China Toy Association's Four Shows Debut AI Ecosystem Pavilion; Maxvision Technology and Shifeng Culture Launch New AI Trendy Toy Products

From October 21 to 23, 2026, the CTE China Toy Expo & Trendy Toy Expo, CLE China Licensing Expo, CKE China Baby Products Expo, and CPE China Preschool Education Expo (collectively, the Four Expos of the China Toy Association) were held at the Shanghai New International Expo Centre.

The booth of Shenzhen Feifeite Cultural Innovation Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of A-share company Maxvision Technology, was located in Hall E3. At this year's expo, the company's original AI trendy toy product NAONAO (Naonao) drew many domestic and international visitors and buyers, who stopped to take a look.

Unlike most AI trendy toys on the market, which are mainly small animal figures or spherical shapes, this product adopts a complete humanoid figure. Chen Yudun, product lead for NAONAO, told a Securities Times reporter that NAONAO has its own personality and emotional perception capabilities, supports real-time voice conversation, voice customization, and exclusive voiceprint recognition; it can also continuously update stories and enrich interactive gameplay via OTA, growing slowly together with players.

Beyond products focused on emotion and companionship, some manufacturers have also begun exploring the practical value of AI trendy toys. During the expo, at the booth of A-share company Shifeng Culture, an AI hardware device called DeskBuddy ("desktop companion") attracted many visitors.

During the expo, Shifeng Culture held a "Beyond Toys" new product launch event, officially unveiling its new AI business brand Rootix and publicly introducing this "desktop companion" for the first time.

"Office workers may sit at their desks for hours every day. A 'little guy' sitting on your desk can not only assist your work but may also make you feel happy and can hold your emotions," said Lan Jian, CTO of Shifeng Culture, when introducing the product.

"In the future, Shifeng Culture will focus on three product directions: companionship, office, and travel. Products in these three directions share one thing in common: it first has to be a useful tool that can solve real needs and pain points, and only then can it become a companion that users like emotionally," said Shi Jie, vice president of Shifeng Culture.

In July 2025, Maxvision Technology acquired the core robotics assets of France's Aldebaran through a competitive auction, bringing the French NAO robot under its wing.

The AI trendy toy product NAONAO launched by the company this time is also an effort to organically combine AI and humanoid robot technology with trendy toy innovation, fully leveraging NAO robot's advantages in human-machine interaction and emotion recognition to create innovative AI trendy toy products that meet market demand.

"Trendy toy collectors, IP fans, and AI enthusiasts are all audiences for AI trendy toys. Such groups generally have a dual aesthetic: they want both the good looks and IP of trendy toys and the fun of AI interaction, while also valuing a sense of uniqueness, growing tired of static ornaments, and looking forward to two-way interaction," said Chen Yudun.

In his view, AI is reshaping the trendy toy industry. The industry is currently in an early exploratory stage, and in the future AI trendy toys may become the mass entry point for lightweight consumer-grade embodied intelligence. It is not just a trendy toy but also a physicalized IP digital companion. Over the next 3 to 5 years, the track is expected to continue growing rapidly.