Hong Kong Toys & Games Fair 2007

I have been dreaming to attend some world's biggest and recognizable game conventions and toy fairs. It's still a dream, which I am unable to afford it yet. Hong Kong Toys & Games Fair 2007 is a local event. Though its scale is not comparable to the top class ones, it's the biggest in Hong Kong. I attended this games fair with Pang today. There were no good some items coming out like a spark to me. No appealing boardgames like those appeared in Essen or Nuremberg. Nonetheless, there were a few companies whose staffs were so kind and impressed me so much.

Lin Hao from SMART, an educational toys maker based in Belgium, greeted us very kindly. He introduced us the two most famous product lines, SmartGames and Project GIPF. He's very enthusiastic and told me a preview of some coming-soon products. The conversation was good and I shared some of my views on products. I often recommended SmartGames to some parents because some of their games could be found in local department stores and Toys"R"Us.

Zoch is renowned of producing smart games with very visually attractive appearances or bits. This time they had smaller booth located together as Germany Pavillion. At the booth, Christine Lochbrunner from Zoch explained some good games to us. I was particularly attracted by a clever sensory boardgame, called Doctor Key-Bit or Doktor Schlüsselbart. I was curious about this game on the shelf as I had not yet seen the name. Christine was so nice. She opened a copy and demostrated the game to me. I even got a chance to try it with her. The core mechanism of this game was to unseenly search an appropriate wooden key governing the movement of the wizard piece, to help collecting potions within the castle game board. It sounded silly or too simple, but it's not the truth. The sensing was not too difficult to kids, not too easy to adults. It's fun packed. The right game which I had been looking for as to train the intuition and sensory.

I am a fan of Ravensburger which makes lots very cute and playable plastic games but with a low price tag. The booth was a little bit bigger and filled with quite many different games on the shelf. I went into the booth to check out if there was anything new to me. Luckily I did enter the booth, and therefore I met Hermann Bruns, the export manager of Ravensburger. Hermann was an amazingly funny guy, and I was enchantingly impressed by his "Magic Pen". He also gave us a try for the Make 'N Break game. It worked great and I loved it, still waiting for my shipment of this game. After the trial game, he explained in detail the gameplay of Scottland Yard. I liked this game for long, and particularly loved the components of this edition. Before we left the booth, Hermann showed us a 2007 new game, Chuck-it Chicken. After his briefing, my friend Christine and I were all so excited to know about this game. I would definite plan to get one.

Apart from the visits of these three very nice booths, there were no many other items which truly caught my attention, except the following three items. I saw a large version of Loopin' Louis which would be distributed by an Indian toy company. A down-sized Crokinole, which had a diameter of 1 feet long, was found. It's a nice replacement for small house space, but I would still be interested at the regular Crokinole. I also found a puck-pushing game. The pucks were manipulated by a steel ball, such that they could roll along the wooden track. It looked gorgeous, and high price was assumed.

Spent a couple of hours to walk through the fair. Not many noteworthy games were found, but the experience was good and would likely keep me visiting it again next year. I wish I would one day attend Essen or other games fairs at the equivalent scale. Even much more expected to attend them as a game designer than a usual visitor.