As part of the green movement, there are two new lines that pull from the past. Both Ecotronic Toys (a British company) and SEE toys are offering toys that you crank up  in order to get lights and sound. Ecotronics even has a crank radio in their line. The idea is to cut down on batteries. When the SEE Toys first arrived in the office, my mother pointed out that the “crank” idea was common in toyland in the ’40s. Of course the toys weren’t plastic–but the idea of getting something to happen without a battery is pretty cool.  We’ve requested the Ecotronic toys–we’ll put both to the test with our testers.