With Green Day hours away, we are certainly pleased with the trend in the toy industry to go green. It seems like every week there are new organic doll collections, toys made of recycled materials, and toys/games that have an empowering (but not obnoxiously heavy-handed) green agenda. More good news-the packaging also seems to be more friendly to the environment-with fewer toys trapped in a sea of plastic.
Here is our current list of top ten green favorites–happily the list keeps growing!
My Natural Collection (Hosung NY) 
Organic Joobles (Fair Indigo) 
Recycling Truck (Green Toys) 
Eco-Trucks (Sprig Toys) 
Busy Bugs (Mudpuppy) 
Green Dollhouse (Plan Toys) 
Elia Mini Chair (eliafun.com) 
The reveal of the new tween Dora the Explorer was going to be a pre-holiday event-much like the way the company rolls out Elmo every year. Alas–the silhouette release in February caused alot of upset. Parents were concerned that the beloved character was growing up too fast. So what’s a company to do? Release the photo and assure parents that the Dora brand has not taken a terrible turn. While the “great” reveal has been done prematurely, I’m sure the folks at Mattel are thrilled with the extensive coverage and general positive response to the new Dora. Taking a page from the American Girl (also owned by Mattel)- the new Dora celebrates being a girl. Her story line focuses on solving mysteries with her multi-ethnic group of girl friends. While we haven’t seen the games yet–it seems they have steered clear of boys and shopping at the mall. Although there is a fashion component (even a ecologically aware tween needs to look cool). We look forward to seeing the on-line component to the new Dora. Stay tuned.
Mattel and Nickelodeon/Viacom, hoping to take this hit preschool brand to the next level, is introducing a more grown up version for older girls. Much like the Elmo rollout each year, we won’t see the actual new Dora until it is revealed later in the year. We’ll see whether Dora fans transitioning into the next age group will accept an older, more mature version (she is scheduled to move to the “big city” and have a a “more fashionable look”)–or whether Dora will be a character they want to remember from their early childhood. Thoughts?
Today we’ve been opening a whole host of boxes that have arrived since we were at toy fair. Lots of books (how many books can there be about Miley Cyrus?), games, toy trucks and audio tapes. At the bottom of the stack we just opened a box that had the most WONDERFUL new dolls inside from 
