On the eve of Toy Fair, the Toy Industry Association has released its market figures for last year, and the industry as a whole was down slightly from $20.5 billion in 2001 to $20.2 billion in 2002 (without videogames).  This is also less than the $20.4 billion in sales in 2000, but up from $19.4 billion in 1999. 

 

The Association also provided second half growth rates by category.  Among categories of interest to pop culture retailers, action figures and accessories were down 7.4%.  Games/puzzles were up 19.1%, an increase that was specifically tied to Upper Deck's Yu-Gi-Oh! CCG in the Association release.  The largest growth rate of any category was in models and accessories, which was up 26% behind Hasbro's Zoids models, which took the top five top-selling slots in the category.