The HEXBUG Nano Habitat Set was named a top-10 toy for Christmas by children in the Indianapolis area.
The recommendations come from children who voted last week at the Indianapolis Children’s Museum store. Museum staff used their input to compile the 2010 Kid-Tested, Kid-Approved Top Ten Toys.
The HEXBUG Nano Habitat Set has been honored by Savvy Auntie in their Coolest Toy Awards!
Melanie Notkin, the founder and CEO of Savvy Auntie, the multiplatform lifestyle brand for aunts by relation, aunts by choice and godmothers, announces her gift ideas for nephews and nieces available this holiday season. There are 16 toys with the “Coolest” title, 6 toys with the “Lux” title ($99 and over), and 16 toys with honorable mentions.
Notkin has proudly accepted the position as tribal leader for the underrepresented 50% of American women whom she’s dubbed PANKs™ (Professional Aunts No Kids). This underserved demographic has a strong desire to make the most savvy toy choices this season. When Notkin realized many toy marketers focus on primary caregivers, Notkin created the Savvy Auntie Coolest Toy Awards in 2009 to give aunts and other secondary caregivers the toy-savvy they need to make the right gift choices for the children in their lives.
The HEXBUG Nano Habitat Set was named a Toy of the Year by Disney FamilyFun Friday!
More than 500 new toys were narrowed down by parent and kid testers from across the country, who evaluated quality, value, and of course, fun. Using FamilyFun’s new ToyHopper App, available now on the App Store for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad, it’s now easier than ever for busy parents to find the perfect gift, including this year’s T.O.Y. Award winners and hundreds of other toys, books, DVDs, and video games. Each item has been family-tested and hand-picked by FamilyFun editors and can be sorted into shopping lists, shared with friends, and filtered by age, price, type, or theme.
“For nearly twenty years, we’ve served as a trusted resource for parents when they’re making their annual holiday shopping list and checking it twice, so it’s important that each toy undergoes an intensive assessment by FamilyFun toy testers for function, design, durability, safety, and play value,” said Ann Hallock, editorial director at FamilyFun.
Download the entire press release here.
HEXBUG Nano has been nominated for a People’s Play Award in the Tech Toys category by Time to Play magazine and we need your votes to help us win!
Voting is taking place at www.peoplesplayawards.com
Help us spread the word by retweeting the voting link we are posting on Twitter everyday and you’ll have a chance to win.
Everyone that retweets the message has a chance at winning a HEXBUG Nano (one winner per day, starting October 5) and one grand prize winner of a HEXBUG Nano Habitat set will be chosen on November 29, the last day of voting.
Start voting and spreading the word for your chance to win!
Greenville, Texas – October 5, 2010 – A lawsuit asserting claims for common law misappropriation and unjust enrichment was filed last week against MGA Entertainment, Inc. in the 354th Judicial District Court for Hunt County, Texas. The lawsuit accuses MGA of manufacturing, advertising, promoting, distributing and/or selling products that were derived from innovative components of the HEXBUG® Nano™ micro robotic toy, created by Innovation First. The HEXBUG® Nano™—a toy that moves with quick, random insect-like motion, and rights itself if flipped on its back—is offered by leading retailers in the U.S. including Walmart, Target, Toys“R”Us, Kmart, RadioShack, Walgreens and Brookstone. Most recently, the HEXBUG® Nano™ was featured in The Toy Insider’s HOT 20 TOYS for the 2010 holiday season and has received numerous other influential industry awards.
This lawsuit is in keeping with Innovation First’s history of protecting its brands and products from competitors’ wrongful actions. The company has filed, and continues to file, for domestic and international intellectual property protection for virtually every aspect of the robotic creatures, from their utility and function to their packaging, trade dress and associated accessories and materials. “Innovation First has spent extensive resources to engineer, develop, and perfect the HEXBUG® Nano™, and we won’t hesitate to sue companies throughout the supply chain that attempt to take a free ride off our hard-earned efforts by producing, distributing or selling copycat products,” said Tony Norman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Innovation First International, Inc.
In accordance with the Texas common law of misappropriation, the lawsuit alleges that MGA has copied the HEXBUG® Nano™ motor assembly, components, housing and legs and is using them in the Legend of Nara Battling Bugs toy in competition with Innovation First. Moreover, the lawsuit contends, MGA even copied non-functional portions of the Innovation First design, making the misappropriation even more blatant and obvious. The lawsuit contends that MGA has gained an unfair advantage in competition with Innovation First because it is burdened with little or none of the development expenses or development time that were incurred in developing the misappropriated aspects of the HEXBUG® Nano™. The lawsuit also alleges that MGA has taken undue advantage of the time, labor, skill, money and other resources expended to create the HEXBUG® Nano™. The lawsuit seeks to recover any profits MGA has made, or may make, from the sale of the Legend of Nara Battling Bugs products that incorporate these misappropriated elements of the HEXBUG® Nano™ and may also seek to prevent MGA and those acting in concert with MGA from selling such products.
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About HEXBUG and Innovation First:
HEXBUG® is a product line developed by Innovation First Inc., and distributed and marketed by Innovation First Labs, Inc., both wholly owned subsidiaries of privately held Innovation First International, Inc. The company was founded on the belief that innovation very early in the design process is necessary to produce simple and elegant product designs. Innovation First began developing electronics for unmanned mobile ground robots and is now an industry leader in research and development for the hobby, competition, education and toy markets.
Innovation First International’s three main subsidiaries, VEX Robotics, Inc., Innovation First Labs, Inc. (makers of HEXBUG® Micro Robotic Creatures), and RackSolutions, Inc. span the education, consumer and business-to-business markets. The VEX® Robotics Design System is the leading platform for middle school and high school education and competitive robotics. Leveraging the company’s core competency in electrical and mechanical engineering, the RackSolutions® division works closely with all major computer OEMs to provide custom mounting solutions and industry-wide rack compatibility for data installations of all sizes.
In the 2009 the company added offices in Hong Kong, China and the United Kingdom to better serve the global marketplace. This network was expanded to Canada in 2010 with the addition of an office, warehouse and distribution center located in Toronto. With an advanced in-house metal fabrication plant, distribution center and corporate office located together in a 13-acre complex in Greenville, Texas, the company is poised to continue on a rapid growth path. Please visit www.innovationfirst.com for additional information.
