Tail End Charlie
We began with Nuremberg in Mr. Šulc's editorial, and we will conclude this issue with Nuremberg as well. And what can I actually write about Nuremberg Toy Fair? I still have mixed feelings about it. It wasn't actually as bad as many people in our industry think. Just two weeks before the fair, I had five meetings scheduled in our shared planning calendar, and I thought to myself that it was going to be a real flop. I was thinking about which halls to visit so that I could finally see the whole fair properly, except for the trip to Revell, which I have faithfully made every year and which is really worth it.
We began with Nuremberg in Mr. Šulc's
editorial, and we will conclude this issue with
Nuremberg as well. And what can I actually
write about Nuremberg Toy Fair? I still have
mixed feelings about it. It wasn't actually as
bad as many people in our industry think. Just
two weeks before the fair, I had five meetings
scheduled in our shared planning calendar,
and I thought to myself that it was going to be
a real flop. I was thinking about which halls to
visit so that I could finally see the whole fair
properly, except for the trip to Revell, which
I have faithfully made every year and which is
really worth it. Revell has a stand in Hall 12.2,
which is one of the furthest halls from our Hall
7, and it's a really long way to walk. We usually
allow 15 minutes for the trip, but this year we
even managed to get lost on the way, so even
15 minutes wasn't enough and we arrived
late. In our defense, I must add that it was
on Tuesday at 9:00 a.m., which is the official
start of the fair, and we underestimated it a bit.
But I digress.
It didn't turn out as badly as we feared. As
you read in the introduction, we had around
40 meetings, and Tuesday, Wednesday, and
Thursday were particularly busy days for
us. Friday and Saturday were slower, but
that's usually the case. However, the number
of meetings was nowhere near what it had
been in previous years, when a larger Eduard
team traveled to Nuremberg, meetings were
held simultaneously in three booths, and
our colleagues were happy to keep up with
everything. This year, there were only three
of us attending: myself, Mr. Šulc, and Kateřina
Borecká, it was probably the smallest Eduard
team at this event in the last 30 years.
Let's now summarize which other companies
from the industry had stands at the event. In
addition to us, Special Hobby, Tamiya, Airfix
at the Hornby stand (which is getting smaller
and smaller every year), Academy, Trumpeter/
HobbyBoss, Clearprop together with the
accessory manufacturer Reskit, Italeri, the
trading company Modellbau König, which
also brought together friendly or affiliated
companies such as Andy's Headquarters, Das
Werk and others at its stand, and the distributor
and profiles manufacturer Albion Alloys and
Revell in Hall 12.2.
An interesting development, however, was
the participation of Zvezda, which, unlike in
previous years, (when it was keeping low
profile.) after the Russian invasion of Ukraine,
either staying hidden in offices in the bowels of
the fair or behind walls in a closed stand, now
presented itself at a completely open stand
with a large Zvezda sign…
Compared to last year, Miniart and Heller
were missing from their joint booth with
European distributor Glow2B. Faller was also
missing, which resonated throughout the fair,
as its booth used to be one of the largest in our
hall. When I write it down like this and compare
it to last year, it's not actually that bad. Only
a few companies were missing, and they didn't
actually disappear from the fair completely,
as their representatives were there for a few
days, visiting the individual stands. There is
a sharp decline in interest from the media and
influencers, and unfortunately, there is also
a sharp decline in distributors and traders who
come to the fair. This is the biggest stumbling
block and, in fact, the main reason not to come
to the fair next time. Thanks to the fact that
we see each other there every year, we are
already in contact with the regulars among
the manufacturers. Relationships have been
established and maintained, and we see
each other throughout the year at various
exhibitions. Thanks to these, we don't have to
spend huge amounts of money on participating
in the fair. So now we can hope that this year's
negotiations with potential new distributors
will lead to mutual cooperation and that we
will thus have new reasons to go to the fair
again next year.
Almost every other visitor to our stand
during the event asked how satisfied we
were with Nuremberg this year. They asked
if we would be packing up next year, as other
companies were talking about it quite loudly.
We replied that it wasn't so bad. But actually,
it's not up to us. The fair will make sense for
us as long as other companies continue to
attend. If they pack up and don't come, the
fair will cease to make sense for all of us. And
plastic models will practically disappear from
the International Toy Fair. Sure, companies like
Tamiya will probably stay, but only a fragment
of the original hall full of plastic modeling
companies will remain.
"GENTLEMEN (AND LADY),
HOW WAS NUREMBERG?"
Text: Jakub Nademlejnský
INFO Eduard108
February 2026