Last year Mattel had a lot of success taking the Angry Birds franchise and turning into a board game. What will be the top toys of 2012? The Angry Bird board game took all of the fun characters from the app and brought them to the physical world. Players had to build up certain structures out of plastic pieces. They had to stack up the pieces just as they appeared on the play cards. The fun part was placing the pigs onto the structures. Then it was the other person's turn to knock the structure down. Although the catapult could have worked a bit better, the game managed to successfully capture the magic of the Angry Birds app. It was one of the best selling toys last year. Mattel has learned that some of the best selling toys help bridge the gap between the physical world and the digital world. This year they have invented the apptivity line to take advantage of that phenomenon. We like that the appitivity line is priced to be affordable.

Mattel so strongly believes that this is the future of toys that they are pouring a lot of resources into their apptivity line. The Apptivity line consists of toys that interact with the iPad when they are placed on top of the device. They have many different toys that are designed to work with some of the most popular apps on the iPad. These toys have special connectors on the bottom of them which allows the iPad to read them. The toy can transmit a variety of information to the iPad including its color.

One of the most popular ones is based on the Hot Wheels Universe. Players place a car on the iPad screen and get to race around virtual tracks. Other apptivity games connect with games like Angry Birds, Cut The Rope, and Fruit Ninja. Mattel has been making board games for a very long time. They are noticing that more and more people are playing on their iPads. This year they released a version of Monopoly and Life that are designed to integrate the iPad into the games. Players can play mini games and watch movies on the device. It adds an additional layer of interactivity and entertainment to the classic game play.

Mattel knew they were onto something big when they released the Angry Birds Board game last year. It exceeded their expectations. They are now creating a board game version of Cut The Rope. It will be interesting to see how that app translates into a board game.

Sales for these crossover products have not slowed down. It will be interesting to see if the apptivity line takes off. We should prepare early in case that they sell out. There is something intriguing about a toy that unlocks additional content in the app. However, we are not sure how many parents will let their kids play with their iPads. Although the toys are designed not to scratch the iPad screen, we wouldn’t take bets on that. A lot of toy insiders are still remain skeptical about the whole concept. Right now we are still waiting for that killer app that shows us why this technology is necessary. We might have to wait till next year.

More info on the top toys of 2013 can be found here.