Posts Tagged ‘toyportfolio.com’
Wednesday, December 1st, 2010
Over the years, this category has always been one that fascinates parents – often when they are in the throws of potty training. We had one testing family that was our go- to potty doll testers. Even dolls that I knew probably weren’t going to work out–they really wanted to test. One of the early potty dolls involved food and water…that you guessed it, had to come out. So the doll also came with disposable diapers. The only problem was that the food often got stuck and it was super difficult to get the doll to poop. Thankfully no doll enema included. Even Elmo got into the act with Potty Time Elmo…he was really polite about the whole experience and reinforced the idea that accidents happen. 
He made sound effects to simulate the experience…no actual diapers to change here. He made our Platinum List one year. As the mother of two boys, I was also particularly fond of Corolle’s Paul doll, an anatomically correct boy doll that pees (no pooping here).
So this is all to say that we are always interested in new dolls in this category. Yesterday we received a huge box of toys that we hadn’t seen yet (amazing since it just feels like we’ve seen every toy)…but we hadn’t tested this particular bunch. The one that caught our eye was Fisher-Price’s new Wipey Dipey from their Little Mommy line.
Fisher-Price's Little Mommy Wipey Dipey Doll
We usually like these novelty dolls and this one really made us curious. The box reads: “pee-pee and poo-poo disappear with a wipe!” Ok, not that unusual…but here’s the new twist. The diaper lights up with a light indicating that your dolly has made one or two…and then you wipe it away. No messy diapers (it comes with one plastic diaper that is not removable) and a wipe. You give Wipey Dipey her bottle and then she lets you know that she needs to be changed. She either tells you or makes an uncomfortable sound. In otherwords, this drink and wet doll…really doesn’t do either except in a high-tech manner.
Pros and Cons.
She’s a hard plastic doll…so she’s not soft and huggable. We also found some of her phrases difficult to understand. One could say she’s a mumbler…her supporters would also probably point out that she’s a baby doll. The novelty aspect of this doll is pretty unique and will appeal to small children that love the “let’s see what she made now” aspect of the doll play. My only real problem is that when you wipe the poo poo as they call it…you’re wiping in the wrong direction. I’m really amazed that I just constructed that sentence…but it is really an issue especially when you’re trying to teach kids how to properly wipe at this stage. On the other hand, nothing gets stuck in this doll and there is no water to clean up either. If you’re of the camp that likes to see the water come out of the doll, Wipey Dipey is probably going to disappoint you. On the other hand, if you are not big on messy dolls/toys in general…this high-tech no mess approach to potty training may just be what you’ve been looking for. Only if the real experience could be so mess free!
Watch our video.
Tags: Corolle Paul, Dolls that Wet, Elmo, Fisher-Price, High Tech Dolls, Interactive Dolls, Joanne Oppenheim, Little Mommy Wipey Dipey, Stephanie Oppenheim, toyportfolio.com
Posted in dolls, Fisher-Price, Play Time, preschoolers, pretend play, toy trends, toys, Uncategorized | No Comments »
Tuesday, November 16th, 2010
Stephanie Oppenheim, Al Roker and Natalie Morales
This morning’s segment was about the toyportfolio.com’s BEST HIGH TECH TOYS for 2010, the complete list of products is on our site. If you missed the segment from this morning you can watch it by clicking here.
This morning Joanne and I were in the upstairs green room. Usually we have so many kids with us that we are in the larger downstairs green room. As much as upstairs is very dignified, there’s usually a lot more action downstairs. I was down there for hair and make up. Rascal Flatts was getting ready. I got to see Peter Krause out of the corner of one eye while getting mascara put on. Love his show Parenthood!
The set seemed strange without my usual ten or twelve kids milling about but since I had a lot of high tech toys we decided to go without kids in the studio. We turned on all the bugs and many of the Hexbug Nanos jumped from their Battle Bridge and ended up on the floor. We had a fun collection of games, bugs, spiders, a motion activated snake, Crayola Color Studio, and an assortment of video cameras include Barbie Video Girl that seemed to really disturb Al! I see his point about the placement of Barbie’s camera (on a necklace–on her chest) but our kid testers really liked using this high tech version of Barbie.
Al taking a look at Barbie Video Camera
At the end we did a demo of the hot new KINECT for XBOX 360 from Microsoft. I was planning on wearing a dress but I was told last night that the sensors might not read my legs in a dress. There’s nothing like having to pick out an outfit where you know the camera is going to shoot you from behind (every woman’s dream). So I decided to go Matrix-y – all in black with the highest heeled boots I own! For the live tease Whitney (from Microsoft PR team) did a demo with me–she did great! And thankfully Tim (my tech hero this morning) was making sure that the KINECT game was up and running. Hard to play a game and talk about it as you’re playing I’ve discovered.
Al Roker and Stephanie Oppenheim playing KINECT
Usually after I do one of these segments I remember all the things I didn’t say. This morning the list includes: I didn’t mention that you need alot of space to play KINECT so it’s not great for really tiny apartments or dorm rooms. You need to be about 8 feet back and you also need room to move side to side (or run the risk of really hitting your opponent!). Als0 – most of the games that have come out for the holiday season are family and action oriented. So if you’re more of a point/shoot XBOX 360 fan, there aren’t titles for you yet…but suspect they’ll be on their way. I love playing Rallyball – it’s like Dodgeball but no one gets hurt! While it’s true that you don’t need to use a controller to play KINECT you will need to know how to use one to set it up initially…(in otherwords, if you’re not comfortable with controllers…you’ll want to get someone who know what they’re doing). The last thing I forgot to mention is that KINECT has facial recognition so that if you make your own Avatar and you turn it on–it will recognize you. How cool is that? Also there is voice recognition as well (also pretty Jetson like if you ask me!). That said…there is a learning curve for selecting games that can seem slow which seems kind of odd since the whole concept is so cutting edge. Ok…now I’ve said it all!
Tags: Al Roker, Best High Tech Toys for 2010, Crayola Color Studio, Dodgeball, KINECT for XBOX 360, Microsoft, Natalie Morales, Parenthood, Peter Krause, Rallyball, Rascal Flatts, Stephanie Oppenheim, Today Show, toyportfolio.com
Posted in Best Games for Kids, Best Toys for Preschoolers, Best Toys for School Aged Kids, Best Toys for Tweens, Crayola, Fisher-Price, High Tech toys, hot toys, Mattel, Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Award Winners, Play Time, preschoolers, Today Show, toy trends, travel toys, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
Sunday, November 7th, 2010
On the one hand, this foosball table demonstrates how active Barbie can be. Look, she can block and kick that little ball down the field. She’s playing what has been a male dominated game. That’s something. Yet, it just seems really wrong that these Barbies are armless – as if underscoring their lack of control in determining their own fate. With a flick of a wrist, you can now send an entire line of Barbies upside down (hope they’re wearing proper underwear). For $25,000 I wonder if the toy comes with a hair stylist to do touch ups when the round is over! Exclusively at FAO. (Thanks to our one of our testing families for sending this to me!)
Tags: $25, 000 toys, Barbie Foosball, FAO Exclusive Toy, Gender Specific Toys, toyportfolio.com
Posted in active play, Barbie, Mattel | No Comments »
Friday, November 5th, 2010
A whole new bunch of toys arrived from Sassy just in time for our holiday list! I love this activity ball–lots of aspects for babies to explore. Not only is this the perfect kind of floor toy to enjoy with your baby and toddler–it’s under $10- which just goes to show that you don’t have to spend a fortune on great toys. Read our full review.
Tags: Sassy's Bumpy Ball, toyportfolio.com, Toys for Babies and Toddlers
Posted in active play, Best Toys for Babies, Best Toys for Kids with Special Needs, Best Toys for Toddlers, Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Award Winners, Play Time, toy trends, toys, Toys for Kids with Special Needs | 1 Comment »
educed” or “discounted” toys are worth your money or your child’s time. So for the next few weeks, as we approach the holidays we are going to highlight toys that are great to play with AND easy on the budget! Today’s list features 
there’s a new sand art kit. So even though we are pretty “toy-ed” out by this time of year–when these kits arrived, we were game. We thought the geometric patterns were fun to explore as well as the more typical scenes. Our testers agreed!! 
Probably not a necessity unless you have a child into serious homeland security role playing – but we enjoyed the demo of Wild Planet’s 
