Mega
Bloks Tiny n' Tuff Vehicle Assortment
Mega Blocks
There is something about the way Mega Blocks pieces connect that makes you just want to play. This assortment set is no exception. Packaged in a great see through container your child will find 3 different car models and bases that they can build, take apart and build again. Our testers told us that this toy was a tremendous value. The big, chunky yet smooth to the touch pieces delighted the little ones. The top doubles as a building base to be used with the additional pieces in the set. Parents loved that everything fit back into the case for extremely easy clean up.
Recommended Age: 1 to 5 Retail
Price: $9.99
Color
Lab Mixer
DaMert Company
Ever since bath fizzies burst onto the scene a few years ago, kids have been transforming their bath water into a variety of colors. The fascination with color mixing, especially when in the bath has proven to be quite powerful, and so DaMert has designed a slightly more contained experiment toy that further enhances the colorful bath concept. By placing two different color fizzies in the watering can unit and then tilting it so that it combines the colors, your child will create a new color which can then be poured into the bath. What impressed our testers most was that their kids had found a new and exciting reason to say "Yes" to bathtime!
Recommended Age: 3 and Up Retail Price: $10.00
Magna
Doodle Doodle Talker
Fisher-Price, Inc.
Its hard to imagine how much the Magna Doodle has exceeded its original design concept of a simple kids drawing toy. Now in many cases it is the note taking option of choice in kitchens, dorm rooms and even on the set of "Friends". Fisher-Price went gone back to the drawing board and produced a very worthy successor to the original, by adding a recordable voice-chip. Now you can add a sound to your creations or personalize your notes. Our testers went nuts for these small wonders, and marveled at the exceptional value they offered, predicting that Fisher-Price has another huge hit on their hands.
Recommended Age: 3 and Up Retail Price: $9.99
Mega
Bloks Girlfriends My Style Home
Mega Blocks
Your little one will be delighted with this large doll playhouse that that can easily be built all by themselves. The Mega Blocks parts have an easy to follow design that allows joints and other add-ons to slip together easily. The house comes loaded with furniture so that your child can be playing house immediately. There are two adorable dolls included in the set who are cute in their own right, but are even more adorable when their hands touch because they light up. Add that great feature to the very bold and colorful design of the My Style home and you've got a real winner.
Recommended Age: 3 and Up Retail Price: $39.99
State
Bird Collection
K & M International, Inc.
These soft and adorable birds are the perfect gift for anyone, young or old, that appreciates our feathered friends and the music they bring to our world. Wild Republic has teamed up with the Audubon Society, one of the world's premier environmental advocates, to develop these plush birds that, when squeezed, sing out with an authentic bird call of each species. Now to be truthful, our testers wouldn't have known the difference between the call of a Cardinal and a Dodo bird, but the sound was nevertheless delightful.
Recommended Age: 3 and Up Retail Price: $7.50
Power
Wheels Barbie Take Along Tunes Jeep 4 x 4
Fisher-Price, Inc.
One of our favorite comments from this round of testing came from a grandparent who called this riding Jeep "perfect for spoiling grandchildren"! You'll get no argument here. The newly designed pink-and-purple Jeep is big enough for two small children. Your new drivers can takeoff at 2.5 mph., fast enough to feel some wind in their hair yet slow enough to keep parents at ease. The extra-wide wheels provide plenty of stability and every child loved the portable "Boom Box" that comes with 6 CD's of different musical themes, along with pretend radio stations featuring DJ Barbie.
Recommended Age: 3 and Up Retail Price: $239.99
Mega
Bloks Girlfriends Sleepover Backpack
Mega Blocks
If your little one loves imagination play no matter where she is, then this is the ideal companion toy for her. The velcro flap in the front of this backpack opens to reveal a cozy home for the two included dolls. Everything she needs to set up her house is included for hours of imaginative fun. Best of all is the easy storage and portability of this very sweet playset. Whether visiting, traveling or just playing at home, your child, like our parent testers, will surely find this Sleepover Backpack a winner.
Recommended Age: 3 and Up Retail Price: $16.99
Fly
& Discover Globe
VTech Industries
Parents and educators regularly and rightfully bemoan the cost-cutting measures that schools make in order to make ends meet. Geography is one of those lessons that often get the ax come budget-trimming time. Here's a fun toy that introduces geography to very young children and can provide just the right spark to make the subject come alive right in their own home. By piloting your plane around the world with their joystick, your child will explore far flung places with the aid of the voice prompts that present simple hunt and find challenges.
Recommended Age: 3 to 5 Retail Price: $19.99
Imaginext
Coastal Patrol Station
Fisher-Price, Inc.
Fulfilling the imaginative play desires of young children is a recipe for success and this toy has it in spades. There a so many scenarios that your child will eagerly play out, that you can be assured that the play value is of the highest order. The concept of providing aid to neighbors in need really resonated with our testers who were eager to jump to the rescue. The construction is solid and the packaging made this very appealing to our testers.
Recommended Age: 4 and Up Retail Price: $24.99
The
Guardians: Masters of the Electroworld
Kidsational
If you are trying to teach kids Street Smarts for those times that they venture out into the world without you, this game can help impart those lessons. While it is packaged as a game, don't look for this to replace Monopoly or Chutes and Ladders. What this is a well done journey through the issues of the day. The characters are one of the real strengths of the game, since they are cool and appealing to youngsters. The game board is bright and colorful. There are ways to personalize the playing cards so that you can teach and reinforce your own house rules making this a great tool for parents, teachers, scout leaders etc.
Recommended Age: 4 to 10 Retail
Price: $24.95
Razor
Scream Machine
Razor USA
Remember the plastic Big Wheels from your youth? Its official, they have met their match and then some. The Scream Machine, from the folks who sparked a revolution with their Razor scooters, is now THE bike to own. The solidly constructed metal frame, with the flashy chrome finish and the familiar low-riding seat is a child magnet. Exceptionally easy to ride, the Machine features skid out wheels that allow for super slick 180 degree spin outs. It is a new era, are you in?
Recommended Age: 4 to 12 Retail Price: $99.00
Frantic
Fish
DaMert Company
What makes Frantic Fish unlike most any other puzzle you've played with is that there is nothing difficult, taxing or challenging about it. It's unique approach offers the kind of diversion you and your children will enjoy playing with on a cold winter night or on the porch during a lazy summer day. Using the concept of tessellation, pieces fit together with others in no particular order or pattern. When you stop placing pieces and step back you'll find a dazzling design, one that is different each and every time you open the aquarium shaped package.
Recommended Age: 5 and Up Retail Price: $10.00
Catch
Mag
Plastwood Corporation
If you are looking for an innovative and exciting board game, look no further. Catch Mag is a brilliantly creative game that borrows liberally from Plastwood's award-winning GeoMag line of constructible magnets. The object is simple, move around the board and collect colored magnets to win. The fun comes in when players are given the task of grabbing the magnets with another magnet and have to blindly guess whether the polar side they choose will attract or repel the other. Since its all guesswork, every player, no matter their age has a 50-50 chance of guessing correctly. It all makes for great fun, lots of laughs and we guarantee you'll want to play again and again.
Recommended Age: 6 and Up
Retail Price: $36.00
Waterball
SL175
Wild Planet Toys
Have we reached the saturation point yet on the size and magnitude of these water drenching cannons? (pun intended) It seems that every year the amount of water per square inch is creeping up to the point where your target would stay dryer in the shower. Wild Planet has bucked the trend with the Waterball. If you've ever seen one of those fountains where water droplets jump from point to point, you get the idea here. Of course when you are sending "blurps" of water instead of fire hydrant streams the object of the game changes from obliteration to accuracy. Our testers favorite game wasn't shooting each other but serving up "blurps" for their friends to catch in their mouths! Let summer officially begin!
Recommended Age: 6 and Up Retail Price: $14.99
Wheedle
Out of the Box Publishing
The winning streak continues for the card game wizards at Out of the Box. Wheedle is a whole lot of frantic fun in a box, great for lots of players (4 or more). You will find yourself caught up in the excitement of trading cards like those commodity traders you see screaming at the top of their lungs. Well not exactly, but the idea here is to get a controlling interest in a variety of silly companies and the only way to do it is to Wheedle it away from others players. As an added bonus, testers found that it provided them with an interesting insight into the minds of their kids.
Recommended Age: 9 and Up Retail Price: $9.99
Bull
Market
The Great Canadian Game Company, Inc.
Do you have a teen with a fascination about free markets,
bulls and bears, stock trends and sector volatility? If so, here's a game that
will quench their thirst for high stakes speculating. Admittedly, many of the
parents in our centers were a little sheepish given the current shape of their
portfolios, but their older children found the format captivating, and the game
play to be a unique challenge. The acquisition of wealth is the focus here, but
there are plenty of real life scenarios that can quickly throw you off course.
Which is a pretty important lesson to learn!
Recommended Age: 12 and Up
Suggested Retail Price: $25.50
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Last Update: April 16, 2003