Expect to continue seeing the rise of fun destination locations centered on popular toy brands this year. An example of this trend was the opening of the Radio Flyer store in the Woodfield Mall in Schaumburg, Ill., last November. From retail shops to interactive fun play experiences to theme parks, the future in family entertainment appears to be based on famous toys. Many of the popular destination concepts involve well-known brands that have been around for decades, ensuring not just an audience for children, but their parents and grandparents who will be attracted to the nostalgic allure of these toys.
A toy brand that has successfully mastered this concept is LEGO, which has already parlayed its beloved toy into three separate U.S. amusement parks, as well as 14 Legoland Discovery Centers in various family oriented and/or tourist-driven malls nationwide. Its most recent Discovery Center opened in August 2023 at Springfield Town Center, an enclosed mall in Springfield, Va.
These toy-themed destinations work especially well in family friendly regional malls or street-front sites within vacation-type spots near hotels, child-centric amusement parks and other entertainment-themed tenants, such as miniature golf, bowling or go-kart racing. In addition to offering fun interactive elements, these unique toy-themed spots also include retail stores and, frequently, dining options for maximum revenue streams. Look for Playskool, Nerf, Crayola and Mattel to all be expanding their own versions of an interactive toyland in the future.
The Hasbro Inc., toys have been especially prolific in opening new entertainment venues in the country, thanks to a partnership with the U.S.-based Kingsmen Xperience Inc., a subsidiary of the Singapore-based Kingsmen Creatives Limited that designs licensed play destinations. To achieve this growth, Kingsmen Xperience Inc. is working with Good Vibrations Holding Co., LLC, owners and operators of various U.S. family entertainment entities, to open the country’s first Planet Playskool and Nerf Action Xperience, both of which will open by the spring in the Westfield Garden State Plaza mall in Paramus, N.J.
The 20,000-s.f. Planet Playskool will appeal to younger children and feature interactive elements that utilize such Hasbro-branded toys as Spirograph, Tinker Toys, Play-Doh and Transformers.
The Nerf Action Xperience — meant to appeal to older children and adults in the Gen Z age range and also cater to both birthday and corporate team building parties — will be 36,000 s.f. and include features such as obstacle courses, basketball hoop challenges and battle zone areas that all utilize Nerf foam equipment. Both the Nerf Action Xperience and Planet Playskool will also offer food and beverage options, as well as retail stores that sell Hasbro-branded merchandise. A second Nerf Action Xperience location will be opening by this fall in a 25,000-s.f. venue in Pigeon Forge, Tenn.
Kingsmen Xperience Inc. and Good Vibrations Holding Co. are both also working with Crayola, owned by Hallmark Cards, to open at least five more Crayola Experience venues in the U.S. by late 2027/early 2028. There are currently five Crayola Experience venues already sprinkled throughout the country. By this fall, there will be a 30,000-s.f. location opening next door to the Nerf Action Xperience in Pigeon Forge, with both concepts sharing back-to-back space in a former concert hall building on a tourist-driven street filled with other family destination venues such as Hard Rock Café, WonderWorks and Titanic Pigeon Forge, a museum exhibit attraction.
Crayola Experience, much like the other locations in the U.S., will offer interactive features such as watching a live demonstration on how crayons are made, creating personalized melted wax spin art and developing your own crayon. Crayola Experience also provides food options and has a vast retail store selling all forms of Crayola-related products.
Mattel is also hoping to further profit off of its own popular toy lines through the upcoming nine-acre Mattel Adventure Park amusement park, set to open by the end of this year in Glendale, Ariz. It will be part of the larger 60-acre VAI Resort development that also expects to be completed by late 2024, and will include 1,100 hotel rooms, a concert venue, a conference facility and a man-made six-acre beach-like pool. The site is near other tourist and retail destination spots, including the State Farm Stadium, the Westgate Entertainment District and Tanger Outlets. The Mattel Adventure Park will offer Hot Wheels-themed roller coasters, Thomas and Friends train rides, a Barbie beach house and a mini golf area that incorporates such popular Mattel games as Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots and Pictionary. The theme park expects to benefit not only from Mattel product familiarity, but also from movies featuring Mattel toys, including last year’s “Barbie” movie, and the upcoming “Hot Wheels” movie, set to be released in December 2025.
