Holiday 1999
Seal of Approval
Product Testing Report
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AMBI
Rub a Dub Tub
Learning
Curve International
This well made bath time toy certainly made baths fly by
for our little testers. Parents
reported that the colorful pieces, which required soapy hand manipulation (not
as easy as it sounds), delighted toddlers while the whistle in the sailboat's
mast made for high volume water fun. The
floating toy appeared to be sturdy enough to withstand many years of active
baths.
Recommended Age: 2 to 4 Price: $16.99
Twinkle
Twinkle Little Star
Ravensburger
USA, Inc.
This adorable board game for your family's littlest player
won raves in our testing centers. The
story line for the game is that the stars have fallen from the sky and players
must return the "glow-in-the-dark" pieces to their rightful place.
By moving around the board players can achieve this worthy goal.
The compact board size and the use of one die with colors instead of pips
to indicate movement, was easy to comprehend even for our youngest testers.
The play is designed to allow the luck of the roll to determine the
winner, thus leveling the playing field for children of different ages and
abilities. The cardboard playing
surface is extremely sturdy. The
length of the game varied but was always entertaining and fun.
Recommended Age: 3 1/2 to 7 Price: $24.95
Convertible
Ball Hut
Playhut,
Inc.
Whether it's in a fast food play area or huge amusement
park, we've all watched our kids climb gleefully into big, colorful ball pits.
Being buried under hundreds of lightweight plastic balls has a broad age
appeal and now you can bring that fun home.
The Convertible Ball Hut features the collapsible frame design that makes
storage much easier than you might expect from a toy of this size.
What caught our testers attention was that this was more than just a ball
pit, in fact the basketball hoop above the pit made this two-for-one toy even
more appealing.
Recommended Age:
3 and Up
Price: $59.99
Animal
Tracks
Educational
Design, Inc.
This matching puzzle, designed in cooperation with the
Museum of Natural History, is a teaching tool and fun game wrapped in one neat
package. Children can match cards
together by identifying numbers and/or animals to the corresponding number of
track marks on the opposite side. The
solid cardboard pieces fit together nicely and for under $10, parents told us
that they appreciated the value of a good product at a good price.
Recommended Age: 3 and Up Price: $9.95
Kid
Classics Puzzle Travel Case
Learning
Curve International
This superbly designed puzzle travel kit drew raves from
parents who marveled at the concept of allowing their children to bring along
their favorite puzzles. Puzzles can
be loaded up in seconds and be ready to hit the road for car play, or while
visiting others. There are strong
handles and velcro fasteners which make it easy for children to manipulate.
The case is also a great storage idea for wooden puzzles in your own
home. The clear plastic windows
allow your child to select the puzzle they want to play with, one parents
compared it to flipping through her old album collections!
Recommended Age: 3 and up Price: $14.99
Kinder-Garden Babies
Toy Biz
Sweet is the operative word when it comes to Kinder-Garden
Babies. Sweet design...sweet
faces...sweet smell. The
attraction these very cute dolls had with our testers was obvious from the
start. Soft, colorful and fragrant
fruit or flower bodies hold cute faces and adorable toes.
Each tester had a different favorite, from Penny Peach to Vicky Violet.
Each baby comes with a cover that transforms into a carrier or sling.
Parents appreciated this design element since it made it easy to keep the
included bottle, pacifier and jewelry for Mommy (your child) together.
Recommended Age: 3 and Up Price: $19.99
Wedgits
R/C
Products
Freeform geometric fun is more than just a well-crafted
phrase used to describe Wedgits, it's the truth! What Wedgits creators describe as the "Power of the
X", is just that, a powerfully appealing toy that begs to be played with,
manipulated and built into a myriad of shapes and patterns.
The plastic molded pieces fit perfectly together without interlocking
help. The geometric design of the
five basic pieces give the player the power to build endlessly.
The cross-generational appeal of Wedgits is really quite remarkable as
testers from toddlers to teens and their parents were drawn to the strange
colorful shapes of Wedgits.
Recommended Age: 3
and Up
Price: $29.95
Fun
& Learn House
Leap Frog
Toys
If your child is working on mastering his or her alphabet,
here is an electronic toy that will provide hours of fun and learning.
Leap Frog's Fun & Learn House is filled with touchable points that
provide instant feedback of encouraging support to children.
There are identifying games, seek and find games and even silly word
games that had our testers giggling at the silly sentences they created.
Watching children have so much fun with letters and words impressed our
parent testers. The construction
and sound quality also garnered attention as being part of a superbly designed
toddler toy.
Recommended Age: 3 to 6 Price: $29.99
Wiggle
Your Way
Ravensburger
USA, Inc.
One of the more inventive games for the younger set that
we have seen in our testing centers is Wiggle Your Way. Using no board to play on, you make use of the floor (or
large table) to play this very adorable game.
A colorful, multi-sectioned caterpillar slithers across the floor
gobbling up as much food as it can. Your
job is to help it along its way, switching back and forth, maneuvering into
position to grab the most grub. Watching families playing together spread out on the floor,
giggling and enjoying the experience of group play was marvelous.
Recommended Age: 3 to 7 Price: $24.95
Dinosaur
Turn & Learn Puzzle
Educational
Design, Inc.
Is your little one a dinosaur lover?
Does he know all the names of those prehistoric beasts that once roamed
our planet? Many of our testers told us that their children were so
fascinated with dinos, that their knowledge far eclipsed their own.
Educational Design, along with the American Museum of Natural History,
designed this superb series of puzzles that features richly detailed scenes from
prehistoric times. Large sturdy
pieces are perfect for young enthusiasts and the accompanying pamphlet is a
superb example of informative support, it even explains where you can find the
bones of each dinosaur when visiting the museum in New York.
The puzzle within a puzzle idea makes for added fun and learning.
The use of a predator and prey scene really appealed to our young
testers.
Recommended Age: 4 and Up Price: $12.95
Easy to learn--Fun to play. When we read the reviews over and over for Gulpin'
Guppies it was clear that our testers had found a winner.
This simple board game features different sized guppies who are busy
trying to reach the finish line before getting gulped up by larger guppies or
washed away by a rolling wave. Such
is life in the ocean and while it isn't necessarily designed to be a lesson in
the "circle of life", it is a fun game that preschool aged children
played over and over. It was fun
watching the animated play, each child was eager to be the gobbler and anxious
about being the gobbled.
Recommended Age: 4 and Up Price: $14.99
Pump Station Start Set
Rokenbok
Toy Company
Rokenbok continues its reign with some of the coolest toys
around. The latest in the line is a
pumping station that can act as a stand-alone system for your remote controlled
Rokenbok vehicles or it can work together with your existing system.
The age range is slightly lower with this system since it is relatively
simple to put together. The controllers, which are like video game hand units, give
players complete control of up to 8 different trucks (only one comes included).
If you know Rokenbok, or have read our reviews in the past, you know that
this is one of the most dazzling, addictive and fun play experiences you and
your children can have together.
Recommended Age: 5 and Up Price: $149.99
E-Yo
Tiger
Electronics
The yo-yo has been a staple toy for so many years now that
it has earned a place in the Smithsonian. It
has experienced periods of great popularity, but has also had it share of time
playing the role of dust magnet. Tiger
Electronics has capitalized on the current popularity curve adding a microchip
that turns conventional yo-yo tossing on its ear.
Now with E-Yo's digital readout you can track the number of yo's you yo.
You can see how fast you are hurtling your yo-yo through the air, even
track the time of your session. The
colorful plastic case, and easy to read digital display, makes the E-Yo hard to
put down. In our testing centers
the age appeal was quite broad appealing to boys and girls.
Recommended Age: 6
and Up
Price: $14.99
Find
Furby Game
Tiger
Electronics
This sound matching game features the Furby creatures that
took the toy and game world by storm in 1998.
Children are challenged to match a corresponding Furby sound with its
character. The sounds are cute and
well produced. The game is
challenging but never frustrating. Young
children got the hang of the game and its rules in a matter of minutes and
played again and again. The short
duration of each game allows for many replays.
The nine little Furby characters are made of a very sturdy plastic that
fit perfectly into little hands. This
game is a real crowd pleaser.
Recommended Age: 6 and Up Price: $19.99
Planet Mobile
Educational
Design, Inc.
Nothing grabs kids and elicits "oohs" and "ahhhs"
more than stuff that glows in the dark. There
is something magical about that pale green glow.
Equally as appealing for your school age children is the wonder and
mystery of the stars and planets that glow in the night sky.
This easy-to assemble mobile kit offers children the opportunity to bring
the solar system into their bedrooms. After
painting on the magic glow in the dark paint to each of the planets, and hanging
them just so, your kids will be anxious for darkness to settle so that they can
lie in their beds and watch the eerie glow of Venus, the enormous size of
Jupiter, and the mysterious rings of Saturn.
Recommended Age: 6 and Up Price: $19.95
Tilez!
Enginuity
Games
In attempting to describe this game, our parent testers
came up with some interesting analogies. It's
like Scrabble meets Uno wrote one tester. Whatever the comparison, the result is a fun game that the
whole family can enjoy together. Our
testers found that with a bend of the rules a little even very young children
can join in on the fun. Matching
colors and trying to fill up the game grid while accumulating points for
successful matches is a challenging experience, yet in the final analysis this
game is whole lot of fun.
Recommended Age: 6 and Up Price: $24.95
Are
We There Yet? - Air Travel Version
Are We
There Yet? Inc.
Sitting on a long plane ride, or even waiting in an
airport terminal prior to a flight can drive even the most patient children
crazy. Not true if you are armed
with Are We There Yet? The
successful follow up to the car edition, the Air Travel game will really make
the hours fly by! The deck is two
sided, one allows for play during those interminable waits at the gate while the
other side is designed for play at 35,000 feet.
A high altitude scavenger hunt if you will.
The game is easy to learn and play and even features a "parachute
card", which allows a player to jettison a card when they wish, this works
well to diffuse frustration, very smart. The
nice compact size makes it extremely easy for small carry on bags.
Recommended Age: 6 to Adult Price: $10.99
Gears! Gears! Gears! Wild Wrecker
Learning
Resources
The initial success of Gears, Gears, Gears has led to the
next generation of toys from Learning Resources and with the addition of battery
power the fun is taken up a notch. There
is less free form play than with the original, but the ability to make your
interlocking gear creation take off and scoot along the floor, with colorful
whirling gears spinning garnered high praise from our testers.
The illustrated guidebook provides building tips for several models that
help you build a rolling base and from there you can design whatever your
imagination can conjure up. The interlocking gears all react in harmony for a colorful,
eye-catching, animated result that is a real winner.
Recommended Age: 7 and Up Price: $36.95
Laser
Tennis
Tiger
Electronics
This thoroughly unique tennis game was a magnet in our
testing centers and not just for its unique design. Well, maybe a little. The
miniaturized tennis court features light reflecting rackets so that you are
volleying a red laser beam instead of a ball.
The reaction of the game is very responsive and the reaction of our
testers was enthusiastic. The game
plays well either against a friend or when challenging the computer.
There are various levels of difficulty so that you can work on your game.
Despite the large size of the product it does assemble easily and breaks
down in a snap for storage.
Recommended Age: 7 and Up Price: $39.95
Money
Bags Coin Value Game
Learning
Resources
Teaching children about money is an important job.
We want them to understand value and concepts such as earning and saving
money and Money Bags is a great tool for doing both while having fun together.
The game is based on earning money as you move along the board.
Rooted in real life scenarios, players accumulate money for doing chores
around the house or being helpful. Setting
the table, feeding the family pet, or even dusting earned modest financial
rewards. The game even teaches how to make change and to earn interest
from the bank. The game is priced
well and will be effective at home or in a school setting.
Recommended Age: 7 and Up Price: $12.95
This adorable family friendly board game, which was
invented by a child, was a big hit with our testers. It is filled with good, solid messages about taking
responsibility for the care of a pet. Throughout
Petworld there are messages that reinforce the important concepts of being a
good pet owner, basically if your pet thrives and flourishes, you're a winner.
By following the game rules, which are easy to learn, and keeping up with
your responsibilities, a player will win a pet and the game!
Recommended Age: 7 and Up Price: $19.99
LEGO
Space Port Countdown Corner
LEGO Toy
Company
This fun LEGO project kit is a satisfying combination toy
that mixes model building skills with the snap together ease of LEGO.
Parents told us that the Space Shuttle design was familiar and appealing
for their children. The illustrated instructions walk your child through the
model building process, section-by-section and step-by-step.
Each of the sections comes individually wrapped in it's own bag so that
the model can be built without an overwhelming assortment of pieces to sift
through. When you insert the
batteries, the finished product has flashing lights and sound effects to
complete the shuttle launch effect.
Recommended Age: 7 to 12 Price: $19.99
Air Hogs Hydro Rockets
Spin
Master Toys
Using the power of two of our most abundant natural
resources, water and air, along with some pretty cool molded plastic, Spin
Master has created a very exciting toy. Powered
by pump action pressure, you fill the rocket which sits on your hand held launch
pad. You use both water and air to
create a powerful launch sequence that will thrill you and all who can see.
The rocket itself has a soft rubber nose, and can only be launched
directly up into the air. It
explodes off the launch pad with a rush of sound and spraying water.
We watched as it soared so high that it became a black dot in the sky,
then it gently rolled over and hurdled back to earth.
Parents appreciated the obvious effort put into keeping this toy safe.
Recommended Age: 8 and Up Price: $39.99
Air
Hogs Road Rippers
Spin
Master Toys
There is something about racing cars, sleek lines and of
course speed that holds a special place in the hearts of so many.
For many of us that longing is repressed for reasons of safety,
practicality etc. When parents and
kids got a hold of Road Rippers they responded with wide-eyed enthusiasm.
These rip-roaring dragsters zoom along at top speeds after you pump them
full of compressed air. Air Hogs
uses their patented system to power the car with drag racing speed and sound.
Whether its spinouts or pedal to the metal racing, these cars move.
The ease and speed of pumping the racers up and letting them take off
impressed our testers. Within
minutes of opening the package, you are off to the races.
Recommended Age: 8 and Up Price: $39.99
Detour
Damert
Company
This family fun board game is a throwback to those days
when the gang would pile into the back of the old station wagon and hit the
road. The idea of the game is to
hit all of the tourist destinations and get home safely before your opponents.
There are very clever aspects of this game that keep all players honest
and on a level playing field. There
are four rotating detour spheres which can make the trip a lot longer than
planned, but then those trips never did go according to plan, did they?
An electronic gas pump that lights up and beeps to indicate how far your
trip can progress has replaced the dice. All
ages had lots of fun with Detour, a great example of a well-crafted family board
game.
Recommended Age: 8 and Up Price: $24.99
Sports Feel Tennis
Tiger
Electronics
Are you snowbound? Worse
yet is your local tennis court buried under a drift? Are you or your kids in "tennis withdrawal"?
Never fear, Sports Feel Tennis can bring the game into your family room
and you don't even have to string up a net.
This fun, active play electronic game brings the sounds and feel of
tennis home. The play takes a
little getting accustomed to, but once you get the rhythm going you'll be
smashing serves, walloping forehands and slicing backhands like you were in
midsummer form. Several testers
reported that they were surprised to find that they actually broke a sweat while
playing. The voice chip inside
keeps score and really good shots are rewarded with the crowd roaring its
approval!
Recommended Age: 8 and Up Price: $19.95
Target
Enginuity
Games
Fun, challenging and a kick to play. That's what games are supposed to be all about and Target is all that. The fact that it is easy to learn and play made Target even more appealing to our testers. The game is loosely based on the concepts of Poker and Gin. Trying to match cards and suits to achieve Targets, with points awarded to difficulty, the game can be played for minutes or hours by players of various ages who love to match wits and test their luck. The small package and price were attractive aspects of the award-winning Target, as well.
Recommended Age: 8 and Up Price: $9.95
Scrabble with a mischievous twist. WordThief was a big hit with our game playing testers. By using the concept of building words and giving letters point values like its venerable predecessor, WordThief goes one step further by allowing competitors to snatch away other players words to use for their own. The result is a game that is filled with increased attention to the whole game scenario, focusing on the strategies of other players, constantly changing your own strategies and most importantly, it's a whole lot of fun. The stronger the vocabulary of the player the better off they will be. The secret to this game comes in the plotting, the planning and the playing. WordThief is a hit.
Recommended Age: 9 and Up Price: $24.95
Mutual
Mania
Competitive
Edge Enterprises, Inc.
When it comes to games based upon the acquisition of wealth there have been many suitors to the throne when it comes to assuming the mantle that venerable Monopoly has held for years. Mutual Mania may be the victor. Rooted in today's market driven economy, players vie for big bucks while trying to buy low and sell high. There are decisions to be made with every turn. Do you risk it all in risky small cap funds or do you play it safe with government bonds? All the while events are happening that affect market prices, stability in the Middle East lowers Energy Fund prices, but US Equity and Asia Pacific funds rise. This is an eye opening lesson in the volatility and fast paced world of investing. Whether you are an active trader or on the outside looking in, you'll come away with a better understanding of what makes or breaks a market.
Recommended Age: 11 and up Price: $29.99
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Last Update: November 12, 1999
Gulpin'
Guppies
WordThief