a soft toy honoured with the most huggable puppy award at the new york gift fair has created huge buzz among australian retailers.
bobangles secured australian distribution of the marshmallow zoo dog along with the rest of mary meyer’s toys after meetings in new york during the trade event.
owner catherine shann says while it was more of a fun award to coincide with the westminster dog show it has grabbed everyone’s attention.
“i think it was a bit tongue in cheek awarding the ‘best at show’ in this category, but it went down very well and created quite a hype and the award was taken very seriously,” she says.
“it is strange how an award such as this creates that much interest. we had a label on the dog at the two fairs and everyone wanted to ‘hug the most huggable puppy’ .. it really did create such an interest in the whole range – which consists of 10 animals – all very huggable and cute.”
the mary meyer range was a hit with retailers at the recent reed gift fairs sydney and the australian toy, hobby and nursery shows but marshmallow zoo puppy was a standout favourite. “the whole mary meyer range was extremely well received – it hasn’t been seen in australia for a few years and as a fourth generation company, which has been manufacturing quality plush toys for 87 years in the usa, it is a real honour for bobangles to have secured the distribution for this product,” she adds.
“[the award] certainly created a lot of additional interest at the two shows we have just had and interestingly enough we sold 10 times more marshmallow puppies than any other of the animals in the range, all of which are equally as cute.
“but people seem to love a winner and lots of the customers said they were going to put a sign up saying that he had won this award.”
mary meyer’s products include pizzazz, a collection of brightly coloured animals and baby toys, rattles and blankets.
bobangles plans to extend the range after its first shipment arrives next month.
