Last year everyone was talking about magnets.  Everything from toddler toys to construction toys used magnets in some creative way.  This year the buzz is all about “USB” capability.

Traditional toys like Hot Wheels, Barbies, Groovy Girls–now all will have an on-line component where play is just a USB cord away.  Borrowing from the amazing successful Webkinz model, more and more companies  are offering a toy that also “unlocks” a unique play experience on line.  From the response of our toy testers, this seems like a smart move.  School aged kids love collecting toys  (stuff animals, cars, action figures) and this generation is tech savvy — so it’s a perfect combination.  We will be testing these new products with kids in the coming weeks.

Leapfrog also offers the USB cord as a way of uploading/downloading info to their new platforms.  Sprig Toys, a new line of vehicles will also work with action figures that hook up to a USB plug on board the vehicles.  VTech’s new promising art platform, KiddiArt Studio, also uses a USB connection.

Several years back there were toys (mostly dolls) that required parents to “download” information to the toy (your child’s name, birthday, favorite color,etc.) …and we received many complaints that this took too much time and frankly was too complicated for less than tech savvy parents.  Two things have changed–the iTunes interface has made the whole “download” thing much less overwhelming for parents.  Things have changed: the toy/computer interface works better, parents are younger and more techy themselves,  and for slightly older kids, they’ll be doing the plugging in–and let’s face it, they’re really good at it.