LEAD: Teenagers in focus as Nuremberg Toy Fair set to open Eds: Adds details on toys that use smart phones; epa pictures

Nuremberg, Germany (dpa) - Teenagers are to be in focus at this year‘s Nuremberg Toy Fair, an annual industry-only expo for 2,800 global manufacturers which opens Wednesday in Germany.

The fair is also set to show a rash of new electronic toys that can employ regular smart phones as their remote controllers.

Major brands showed off their latest dolls, ride-on toys and playground collectibles to the media Tuesday before the fair began. Some 80,000 merchants and other specialists are expected at the event, which runs until February 6.

The fair‘s general manager, Ernst Kick, said one theme would be how to keep the 13-17-year-old age group interested in toys. One of this year‘s fair mottos is "Toys for Teens."

"Despite what many people imagine, almost all these teenagers do play with toys," Kick said, citing market studies.

"We want to show both merchants and manufacturers the right way to communicate with their teenage customers," he said.

"Teenagers adore play, they really love it," said Axel Dammler, who studies youth issues. "Obviously electronic games dominate for this age group," he said.

"It‘s a genuine market. Merchants tend to under-estimate it," said Dammler, adding that in some markets teenagers played a lot of board games too.

Electronic toys that use either smart phones or tablet computers as controllers were among key novelties shown at the fair media day. The touchscreens can be used to steer remote-controlled cars.

Maerklin, a German maker of electric train sets, demonstrated a system controller that works from a tablet.

Only a small selection of the 1 million toys in manufacturers‘ catalogues were demonstrated to media, but industry analysts said some makers had even devised baby toys that integrate smart phones.

One that was not shown but has triggered wonderment is a rattle which dangles over a baby‘s cot and has a slot to fit a smart phone into. The phone works like a robotic picture book. When the baby touches pictures on the screen, a voice pronounces words aloud.

"These iToys are going to take off like a rocket at this fair," predicted Otto Umbach, head of a German toy retailer cooperative, Idee und Spiel.

The fair marked the first major showing for Lego Friends, a new line from Danish toy manufacturer Lego that is aimed squarely at girls aged 5 and above who find the company‘s current toy-brick sets too limiting.

The company said it had taken four years to develop and it was launching with 23 new sets which can be used with existing Lego. dpa eri jbp hm hl Authors: Elke Richter, Jean-Baptiste Piggin