|
- The industry platform with international appeal
- A source of innovation and inspiration for the toy world
NUREMBERG, Germany, Feb. 2, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- The 75th Spielwarenmesse will remain a milestone for the industry: The wintriest edition in years, filled with anniversary celebrations and a special atmosphere. From 27 to 31 January in Nuremberg, 2,313 exhibitors from 68 countries presented a vast array of products – including the growing "Kidults" segment. Around 58,900 trade visitors (+2.5%) from 121 nations explored new trends, fresh formats, and networking opportunities with enthusiasm.
Despite ongoing geopolitical challenges, the industry mood was upbeat. 93% of exhibitors – 3% more than last year – rated their participation as successful. Mattel hosted several global launches, while the Simba Dickie Group praised the high quality of trade visitors. "No other fair matches the international significance of Spielwarenmesse," said Florian Sieber. Visitor numbers from the USA remained strong, with mainland China and Hong Kong posting major gains thanks to a non-overlapping Chinese New Year. Growth was also recorded from Mexico, Turkey, the UK, and France, while Germany maintained its elevated level from last year. The event's international spirit and festive mood were reflected in strong media coverage. "We were delighted by the tremendous media interest – lots of TV team, national press and content creators," said Roger Kettler of Carrera Revell Europe.
Groundbreaking impulses were provided by the two ToyTrends "AI Loves (to) Play" and "Creative Mindfulness". Through numerous product examples, they were brought to life at the Spielwarenmesse just as vividly as "Toys for Kidults". The hype surrounding adults who play has enabled iDventure to make its breakthrough – and to win one of the six coveted ToyAward prizes. "Winning has led to more positive stress for us and contributed to greater attention at our booth," says Christoph Kossendey with delight. Leonard Mieg from Tipp-Kick, one of the 14 original exhibitors, reports a higher frequency of specialist retailers from the DACH region. "Spielwarenmesse is a must-see for anyone in the toy business — a high-energy event with a diverse product selection," says Kathy Trivsonno from the US-American trade association Astra.
The Spielwarenmesse is also impressive proof of the success and relevance of the licensing business. "This is evident not only in the exhibition areas, but also in the License Lounge and our neighboring Licensing International booth, which have become the licensing industry's home base at the fair," emphasizes Petra Strobl from Licensing International Germany. Valuable toy know-how was once again shared in the Toy Business Forum. The Value of Play Conference celebrated a successful premiere here. "The event offered high-quality, well-curated content, and the practical examples and concrete market figures significantly enriched my trade fair conversations," says Polish publisher Dorota Mazurek. The Game Inventors Convention also met with great approval, with international games organizations represented for the first time. Mary Couzin from the Chicago Toy and Game Group was also present: "The atmosphere created a pull effect that benefited everyone – a great exchange for the game community."
In addition to content-driven impulses, the fair also set new standards in the increasing networking of participants. "Spielwarenmesse is the best networking opportunity for the entire toy industry," says Lucca Liv from Unique Baby in Denmark. The exclusive ToyNight united all exhibitors under the motto "Welcome to the Future," while the RedNight on Thursday created a lively atmosphere in the exhibition halls. René Bleckmann from Party Factory emphasizes: "The event is very, very important for us to get into conversation with customers and potential business partners and to celebrate with them." The illuminations of Kaiserburg and Frauentorturm underlined the festive mood in ToyCity Nuremberg, where some trade fair participants experienced snow for the first time.
The high level of exhibitor satisfaction is also reflected in the figures: 90% of companies plan to exhibit again in Nuremberg from 2 to 6 February 2027. "With this, Spielwarenmesse has once again confirmed its global leading position and underlined its role as the central meeting point for trade, industry and media, where inspiration, innovation and networking come together at the highest level," summarizes Christian Ulrich, Spokesperson of the Executive Board at Spielwarenmesse eG.
Spielwarenmesse®
The world's leading event for the sector – that's the Spielwarenmesse®. At this B2B event, key players as well as startups present their innovations and trends to retailers from all over the globe, live in Nuremberg. Alongside the extensive range of products, participants also gain a wealth of inspiration for day-to-day business together with valuable knowledge and useful guidance on the
market, at what is for them the most significant industry gathering. The event is complemented by year-round coverage of themes, analyses and insights from the multifunctional platform Spielwarenmesse Digital and the e-journal 'Spirit of Play'. Since 2013, the term Spielwarenmesse® has been a protected word mark in Germany.
Fair date: Spielwarenmesse®, Tuesday to Saturday, 2 – 6 Feb 2027
- The industry platform with international appeal
- A source of innovation and inspiration for the toy world
NUREMBERG, Germany, Feb. 2, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- The 75th Spielwarenmesse will remain a milestone for the industry: The wintriest edition in years, filled with anniversary celebrations and a special atmosphere. From 27 to 31 January in Nuremberg, 2,313 exhibitors from 68 countries presented a vast array of products – including the growing "Kidults" segment. Around 58,900 trade visitors (+2.5%) from 121 nations explored new trends, fresh formats, and networking opportunities with enthusiasm.
Despite ongoing geopolitical challenges, the industry mood was upbeat. 93% of exhibitors – 3% more than last year – rated their participation as successful. Mattel hosted several global launches, while the Simba Dickie Group praised the high quality of trade visitors. "No other fair matches the international significance of Spielwarenmesse," said Florian Sieber. Visitor numbers from the USA remained strong, with mainland China and Hong Kong posting major gains thanks to a non-overlapping Chinese New Year. Growth was also recorded from Mexico, Turkey, the UK, and France, while Germany maintained its elevated level from last year. The event's international spirit and festive mood were reflected in strong media coverage. "We were delighted by the tremendous media interest – lots of TV team, national press and content creators," said Roger Kettler of Carrera Revell Europe.
Groundbreaking impulses were provided by the two ToyTrends "AI Loves (to) Play" and "Creative Mindfulness". Through numerous product examples, they were brought to life at the Spielwarenmesse just as vividly as "Toys for Kidults". The hype surrounding adults who play has enabled iDventure to make its breakthrough – and to win one of the six coveted ToyAward prizes. "Winning has led to more positive stress for us and contributed to greater attention at our booth," says Christoph Kossendey with delight. Leonard Mieg from Tipp-Kick, one of the 14 original exhibitors, reports a higher frequency of specialist retailers from the DACH region. "Spielwarenmesse is a must-see for anyone in the toy business — a high-energy event with a diverse product selection," says Kathy Trivsonno from the US-American trade association Astra.
The Spielwarenmesse is also impressive proof of the success and relevance of the licensing business. "This is evident not only in the exhibition areas, but also in the License Lounge and our neighboring Licensing International booth, which have become the licensing industry's home base at the fair," emphasizes Petra Strobl from Licensing International Germany. Valuable toy know-how was once again shared in the Toy Business Forum. The Value of Play Conference celebrated a successful premiere here. "The event offered high-quality, well-curated content, and the practical examples and concrete market figures significantly enriched my trade fair conversations," says Polish publisher Dorota Mazurek. The Game Inventors Convention also met with great approval, with international games organizations represented for the first time. Mary Couzin from the Chicago Toy and Game Group was also present: "The atmosphere created a pull effect that benefited everyone – a great exchange for the game community."
In addition to content-driven impulses, the fair also set new standards in the increasing networking of participants. "Spielwarenmesse is the best networking opportunity for the entire toy industry," says Lucca Liv from Unique Baby in Denmark. The exclusive ToyNight united all exhibitors under the motto "Welcome to the Future," while the RedNight on Thursday created a lively atmosphere in the exhibition halls. René Bleckmann from Party Factory emphasizes: "The event is very, very important for us to get into conversation with customers and potential business partners and to celebrate with them." The illuminations of Kaiserburg and Frauentorturm underlined the festive mood in ToyCity Nuremberg, where some trade fair participants experienced snow for the first time.
The high level of exhibitor satisfaction is also reflected in the figures: 90% of companies plan to exhibit again in Nuremberg from 2 to 6 February 2027. "With this, Spielwarenmesse has once again confirmed its global leading position and underlined its role as the central meeting point for trade, industry and media, where inspiration, innovation and networking come together at the highest level," summarizes Christian Ulrich, Spokesperson of the Executive Board at Spielwarenmesse eG.
Spielwarenmesse®
The world's leading event for the sector – that's the Spielwarenmesse®. At this B2B event, key players as well as startups present their innovations and trends to retailers from all over the globe, live in Nuremberg. Alongside the extensive range of products, participants also gain a wealth of inspiration for day-to-day business together with valuable knowledge and useful guidance on the
market, at what is for them the most significant industry gathering. The event is complemented by year-round coverage of themes, analyses and insights from the multifunctional platform Spielwarenmesse Digital and the e-journal 'Spirit of Play'. Since 2013, the term Spielwarenmesse® has been a protected word mark in Germany.
Fair date: Spielwarenmesse®, Tuesday to Saturday, 2 – 6 Feb 2027
** The press release content is from PR Newswire. Bastille Post is not involved in its creation. **
Anniversary boost: Spielwarenmesse strengthens its global leadership
HANGZHOU, China, April 3, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- A team led by principal investigators Bobo Dang and Ting Zhou at Westlake University/Westlake Laboratory reported in Science a high-throughput platform for engineering fast-acting covalent protein therapeutics. Their work, titled "A high-throughput selection system for fast-acting covalent protein drugs," opens new avenues for next-generation biologics.
Covalent small-molecule drugs have shown great success in cancer therapy by forming irreversible bonds with their targets. This has inspired efforts to extend covalent strategies to protein therapeutics, especially engineered miniproteins. However, their development is limited by a kinetic mismatch: Miniproteins are rapidly cleared in vivo, whereas covalent bond formation is typically slow. In addition, high-throughput platforms for systematically optimizing covalent protein reactivity have been lacking.
To address this challenge, the researchers proposed that precise spatial positioning of chemical warheads within protein scaffolds could enable molecular preorganization, thereby accelerating covalent bond formation without increasing intrinsic reactivity (Fig. 1).
Based on this concept, the team developed a high-throughput platform that combines yeast surface display with chemoselective protein modification to screen diverse crosslinkers and millions of protein variants. By optimizing warhead placement and the local chemical environment, the platform enables rapid and irreversible target engagement.
Using this platform, the researchers developed a covalent antagonist targeting PD-L1, termed IB101. Structural analysis revealed that IB101 forms a defined binding pocket that precisely positions the warhead in a reactive conformation, greatly accelerating covalent bond formation. Functionally, IB101 effectively blocks the PD-1/PD-L1 immune checkpoint pathway and demonstrates strong antitumor activity in mouse models. Notably, despite its short in vivo half-life, IB101 achieves durable target engagement and tumor suppression, outperforming conventional antibody-based therapies under comparable conditions.
The platform was further applied to cytokine engineering, leading to the development of a covalent IL-18 variant, IB201. This engineered cytokine rapidly forms a covalent interaction with its receptor, enhancing signaling strength and duration. In vivo studies showed that IB201 induces potent antitumor immune responses without detectable systemic toxicity. These results highlight the potential of covalent engineering to improve the efficacy and safety of cytokine-based therapies.
Beyond immunotherapy targets, the platform was also applied to develop a covalent inhibitor targeting the receptor-binding domain (RBD) of SARS-CoV-2. This molecule achieves durable viral neutralization, demonstrating the versatility of the approach across different therapeutic modalities.
This study establishes a general strategy for engineering fast-acting covalent protein therapeutics. By enabling covalent bond formation on timescales compatible with rapid in vivo clearance, the platform overcomes a fundamental limitation in the field.
These findings provide a new framework for designing biologics with both rapid kinetics and sustained target engagement, with broad implications for cancer immunotherapy, antiviral therapy, and beyond.
Media Contact:
Chi Zhang
media@westlake.edu.cn
+86-15659837873
** This press release is distributed by PR Newswire through automated distribution system, for which the client assumes full responsibility. **
Fast-Acting Covalent Protein Drugs From a New High-Throughput Platform
