The Toy Book - 2016 NY TOY FAIR EDITION

Talkin'
Toys
BANANAGRAMS
CELEBRATES 10 YEARS
The Toy Book chats with Rena Nathanson, president and “top banana” at Bananagrams Inc.
Tell us a bit about Bananagrams’ history.
How has the company evolved?
Bananagrams grew from our family’s
passion for games. We are all huge word
game fans in particular, but hankered for
something that was a bit faster, more fluid,
and equally competitive that we could play
together regardless of our ages: 7 to 75, at
the time. So, with my late father Abe Nathanson
leading the charge—and some luck, love,
and hard work—Bananagrams was born. Ten
years later and more than 7 million units sold,
I’m proud to say that Bananagrams
Inc. has ripened into an
international game company
with innovative
offerings that are fun
and portable, bringing
people of all ages together
for witty wordplay
and downright silly gameplay.
Bananagrams is celebrating its 10th anniversary
this year, congrats! How will you
mark this tremendous milestone?
We are so excited for Bananagrams’ 10th
“bananaversary,” as we fondly call it. We
are supporting several events and creating
new products throughout the year to mark
the occasion, including the introduction of a
special Bananagrams Party edition. Arriving
this fall as a Target exclusive, our party
version includes chaos-inducing new tiles
that bring a bevy of devilish interactive elements
to the original game. We’ll kick-off our
bananaversary festivities by displaying some
BIG banana fun on wheels at North American
International Toy Fair.
What is Bananagrams’ mission, and how
does Bananagrams support education?
Banangrams came to light, in major part,
through a desire to help kids play with words,
which ultimately enhances their appreciation
of language and their grasp of spelling and
literacy. We hear from our fans constantly—
especially teachers, parents, and caregivers—about
how our game helps enrich kids’
learning.
This April, I am over the moon that we
will host our first in-school Banangrams
Challenge in the U.S. We launched the tournament
in the UK last year to great success
and saw more than 15,000 school children
playing the game in classrooms. We hope to
replicate and exceed that goal in the U.S.,
with the Banangrams Challenge becoming an
annual fixture on both sides of the pond.
On the product front, we’re very proud to
introduce MyFirst Banangrams. Packaged in
a slightly greener, un-ripened banana pouch,
MyFirst is intended for the younger gamer
in order to further our (and their!) passion for
wordplay. We’re showcasing the game at Toy
Fair in our new booth location in the education
aisle.
How do you incorporate consumer feedback
into your product lines?
MyFirst is a prime example of how we
integrate fan feedback into our games. In
addition to a collection of mini-games that
cater to a range of abilities, the tiles will
feature lowercase letters, as well as common
letter pairs, which—we learned from listening
to countless educators and consumers—are
truly difficult to find and are sought-after
elements for games targeted at pre-readers
and early readers.
What else is new for this year?
Last year we joined forces
with UK-based game
company Big Potato to
distribute Linkee in the
U.S. and Canada, which is
a tremendously important
new venture for us. We look
forward to growing the Linkee
brand this year, as well as exploring the
expansion of our “Picked by Bananagrams”
distribution portfolio.
What does the future hold?
Our bunch is thrilled with our games’
continued success and our growing family
of dedicated fans. We will continue striving
to ensure that Banangrams is a staple
in everyone’s game collection, as well as
expanding our portfolio both internally and
with partners.
I also plan to further our education mission
by growing the Bananagrams Challenge,
an event that teachers and students around
the world look forward to, prepare for, and
celebrate annually. It’s something that my late
father and I talked about endlessly from the
first day and it is so close to my heart. »
170 THE TOY BOOK | FEBRUARY 2016 | TOYBOOK.COM