I went to the Fisher-Price Play Lab to learn how toys are made

For most adults of a particular age, the word “Fisher-Price” immediately brings to mind brightly colored plastic toys or wooden toys if they lived before the 1950s.

To me, it’s the iconic talking phone that has enjoyed dialing since 1961 (remember?). Recently, the latest makeover has been made with a fully functional (!) Bluetooth connection for making calls.

But Chatter phones aren’t the only ones that have been reset. There is also a Play Lab in New York. This is a child-led testing facility (an industry first) that continues the company’s 1992 tradition of working with young testers as toy experts.

The Fisher-Price headquarters on Little People’s Lane, East Aurora, may be the toy-based headquarters of Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory.

Please think about it. Between floors with all the Fisher-Price toys, from the first officially licensed Disney toys in 1935 to the very popular Rock Astack with wheels and yellow slides from 1983. Huge slides and a nostalgic heritage museum. Smart cycle and baby peroton original 2007.

Play Lab and its formal practice have observed children playing directly since they took over half of co-founder Herman Fischer’s office in 1961.

By tracking play samples using the latest technology and literally looking at toys through the eyes of children, it’s clear that finding the next big thing in toys may be more than you can imagine.

please wait this

Standing behind a two-way mirror, I see my mom and her 18-month-old playing with the new Linksimals (Happy Shapes Hedgehog, Lights & Colors Llama, AZ Otter, Musical Moose, Smooth Moves Sloth). If it’s a bit clinical in the living room, it seems quite normal.

This is the Discovery Lab, one of four research areas connected by the cameras, microphones, computers, and facial recognition software that make up the Play Lab.

With a line-of-sight tracking cap on your head, one camera can follow your eye movements, and the other can point outward to capture the scene at the same time. Researchers, on the other hand, capture images that designers and engineers might find useful and monitor live capture programs on their laptops.

“We started using eye tracking to understand exactly what our kids are looking at,” says early childhood educator Dr. Lisa Rohiser. “Analytical software tells us that they are paying attention to something specific. Therefore, they heard the word “red” and saw something else that was red. If so, it tells us that they are beginning to understand and that they have made that connection. .

Technology has proven essential in getting feedback from evaluators who have not yet been able to put their comments into their own words. Get a new line of interactive Linkimals toys that connect with other characters by counting, lighting up and singing along.

A recent study of 50 babies over the course of several months provided statistical evidence that they “begin to make connections by seeing, touching, hearing, and doing what they do with toys.”

Observatory

Elsewhere in the Discovery Lab, the team uses a heart rate monitor for what’s called BabyFaceReader’s sentiment analysis.

A software tool used for over 6 months that views recorded video, automatically recognizes facial expressions, measures baby’s emotions, and supports developmental psychology.

Before the introduction of high-tech monitoring, Lohiser said the lab always had to sit in the room to play with the children and see lots of images. “Our camera is perfect,” she adds.

In addition to the Discovery Lab, there are three other areas that make up the Play Lab line. The first is an interactive Pre-Cool Lab and a play area with a cool treehouse for kids ages 3-5.

Here the team invites a playgroup of about 6 children to work with many 3D printed toys and prototypes, just like in preschool settings. Wonder Lab, on the other hand, is primarily used for parent focus groups, and Right At Home Lab is a simulated home environment for families.

Interestingly, the electronics group uses sensors to record data such as the number of times a button is pressed and the number of times a toy is picked up.

Teamwork

The team also works closely with designers, engineers, content producers, and musicians to evaluate the details of each toy, from patterns to sizes.

For example, sound engineers work with Play Lab to ensure that learning and pronunciation are developmentally appropriate and that voice needs are correctly identified for children to understand.

They are also the cause of repetitive signals and chirps that send auditory worms to the adult brain.

“The music is expected to be cutting edge,” says Glentalahoff, who came to Fisherprice after studying composition at the prestigious Jacobs Conservatory in Indiana and composing at the Christmas window of Macy’s in New York.

“I always try to make something that parents love. I don’t write music for kids. It’s EDM-inspired and generally genderless.”

Tarachow is run by (relentlessly insane) DJ ​​Bouncin’Beats.

“It’s all about the little nuances that make the toy unique,” he says. “A specific style of music makes the child inadvertently jump up and down. There is no specific music.”

But from concept and prototyping to completion and testing, when a child gets it, what seems like a golden idea can change dramatically.

The original chat phone design did not include the lanyard. The cord was added only when the designer noticed that the child was pulling on the cord of the receiver.

where the magic happens

“We’re looking at what’s happening in the world of trends,” says Domenic Gubitos, director of product design.

For example, after consulting with a fashion house, the team discovered that there were sloths and lions in it, and that animals such as elephants and lions were not outside.

It is interesting that different animals have different meanings in different countries. For example, owls are not well accepted in Italy because many believe they bring bad luck.

Today’s little testers are unlikely to care about unlucky owls. After a brief horror and a fight with the eye tracker (he pulled it out twice), the Linkimals tester was hooked, constantly pressing a button to jump from one toy to another. , the other followed an Imaginext Stomp & Rumble GigaDino with another dinosaur.

It’s easy to see why Play Lab is the heart of the company and why Play Lab is such a tightly guarded secret.

“PlayLab has always been considered a secret source for Fisher-Price,” says Lohiser.

So why did Fisher-Price decide to open the door to a secret testing facility?

“Parents want to know what’s behind the toys and the thought process,” says Lohiser.

“We also want to share with you how much thought, testing and effort goes into this. There is a reason behind every feature in our toys. We are learning. We strive to create moments of joy to connect, and simply telling the world will make it everyone feel better.”