American toy designer asking... - Germany

Any opinions?
could it be simply cultural diffs?
how about something as simple as the names we choose?

any ideas why american designed toys sell poorly in Germany?
But sell very well in the rest of europe?

Does "American-designed" mean "made in China"? If so, there's your answer.

Any examples?

German's have a high appreciation of quality and craft, it's quite normal (from my experience) for German children to have toys that their grand-parents played with - and appreciate them more because of that. A lot of these children even have the sense that they don't own the toys but are taking care of them until it's the next generation's turn.

American Designed / Made in China toys could be seen as disposable and their design as brash and ultimately hollow. To be honest it's surprising how much American culture and toys have penetrated in Germany in the last few years.

Just put a Dirndl/Lederhosen, on top of those toys and they will sell well.

I agree this is very much the tradition in my husbands family. Every generation ads a bit more to the kitty, but it is built upon hand me downs. Even in terms of new toys I think it really has to do with quality.

outside Germany ...

Don't know about anyone else but I find the toy market pretty dissapointing at the mo.

It was my kids birthdays recently (9 and 6) and I struggled to find anything that I thought would last more than a few days either without breaking or still be fun (except lego)!

No one good answer IMO.
Depends on so many factors from design/layout via materials past cultural perceptions to price/longevity.

So called violence toys (guns swords bows and arrows etc) don't do well here at all except at carnival.

Dressing up/costumes ditto

Board games - the Germans like the classics that Granny can play along with the kids.

There also doesn't seem to be that whole "must have Fad toy" thing going on here, well not as madly as in other places.

Make them out of wood with no more than 3 primary colours (all tested by the TUV of course) and sell them for less than the price of a currywurst and you might find a market

Well if its made out of wood and last 20 years germans would love it. For instance a block a wood oh peeps would go nuts over that.

leelong, I tend to believe it is simply cultural differences. We have American and German-made toys. Although my family and I have been living in Germany for the past seven years, we receive American-made toys from our friends in the U.S., at least twice a year. My children have always preferred to play with the German-made toys over the American-made toys. They especially like the German toys made out of wood. I don't know if the names that we choose have anything to do with whether a toy sells or not. From my experiences with some Germans, they enjoy German-made products. Isn't that just the norm? Wouldn't you enjoy/prefer things made from your own country of birth rather than from another country?

So sind die Deutsche

The OP should be more specific about which segments he means. Clearly some US toys do quite well in Germany and Europe. I'm reminded of a German company called Zapf Creation. The stock was worth €70 ten years ago but it's a penny stock now because they were blindsided by the Bratz and My-Scene trend out of the US about 6-7 years ago.

I disagree completely with the idea that German kids are still playing with Grandpa's wooden toys. I've raised four kids in Germany which means I know roughly a bazillion other kids whose parents see things much the same way I do. Those wooden toys that look like Heidie's Grandpa whittled them in the Alps are nothing but a clever marketing gimmick aimed at sentimental grandparents and parents who think that such toys are somehow "better" for their kids. It's based on nostalgia but the problem is, six year olds can't perceive nostagia as adults do. In my experience they were the least played with toys and the first ones to get broken despite the marketers telling us how durable they are supposed to be. I've got a giant bin in the basement full of 15 years worth of toys and every single one of them is the "cheap plastic stuff" which somehow survived four kids and all their friends. Also, the biggest sellers in Germany are Lego and Playmobil which are nothing but injection-molded plastic. I've got about 15 metric tons of that stuff in the basement. It never breaks.

Just to give a clearer view of our circumstance my husband came from the GDR, so I assume that has to do with the tradition in our family.

However, I find it rather exciting. I look forward to one day getting the toys that have been in the family so long. Apparently they have maternity clothing as well, not quite so sure how I feel about that though O_0

Want to set up a Lego/playmobile mass destruction event? Your 15 tons and my 5 cubic metres of the stuff would make a nice big bonfire, we could ruin the Kyoto treaty all on our own
Any one else hoarding enough of the stuff to build your own full sized aircraft carrier?