Reviewing Toys

Fisher-Price has listed their top toys for Christmas and I must say all the little babies would be happy with these picks.

Fisher-Price Go Baby Go Crawl and Cruise Musical Jungle -  This is one of the most active little toys I’ve seen for a baby at this age. The monkey spins and when you place the ball in its hands it dumps them in the ramp. Stick the balls in the elephants ears and watch it shoot out his nose, this is sure to get laughs. Fill the hippos mouth with the balls and play peek a boo. Watch the balls run through the forest down the little curves it has.

Go Baby Go!  Bounce & Spin Zebra-  You’ve seen it on the commercials now your baby can hop on his/her zebra and play along it spins and bounces. Let them have a ball in your living room without having to go to the park.

Fisher-Price Laugh and Learn Shop and Learn Walker -  This shopping cart not only makes your baby laugh and play but will get him to get up and go. The cart has wide legs so your baby won’t be taking a tumble if he/she gets off-balance.  There are tiny food items that he can put in the cart, four different shapes to sort and each one gets a great response. Why not get something they can learn and be proud of and begin walking. 5 stars

Little People Learn about Town-  Help your child learn their ABCs, numbers and what everyone’s profession is in town. Where does the dentist go? Inside the drugstore or a tooth office, etc. They’ll get the town, two people figures and the pizza for the restaurant, table, chairs, easel, tricycle and a few other little toys.

Loving Family Grand Dollhouse-  This dollhouse is perfect for all little girls and it is great for traveling since you can close it right up and the outside latches shut.  There are 8 rooms and the two sides open up to show all the rooms. You’ll get the house, mom, dad, baby boy and baby girl with two carseats and many other accessories.   4 1/2 stars

Fisher-Price Fun-2-Learn Computer Cool School -  Teach them their ABCs and how to play online from the comfort of your own home. No more worrying about what the school is allowing them to do. The keyboard latches right over your own keyboard and you simply plug it into your USB port. They can choose from reading, math, art, science, music and writing.  Get your kids having fun an educational way.   4 1/2 stars

Imaginext DC Super Friends BatCave- It’s Batman’s secret hideout made out of legos. Now you can protect Gotham by capturing the bad guys and looking out from the top of the cave. This actually won their 5 star rating.

Seems like the older gal has won in the battle of dolls. Barbie and Bratz went head-to-head in court but Barbie won out in the end. The Bratz will be dropping from the shelves here shortly, my guess is sometime after the holidays as I’m still seeing them there.

Ten years ago, Bratz hit the shelves (wow has it been that long?) and Barbie got jealous. Instead of hitting back they made another Barbie-like doll to compete, but she fell flat on her face (FLAVAS) but it would be an article revealing they (Bratz) were by someone that worked with Mattel. This was NOT allowed to happen, Mattel (aka Barbie) went after Bratz. 

So what does all this mean? For starters I heard Christina Aguilera will be replacing the old Barbie Doll with a replica of herself (or likeness of) so I guess she won’t be in competition with those Bratz models. Barbie won’t have to compete against the dolls that have the cool fashion items or the tons of lipstick.

Course this means if Bratz leaves the shelves they’ll become collectors items.

You can’t tell me people don’t think face lifts are out, Mattel Toys has announced that they are updating the old Barbie. Yep, old Barbie is out and a new one is emerging. Who will the lucky Barbie look like? None other than Christina Aguilera.

Hasbro knows it’s all about the Children, especially during the holiday seasons. I mean, without them they wouldn’t be in business. This past Tuesday Hasbro helped launch the Children’s Giving Tree down in Springfield Massachusettes. For those that do not know the giving tree is a giant tree filled with little wishes from the children.

Keep in mind if you have a child that won’t be getting much of a Christmas you can add their name to the tree with an item they would like. Or if you’d like you can take a name, get that item and bring it back to them. These children will have a great Christmas because someone thought of them this year.

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Workers that were laid off from a toy factory in China decided to raid it on Tuesday night, leaving a vehicle turned over in their wake. A total of 500 individuals stormed the place breaking windows, computers, cars, anything they could get their hands on to show how upset they were about losing their jobs.

1000 police officers were at the scene trying to break up the crowd, finally everyone went home. But not before they made sure it would be too hard to work at. Employees, errr ex-employees were upset that they’d been replaced so early.

It seems that China is feeling the tightening of the economy.

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It all started with a toy, two woman began arguing over it and their men started in on one another. Suddenly one showed his gun and shots rang out. After what would seem like an eternity, the gunfire ended and the two men lay on the ground in front of the store…dead.

Toys R Us has issued a statement:

"Our understanding is that this act seems to have been the result of a personal dispute between the individuals involved. Therefore, it would be inaccurate to associate the events of today with Black Friday," the statement said.

I agree, I don’t think this was a result of Black Friday or Toys R Us. These two guys came with guns, they knew each other and they killed one another.

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Is your child a big fan of Hannah Montana? If yes, then you probably had Santa bring her a Hannah Montana toy this past Christmas or maybe you bought her some for her birthday. I’m sure with all the recalls you were probably really worried about what to get her right? Bad news folks, the news is reporting that The Center for Environmental Health is stating several toys actually have high levels of lead paint in them and Hannah Montana toys is one of them. Two of the toys are listed below, no clue on the others yet but I’ll keep everyone posted.

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The bad news is we have another Thomas the tank recall, but there is a bit of good news. If you happened to have one of these items, they will give you a replacement, plus a free gift. How great is that? Now, for all those worried parents out there, it seems that due to the NEW standards that is why the recall. Thank goodness, I know.

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A Voluntary Toy Recall for Soldier Bear Products, this is an AAFES brand toy (military stores):

Hazard Reason: Paint used on toys has high level of lead in it.

Instructions: Take the toy back to get a refund, or call AAFES at (800) 866-3605.

Description of Toys: various action figures, dinosaurs, animals and vehicles created by Toy Soldier that was sold between 2005-2007

Toy Style UPC
H.E.R.O.E.S. Dino Mega Cruiser - 00047 4 98567 00047 4

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There is an interesting article up at Mothering Magazine by Josh Golin, Putting the book back in Book Fair. Josh Golin is the program manager at Campaign for Commercial Free Childhood and puts a strong point across in his column: book fair should be about books, not another avenue for corporations to catch kids and parents to spend more money on crap. I think this is a pretty important subject because consumerism and children is pretty out of control.

Golin points out how many TV shows now target children with fun, attractive books. This is so hard for many parents because reading is often seen as an alternative to watching television when kids are young. My parents had a strict ‘no TV after school’ rule and because of that I began an avid reader. For them, reading was a way for to learn and have fun without worrying about all the advertising crap I would be absorbing if I was in front of the TV. But now many children’s books are just melted down version of the most popular kids shows. Of course, the counter argument is that reading is something that is often hard to get children interested in and giving them books that are related to their favorite shows makes reading more accesible and less tedious for them.

Overall though, Golin is spot on about book fairs needing to remain about books. It’s a pretty simple concept.

Mothering Magazine, book fair, Josh Golin, Campaign for Commercial Free Childhood, children’s books, reading, learning to read