Hong Kong's Toymakers Say 2011 Toughest Year Yet

Toys “R” Us Inc. doesn’t sell the most toys in the U.S. — that distinction goes to Walmart Inc. — but it has remained a key proving ground for kids’ gadgets, games and other playthings. And that may be the biggest blow to the toy industry if the retailer moves ahead with a liquidation of its U.S. operations, a prospect that became more likely this week.

TORONTO — Star Wars merchandise continued to dominate Canada’s toy industry in 2016, as the country’s overall toy sales rose six per cent in 2016. Annual sales of toys in Canada topped $2-billion, up 6 per cent from 2015 toy sales of $1.9 billion, according to a recent report by market research firm NPD Group. The Canadian market outpaced growth of 5 per cent in the U.S., where sales of toys reached US$20.4 billion for the year.

The Hong Kong protests, which we covered over the weekend, and which took a dramatic turn for the worse overnight when thousands of students camped out and demand universal suffrage on the city streets and were in turn tear-gassed and arrested en masse by the local riot police demanding students disperse or else, and where the leader of the student protest, Jos