A few days ago, the Toy Association announced that the 2022 New York Toy Fair was officially cancelled and it looks like the Germans are following suit as the 2022 Nuremberg Toy Fair has also been cancelled. The event was set to take place next month but due to the ongoing COVID pandemic and exhibitors withdrawing, the organizers has decided to move the event to an online platform. At this point, I won’t be surprised if the London Toy Fair was cancelled too but they stated last week that the event will go on as intended. It doesn’t really matter since London is a closed event and photography and sharing details is prohibited.

Cancellation of the physical Spielwarenmesse 2022

The toy industry has been looking forward to the world’s leading event for the sector at the beginning of February. The rapid growth of the Omicron variant in recent days, however, and the resultant increasing number of cancellations to stands, has left the organiser, Spielwarenmesse eG, with no alternative – with a heavy heart it has to cancel Spielwarenmesse 2022 in Nuremberg. As an alternative, exhibitors, specialist retailers and media representatives can meet up on the Spielwarenmesse Digital platform.

“We have fought hard to be able to hold the live event and we received strong support initially from toy markets worldwide,” says Christian Ulrich, Spokesperson of the Executive Board at Spielwarenmesse eG. A large number of suppliers without international distribution networks appealed to the organisers even in December to continue with the fair, which is so important

LEGO has announced that LEGO Digital Designer will be shut down on January 31 and LEGO BrickLink Studio will become the official 3D building app. LDD was released way back in 2004 and it was the main app used for digitial building and rendering. You can still download LDD until the end of the month but it won’t be updated or supported. After that, you can no longer download it.

In 2014, BrickLink created the BrickLink Studio and the program supported a number of other programs such as LDD and LDraw but it has since became one of the main focal points for BrickLink in the digital rendering space.

LEGO® BrickLink Studio to replace LEGO Digital Designer as the LEGO Group’s official 3D building app

The LEGO Digital Designer website will shut down at the end of January. BrickLink Studio welcomes LEGO Digital Designer users.

Billund, Denmark – January 12th, 2022: Today, the LEGO Group announces that BrickLink Studio will replace LEGO Digital Designer as the official virtual LEGO building software going forward. The LEGO Digital Designer (LDD) website will close on January 31st, after which time LDD will no longer be available for download. While downloaded versions of the LDD application will continue to work, people are encouraged to download BrickLink Studio, import their LDD files, and use Studio for 3D LEGO building files, and use Studio for 3D LEGO building.

LEGO Digital Designer was released in 2004 as the LEGO Group’s 3D building tool. LDD pioneered real-time rendering of LEGO bricks, virtual brick connectivity,

In the wee hours this morning, LEGO announced some big changes coming to the LEGO Pick a Brick program as well as Brick & Pieces. Both programs will now be merged to a single platform so consumers can browse single elements in a centralized hub. Furthermore, shipping times in the US and Canada will now be faster as there will be a new fulfillment are in the US warehouse which will drop shipping times from 13-18 business days down to 5. Lastly, there will be a new thing called Build a mini which allows you to create your own minifigures. Unfortunately, it is stated that the trial will only be in Europe and Asia.

Background

Our current Pick a Brick and Bricks & Pieces setup means that consumers aren’t aware of the two different experiences. During 2021 we’ve been running tests and meeting with different consumer groups to better understand the current consumer experience.

Based on these learnings our next step will be to create a new merged experience on LEGO.com. We’ll merge Bricks and Pieces and Pick a Brick into one front-end experience where consumers can browse our portfolio of elements in one place more easily.

Additionally, we’ll improve the shipping time in the US and Canada by implementing a new fulfilment area in our US warehouse. This will reduce shipping time for our top 1,600 elements from 13-18 working days to up to 5 working days. There will likely be some shipping delays for a short time after we launch this experience.

What’s

In a statement that released today, the Toy Association has announced that the 2022 New York Toy Fair has been officially cancelled. The event was originally set to take place in February 19-22 but due to uncertain times during the pandemic, the best choice was to cancel the event. As we know, the NYTF has been one of the main events that LEGO usually uses to reveal summer sets but it looks like they’ll have to find another way to show them off.

New York, NY | January 11, 2022 – The Toy Association, producer of Toy Fair New York, the largest toy, play, and youth entertainment marketplace in the Western Hemisphere, has announced the cancellation of Toy Fair New York, originally set to take place, February 19 to 22, 2022 at the Javits Center in New York City.

“Key to our efforts these past two weeks has been the balance of some 700 remaining committed toy manufacturers saying they need and want Toy Fair 2022 to build their businesses, weighing that against those departing and seriously on the fence, and needing to provide a sufficient quantity and quality across the retail buying community necessary to deliver a positive experience,” said Steve Pasierb, President & CEO of The Toy Association. “As that balance has shifted, we are obligated to make the best decision in everyone’s interest no matter how heartbreaking for so many and potentially damaging some business’ future prospects. The wide range of other events that occur across New York City during Toy Fair week