The Toy Report » Kids Toys

Lego Advent Calendar 2011 – Star Wars!

Remo — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 04:50:50 +0000

The fine folks at the LEGO Group have stealthily released this years Lego Advent Calendar, with a small amount showing up at one online location already in the middle of August. If you’re VERY lucky, they might still have them in stock here.

So you think it’s too early to be worrying about getting your own 2011 Lego advent calendar this Christmas season? For the past few years LEGO has put out two holiday calender sets here in the US, one generic City one and one special one. And each year, the special one sells out quickly way before the holiday season. The City one is typically sold out by mid day on Black Friday. Don’t believe me? Check out this post from two years ago at the height of the recession: Lego Advent Calenders Sold Out – Told You So!

Seriously, if they have one in stock here for under $45, buy it today or regret it later. There is an excellent chance the Star Wars Advent Calendar will be gone by October.

And you know what? They never come back. Lego makes a limited advent calendar run every year, since there is only a demand for these during the holiday season. There are eBay sellers that stock up on them each year and sell them at a hefty profit for $60-$100 a pop.

Star Wars Lego Advent Calendar

This year Lego has put their powerhouse Star Wars brand on the calendar and included a couple of great minifigs. Pretty much the only place to get a Yoda minifig in a set was to buy the $85 Assault Tank set, and Chewbaca wasn’t easy to come by either. Not only are both of them are in this set, but Yoda is dressed as Santa Claus! You also get a mini X-Wing, a mini Millennium Falcon, a mini Slave One (that’s Boba Fett’s ship for the non-Star Wars geeks out there), a Tie Fighter, an Imperial Shuttle and more. If you have a 5-10 year old boy, don’t miss this one this Christmas.

You can find more details on what’s in the Star Wars set here.

City Lego Advent Calendar

Yeah, there is also the City version of the Lego Advent Calendar. Sorry, but I’m so darn excited about giving the boys the Star Wars version that I just can’t even get interested in the City one. It has a tree, it has Santa, it has a guy ice fishing. Honestly, it’s a really good christmas calendar, just like Lego puts out every year. Your kids will likely love it. BUT DOES IT HAVE YODA? HECK NO! It’s not even available yet, but you can pre-order it for September 1st.

You can see more details on the City version here.

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Angry Birds Real Life Game

Remo — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 00:55:50 +0000

Getting bored playing a near infinite number of Angry Bird levels on your smart phone? Longing for the satisfaction of knocking things down in real life that just can’t be replicated on a screen?

Well look no further! Now there is an Angry Birds game you play in the real world.

No, I’m not talking about the guy who spent 10 hours building a playable Angry Birds cake. While it is completely awesome, 10 hours of cake building for 2 minutes of fun is excessive in my book. Check it out first:

In my day, we did things differently. Toys came first. Books came first. Then they took the popular ones and made movies and video games out of them. And they did it over and over and over again. Transformers, Strawberry Shortcake, and Smurfs all started as toys that became popular and then spawned decades of TV, video game and movie crossovers. They’re still milking them today with an entirely new generation of kids.

Now, it’s turnabout time. Angry Birds, the insanely popular smart phone time waster, has been turned into a real life game, completely with blocks, pigs, birds, and a little slingshot like flinger. When virtual bird destruction just isn’t cutting it anymore, go real.

Click on the picture below for more details on the game and how to play:

The Best Kids Easel

Remo — Wed, 04 May 2011 22:53:32 +0000

Looking for the best kids easel? Perhaps you’re like us and had setup a dedicated area for art projects. And perhaps like us, you have a problem with junk collecting on the table. It’s great for projects, but it quickly fills and makes it hard to do any sort of play until it’s cleared off again.

The solution? Get those kids an easel! We went through a couple of different easels before finding the Melissa & Doug easel. Our first one was fairly fancy, allowing it to flip from being an easel to a table, with a white board on one side and a chalk board on the other, but no space for keeping paper. Turns out, white boards and chalk boards are nice ideas, but the kids just aren’t that interested. They now sit in the attic more or less unused. The kids want to draw with markers, they want to finger paint, and they like to see their pictures hanging up on a wall or fridge, not erased in order to start another one.

The Melissa And Doug kids easel is great. It has a chalk board on one side, a dry erase board, and a paper roll holder so kids can draw a picture, tear it off, and pull down a new sheet of paper to continue creating.

NOTE: The picture is a little misleading. The easel does NOT come with the pictured paint cans. You have to buy those separately as an add on kit. If you’re giving this as a gift, buy the accessory kit and an extra roll of paper or two to make the best kids easel gift set.

Click here for more details on the Melissa and Doug Easel, including where to buy with free shipping.

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Easter Basket Toys

mrstoyreporter — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 14:53:20 +0000

Looking for a little something for the Easter baskets, but can’t find anything appropriate for babies and toddlers? Most of the Easter toys you see everywhere this time of year in the drug stores and supermarkets is for ages three and up. But what to give to the littlest ones? They need Easter fun too! I love the little Mud Pie Baby Eieio Little Squirts Bath Toys. They come in a package of three and are perfect for Easter basket and bath time fun.

The pop-up book Easter Bugs by David A. Carter will be a big hit – The book is small enough to fit in a basket and features various adorable bugs hiding in Easter eggs. Kids can open the eggs to find the bugs, each with a different color and texture.

And finally, if you have a baby too young for candy but you still want to get them a little something cute from the Easter Bunny, I love this Baby Gund My First Easter Basket. Suitable for newborns, even, it is a soft plush basket with a soft plush bunny and chick. I love toys like this because they are great for babies and I bet you anything that toddlers will still play with it, loading it up with treasures long after Easter is over.

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Spring Toddler Toys

Remo — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 01:23:51 +0000

No, I’m not talking about the famous Slinky here, I’m talking about toys for spring. If you live in a northern climate like we do, the arrival of spring is almost as eagerly anticipated as Christmas. Well, at least for us parents eager to get the kids outside and playing. Sometimes it’s hard to pick outdoor toys for older toddlers hitting that 3-5 year age range.

If you’re looking for something to liven up your springtime, here are some great outdoor toys for you to consider for you toddler.

Grow Your Own Butterflies

These grow your own butterflies kits were always one of my favorites as a kid. You get a kit and send away for the butterfly caterpillars which arrive a few weeks later in the mail. The caterpillars are pretty boring by themselves, but pretty soon the spin cocoons and turn into beautiful butterflies, which can then be released into the wild.

Click the picture for our review of the most popular butterfly growing kits.

Toddler Scooters

A toddler scooter is a great way to get kids outside and moving at a young age. They are much easier to learn and ride than bikes or tricycles and many of the three wheeled models are far more stable than the two wheeled versions.

Click the picture for our review of the most popular toddler scooter.

Sports Toys

If you’ve got a little jock running around your house, there are some great sports related toys that could be used both indoors and out. Can’t want to let your little basketball star on the loose? Get them a toddler basketball hoop. Have a future baseball hall of famer on your hands? It’s time for a toddler T-ball set. Seriously, what little tyke doesn’t like whacking things!

Click the picture for some great kids sports sets.

Kids Gardening Sets

Try to find a little kid that won’t be interested in a little dirt and mud, I dare you. Something about digging seems to resonate with most children, and the nurturing instinct of planting also appears to be something that almost all toddlers share. If you like to garden, make sure to get them involved at an early age with some appropriately sized kids garden tools.

Click the picture for some great kids gardening ideas.

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Lego Sorting Box

Remo — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 19:10:12 +0000

In my quest to find the best LEGO storage solutions, I came across this little gem, the Box4Blox.

The Box4Blox is made up of four stackable boxes each with ever widening holes in it to sort your LEGOs by size. Just dump a mess of mixed up LEGOs in the top, shake and viola! The smallest bricks fall to the bottom, leaving the largest ones at the top.

The general consensus is that it’s a great way to sort and store a small collection of LEGOs, but isn’t really big enough for those with larger collections. The full box holds around 1500-1700 bricks, which means it could hold and sort a little more than one Lego Hogwarts Castle to give you some idea of the size. In order to store our Lego collection that’s currently disassembled, we’d need at least 10 of these boxes. Yes, I know, we have too many LEGOs, but with twin boys both obsessed with LEGOs, it quickly gets out of hand.

However, I am considering getting one Box4Blox just for the sorting factor. It would be much easier to find them in the LEGO storage bins if they were already sorted by size as well as color.

Click here for more info about the Box4Blox

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The Best Lego Storage

Remo — Sun, 09 Jan 2011 19:46:42 +0000

Earlier this year, Mrs TR wrote about a homemade LEGO storage solution using plastic shoe boxes to store each LEGO set, complete with picture cut out from the box. In a perfect world we be able to keep each individual LEGO set separated from the others.

In reality our many Lego masterpieces are now scattered to the four winds of our house. Spaceships crash, castles are destroyed by Lego catapults, you get the idea. Then all the bricks get shoved in bins or boxes or whatever is hand. Sound familiar?

We call the 6 week period between the boys birthday in November through school break as “Lego Season” here at Chez Toy Report. And in honor of “Lego Season”, I’ve been investigating a better Lego storage system than our current random bucket method.

Here are the best Lego storage solutions that we’ve found:

Low Cost Lego Storage – The Clear Shoebox

If budget is an issue and you want a quick and clean way to get those Legos off the floor, then this is the solution for you. For around $21, you can get 12 of these 6 quart see through plastic boxes. They’re about the size of a traditional shoebox and will hold the vast majority of Lego kits in their disassembled state. For those really large Lego kits, you can get the 16 quart versions for about $10 more.

You’ll need to stack them or put them on shelves and deal with the inevitable issues when you knock over a stack of them and a lid comes off, but it’s a darn lot of storage for only $20.

Click here for more details on the clear Lego plastic boxes

Better Lego Storage – Isis LEGO Line

Want something that would match your Lego themed decor a little better that still won’t break the bank?

Isis makes a line of storage bins specifically for LEGO that includes multiple bright colors and LEGO designs. These storage bins range in size from project boxes like the ones pictured at the left, to much larger 21 quart stackable versions.

All of them are translucent so you can see what’s in them without having to open the boxes.

These are great for storing individual LEGO projects, but if you want to sort your LEGOs by color or type, this isn’t the solution for you. But read on…

Click here for more details on the Isis LEGO storage line

The Best Lego Storage

Ok, say for a minute you take your bricks seriously as we do in our house. Say you have a TON of Legos. Come on, say it. You know you do.

Or if you don’t yet, think about the future. If you think you’re six year old is going to get bored with Legos when they’re eight, or ten, or even twelve, you’re sadly mistaken. You will collect more than will likely fit in two of the Isis storage containers above. Trust me.

What to do? I give you the Seville Classics Commercial 7-Shelf Bin Rack System. Behold!

Imagine how many LEGOs you could fit in this puppy? You could sort them by color, then put the little dividers in the bins and sub sort the colors into various sizes. Think about the possibilities!

Now, this set of storage racks isn’t cheap, but when you think about what you’re getting, it’s a pretty good price. Think of it as an investment in the future. Unlike most kids toy storage that will be worthless when you’re kids get older, this storage unit can easily transform into non-toy storage.

Click here for more details on the Seville Bin Rack System

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Soft Body Baby Dolls

mrstoyreporter — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 02:11:25 +0000

Many, many kids between the ages of 18 months and 4 years old love dolls. Boys and girls, although little girls are more likely to be given dolls as presents and therefore more likely to have a doll available when they hit this stage. When they enter the stage it will be obvious to anyone who sees this child because they will have the doll in their arms, next to them in the supermarket cart, dragging behind them as they run around the playground and tucked under their arm really everywhere. When a doll is loved this much it gets very, very dirty. Those surface wash only dolls? Save them for when dolls are played with mostly indoors. For this take the doll everywhere stage you need machine washable. My favorite machine washable dolls are from Corolle. I love the doll pictured above, she comes with an enormously long name: Corolle Babicorolle Babipouce Grenadine. She is soft and snuggly and perfectly safe even for infants, so you don’t have to worry about giving her to a child too young. I think a soft doll like this makes a perfect baby or 1 year old present. She will be ready and waiting for adventures as soon as her owner hits the bring a friend with you everywhere stage. And she can take a bath in the washing machine to stay clean and germ free after being dropped on the floor of a public rest room. That is awesome.

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Riding Toys

mrstoyreporter — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 03:24:24 +0000

I love riding toys. Our kids love riding toys. This is obvious to anyone who comes to our house, we have a lot of them. Enough for all three kids and any visiting friends to have races around the house – and they do. I adore the Puffy Dragon Ride-On toy from Wonderworld. Look at the cuteness of this dragon! The dragon can be taken off the (environmentally friendly) rubber wood base. This is handier than you might think. There have been times when I have had to convince my children that riding toys can not go to bed with them. Well if the soft dragon part can come off of the hard wooden part then it can go to bed with them!

Some other ride-on toys I am loving are the Prince Lionheart Wheely Bugs. They are super cute and come in a variety of themes. Like this adorable Ladybug Wheely Bug.

These ride-on toys swivel in all directions. This is great for avoiding the frustration of getting stuck in corners or on the edges of furniture. Kids can move in all directions instead of just back and forth. They come in two sizes, but the word on the street is that the small size is very small indeed so unless you are buying it for a very advanced 10 month old, you are probably better off getting the large.

Here is the Bumble Bee Wheely Bug

And my personal favorite, the Cow Wheely Bug

For ages 1 to 4 I really don’t think you can go wrong with a cool riding toy – I’ll bet you anything their older siblings will all want to have a turn too.

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Happy Thanksgiving!

mrstoyreporter — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 15:14:13 +0000

Happy Thanksgiving from the Toy Report and welcome to the start of Lego Season, as it is known around these parts.

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Banks for kids: the most useful kinds

mrstoyreporter — Sun, 07 Nov 2010 12:39:43 +0000

As I believe I have mentioned, we have tons of coin banks in our house and they get a fair amount of use in all kinds of ways. I wouldn’t suspect that coin banks would be played with so much, but the kids get them out to play with them all the time. Their actual money they are saving for future large purchases (Lego Death Stars, American Girl Dolls and the like) is kept in none of these banks (it kept getting lost because of all the playing). The actual saving banks we use simple clear glass jars with a paper taped to them on which we write the current total whenever we add money. I was thinking that there must be a cuter way to accomplish simple money storage. Yes, I realize this is what actual banks are for, but I think that a savings account is too abstract for kids under 10 years old. Being able to see and touch your money is so much more meaningful to younger kids. And this way we get to do all the math ourselves – yay math!

Above you see a simple bank from Mudpuppy. They are laminated cardboard printed with non-toxic inks and they come in themes to suit any kid. They have a padlock to keep out larcenous siblings (with two keys so Mom or Dad can keep one for lost key emergencies). They are divided into three sections: spend, save and share. I love this! I love that it starts kids thinking about simple money management so early and that it gives you a way to introduce the concept of charitable giving. The one above is the Mudpuppy Space Money Bank. I also really like the Ballerina Money Bank

and the Robots Money Bank.

If you are looking for something for a younger child, I really like this Schylling Curious George Tin bank. It comes with a padlock (and two keys). I love the retro-look of this bank, great for Curious George fans.

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The Best Kids Banks: Non-Piggy Banks

mrstoyreporter — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 12:19:26 +0000

In looking into the reason why we have so many piggy banks at my house ( and why they are played with so much) I happened on some banks in the shapes of non-porcine animals. The cutest may be the Moo-la bank by Streamline you see above.

I also kind of love Streamline’s Kam Kam Cat bank. They are both made of Phthalate free plastic, so non-breaky. My favorite part is the expressions on their faces, like they are resigned to their lot in life.

These ceramic Dinosaur coin banks are perfect for the dinosaur lovers in your life (and everyone has one).

My personal favorite is the paint-your-own Hello Kitty Bank. The princess got one of these last year and she pulls it out and repaints it on a regular basis. It also frequently gets tucked into bed with dollies, so although it is ceramic and has seen a lot of play it hasn’t broken. I find this impressive. Ours looks nothing like the Hello Kitty below – it has so many layers of paint it is more like a dark and swirly shadow of Hello Kitty. Still manages to be cute, though.

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Pinkalicious

mrstoyreporter — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 18:15:34 +0000

Have you met Pinkalicious yet? If you have a pink loving little girl (or boy, there are no gender stereotypes at the Toy Report) then you may have already heard of her. The Pinkalicious phenomenon began as a single book about a pink loving girl who eats too many pink cupcakes and turns pink (the cure? to eat nothing but green food for a day). This led to Purplicious and Goldilicious, best sellers all. Well, later this month Pinkalicious: A Perfectly Pink Collection will be released, including all three books and all sorts of extras like stickers and a poster you can color yourself.

I love these books. The Princess and I read them this morning. We read them all the time. We don’t have any Pinkalicious toys, but that may change come Christmas. Because the books have been so successful there are now a variety of Pinkalicious dolls to choose from. My favorite one is the Madame Alexander Pinkalicious doll during her case of “acute pinkititis.”

I also love this 18 inch Madame Alexander Goldilicious doll.

In need of a very pink Halloween costume? Look no further than the Pinkalicious costume.

I will warn you that obtaining these books means reading them over and over and over. I frequently have parents returning them to the library saying that they loved them the first 100 times they read them, but they just need a break! The best solution to this? But the book for some other pink loving child, they will love it!

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Piggy Banks: Variations on a Theme

Lego Advent Calendar 2010

Remo — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 01:53:17 +0000

It’s that time of year again. Most of your aren’t thinking about Christmas toys yet, but here at Chez Toy Report we starting thinking about the holiday season as soon as school starts.

We’re big fans of the Lego Advent Calendars that the LEGO Group puts out each year (yeah, the official company name really is “LEGO Group”), but the past few years have been disappointing for us in the USA. In 2009, only the City version of the LEGO calendar was available in the US, while those lucky folks in Europe could get a much cooler Pirate Lego Advent Calendar.

First, there is the Lego City Advent Calendar, typical of what the Lego folks put out in the US each holiday season:

Very cute, comes with a little plane, helicopter, a couple mini-fig Santas and the like. It’s a great advent calendar, with a different Lego City themed toy for each of the 24 days leading up to Christmas.

Click here for the lowest price we’ve found on the Lego City Advent Calendar

They also released a Kingdom themed Lego advent calendar that had limited availability in the US. It’s not even November and it’s already sold out EVERYWHERE with no more being shipped to US retailers according to reports. Behold the Lego Kingdom Advent Calendar:

Now you have a choice to make. The City advent calendar has 271 pieces total, while the Kingdoms one only has 167 pieces. The Kingdoms one can only be bought at a premium now from third party sellers, going for $50-$60 at this point vs $40 for the City one.

But the Kingdoms on is so much better. It has a keg! It has a scullery maid! It has a wizard minifig. It has a sword stuck in a sword for crying out loud, what more could you ask for? Go Kingdoms or go home. It’s worth the extra $15.

See HERE for the best price we’ve found on the Lego Kingdom Advent Calendar.

Note that these things sell out EARLY, at any price. Kids and adults alike vie for this limited edition set every year. Lego doesn’t make all that many of them, since they don’t want retailers to have any one shelves after the Christmas season. They are very hard to find at a reasonable price after Black Friday, when they jump from $40 up to $75+. Kingdoms are already sold out, but the City version are still available at retail price. Seriously, click here to buy yours TODAY while you’re thinking about it for the regular price of around $40. They will be completely gone by November 25th. We warned you last year, will you listen this year?

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Lego Architecture Series

Remo — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 19:50:58 +0000

I thought I knew all things Lego, but I came across these Lego Architecture Series sets the other day and had never heard of them before. Probably the fact that our oldest kids are only 7 and they would never use up valuable shelf space at our local Toys R Us with such interesting toys. Yet there is no end of plastic junk toys, guns and weapons and movie tie in action figures. But I digress.

From simple structures for 10+ like a Lego Sears Tower or Lego Empire State Building, to complex structures for 16+ such as a Lego Fallingwater or Lego Whitehouse, the Lego Architecture buildings are probably better slated for a desk at your office than as a children’s toy.

These sets are too advanced right now for my boys, with the easiest ones being rated for 10+ and the most complicated sets for ages 16+. My nephew just turned 10 and these might be just the thing this Christmas.

Click on any of the images below for more details:

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Soccer Horns? Get Your Own Vuvuzela

Remo — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 01:57:17 +0000

If your kids are football fans, or soccer as we call it here in the States, then likely you’ve heard the sound of the vuvuzela without knowing it. For those of you American’s living in a box, the World Cup is the most widely viewed sporting event in the world, with well over 10% of the population of THE EARTH watching the final World Cup game on television back in 2006.

The World Cup is back this year, being on a four year cycle similar to the Olympics. This time the World Cup is being hosted by South Africa and overshadowing the roar and hush of the crowd during an exciting game is the constant drone of what sounds like sad cows or buzzing bees.

That is the sound of the Vuvuzela, a collapsible plastic horn popular at Sound African sporting events. Many players and viewers find the constant drone a major annoyance and many have called for it to be banned. However, FIFA president Sepp Blatter refuses to ban them, saying these are the South African games and they must be allowed their traditions as they see fit.

Want some advice on how to reduce the sound of the Vuvuzela while watching a World Cup match? Check out the following video for some advice.

If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em! Buy your favorite little soccer/football fan their very own World Cup 2010 horn. For under $10, you can click here to own your own Vuvuzela.

Has There Been A Silly Bands Recall?

Remo — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 04:38:22 +0000

Seems like with every super popular kids toy or trend, there are always rumors of a recall. The shelves empty, news reports that the popular toys are banned from schools, and suddenly everyone is asking if there has been a recall.

We get a decent amount of our readers from web searches like Google or Yahoo and can see a list of all the search terms people use to find our site. In this case, we’ve been seeing a bunch of searches for things like “is there a silly bands recall” and “silly bands recalled”

If you are impatient, as far as we know, there has been no Silly Bands recall. In fact, it would be hard to imagine a situation where they would be recalled. Most recalls involve something like a breakage hazard such as your kids scooters wheels falling off, or something intended for babies or toddlers that can result in strangulation, or something made of toxic metals or something inherently dangerous to all ages such as Jarts. Seems unlikely that there would be anything toxic about them, considering they aren’t intended to be ingested at all, but you never know.

Knock off Silly Bands are everywhere

With Silly Bandz we’re basically talking about rubber bands here, just not the traditional round shape. Yeah, it might hurt if you stretch them too far and they snap. Sure, you could hurt a person’s eye with them if you stretch and shoot them. But they’re essentially rubber bands, which have been around for over 150 years now. We don’t expect a Silly Bandz recall anytime soon.

Note that we’re talking about REAL brand name Silly Bandz here. They are specifically made to be large enough for wearing and are made from silicone so they won’t shrink when wet. BUT the huge popularity of Silly Bands have spawned hundreds of knock offs called Fun Bands, Wacky Bandz, Shape Bands and so on and so on. Some are silicon, some are plastic, some are rubber, some are who knows what. We would not recommend giving ANY of the knockoff brands to your children.

That being said, you will likely have trouble finding *real* Silly Bands at you local toy retailer, especially if you are looking at discount stores.

Click here for where we’ve found real brand name Silly Bands at prices under $3 a pack.

Note that Silly Bands are marked as not for kids under three, as they do present a choking hazard when balled up. Remind your kids they should never put them in their mouth. Also, remind kids that they should NOT be stretched and used as a necklace either.

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Kung Zhu Warrior Hamster Update

Remo — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 03:02:09 +0000

Looks like Cepia, the maker of the smash hit toy Zhu Zhu Hamster line of Christmas 2009, has released more details on their new Kung Zhu ninja hamster line recently. These little robotic hamster warriors were announced at the New York Toy Fair earlier this year, and they are about to be released!

Kung Zhu Release Date

First off the ninja hamsters now have a shipping date. These Zhu Zhu warrior furballs are set for a release date on June 20th, 2010.

Click HERE for more details including how to pre-order the Kung Zhu and their accessories.

What are the Kung Zhu? A new line of mechanical hamster warriors that are designed to drive the 6-12 year old boy crowd into a frenzy in the same way that Bakugan and Pokemon do.

Will it work? Hard to say. Young kids are a fickle bunch and you never know what will drive them to beg their parents for one toy over another. In this case, both Bakugan and Pokemon had two things the Kung Zhu do not:

A Japanese anime TV show that hit the airwaves the same time the toys did. Toys first and show later seems less likely to work (the Smurfs not withstanding)
A point system that required the kids to constantly seek to acquire higher level items or cards and thus drive future purchases.

Of course, the good folks at Cepia did NOT consult with the toy marketing geniuses here at The Toy Report and thus seem to have failed to include these two kids marketing mainstays in their Kung Zhu line.

None the less, there is still an excellent chance that the Kung Zhu will be the next hot toy for boys this year, especially during Christmas 2010.

What’s in the new Kung Zhu warrior hamster line from Cepia?

Kung Zhu Ninja Warriors

Cepia wanted to create a little “good vs evil” mythology behind these fighting hamster robots, and thus the Zhu Zhu Ninja Warriors were born. Seeing as how Cepia is a US company, we can only assume that the Ninja’s are the BAD Kung Zhu, while the Special Forces hamsters are the good guys.

The Kung Fu hamsters that make up the Ninja Zhu are named Yama, Azer, Thorn, and Drakyko.

Click HERE for more details on the Kung Zhu Ninja Warriors.

Kung Zhu Special Forces

The Special Forces Zhu Zhu’s apparently stand in opposition to the evil Ninja’s and come in a variety of khaki and camouflage green colors. They have various military ranks and markings on them. The Special Forces hamsters include such notable Kung Zhu warriors as Sgt. Serge, Stone Wall, Rivet Duke, and Rock-O.

Click HERE for more details on the Kung Zhu Special Forces team.

Zhu Zhu Training Grounds and Battle Arenas

Of course, what warrior hamster’s life would be complete without a Training Ground in which to learn the ways of the hamster fighter, and a Battle Arena in which to do battle! Check out this video for what happens when a Kung Zhu passes through the Training Ground and into the Battle Arena, transforming it from a simple lovable robot hamster into a machine of hamster doom!

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Stroller toys

mrstoyreporter — Wed, 26 May 2010 01:00:15 +0000

I was thinking about stroller toys earlier today. I have absolutely no idea why, but the human mind is a strange place and so for no apparent reason I was thinking about stroller toys. We have never been big stroller people, not for any particular reason except I am lazy and carrying a baby seems easier most days than pulling the stroller out of the car. (As an aside – I loved that scene in Away We Go where one of their many crazy friends said “Why would I want to PUSH my baby away from me?!” – Hilarious!) Nevertheless, there are times when a stroller is important and stroller toys can make a shopping trip much more bearable. Well, I have discovered that cute stroller toys are difficult to find, but I have done to work for you and found not one but two cute stroller toys. The first is the Manhattan Toy Snuggle Pods Travel Toy.

It clips to a stroller, car seat, or just about anything else. The adorable snuggle pod baby comes out if your baby needs it to (and he/she will need it to come out for snuggling and possible chewing).

Also cute is the Tiny Love Sunny Stroll Arch.

I love the yellow sun prism and the crinkly butterfly. These toys do not detach so they might be better for babies than toddlers. The upside of toys that do not detach is that they also don’t get dropped or thrown on the ground.

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Silly Bandz Silly Rubber Bands

Remo — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 01:15:29 +0000

Wearing a wrist full of colored bands has finally returned!

It’s always great to see an old fashion mainstay come back to be enjoyed by another generation. Being a guy I never owned leg warmers (my sister certainly did), I did have quite a Jams collection, as well as a pile of paisley ties. I had a large drawer full of rubgy shirts and wore the collars up of course. I never did get into the wearing a giant pile of rubber bands and bracelets up and down your arm but Mrs TR certainly did, as did many other teenagers of the 80s.

Well, Silly Bandz are all the rage with kids these days. If these funny shaped rubber bands haven’t caught on at your little one’s camp or school or neighborhood, it soon will.

The Silly Bands are created by a company called Brain Child and they are the new hot toy collectible of the spring season. What are they? Well, they are simply rubber bands in fun shapes. They retain they shape even after being used for a while, so they can keep your hair up or close a bag of chips for a while, then go back to their fun shapes.

Some of them are just colored, but some packs include glow in the dark and sparkle bands as well.

The other great thing? They don’t cost much! A bag of 24 fun shaped rubber bands costs about $5-7, typically with free shipping, so they won’t break the bank and make a great gift.

Click on any of the pictures below for more details and pricing on each set:

Of course, being rubber bands these are not for children under three. If balled up, they can be a choking hazard for children under three, and should never be placed around necks, either your own or a pet!

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