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Tuesday, April 22, 2025

New York Toy Fair 2025

This trip marks my 2nd visit to the New York Toy Fair in the 24 years I've been working in toys. The plush toys I work on are for Disney stores and parks.  Toy Fair is a showcase of toys that range from gift store items, collectables, baby, and toys of every style.  

I was invited to go because I had client meetings!  Toy Fair is the place for meeting old friends and making new.

I live in Maryland, so a plane ride would take just as long as a train because first I need to drive 1.5 hours to a major airport, then wait an hour to board, for a one hour flight, then when I get to New York, it's a 45 minute Uber or Taxi ride into the city.  I decided to take a train, because it would drop me off 1 mile from the Javit Center.

The Amtrak train ride was nice, it took about three hours from Harrisburg, plus the one hour drive to Harrisburg.  I got there with about 30 minutes before the ride.  I made the mistake of not checking for parking before, and parked at a local hotel, later I found out there is Amtrak parking for the Harrisburg station.  

Despite being a fairly seasoned world traveler, I forgot to turn off the wifi signal on my phone, therefore the maps app was not navigating correctly.  So as I tried to walk the one mile, I kept getting confused, and eventually went the wrong way heading into town rather than out of town.  It was 20 degrees with windy conditions, my nose was running, and it was just disorienting.  Combined with the fact that I had a client meeting that I was going the wrong direction and running late for.  My boss asked why I didn't just take an Uber.  I thought that would be unreasonable for a one mile distance, but I was not versed in walking with that level of cold, wind, and snotty confusion.  

Thankfully, once I finally got there, the wonder of being at the Toy Fair set in and all was fine.  Photos of New York taking during my mad dash through the streets:





Photos at Toy Fair






Notes for future travel to New York:
* Turn off wifi when using maps
* Park at TransitPark at Harrisburg station
* Take an Uber when pressed for time

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