Award Winning Toys take Over!

Well, it's that time of year again. Yes, it's the pre-holiday toy award giving season and they've been out in full force. Our pal Stephanie Oppenheim was on the Today show last week showing off some of the Oppenheim Award winning toys. Family Fun Magazine announced their winners on Regis & Kelly a couple weeks ago. Finally, the American Specialty Toy Retailing Association (ASTRA) - of which we are a member - announced our list of Best Toys For Kids.

Piles of toys that we already carry were honored - a couple games from Blue Orange Games won awards (Chickyboom & Yamslam are two of our favorites), Lego got lots of awards for many different sets (including the uber-cool Mindstorm, which allows you to program your Lego creations from your computer), the Playmobil Pyramid won lots of awards (Playmobil is pretty sure they are going to sell out of these soon!), Sprig's Eco Trucks were honored as was the Tea Set from Green Toys - both items underscore the move towards eco-friendly toys.

To set these award-winning toys apart, we've started marking them with little signs under the toys identifying which awards they were given. It's an easy way to let our customers know which toys were honored this year.

Toy Of The Year Awards

The Toy Industry of America Association handed out their annual Toy Of The Year Awards on the Saturday night prior to the official start of the American International Toy Fair in New York. The winners:

Toy of the Year – Air Hogs Havoc Heli Laser Battle, Spin Master, Ltd

Most Innovative Toy of the Year – Smart Cycle™ Physical Learning, Fisher-Price

Infant/Preschool Toy of the Year – Moon Sand Adventure Island, Spin Master Ltd.

Electronic Entertainment Toy of the Year – Power Tour Electric Guitar, Tiger Electronics

Educational Toy of the Year – Smart Cycle™ Physical Learning, Fisher-Price

Activity Toy of the Year – LEGO City, LEGO Systems, Inc.

Game of the Year – Rubik’s Revolution, Techno Source

Specialty Toy of the Year – Snap Circuits, Elenco (pic above)

Outdoor Toy of the Year – RipStik® Caster Board, RipStik USA

Girl Toy of the Year – Littlest Pet Shop: Display & Play Round & Round Pet Town Playset, Hasbro, Inc. and Troop Groovy Girls, Manhattan Toy

Boy Toy of the Year – Transformers Movie Deluxe Figures, Hasbro, Inc.

Property of the Year – Hannah Montana, Disney Consumer Products