Planes, Trains and Automobiles

I enjoy traveling. Seeing new places, experiencing new cultures, getting lost and finding my way again. I’m still waiting on my chance to see England, like everyone else I know. Although it’s better when done physically, traveling can take place within the four walls of a room if you have a large imagination. The toys in this month’s Toy Box have to do with three modes of travel children can use with their imagination to explore their own world.

Matchbox not only takes us up in the air but also out to sea with their Sky Busters Aircaft Carrier. It comes with one Matchbox airplane, which is called a Sky Buster. These planes are really cool. The body is metal and the wings are hard plastic. I bought one of them to use as decoration on an island-themed cake. When I tried to break the plane to create a plane-crash on the cake, I only succeeded in tearing off the wings after a couple of minutes. The carrier holds up to eight planes and is portable. These toys don’t float on water, so don’t take them into the bath with you. Available on Amazon.com for $17.

Matchbox also takes us to the road with Real Talking Rocky. Rocky is a dump truck that stands up and talks when you press a button. The button launches him into the standing position, and he is easily reset by pressing him down to look like dump truck. He sells on Amazon.com for $10.





For those who like to fall asleep listening to the soothing sounds of the rails, Fisher-Price has come out with Good Night Thomas. This is a plush toy that says “good night” phrases to your child as he drifts down the tracks to Dreamville. It requires 2 AA batteries that are stored in the back of the toy in a case. The case is a bit hard but is mostly enclosed in padding. The other part that’s not completely soft is the face where the speaker is encased. However, both these places are just small parts of the toy, and the padding is large enough that you really have to squeeze in the certain areas to feel the hard plastic. Good Night Thomas sells on Amazon.com for $20.

Find Them On-line:
Sky Busters Aircaft Carrier
Real Talking Rocky
Good Night Thomas

Play like an Egyptian

This month’s Toy Box takes us to a far away land where the water runs from the south to the north, where pharaohs rule and mummies curse. We’re playing this month in Egypt.

Playmobil has come out with a collection of Egyptian-themed playsets. The largest playset is a pyramid with traps that you set off and secret places to hide treasure. Their other playsets include a sphinx, a floating ship, a tomb, and many different kinds of Egyptians to inhabit your own three-dimensional Egypt. I was fortunate enough to play with the sphinx of this set. It comes with two Egyptians and a mummy. The sphinx has a secret door that is released by placing an amulet in a hole and turning it, great for storing some of the Egyptians when playtime is over. The characters and sphinx itself are large, so they are hard to loose; however, the accessories are small and even warrant a chocking hazard caution. Playmobil says these playsets are for children 4 years and older, but they have other non-Egyptian toys for those younger than 4. The Egyptian themed playsets from Playmobil range from $100.00-$8.00 at Toys-R-Us.

For those who want to tour Egypt from your computer, EA has produced The Sims 3: World Adventures. This is an expansion pack for the game The Sims 3, which means you have to have The Sims 3 for the game to work. In World Adventures, Egypt is one of three exotic destinations your sim (people-like characters you create and control) can visit. In all the destinations there are several tombs that your sim can explore. These tombs are filled with treasure but also contain traps, and in Egypt you need to steer clear of mummies. You can even cause your sim to turn into a mummy by sleeping in a cursed sarcophagus, but make sure you also have a blessed version incase you want the sim to change back. World Adventures does a good job of adding a new dimension of game play to The Sims 3. Going on these adventures is almost like playing an on-line role-playing game, where you need to collect certain items to complete your objectives. With a few cheats entered in the game, you can also build your own tombs to explore; however, doing this doesn’t come easy, so you may find yourself searching on-line for tutorials to do so. The Sims 3 is rated T for Teen because of crude humor, sexual themes, and violence, and costs $30.00 on Amazon.com.

You might not get to sing “Walk Like An Egyptian” with Activision’s Band Hero, but it does have 65 other songs you can sing plus more you can download. Activision brought us Guitar Hero, and the game play is the same. There is a long strip (like a guitar’s neck) on the screen, and when color buttons pass a certain place, you either hold down the button on the guitar controller and strum or hit the color drum with the drumstick. With Band Hero there is also a “Party Mode” that will play random songs from the song list (that you can edit), and you and your party guests can jump in and out of playing along. Band Hero also allows you to change your game system into a karaoke machine, and in that mode you can sing however you want, and you’ll never fail the song. There is also a game mode that allows you to create your own song and download what others have created. Band Hero is rated E+10 for Everyone over 10 for lyrics and mild suggestive themes and is $49.00 on Amazon.com.

Find it online:
Playmobil Sphinx
The Sims 3 World Adventures
The Sims 3 (You need this to play the game above)
Band Hero for the Wii

Christmas Thoughts

Even though it’s November, everyone is talking about Christmas. They were even talking about it back in October and frankly, I have my Christmas list ready all year round. Here are some toys that you may want to think about when picking out gifts for this year.

First we have the Smart Trike. I know you’re thinking, “A stroller isn’t a toy.” Although that might be true, the Smart Trike starts off being a stroller but turns into a tricycle, so it grows with your child and gets more use than a plain stroller. It has a sun visor to keep your child out of the sun and a bucket in the back to tote stuff around. You do have to assemble it from pictures, so if you’ve spent any time building Legos then this will be second nature. To get the Smart Trike, go to flaghouse.com and search for #38959.

Next we have Brik-A-Bloks. This will change the way your child builds a fort. Basically they are flat panels that lock together to build blocks. Creations can get pretty big so you may need to account for space when building; however, when deconstructed, the panels don’t take much space at all. When I first looked at the pictures, I thought that these were probably only good for the younger kids, because the pictures showed kids crawling through blocks that were one panel-sized. But, once I started playing with them I realized that if I had enough panels I could even make a fort for myself (and I’m 6 feet). The panels come in three colors (red, blue and yellow) and you can buy packs of 46 and 26 panels. You can find them at brikablok.com.

Lastly, there is the Matchbox Croc Escape Pop Up Adventure. This playset is just one of many Pop Up Adventure playsets you can find from Matchbox. With Croc Escape, you get one Matchbox car to venture through the swamp to find the treasure. However, your car can get snagged by the giant crocodile head that is waiting in the middle of the playset. I love the crocodile part of this playset. Placing the car at the top of the ramp to have it shoot down into the crocodile’s mouth is fun to watch. It takes me back to when my parents got me a track that hooked onto the back of a chair and had a loop and ramp that the car would (for the most part) maneuver through. The drawback to the playset is that the set track isn’t as smooth as others. I guess it’s a part of the setting (there aren’t many smooth roads in the swamp), but I wish it were a little easier to guide the car around. The playset does fold into a box and the car and accessories stow nicely in it. You can find it in your local toy stores.

Find it online:
Smart Trike
Brik-A-Bloks
Croc Escape Pop Up Adventure

If you’re looking for some unique gifts this Christmas, here are some websites to check out:

Olivekids.com
This website has home décor for children, from bedding and shower curtains to wall clocks and placemats. With all their products, you choose the design theme and in some cases, have the item personalized.

2cheekymonkeys.etsy.com
This storefront offers gifts created from recycled board games, VHS movie cases, record covers and books. Each product is handmade and unique. They mostly sell journals, but they also have a few wall clocks and purses.

Kamibashi.com
This website has many products, but the most interesting is their homemade key chains. My favorite is The String Doll Gang line. Each doll helps you do something- for example, Finnegan makes sure that your luck is always Irish.

Thinkgeek.com
This website is for the geeks. From shirts that locate the best WiFi signal to shower heads that light up red or blue depending on the temperature, they have it. They also have a section for geek kids from 1 to 13 years old.

Scent of a Toy

With summer ending, I’ll certainly miss the smells I associate with it. The smell of popcorn that engulfs the movie theatre as I go see a summer blockbuster, the smell of chlorine from the swimming pool, and the smell of hot dogs at a summer cookout. This month in the Toy Box, we have a group of toys that have a certain scent to them.

First off, we have the new Strawberry Shortcake collection. When Hasbro acquired Strawberry, they gave her a makeover. The most notable part was shaving off a couple of feet from her height, now she and her friends are “bite-sized”. Strawberry also works in her own Berry Café, which is the big playset of the Strawberry Shortcake collection. It comes with a big strawberry-like café with tables and chairs, a Strawberry Shortcake figure and lots of tiny foods to serve. And the foods are tiny, so take caution before buying this for a really young child. She and her friends are also available separately as three inch dolls.

Strawberry Shortcake also comes as an 11 inch doll. She has brushable hair and hair extensions, along with stickers, hair clips and a pen that uses water to make makeup appear. The box says that there is a choking hazard, which I guess are the hair clips, even though the size of these accessories is much larger than the ones in the Berry Café playset. All the toys also have the sweet fruity smell that lasts a while. We’ve had these toys in the office for weeks and they still smell as good as they did the day they arrived. You can find Strawberry and her fruity pals in stores now.

Next we have the Candy Land Sweet Celebration Game. In celebration of its 60th anniversary, Hasbro has come out with this new Candy Land game. They have gotten rid of the board and replaced it with a customizable track that you put together. You control how long you want to make the track, so it’s great for a quick game while waiting for dinner or for a long family game night. A spinner replaces the cards that lead you around the track to the different stops where you collect treats to take to the palace. However, Lord Licorice can and will block your path during the game to make it longer and more challenging, although he can be omitted for younger players. With the track changeable, each game feels new and different, and gives players the ability to create their own game. When I played with it, I tried to use every piece of the track, including the end pieces, but it was a little difficult to include them since most of the track is curvy and circles around itself. It would have been helpful to include a booklet of pre-made track designs so you can easily jump into a game and make setup just a bit shorter.

Finally, one toy I’m glad didn’t come scented is Norman PhartEphant. He’s a stuffed elephant that farts. Maybe I’m childish—I mean, I’m 26 and play with toys for a living—but this is one of the best toys I’ve come across. He’s soft and cuddly like any stuffed animal, and there is a button in his tale that releases the sound of passed gas when pressed. This is Fierce Fun Toys’ first toy. One of their mission statements is to promote laughter, and they hit the bull’s-eye with Norman. Everyone in our office has had a good laugh when they’ve played with him. Fierce Fun Toys has a book in the works that will help explain Norman’s gassy tendencies. But even without the book, Norman is perfect for anyone young at heart. You can find him at www.PhartEphant.com.

Find it online:
Strawberry Shortcake Berry Café
Strawberry Shortcake Doll
Candyland
Norman PhartEphant

Fisher Price Little People Play ‘n Go Schoolhouse Playset

To celebrate 50 years of their Little People toys, Fisher Price has come out with 50th anniversary play sets. The play set I got to play with was the Play ‘N Go School House.

I remember way back in preschool my classroom had the Little People School house, so playing with this brought back many memories. However, this isn’t the same school house I played with back then.

The major difference is the size of the pieces. Now the little people and their accessories are much bigger than the ones of my childhood (making them less of a choking hazard.) This makes the toy safer and easier for younger children to play with it.

The school house comes with a teacher, a student and a dog. It also comes with two desks and a merry-go-round for its playground. All of these things fit comfortably inside the schoolhouse so your child can take the play set on the road easily.

Sadly the schoolhouse is just a carrier. It doesn’t have a chalkboard nor the alphabet magnets like the one I remember, but this really isn’t a big deal. Magnets do stick to the side of the tin so magnetic number and letters can be used and preschoolers probably shouldn’t play with chalk anyway.

A Little People DVD also comes with the set. The DVD with the school house contains five animated episodes each about four minutes long. In these episodes kids can learn about rhyming, vowels and how to say “thank you.”

This toy is good for preschoolers from one year-old and up and for any of those who are nostalgic for their preschool days.

Also available: The Little People 50th anniversary Play ‘N Go Farm, which comes with a sheep, cow, farmer and tractor. The barn serves as a carrying case, as well, making this a portable, fun toy for little ones. Look for a 50th anniversary Play ‘N Go home and Play ‘N Go Fire Station as well. Each available at all major retailers in the neighborhood of $18.00 MSRP.

Find it online:
School House
Farm