They’re Making Their Lists . . .

Tyco’s remote-controlled Psycho car performs many stunts, but its most impressive is making three influential toy lists this year: Family Fun magazine, Sesame Street Parents magazine and the Oppenheim Toy Portfolio. The feat almost guarantees a holiday sales spike for the $55 toy from the Mattel Inc., which is aimed at 7- to 10-year-olds.

Writing a wish list or whispering in Santa’s ear just won’t do anymore. Today, parents and grandparents increasingly base their holiday gift-giving decisions on what the experts say. Several well-known parenting magazines and at least four independent gurus have set themselves up as arbiters of the year’s best toys.

For toy manufacturers, the lists can provide thousands of dollars worth of free advertising that can translate into blockbuster sales--witness the craze for Tyco’s Tickle Me Elmo in 1996. Toys making the lists are touted on talk shows and local news programs. And the Sesame Street and Family Fun lists end up in the hands of thousands of magazine subscribers.

“The School Bus by Playhut [$30] was a steady seller for us,” said Jane Saltzman, marketing vice president of online store EToys. “But as soon as it made the Family Fun list, it became a Top 10 seller day in and day out.”

Making a toy list can provide a literal stamp of approval; several list makers allow winners to put stickers on winning products, advertising their status to parents scanning retail shelves in search of fun toys. The Toy Manufacturers Assn. of America, an industry trade group, provides member toy makers with names of lists, and lobbying can be intense.

For publishers, lists help sell magazines because they promise timely information in an easy-to-digest format. The November issues of Family Fun, Child, Parents and Sesame Street Parents devote dozens of pages to “best” toy lists--usually with little overlap among them.

“Last year, the Wall Street Journal called our list the ‘Oscars of the toy industry.’ We’re not going to argue with that,” said Heather Gray Keegan, special projects consultant to Family Fun magazine.

Keegan works for Digital Research Inc., a research firm in Maine that created and helps compile Family Fun’s yearly list. With the muscle of Walt Disney Co.-owned Family Fun behind it--and a preponderance of heavily promoted, licensed toys such as Hasbro’s McDonaldland Happy Meal Girl and Mattel’s Bounce Around Tigger--the Family Fun list has become the most-covered list in the media, and the most coveted for toy makers to make.

“Some toy companies are very anxious. They offer to send toys to me personally,” Keegan said. “But they know the score. I say, my daughter may like it but it won’t necessarily matter. Our toys are all 100% kid-picked by our kid testers.”

The toy industry is generally upbeat about the rise of toy lists over the last decade. “The lists have, I think, by and large a positive impact,” said David Miller, president of Toy Manufacturers Assn. of America. “But they can’t be relied on as a marketing technique. You still have to gain exposure the old-fashioned way, by buying advertising.”

When the list makers leverage the media to promote themselves, though, the impact on the winning toys can extend far beyond a particular magazine’s subscribers.

“Family Fun makes their [winners] announcements at FAO Schwarz. Joanne Oppenheim [of Oppenheim Toy Portfolio] does a big segment on the ‘Today’ show every year. In those cases, the lists become more important,” said Neil Friedman, president of Mattel’s Tyco Preschool Division.

Tyco, which licenses the Sesame Street characters, had an incredible two-year run atop the toy lists in 1996 and 1997. Tickle Me Elmo, which topped Family Fun’s list in 1996, became the most-sought-after toy of the year and remains a strong seller at about $30.

Sing ‘n Snore Ernie, which topped Family Fun’s list last year, had a different fate. After the dust settled from the pre-Christmas hype--which saw speculators trying to get 10 times or more the toy’s $30 retail price--Ernie ended up ranking only 13th in overall dollar sales for the year, according to TMA. Tickle Me Elmo was the No. 2 seller for 1997, with the list topped by the fad Tamagotchi Virtual Pets. By this fall, toy chains such as Kay-Bee had discounted Ernie 50% to retail at about $15.

“Not every toy that wins the lists does great,” said Friedman. “Some Academy Award films do great at the box office, some don’t.”

Among the list makers, there is a great deal of argument about whose list is most valid. They trade charges of using unscientific test methods, or opening themselves to corporate influence by taking money from sponsors.

Joanne Oppenheim has a deal with Energizer batteries and Target stores. Her top-toy list is given away in booklet form at Target, with the purchase of two packages of Energizer batteries.

Another list compiler, Marianne Szymanski of Toy Tips, is sponsored by firms such as Rayovac batteries and Hilton hotels. Szymanski is a frequent guest on talk shows and her list is distributed free to shoppers at Target stores.

Both women say the sponsorships don’t raise any conflicts because none of their sponsors are toy manufacturers. Oppenheim’s list has a section devoted to best battery-operated toys and notes they were tested with Energizer batteries. But she said her selections aren’t tailored to Energizer.

And Szymanski points out that magazines are supported by advertisers, which in many cases are toy companies.

“All the parents’ magazines rely on toy advertising,” Szymanski said. “That’s not fair. Parents are reading these lists, but the toy companies are also feeding the magazines money.”

There is particularly bad blood between Szymanski and another list maker, Stevanne Auerbach, a former Education Department staffer who uses the name Dr. Toy. Another regular on TV talk shows and an oft-quoted expert on toys, Auerbach makes her list available via the Internet and by mail.

Their feud, in part, concerns a dispute over the names of their lists. Auerbach accuses Szymanski of trying to put her out of business by threatening legal action for using the phrase “Tips on Toys,” which she said infringed her trademarked “Toy Tips.”

“Her attitude was, ‘I’m older than you, I’ll do what I want,’ ” Szymanski said. I think she’s mad because she wanted a job with me, and I didn’t give her a job.”

Auerbach--who sometimes refers to herself in the third person as Dr. Toy--denies she ever asked Szymanski for a job.

“She must be thinking of someone else,” Auerbach said.

Oppenheim said she does test with children, after toys are pre-selected for quality and value. But, like other “independent” testers, she disdains the way major magazines do their child tests.

“Anything new will be exciting for 15 minutes,” Oppenheim said. Once, she said, she agreed to have a news crew come out and tape a “toy test” similar to those done by major magazines. “That’s something we’ll never do again,” she vows.

Oppenheim said before the cameras arrived, the children were playing with a variety of toys, including old-fashioned blocks. Once the lights went up and the cameras started rolling, though, the kids instantly gravitated toward the heavily promoted, licensed toys. The crew got their “hot toy” story and left.

“Then, after the cameras left, the kids went back to playing with their blocks,” Oppenheim said. “They seemed to just act out what the media expected them to.”

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How the Best-Toy Lists Are Drawn Up Here is a summary of how four of the leading toy lists are compiled.

* Family Fun: The list is compiled by Digital Research, a research firm based in Maine. Manufacturers submit toys to Digital Research, which turns them over to pupils at a local elementary school for a first round of testing. Toys making the cut are distributed to KinderCare Learning Centers in various cities, where about 400 children check them out and choose their favorites. Winners are notified at an October news conference in New York, and names are published in the November issue. Of 405 toys submitted, 69 made the 1998 list.

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* Sesame Street Parents: Magazine editors and consultants from New York-based Discovery Group draw up a list of 60 to 70 contenders after checking out toys at the New York Toy Fair, a trade show held every February. Toys are tested by kids at schools in Manhattan and by kids referred by Sesame Street Parents staff members. In 1998, 36 toys made the list. Winners are notified in advance, giving them a chance to advertise in the November toy list issue.

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* Oppenheim Toy Portfolio: Joanne Oppenheim and her adult daughter Stephanie attend the New York Toy Fair and compile a list of several dozen contenders. Family members and friends test the toys; their feedback is used to draw up the final list. The list, which includes a category for battery-operated toys, is distributed free with purchases of Energizer batteries. It also is included in a book that ranks videos, music and other items; the book is available at bookstores for $12.

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* Dr. Toy: Stevanne Auerbach, a former Education Department staffer--where she organized the first in-house child-care center for children of federal employees--uses her own judgment to compile her list from toys submitted by manufacturers. Auerbach doesn’t have corporate sponsors but charges entrants a fee. Her 1998 list of 100 best toys and other children’s products is available free on the Internet (https://www.drtoy.com) or by sending a self-addressed, stamped envelope to 268 Bush St., San Francisco, CA 94104.