• by Sarah Mahoney  @mahoney_sarah, February 1, 2023

It’s been a bumpy year for toys aimed at children, so Fisher-Price is trying something brand new: It’s offering its first-ever Little People Collector Super Bowl LVII Champions set, designed for grown-up football fans.

In classic Little People style, it’s created three dolls for each team. The Kansas City Chiefs’ roster includes Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce and Chris Jones. For the Philadelphia Eagles, the toddler toy company is suiting up Jalen Hurts, DeVonta Smith and Fletcher Cox.

While the sets are available for pre-order, there’s a catch–it will only fulfill orders for the winning team.

People can order the sets until February 21, with orders expected to be fulfilled.

Last year, Fisher-Price made headlines by reissuing its classic Chatter Phone pull toy into a working Bluetooth-connected handset.

Lego is already doing big business in toys for grown-ups: John Lewis, the U.K. retailer, reports sales of the adult-focused sets, including the popular plant items, are up 33% heading into Valentine’s Day.

The toy business needs some bright spots. In news that surprised few in the industry, the NPD Group just announced that 2022 sales came in at a disappointing $29.2 billion -- a 4% decline in unit sales and a 0.2% dip in dollars.

NPD attributes the dip to multiple stumbling blocks–double-digit gains in food prices, crummy weather and new COVID variants.

Those declines are already rippling through the industry, with Hasbro announcing last week that it would lay off 15% of its workforce following weak holiday sales.

However, looking at three-year performance overall, the Port Washington, New York-based NPD group says the industry seems much healthier. It reports a three-year compound annual growth rate of 10%, with average selling prices rising 8% and unit sales ticking up 2%.

Outdoor and sports toys remain the largest category, with $5.2 billion in sales in 2022 -- about 18% of the industry total. Still, that category declined 11% from the previous year and accounted for more than half of the total decline. Plush toys rose by $547 million, a 31% gain that made it the fastest-growing category, followed by explorative and other toys, which rose 22%. Dolls came in flat for the three-year period. Youth electronics dipped by 1%.