Toy Fair highlights: Texting Clue game, tiny horse

NEW YORK - Here are some new and notable toys and toy trends found at the toy industry's annual International Toy Fair, which ends tomorrow.

TEXT ME A CLUE: Hasbro Inc. has extended many of its classic board games in new ways, from a Jenga Max game that builds outward instead of up and down and Trivial Pursuit Team game that allows players to get partial credit for answers. But the most innovative update is a new Clue game called Clue: Secrets & Spies Edition, in which users can use text messaging on their own cell phones to enhance game play. The goal of the game is to complete missions before being discovered by an Agent Black. Users can text a number when they start the game and will receive updates about the game every eight minutes. Hasbro said it is committed to maintaining text messaging support through Dec. 31, 2011. The game will be available in the fall for $24.99.

TINY HORSES: Hasbro is also reintroducing its My Little Pony dolls in a variety of different sizes between 3 and 4 inches to represent different ages, including the smallest one called Sweetie Belle. But the tiny horse getting the most attention at Toy Fair was not a Hasbro toy at all but Thumbelina, an actual miniature horse from Goose Creek Farms Inc., in St. Louis, Mo. The tiny animal was on hand munching grain and gathering a crowd at the fair. The 17.5-inch horse, which has been certified by the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's smallest horse, travels to visit sick children via a charitable foundation set up in her name. The owners are selling a limited line of merchandise including a stuffed horse, posters and T-shirt, to fund the foundation, but manager Michael Goessling said he was hoping to score additional licensing deals.

"We've got a few proposals," he said. "But we're hoping for a lot more."

FASHION DOLL MINUS DOLL: Bandai America Inc., which has brought Japanese toy trends to the U.S. including Tamagotchi and Power Rangers toys, has a unique take on the fashion doll category — all of the fashion and none of the doll. The company's new Harumika line includes a dress-form fashion doll — which resembles a store mannequin without a head — and swaths of brightly colored and patterned cloth and accessories, which girls can use to create their own fashion looks. The swaths tuck into a slot in the back of the doll to stay anchored. Beginning this summer, when the line becomes available, girls can upload photos of the fashions they create — a digital camera is included in some sets — to a Web site to show to friends.

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