THE TOY STORE : It’s All Fun and Games at Convention Center Toy Expo

In the course of one evening, General Motors and IBM merge, a prominent Wall Street executive is charged with insider trading and, incidentally, you find yourself several million dollars richer. Is this the dream, or nightmare, of a harried MBA student?

No. The scene of the action is the playing board of a new game called Arbitrage, one of the many products unveiled Friday at the World of Toys Expo Conference and Trade Show at the Anaheim Convention Center.

The exhibitors are not representatives of Mattel and Hasbro. Rather, they are retired teachers promoting science-oriented board games and electronics wizards presenting a state-of-the-art chess game. They are looking to break into the toy market and compete against the big boys.

While Wall Street board games and computer programs were among the trendier items on display, a number of exhibitors were showcasing more traditional items, such as country dolls, velvet animal hand puppets and children’s rockers.

Herb Finkel, an electronics engineer from Sunnyvale, Calif., was among the luckier exhibitors. His invention, “Space Age Hangman,” a computerized version of the word game, has already found a manufacturer. It was buyers that he and other exhibitors were after.

“There are over 2,000 buyers coming here,” he said. “Some are actively looking into new products, others are not as interested.” By the middle of Friday afternoon, he said, a number were sending promising signals to him.

The World of Toys Expo runs through Sunday. It is open to all those in the toy trade, including retail and wholesale buyers and distributors. The general public is not admitted.