Toy Makers Decide to Play It Safe : Movie, TV Characters and Revamped Hits Are Big at Fair

It was a strange collection of costumed characters outside a Manhattan office building Monday: a 7-foot hulk with an itsy-bitsy lizard head; a chorus of rapping reindeer; an assortment of mutant something-or-others.

Meanwhile, scores of poker-faced people in business suits arrived, dodging the weird gathering outside and braving a packed lobby and elevators inside.

So began the American International Toy Fair, where the toy industry shows off its new dolls, games and action figures to retailers in search of the latest hot product.

As always, Toy Fair opened with publicity stunts on the sidewalk outside the midtown buildings known as the Toy Center.

People in bear costumes bestowed hugs and kisses; yuppie-looking actors played with oversized squirt guns, and fuzzy, bulbous-eyed “Ren and Stimpy” characters from the odd-yet-popular cartoon show basked in recognition.

“I think it’s mad!” a toy designer named “Guy, simply Guy” said approvingly as he worked the Fifth Avenue crowd with his eye-rolling, sunglass-adorned puppet, “Willie the Dog.”

Inside, crowds of stern-looking buyers, armed with the 610-page “official directory,” trudged through company showrooms, which resemble offices or boutiques filled with sleek toy displays.

There was entertainment to be had there as well. The bigger manufacturers hired models and actors to demonstrate their new toy lines.

Baby dolls were shown by actresses posing as mommies. Mattel’s Tyrannosaurus Rocks game was demonstrated by a male model in a caveman outfit who hadn’t shaved in days.

Prehistoric themes appear throughout Toy Fair. Hasbro’s Kenner division unveiled dinosaur figures tied to the upcoming film “Jurassic Park,” while Tyco Toys offered a line of dinosaurs the company developed with the Smithsonian Institution. There also was Barney the dinosaur from the children’s television show, offered in several forms by Hasbro.

Another recurring theme was trolls. While several companies have already made billions of dollars marketing the cute-but-ugly little dolls, many others are getting into the act.

One version of Mattel’s Barbie is sold with her own troll doll, Hasbro and Tyco have boys’ action figures based on trolls, and some of the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are also trolls.

While there are hundreds of new toys being shown at Toy Fair, many manufacturers are taking a generally conservative approach, using movies and TV show characters or revamping last year’s hits.

Sound effects are big this year. Many dolls, action figures and stuffed toys either talk or emit other sound effects (Mattel’s Ren and Stimpy emit rather crude sounds). Tyco offers a doll house in which family members talk and the dog barks.

Still, it was hard for the toys to compete with what went on outside on the street.

“This looks like someone I used to date,” quipped a passerby, gazing up at the lizard-headed hulk.

Normal-looking humans in sweats and baseball caps tossed around “Long Bomb,” a militaristic football, while a Berenstain Bear ran interference.

“They’re competitors: It’s vicious out here,” said Steve Axtell, who wore a safari suit and carried three outgoing, lively bird puppets--Chat Racket, Buzz Bonkit and Tina Talkatoo--on his shoulders.

On the corner, “Vorian,” a steam-spewing, 23-foot-tall robot, thundered “Good Morning!” from atop a parked race car.

“Mommy! Mommy!” screeched a realistic-seeming ape as he chased a fur-wearing woman through a revolving door.

He returned to sniff the fake-fur trim on another woman’s sleeve.

“Not Mommy?” he tentatively concluded.