Best Children Toys

Barbie is celebrating a big, big milestone — I think we can all agree that she is the hottest 50 year old out there right now — and Mattel is going all out.  If you wander down the Barbie aisle of your local department store’s toy department or of your local toy store, you will no doubt see tons of replicas of Barbie’s hottest looks through the years, including some of her famous 50s get ups.

However, it wouldn’t be a real birthday party if Mattel didn’t give Barbie a new, modern, gorgeously glamorous look, and that is where the Barbie Collector Doll Pink Label 50th Anniversary Barbie Doll comes in to the picture.

Barbie’s beautiful pink dress was designed by Robert Best, making this a must for both Barbie collectors and little girls who still love to see Barbie shine.

SpongeBob SquarePants continues to be the most popular guy down under the deep blue sea, and LEGO continues to celebrate that fact.  This time they’re doing so with the Good Neighbors at Bikini Bottom play set!

This particular play set includes all of SpongeBob’s very best friends — Patrick Star, Squidward Tentacles, and Gary the Snail, along with everybody’s favorite yellow sponge!  Patrick’s boat is included as well, complete with marshmallow launcher, and your child will also get to enjoy SpongeBob’s pineapple house, which itself comes with his TV, bed, couch, and a grill that launches Krabby Patties — or hamburgers, as they’re known on land!

As a parent, you always want to choose toys that will help your children learn while providing lots of fun.  Hyper Dash from Wild Planet can help do that in a number of ways!  It is specifically designed to improve the way they listen, to improve their coordination, and to enhance their skills with math.  It combines exercise with addition and subtraction.  The game is made for up to four players – or your child can play solo.  With a soundtrack of upbeat music, the electronic tagger will call out commands in order to control the game.  The players have to follow those commands as quickly as possible, and work to tag the appropriate targets faster than the other players.  However, this is just one way to play Hyper Dash.  It is actually more like four games in one!

Kids love dinosaurs, that is no secret.  Fisher Price has been aware of that for years and, as such, they are bringing back the age of the dinosaur!  They are doing that by introducing Spike — or, more specifically, Spike the Ultra Dinosaur!  This toy is designed for preschool aged children, but it is quite unlike most of the other quality toys Fisher Price has to offer.

Spike works with a wireless remote control.  This awesome brontosaurus is able to walk, turn, blink, stand on his back legs, and he lets loose a serious of ferocious, real sounding noises!

This toy is one of the top contenders for being the best toy for 2009, so you better jump on it before this big guy becomes extinct!

This holiday season, it’s predicted that High School Musical 3 themed toys will make a clean sweep over the best seller lists.  In particular, the High School Musical 3 Dance Mat is largely anticipated to be what Tickle Me Elmo and the Nintendo Wii were when they first came out: a veritable obsession.

Disney played it really smart here — but that’s not what the holiday’s are all about.  This actually seems like a really neat toy.  It can teach your kids how to dance which, okay, is not one of life’s greatest skills (unless he or she has dreams to be in High School Musical 7), but can save them a lot of mortification when they finally experience the first of those notoriously awkward middle school dances.

Kids will be able to enjoy all their favorite High School Musical songs and perform as all their favorite characters.  All the top Wildcats are represented, from Troy to Sharpay to Ryan.

Disney franchises are well known for going on and on … and on and on and on, for a little bit of forever.  And they have really hit it big with the High School Musical series.  The latest movie, High School Musical 3, is the first to appear on the big screen, and Disney is sparing no expense when it comes to taking advantage of the marketing value.

Does your little girl or boy wish he or she could run around school, spontaneously busting into song?  Well, while truly doing so might actually get them sent right to the special class, they can at least live out their fantasies in the privacy of their bedroom.

The East High play set is a big, big seller for this Christmas, but they’re going pretty fast — surprisingly, since the glorified doll house costs well over one hundred dollars.  Still, there are three stories and six rooms, and in addition to playing the movie favorite, “We’re All in This Together,” the school also plays a variety of other sounds.  Naturally none of the dolls are included — but the good news on that front is that Troy and Gabriella are no longer the only stars being sold in miniature.

I’m sorry, I’m sorry — that title is absolutely inappropriate, I just couldn’t resist!

For the last few years, SpongeBob SquarePants has been everywhere — everywhere!  Thus far, I think he’s officially lasted even longer than Barney — and although the giggling, screech voiced little spaz of a sponge definitely has the potential to be wearing on everyone’s nerves by now, he somehow just keeps getting more endearing.

But I bet that doesn’t mean that a lot of you parents out there wouldn’t enjoy the opportunity to help your kids relieve him of all his vital organs, right?

It’s a new twist on an old, favored classic: Operation, the SpongeBob SquarePants edition.  Your kids get to save SpongeBob from the threat of having the secret Krabby Patty recipe stolen from the evil Plankton.  With 12 ailments, game cards, and money, this promises to be as much a family favorite as the original!

Nintendo has been the top gaming console since its inception way back when, with a variety of games which seemed to solely feature Mario, Luigi, and their various buds.  It went through a lapse in popularity with some of its later models, but with the GameCube and the Wii, especially, it has hopped back up as a contender.  I only mention all of this because in researching the top toys for this week, I happened upon the Toys “R” Us web site and decided to take a look at their top selections.  Most of them are games for the Nintendo DS, a cute, cunning little personal game console which rather makes the Gameboy look like a big, hulking block of obsolete technology.

You can get the Nintendo DS for prices starting at a maximum of about $130.00.  Yeah, some places have the price jacked extremely high, but most of the time you can find it at quality retailers for $130.00 or less.  If you do your Christmas shopping early, think about getting your kid one of these little marvels – which do a variety of things, not limited to playing games – between now and Thanksgiving, when you’re likely to get the best price.

Mattel is all over it for the Christmas season – they are not playing around.  Ladies and gentlemen, may I present the Hot Wheels R/C Extreme Moto-Cross Cycle 27MHz.  The commercials for this cycle are plastered all over the TV already, and I can only imagine the number of boys – and girls, because this thing looks just plain fun, no matter what your age or gender – clamoring for it.  It has front air shocks, knobby tires guaranteed to grip well, and even the rider gets into the fun, making it possible to do wicked stunts and get some seriously sick air.  By far, this seems like the most innovative radio controlled toy to come out this season and at under forty dollars, it’s a complete steal.  This is also great for older kids and adults, especially for collectors of R/C toys.

Hey all you parents out there – if your daughters are anything like I was when I was younger, the highlight of Christmas morning was seeing how many new Barbie goodies would be waiting for me.  Back then, the height of Barbie-rama meant getting a big, beautiful house for all my dolls.  Barbie’s Dream House is still a huge Christmas morning staple – but it’s undergone a lot of dazzling renovations.  For instance, this is not just the Barbie Dream House, oh no – it is Barbie’s 3 Story Dream House.  Better still, it’s more than three feet tall as well, which leaves a lot of run for your little girl’s creativity to run wild.  The kitchen is state of the art, the living room is absolutely luscious, and there are too many working parts to even count.  The spiral staircase is a great touch – plus check out the little attic room!  And honestly, the fact that there is a bathroom complete with classy bathtub – goodness, I want this dream house too!