Jim Bessman
Feb 20, 20191 min
Jon Silbert holding "Moon" (left) and the new "Our Precious Planet" Celestial Buddies at Toy Fair
At this week’s Toy Fair trade show at New York’s Javits Center, Celestial Buddies introduced a new addition to its “Galactic Gang” of educational plush toys that depict celestial bodies in the solar system and beyond.
Our Precious Planet is a larger (nine-inch diameter) and more detailed version of Celestial’s Earth entry, expressly designed to spark a healthy family discussion about climate change and global warming. The “Special Edition Buddy,” noted company VP Jon Silbert, is consistent with the supplier’s mission to “both enlighten and delight” while providing “a gentle introduction to a very complicated but also very important subject.”
Like the other 14 Celestial Buddies in the product line, Our Precious Planet comes with an educational hang tag providing useful information—this one concerning the earth and climate change. There’s also a colorful supplemental tag depicting some of the causes and effects of global warming, along with suggestions about what people can do to help.
“We all should be doing a lot more,” said Silbert, who also showed another new Celestial Buddy, Polaris—the first illuminated Buddy.