Brands were big, consisting mainly of tie-ins ("Star Wars"), lookalikes ("Can you win a Million?" rather than "Who wants to be a Millionaire?"), established brands ("Barbie") and some pay-to-use-the-name stuff ("University of Cambridge" science toys). Brands were applied to collectibles, models, games, toys — pretty well anything.
Other things there were more of this year: jigsaw puzzles, track toys (racing cars, train sets), wooden toys.
Other things there were fewer of: baby toys, plush toys, hopeful one-off game inventors, booth babes.
There was also no "best of show" showcase, unless it was so nondescript I walked right past it without noticing. One new toy that would certainly have been there was a 4-fan remote control flying rig, which (because of the number of fans) had decent directional as well as height control. I bet it ran out of batteries fairly quickly, though...
Things I hadn't seen before: polystyrene wigs in primary colours; scripts (and associated props) to make your own home video production; personalised CDs with songs on for kids by name; dress-up play suits for boys with built-in muscle definition. Here's a picture of the latter:
Fortunately, the costumes for little girls didn't have the equivalent female adult implants in them...
I wore a badge saying "Prof Richard Bartle, Essex University". This was good in one way, in that it meant I didn't get hassled by people trying to sell me things. However, it was bad in that as a result of this I didn't get any freebies.
All in all, a disappointment.