Today was a fun day! I joined six really adorable kids and Amy Robach as we talked about some of our favorite Platinum Award Winning Toys. Click here to watch the segment. Right before we went on there were some tears…but everyone pulled it together when the cameras came on! You never know how that’s going to work out–but for me that’s part of the fun of doing live tv. One of my favorite toys of the year – Biscuit (an animatronic dog from Hasbro) was performing like a show dog through the teases for the segment. He ran through all of his tricks–but as soon as I got to Biscuit-he decided to take a nap! Oh well.
Stephanie Oppenheim on Toys
Thoughts on Toys from the Co-Founder of the Oppenheim Toy Portfolio
we saw you on friday- it was a really good sement! the dog was adorable. no mention of the didj?! we are excited- a new hannah montana game just came out for it– avery will likely be playing even more…
thanks. I don’t think you could hear the crew laughing — I had predicted Biscuit might not work for his big moment–but he is really very special. Glad to hear that you got your Didj back up and running.
is there a complete list of compliant companies somewhere? i have been looking and unable to find. also, do you have a list of companies who are truly lead-free? thansk
With the exception of one our two companies, most companies have given us verifications for each specific product they have submitted for review- so we don’t have a list of companies. What we discovered is that very few companies would verify that they are completely lead free because there is the risk of some trace amounts of lead from the manufacturing process.
can you share the companies who are saying they are completely lead free? and can you share who has not given verification forms?
thanks!
While I’d love to give you that list…no one is saying they are 100% lead free because of the possibility of trace amounts. Last year I made the mistake of believe that plush toys were completely free of this issue and then we had products that had painted features that contained lead. We’re also focusing on products that meet our criteria rather than those that don’t.
This game is a classic, hands down. Like most other reviewers, I also recieved this game as an X-Mas gift. ‘Sonic 2’ came with the Sega Genesis pack(problably bought at Costco or something). I recall the excitement of opening the red wrapping paper and recieveing my prize(I was like 6 or so by the way). I didn’t really know how to play this game then, I couldn’t figure out how to go up the large hills in the ‘Emerald Zone’, or, the first round. The game is relatively easy to play, but gets harder and harder as you move on throughout the levels. All of my friends have beaten this, and sadly, I have not. I never really put the time into it now-a-days but I used to play this game for hours on end. The last level always gets me somehow, being one of the more complicated levels in the game(along with the level before this, trying to kill several of those red haired guys in bubble shields). In addition to the levels, theres also a ring-collecting race game you can play through jumping into the ring of stars the spot-markers produce. I could get many gems and jewels, but I have never gotten the final gem. You can also have the ease of selecting which character you’d like to play with if that rascal Tails is just getting in the way. You can choose to be Sonic alone or even Tails alone, or both. This game is a lot more funner and simpler then the first ‘Sonic’ game, and much simpler then ‘Sonic and Knuckles’ and I couldn’t compare it to others as I haven’t played them. Another interesting additive is that if you own the original ‘Sonic and Knuckles’ game, it has a converter on top of the cartridge so you can put your ‘Sonic 2’ in there and play ‘Sonic 2’ with Knuckles! I thought this was amazing, really hi-tech for Sega Genesis. I reccomend this game to parents, game lovers and kids alike, as its entertaining but not corny or cartoonish. Thank you for reading my review.