No manufacturer paid a fee to be included in this list nor did they pay a fee to submit products; nomination was by invitation of the editors only.

How did we pick the 200+ positive new toys to recommend to you? In addition to TDmonthly staff evaluation, we talked to specialty toy-store owners around the nation, kids, parents and experts about which toys excite them and are most likely to be solid sellers throughout 2008 and 2009. (TDmonthly Magazine is a division of ToyDirectory.)

To ensure that you can easily answer customers' questions about these great toys, manufacturers who were nominated for the report were asked to indicate which tests their toys had passed and how often the tests were performed. Many also submitted data on where their toys were produced. Again, no manufacturer paid a fee to submit; nomination was by invitation only.

In addition to basic information, such as MSRP and wholesale price, we have also included reviews by our Roundtable moms and kids, TDmonthly experts and staff, plus sales evaluations by specialty toy-store owners from around the nation. This objective evidence of a toy's quality and ability to sell will make your ordering decisions easier.

Each toy has a Profile Page that includes a description, pricing information, awards won, display ideas, key features, safety information and terms available.** In addition, many products that have been on the market for awhile feature reviews by consumers, experts and/or retailers.

Award winners are indicated by the reproduction of the award seals they've won, including TDmonthly awards — Top Toy, Top Seller, Classic and Innovations.

And since it's an online publication, if you need even more information about a toy or game, in most instances you can simply click the "Watch Video" link for a product demonstration.

Once again, we limited the number of TDmonthlyawards we gave to increase the value of the awards themselves. Not only did a toy have to be high quality and fun; it also had to exhibit one or more of the following qualities:***

• Encouraged social or environmental awareness and contribution
• Scored highly in TDmonthly's consumer reviews, or received favorable response from retailers or TDmonthly staff reviewers
• Was manufactured by a company that works strictly or mostly with specialty toy-store owners
• Stepped outside the usual boundaries of its category by adding an innovative feature

We hope you'll find our recommended list highly useful in your holiday shopping and planning. Please let us know what we can improve so that the next group will be even more invaluable.

We look forward to your comments: 310-979-4330

Managing Editor Alison Marek
Assistant Editor Julie L. Jones

* Since 1998, Yahoo! has been rating ToyDirectory.com as the most popular Business to Business Directory for the Toy Industry.
** Some manufacturers were not able to provide complete information in time for publication.
*** Top sellers did not have to meet these criteria.

About ToyDirectory.com® and TDmonthly™ Magazine
For more than 11 years, ToyDirectory.com has been connecting retailers and
manufacturers within the specialty toy industry. It has been ranked by Yahoo! as the
most popular business-to-business directory for the toy industry since 1998. TDmonthly Magazine, an online trade publication for the toy, hobby, gift and game industries with more than 27,800 registered retailers, is dedicated to being the most comprehensive monthly resource for the toy industry through trend reporting, reviews, trade show coverage and a 12,000+ searchable database of products in more than 100 categories.

All contents of the 2008 TDmonthly Specialty Toys Report are Copyright © 2008 ToyDirectory.com Corporation and/or its suppliers. All rights reserved. No parts of this report may be reproduced in any form or by any means, without permission in writing from the publisher. ToyDirectory.com, TDmonthly.com, ToyDirectory.com logo, and/or other ToyDirectory.com products and services referenced herein may also be either trademarks or registered trademarks of ToyDirectory.com in the United States and/or other countries. The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners. The example companies, organizations, products, domain names, e-mail addresses, logos, people, places and events depicted herein are fictitious. No association with any real company, organization, product, domain name, e-mail address, logo, person, places or events is intended or should be inferred. Any rights not expressly granted herein are reserved.

DISCLAIMER: All content in this document is provided by ToyDirectory.com, Inc. and its third-party content providers for your personal information only, and is not intended for business purposes. Content in this document is not appropriate for the purposes of making a safety buying decision, nor does it provide any form of advice, or make any recommendations regarding particular financial or safety products. Use of this document is not a substitute for obtaining proper advice from professional. Although ToyDirectory.com, Inc. makes reasonable efforts to obtain reliable content from third parties, ToyDirectory.com, Inc. does not guarantee the accuracy of or endorse the views or opinions given by any third-party information provider. The information contained in this document may become inaccurate as a result of the passage of time and should therefore be read for historical information only. You are therefore urged and responsible for verifying same against an alternative source before making decisions. The information contributed to ToyDirectory.com, Inc. by third parties represents the expressed opinions and work of such third parties and not the opinions of ToyDirectory.com, Inc. Opinions and viewpoints expressed by editors, consumers, retailers and manufacturers in this Report are solely those of the author(s) or contributor(s), and may not reflect the opinion of ToyDirectory.com staff as a whole, or as individuals.

ToyDirectory.com, Inc. makes no representations that the information in this document is current or that it has been updated based on changes or other factors. In particular, but without limiting the preceding sentence, you should be aware that statements of fact or opinion made by any third parties may not be up-to-date or may not represent the current opinion (whether public or confidential) of those third parties. Neither ToyDirectory.com, Inc. nor its third-party content providers shall be liable for any errors, inaccuracies or delays in content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon. ToyDirectory.com, Inc. EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, AS TO THE ACCURACY OF ANY CONTENT PROVIDED, OR AS TO THE FITNESS OF THE INFORMATION FOR ANY PURPOSE. WHERE THIS DISCLAIMER CONFLICTS WITH OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS, OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS TAKE PRECEDENCE.