What are the hottest toys of the season? Tune in tomorrow …. I’ll announce them on the TODAY Show in the 8 o’clock hour.
Top Five Hot Toys for 2009 on TODAY Show tomorrow morning
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Zhu Zhu Hamsters and Toys R Us
Zhu Zhu Hamster Pets: What you need to know about the hot little critters
Zhu Zhu Hamster Pets from Cepia
The Zhu Zhu Hamsters have scurried their way into first position as the “hot-completely sold out” toy of the season. Today’s article by Stephanie Rosenbloom in The New York Times will certainly help fan the craze. It’s been quite a while since we’ve had a hot toy. The toy industry has been battered the last few years by serious issues about toy safety and a shrinking audience as kids leave toyland earlier and earlier. And even though the little creatures are not from one of the major toy companies (they are produced by Cepia LLC), everyone in the toy biz should be pretty happy. These little guys can drive parents into the toy stores–and if you can’t find a Zhu Zhu–you’re bound to buy some other toys. The media is also happy to have a light story to report on – rather than announcing rolling toy recalls.
We did not receive our required safety verification from the manufacturer Cepia on these little critters so we can not give them an official Oppenheim Toy Portfolio award –but given all the hype we thought we should give them an unofficial review.
This is what you need to know:
they are pretty cute
they make a variety of sounds (including mooing like a cow and crowing like a rooster)
they don’t cost a fortune (retail ranges from $7.99 to $9.99)
they are easy to activate -by touching them on top
they have wheels that go back and forth (which can hurt if you put your finger right next to them)
watch out for long hair getting caught in the wheels
they do not require feeding
unlike many virtual creatures of late, they won’t die if you don’t take care of them
there is no cage to clean
unlike the real thing, they also won’t eat their young!
Two toyportfolio.com videos of the Zhu Zhu Creatures
Zhu Zhu Hamster Pets Gives Our Mr. Robot a Ride
Zhu Zhu Hamsters and our mascot, Mr. Robot
A terrific update!
Yesterday I posted a review of a great new product, Take Your Pix Board Book Photo Album from www.boardbookalbums.com. The President of the company Laura Miranti sent me an email from the hospital–she has just had her fourth baby!! She wanted me to be sure to let people know that the books come in white, blue and pink — we only showed the yellow one yesterday. I love the idea of these books for toddlers…but they would also make terrific presents for toddlers to “give” to their grandparents–fill it photos of them together. The book then becomes a special “go to” book when they are together.
So congratulation to Laura and her family!! They will need another book or two in their own house!
Pick of the Day: Push Along Cat or Dog from ImagiPlay
At $14.95 each, these cute wood cat and dogs–are just right for a safe and green toy for toddlers. To read the full review, click here. We love the cat, dog and the Hybrid Car…all from ImagiPlay.
Stephanie Oppenheim on TODAY Show Monday morning
Be sure to tune in on Monday morning– I’ll be showing the FIVE hottest toys in toyland! To see all of our reviews and ratings of this year’s top toys, visit www.toyportfolio.com.
Air Hogs Switchblade
Never sure why one toy takes over the internet, but clearly Spinmaster’s Switchblade has been a hot toy since it was on Late Night with David Letterman. After testing the toy–I see the appeal. It does take off (although the stand didn’t really work) –but unfortunately it didn’t live up to our testers’ expectations in terms of control and durability. Both our kid testers and engineer/inventor dads were frustrated. I see that the price has come down from $69 to $49 on Amazon – but I see the ratings there are more in line with our testing.
Pick of the Day: Patchwork from Knightweaver Games
Patchwork will appeal to people who like fast paced games that call for a smidgen of strategy and a lot of luck. Each player draws seven cards (if you’re playing with only two players) and puts them on the arc-shaped wooden holders. The cards have fun graphic designs (if you have a friend into design, this is a game for them) that are printed sometimes on both sides of the same card–or two different patterns on one card. You can only look at the front of your cards and the back of your opponents cards. In other words you don’t get to see both sides of either set of cards…and that’s where the fun begins.
On each move you get two actions — with the goal of collecting four, five or six cards from either your own cards or your opponents. You do this by getting at least four cards in a row with the same pattern. Since you can see things that your opponent can’t (and vice versa), the opportunities to score look and are different for each player. There’s something very cool about that aspect of play.
Apart from really enjoying the game play, I love the wooden card holders–which would come in handy for younger children who often have difficulty holding cards. We do need to note that while we love the game, earlier versions had wooden arcs that were too rough in our opinion. The company has successfully addressed this quality issue- making this an Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Gold Seal Award winner. Visit their site: www.knightweavergames.com.
Star Wars Heroes…the saga continues
Board books are great–they make books much more accessible to toddlers. They can enjoy “reading” a book even when they are in the search, destroy and taste zone! Recognizing that publishing a picture book in board book format gives a title two bites of the apple, books stores are now chock full of books that aren’t really for toddlers in terms of their content — but they are sturdy! We’ve written about this before.
But now we’re seeing books that aren’t even really for preschoolers in board book form. Earlier in the year there was Star Wars Spaceships.
Now there’s Star Wars Heroes….I LOVE Star Wars…but not for kids in the knowing and naming stage of toddlerhood. Somehow we’ve lost track of the developmental stage here–where they do not have the reasoning to make the distinction between real and make believe. So take a look at these images and ask yourself are these important images to know and name?
Maybe these books are really intended for Urban Outfitters and the teen/adult market–that’s fine. I just hope they’re not in any toddlers stocking this holiday.
The Ultimate Jewish Mother Put Down on the TV Show House
I love House. Ok, there are parts of House where my son Matthew says “Mom, don’t look.” I’m not great with the gross medical aspects of the show. I would have probably gone to medical school instead of law school if I didn’t have that little problem of passing out when people are bleeding.
This week’s show featured a male Jewish Porn star…and for some reason they had to point out that it was an unusual occupation — is that really true? I don’t really have the statistics to dispute the jewish participation in the adult film industry one way or the other. They didn’t mention on the yesterday’s OPRAH where they took an in depth look at the porn industry and women (odd programming I think for daytime…but that’s another issue).
In any case, the porn star continues to tell the doctors that he grew up in an extremely controlling and clean household….thus his attraction to the porn industry. AND the solution to his medical problem is that he grew up in such a clean environment that he has no immunity to anything…so they have to put the worms back in to help him (have you ever noticed how many House episodes depend on worms?)….
As the Jewish mother of two boys…my reaction to this episode was “really”? His controlling and super clean household drove him to porn and a life threatening condition….
My conclusion: some writer had a serious score to settle with his mother!