London Toy Fair 2025 – Board Games To Watch

What is London Toy Fair?

Toy Fair is a huge trade show for toys and games, seeing big names from LEGO to Bandai in attendance. Unlike UK Games Expo for example, it's specifically for trade – press, media, buyers, etc – meaning many won't get to see what's behind its doors until it appears in retail. Although it's not for board gamers only, we reliably expect to see Asmodee and its associated companies, Ravensburger, Hachette, and more, meaning there's always something new to be excited about. 

Board Games at Toy Fair 

Hachette Boardgames UK had a huge line up for the coming year. From a range of young children's games, to weightier eurogames from big names, they're going to continue to be ones to watch. We got to take a look at their two biggest recent announcements, that of MicroMacro Kids, and Gwent. The former is a version of the Spiel Des Jahres winning MicroMacro, but where the puzzles are toned down for a younger audience (without the difficulty of the image being so though, which in fact just gives it a much wider audience). Gwent is a Witcher deckbuilding game, popularised as a mini-game within the digital game.

Asmodee had some exciting options for us to see, from our first glimpse at Azul Duel, the two player variant of the ever popular game – which we're told is a touch weightier than the original in difficulty, but is a great opportunity for people who like Azul to get playing, as well as a first glimpse at Pergola, from Rebel Studio. It gives us the feel of Meadow, but is about creating a beautiful garden scene. Plenty of gorgeous art and meeples, we think it will fit in well with the cosy game genre. 

Coiledspring also had some new games to be excited about - a mushroom game with a squishy mushroom showed a lot of promise, as did Dead Cells, a video game turned game that was bigger than we expected. We were also really pleased to see a smaller version of Flip 7 – the game is exactly the same, but the box is much smaller, which makes more sense. 

Ravensburger of course had two sides to offer, with their board games and with Disney Lorcana. For the latter, we got to take a look at the beautiful Ultra Pro line of binders for Disney Lorcana, as well as a glimpse at the upcoming Azurite Sea set, which is themed on animals. It's also the first look at the reimagined troves, which are a little more condensed. There was also a poster for a future set, which we're excited to see more of, and we'll also be seeing a jigsaw of Lorcana artwork.  

For games, there was a D&D-themed Horrified announced, which we think will be a fantastic crossover, offering an all-family-friendly game, as well as Gloomies, a little game about ghosts with a lot of nice components and artwork. It gave us a similar feel to Mycelia in approach (and likely audience), though we'll know more about how it plays in the future.

There was Sandcastles of Burgundy, the kids version of the ever loved Castles of Burgundy, complete with cute meeples and 3D sandcastles, plus an incongnito variant of That's Not A Hat, and a party game of Match Me If You Can. Lastly, Villainous has been reimagined for a younger audience, with Villainous Unstoppable, which appears to be a simplified version of the game – with Maleficent, Scar, Ursula, and Hades as the villains. 

Over at Alley Cat Games, we're excited about their new range of Tin Games (read more on those in Tabletop Gaming magazine later), and Farplace Animal Rescue launched another variant of their fund raising card game, but this time with Rozie Pocket of Cozy Board Games, in Cosy Days.