[box]The wooden snail rollers were a hit at the Vroom Vroom table with their adorable appearance and unique counting process. [/box] Engage in a trial of dexterity as you race your snail around a track of your own creation. Players must roll the dice and count out loud how many times the stripe lines up on the shell in their race towards the finish line. But players beware! Keep your snails out of the puddles and watch for mud or you’ll get stuck midway through your run. Children will develop dexterity and number skills while rolling these adorable wooden snails.

Brix

[box]This game took players by surprise and had them playing over and over again with it’s clever concept.[/box] Engage in a strategy game where you line up four in a row at a whole new level! Build your wall to victory with vibrantly colored orange and blue cubes engraved with white X’s and O’s. Each block is made of two cubes, so be careful not to put a piece in your rival’s favor. Play with symbols, colors, or both! You decide! Brix is a uniquely creative game that is fast to learn but employs a complex strategy that older children and adults will love!

Kaboom

[box]Kaboom was quite the blast with dice and blocks flying all over the demo table.[/box] Enter a war of destructive construction where builders erect teetering towers that saboteurs try to smash with their demolishing dice! As the Master Builder, you must assemble your tower against the chaotic onslaught of catapults to try to get the most points. But come next round, you’ll be the saboteur behind the catapult creating catastrophe for your opponent builder. Will you build multiple towers against your enemies? Or will you try for the grand prize and master the Mega Tower? All ages will love this challenge of speed and precision mingled with some great destructive fun!

Fast Flip

[box]Players’ brains were flipping fast between fruits and numbers in this card game sensation. They loved the addictive game play and easy understandability, while appreciating the unique triangular shape of the cards.[/box] Get ready to scramble for the match in this crazy fruit salad! Match your fruits to a number or numbers to a fruit; you don’t know what match you’ll have to find next! Whether you play with tiles or with the cards alone, all players of any age will be fast flipping for this brain teasing match up. The game comes complete in a tin for your cards and tiles, making it an easy travel item. Children will find the smiling fruits so engaging and are bound to join in the captivating family fun.

Super Genius

[box]Everyone at New York Toy Fair were thrilled to see the long awaited Super Genius: Multiplication 2 and appreciated Super Genius: Alphabet as a logical addition for younger children. They were also impressed by Super Genius: Compound Words in its unique variation on the original style of play.[/box] Super Genius is back with three more ways to get your genius gears grinding! Super Genius: Alphabet will throw your kinder into ABC fun as they sound out their letter sounds while matching the alphabet with vibrant illustrations. Then master your math and learn your times tables 6 through 9 with Super Genius: Multiplication 2. Finally, there is Super Genius: Compound Words where you match your compound words three different ways: words to image, image to image equations, and image equations to words! Whether they play by themselves or in a group, little geniuses are bound to have fun feeding their minds with these smart games.

Pinpoint!

[box]Players at Toy Fair were rapt in the challenge to find each elusive original in this twist on the find the difference game.[/box] Join in a race for the original in Pinpoint! Flip the card and race with friends to spot the differences among aliens, skateboards, robots, snails, and other fun pictures! Each variation has only one small difference from the original, so keep your eyes peeled to catch the original before your opponents catch it from you. The game comes with 6 die to allow cooperative play or for each player to take their time. Play it with friends or alone, in a car or at home; Pinpoint! is a flexible game equipped in a tin, so it’s fun whichever way, wherever you play!

Top That!

[box]Our live Top That! magician mystified our buyers with the game’s deceptive difficulty. By the end of the convention, our magician had mastered the stacking skill to beat any challenger.[/box] Put on your hat, break out your props, and hide your rabbits in this magical match up! This game is a matching, stacking game where players race to stack items and hide grayed objects according to the images shown on the cards. Can you be a master magician and keep your starred objects empty for the brilliant reveal in your magical finale? No matter what age, children will enjoy stacking their way to magician fame while practicing key fine motor and social skills.

Rooster Run

[box]Players had fun playing Rooster Run with the wacky barnyard atmosphere and commended the challenge in searching for specific details in each worm.[/box] Join your friends for some barn house mayhem! Rooster Run is a twist of a memory game where you are a strapping young rooster ready to peck your way to that dear hen’s prize worm and win her heart. Flip over earth tiles to find the perfect dinner. First one to find their worms cries “Cock-a-doodle-doo” and ends the round. But don’t be too hasty! If you call out too soon without your prize worm, prepare for heartbreak and lose your dinner! Rooster Run is a thrilling real time race where children can practice skills in memory and focus while having fun with family and friends.

Sold Out!

[box]Players commended this card game’s unique and energetic style of play and how perfect it is for sleepover parties![/box] Scour an imaginary store as you and your friends race to complete your shopping lists in this super sale scramble! Sold Out! is a fast pace card game where you and your friends literally get up and race to find your items. Each player is given a shopping list to memorize before dashing around the room, looking through piles of cards representing clothes racks. Sold Out! is a unique get-up-and-go card game perfect for birthday parties and sleepovers! Children will love exploring their space and running around in this energetic race to finish their lists before the store is Sold Out!

Toys On The Square in Pennsylvania is the February Store of the Month!

Posted on February 8, 2016 by Corinne Marcot-Jones

Visit Toys On The Square at 22 E Main Street, Hummelstown, PA 17036

With Valentine’s Day around the corner, Blue Orange would like to show their love and appreciation to the February 2016 Store of the Month—Toys On The Square in Hummelstown, Pennsylvania! Congratulations to Steve, Grafton, and your team for your dedication to selling and playing the Blue Orange games.

Toys On The Square has been selling toys for over 25 years and has been buying games from Blue Orange since 2003. The store also doubles as a pottery painting studio to further inspire creativity in their customers. However, one of their greatest marvels is their toy selection. One might say that they have all the warmth and customer care of a family owned business while maintaining a vast arrangement of toys one would find in a larger company. Customers are known to walk in the store and gawk at the grand supply and variation of toys that stock their shelves.

Toys On The Square did a fantastic job in our Christmas Display Contest!

I had the pleasure of talking to Steve about his experience working at Toys On The Square. Grafton, Steve’s friend and Toys On The Square store owner, first hired Steve to work at Toys On The Square. Ten years later, he asked Steve to help him manage sales. Since his promotion, Steve has been meeting up up with our sales interns to test our games for the Toys On The Square shelves. He admires the Blue Orange Team’s way of meeting with the store owners in person and showing them how to play the games they are selling. Steve makes sure to also play the game with his customers so they know that they will enjoy what their buying.

Needless to say, Steve is an enthusiastic “game guru” who loves to throw out the manual after the first read and put his own twist on the game. His favorite Blue Orange games are Spot It! and Fastrack. He’s so good at Fastrack that he beat our previous sales intern, Max, at the game. Steve makes sure to know every game on the shelf. In fact, if he doesn’t know a game, he will break open the box and play it with a customer right there!

The best advice Steve can give to future toy store owners is to keep a wide variety of toys for all age groups. “You almost need a little bit of everything to be successful,” he said. However, he does understand the value of catching a child’s attention at a young age, before they get sucked into the technological tidal wave of the modern age. He believes that playing a physical board game gives “a broader range of experience” than just playing something on your phone. Rather than just tapping a screen, the player has to engage their senses and use their motor coordination while fully communicating with their opponent. Therefore, it’s important to show young children the value of a good physical game, so they can best develop those skills and facilitate human connection.

It is little wonder why Toys On The Square won February’s Store of the Month! Check out their site here or drop by their store in Hummelstown, Pennsylvania. Congratulations again to Toys On The Square! Your dedication to Blue Orange and your customers is undeniable! We wish you the best of success in the future years to come!

Should You Let Your Child Win?

Posted on December 17, 2015 by Corinne Marcot-Jones

As the holiday season draws near, families often gravitate towards gameplay, favoring warm living rooms and the company of loved ones to the bitter chill of the winter months. Not wanting to be left out, little ones are often eager to join into the competitive melee. Yet, one questions always looms: should you let them win?

It seems unduly harsh to beat a small child at a game, yet the consensus is clear; experts say that you should not throw a game and let a child win if they are over four. When children hit four or five, they begin to hone a competitive edge and rely on adults and peers more heavily as role models for social behavior. When you beat a child at a game, you are not only teaching them how to lose, but also showing them how to win gracefully. We all know a child who celebrates over zealously at a win and rubs it in others faces. When that child begins to play with peers more often, this behavior quickly becomes unacceptable and often ostracizes the child from the group. When you beat a child at a game and end it with a sportsmanlike handshake, children then learn that this is the proper way to conduct themselves in the face of victory—with tact, poise, and respect for their opponents.

Children also need to learn how to lose gracefully. As a former summer camp counselor, I saw countless children who I would classify as “sore losers”. When they lost at a game of kickball or dodgeball, their first response was to throw the ball as far and as hard as they could, preventing other children from playing. This is the attitude displayed by a child who is always used to winning. When you beat a child at a game, it’s essential to nip this type of behavior in the bud. Asking questions like “why does losing make you so frustrated” and “why are you so upset” can start an open dialog about how to lose gracefully and what losing in daily life means.

While it is important for children to experience losing games, this does not mean parents and family members should use their entire adult strategic prowess to absolutely obliterate children during game play. Introducing handicap rules can help even the playing field and create competitive fun for all. For example, an extra rule in “Puzzle Battle” is that adults are only allowed to play with one hand. Another option is to introduce luck based games. Games like “King’s Gold”, which is a push-your-luck dice game, or “Sushi Draft”, where players don’t know the value of tokens they win until after the game, are great because they give+ children a chance to win easily without adults having to force a win on the child’s behalf. Remember that gameplay isn’t just about winning, it’s about learning how to both win and lose in a constructive and healthy way.

Happy holidays from Blue Orange Games

Staff Holiday Gift Favorites

Posted on December 16, 2015 by Corinne Marcot-Jones

Blue Orange Staff’s Holiday Gift List

Working at Blue Orange Games is amazing because we are always surrounded by fantastic gifts! See what our personal favorites are and who we’re giving games to this holiday season!

“I will be giving Ring It! to my nephew because it is the perfect game for the whole family to enjoy!”

Martin, Vice President of Sales and Marketing

“I will offer King’s gold to my young cousins. They are little pirates and the game will introduce them to strategy while having fun.”
Max, Sales Intern

“I choose Ring It! I will give it to my grandfather, because he is ultra-competitive and once I will have taught him my secret skills, he will beat all his friends at the bar.”

Hoël, Sales Intern

“I will offer Thumbs Up! to my nieces: it’s a great party game mixing both dexterity and speed. Kids have the most fun playing Thumbs up!”
Alex, Sales Intern

“I’m giving Spot It! Giants to my friend because he is a huge Giants fan and the tin is a beautiful and portable collector’s item, as well as containing a super fun game!”

Gina, Marketing Intern

“I’m giving Prohis to my sister because she loves bluffing and she will be really good at this game!”

Xavier, West Coast Sales Manager

“I’m giving Wink to my brother because he can’t wink so I know I will win!”

Bart, Sales Intern

“I’m giving Sushi Draft to my friend because she loves sushi and this is a fun and portable game!”
Keyva, Accounting Assistant

“I’m giving Gobblet Gobblers to my 4 year old nephew because everyone can play it with him and it will teach him strategy”

Yann, Regional Sales Manager

“I’m giving New York 1901 to my best friend because she loves New York City and I know her family loves to play gateway board games”

Corinne, Marketing Manager

“I’m giving Pengoloo to my nephew because it is a high quality game that will help his color recognition and memory skills”

Renaud, East Coast Sales Manager

We hope you got some great ideas for fun games to give this holiday season!

Happy Holidays,

The Blue Orange Team

Information and Tools for Educators

Posted on November 23, 2015November 23, 2015 by Corinne Marcot-Jones

As a mother to a school-aged child, I’m always on the look out for what would help my little boy at school. And with a child with special needs, you could say that I get hyper-focused on stuff like that. I’m amazed at what his teachers and therapists will recommend to better aid him in the classroom.

I was so pleasantly surprised with a phone call from Katy at GlobalEducator Institute, a new organization looking to aid teachers in the classroom. They have a robust blog and are committed to providing information and tools for educators. In fact, they are looking for teachers to help pair them off with great products for review. Learn more about Global Educator Institute below.

Global Educator Institute— is a new organization with a mission of evaluating educational products and improving education. The goal is to pair great products with great teachers, who then test them with their students for at least six weeks and provide us with valuable feedback and recommendation. Teachers have a voice in determining which products are elevated to becoming endorsed and receive our GEI Seal of Endorsement.

If you are a teacher or know of anyone that is (pass along), it takes 5 minutes to sign up and create a confidential profile. To sign up to be a member, simply visit: http://geiendorsed.com/how/teachers/

GEI will then start sending FREE product to evaluate for GEI.

Rocking Horse Toy Company is our October Store of the Month!

Posted on October 9, 2015 by Corinne Marcot-Jones

At Blue Orange Games, we can’t take all the credit for our hot games! We owe a huge debt of gratitude to our fabulous retailers who give us feedback and put energy, passion, and time into their businesses every day. This space is dedicated to a very special retailer each month in order to highlight the stores and individuals that bring Blue Orange games from shelves into homes and that do us the honor of introducing us to families in their area. We are pleased to announce that our Retailer of the Month for October is none other than Rocking Horse Toy Co in Petoskey, MI!

Rocking Horse Toy Co started with…you guessed it…a rocking horse!

Owners, Andy and Kathleen Bultman, were originally elementary school teachers. They were on the quest to find their daughter, Sara, the perfect rocking horse for her 1st birthday. No rocking horse on the market fit the requirement. Thus Kathleen asked Andy to make one instead. Andy’s rocking horse creation created a stir and requests were made by the community for other wooden crafts. Andy later added homemade wooden toys to the inventory. The business expanded to other things such as toys and games and Andy eventually stopped making the wooden toys. 34 years later, there are 3 locations throughout Northern Michigan.

The buying season at Rocking Horse Toy Co is different from most stores. Whereas most stores experience huge sales in the 4th quarter holiday season, they have Christmas in July! Their store locations are primarily in resort areas so they experience a huge influx of vacationers looking for toys and games during the summer months.

Andy and Kathleen credit their success to their backgrounds as educators. They purchase toys and games they felt their customers could really benefit from and not just what is the most popular. They also take the time to train their employees. Arielle, is the buyer and general manager for Rocking Horse Toy Co and really makes sure their employees are well-trained to talk with the customers.

After 34 years, Andy still loves coming to work. He loves the change of seasons, the change of environments, and even the ups and downs. He still looks forward each year to attending the annual NYC Toy Fair and searching for new trends in toys and games. This love of toys and games definitely translate into their success!

Thank you Rocking Horse Toy Co for all that you do for your community and for Blue Orange Games!

Marketing and Sales Tips for Small Businesses – Finale

Posted on October 5, 2015October 5, 2015 by Corinne Marcot-Jones

October is here and now begins the ramp up for the holiday season. Halloween isn’t until the END of the month but you better believe that kids have been in the planning stages well before October 1. Halloween is such a fun period for kids and is the precursor for the remaining holidays to come (kids weren’t exactly looking forward to the start of the school year)! Kids will be filled with anticipation towards the wonderful Halloween decorations, dressing up, and candy!

Are you prepared for the upcoming shopping rush? This Final Installment of Marketing and Sales Tips for Small Businesses will focus on those special touches that stores do for their customers and local community. Fall is the opportune time for this!

Classes

Craft and art classes are a great way to bring people into the store! Don’t forget to promote it for FREE on Social Media, in your online newsletter, and local online communities!

Need an idea? Work with another local entrepreneur such as a photographer and have a parent workshop on how parents can better utilize their smart phones to take better pictures of those special moments. I got this idea from a fellow mom and photographer that does this in my community to raise money and all the spots were sold out! It doesn’t hurt her professional photography services, it only enhances her role to help you capture special moments! Feel free to reach out to your vendors to help support your efforts to increase business!

Parent’s Night Out

What kid wouldn’t want to hang out in a toy store while their parents go out for a romantic dinner? This is a win-win situation for all parties. Charge parents a fee per kid and entertain with pizza and games while their parents enjoy a night on the town.

Lively Storefront & Special Guests

We are huge fans of working with your local community. Is their a local author in your area that would like to do a speaking and signing engagement? Local artists, local bands, local TALENT! Show your support of all things local. Your customers will appreciate it!

Host Private Parties

Host birthday parties or tea parties. Invitations can include store discount and all presents are wrapped and offered onsite.

Receipt Auction

I have to admit that I had never heard of this idea until I was at Blue Orange. It’s such a cool idea! Organize a receipt auction after the holidays where customers can use their receipts to bid on prizes. The more a customer buys for two months, the more receipts they collection for the auction!

We wish you the best of luck as we enter the final quarter of 2015! We’d love to hear if you utilized any of those tips! Post below and we might have something to help you this holiday period!