March 2009 New Specialty Toys — Arts & Crafts

Childsafe Inkpads come in 6 colors in a durable, long-lasting ink stamp pad.  Non-Toxic and easily washes out of most fabrics. Colors: Red, Blue, Purple, Black, Pink, Green. 

Create your own drawings and illustrations with this Crayola® Make-A-Plate® Kit. The kit comes with Crayola markers, paper templates, order form, instructions, mailing envelope, and rush label. Make-A-Plate® has been a family fun memory maker since 1969. Preserve a memory by capturing the imagination of the artist in a usable product that is dishwasher safe and break resistant.
THIS PRODUCT IS NO LONGER AVAILABLE

A container of dough for each color in the rainbow-red (cherry), yellow (lemon), orange (orange), green (green apple), blue (blueberry) and purple (grape). You have an entire world of possibilities in one box. Zoos, aquariums, gardens, jewelry, even cities are waiting to be created. You and your child will have hours of fun molding, building and learning with our Rainbow Colors Set. Because one color just isn't enough! Available in Scented and Unscented Sets of dough. 10 per case.

Available in Scented or Unscented dough in red, green, orange, yellow, blue, purple, brown, black, white, or pink. 60 per case.

Available in Scented and Unscented dough in a rainbow of colors; 6 tubs per case.

Available in Scented and Unscented dough in a rainbow of colors; 6 tubs per case.

This bright and colorful chart helps children of all ages recognize and share their feelings. Through a colorful and vividly illustrated flower garden scene, children and their parents can identify a wide range of feelings. These 11" x 17" charts are double sided with one side in black and white for coloring over and over again with washable crayons. "The Flower Garden Feeling Chart is a terrific way to help children identify feelings, develop emotional intelligence, and open up to engaging discussions. It's a fun and straightforward way to lead productive discussion of feelings at home, school, or while traveling," Lisa-Marie Arneson, owner and creator of Bright Spots, told TDmonthly. The chart was named a 2008 Dr. Toy Best Vacation Children's Products Winner. Launch date: 2008.

This fun and engaging coloring book will help children recognize, identify, and talk about their feelings. "The whimsical verse is combined with a creative representation of feelings," Lisa-Marie Arneson, owner and creator of Bright Spots, told TDmonthly. The book was a 2008 Dr. Toy Best Vacation Children's Products Winner. Launch date: 2005.

This blank puzzle gives kids freedom to draw their own picture, and then assemble and reassemble their very own design. It is available in 5" x 7" and 8" x 10" sizes with mailing envelopes.

Each Softdough Play Set includes the following: four, 4-oz. tubs of Softdough (in colors red, blue, green and yellow), a hardwood rolling pin and 11 cookie cutters (turtle, frog, squirrel, dragonfly, moon, star, sun, leaf, butterfly, heart and cloud).

This peel-and-paint art project contains safe, non-toxic and washable powder art in eight colors. Children simply peel away pieces of the design to expose a sticky surface and then apply the different colors of powder to the appropriate sections.

This animals-themed Kids Color Tissue Box® kit features illustrations of popular animals such as a tiger and a panda for a child to color in. Each animal occupies a different face of the tissue box. Each Kids Color Tissue Box® kit includes 2 Coloring boxes, 4 Crayola® Crayons, and 2 packs of Hankeez Brand facial tissues, each with 80 SuperSoft 2-ply tissues in each pack. The tissue box size measues 4 3/8" x 4 3/8" at the base, and 4 3/4" tall.

Tactile, colorful PlayFoam never dries out, can be molded and sculpted, leaves no residue, and sticks best to itself rather than the many surfaces of a home. Whether constructed into elaborate art projects or simply enjoyed for its unique texture, this double pack of PlayFoam in 12 colors contains enough to share.
— “PlayFoam is still strong,” said Janet Gregory, owner of Over the Rainbow Toys in Anchorage, Alaska.
— Of 44 retailers surveyed in late fall 2008, seven percent said PlayFoam is one of their top-selling items.

Hours of creative entertainment for the young jeweler are packed into this boxed learning-activity-turned-craft. Kids can use the bright laces, various shapes and alphabet beads to create keepsake jewelry for themselves or parents, or use the kit as a reusable lacing set to practice spelling and patterning. 
— “The Melissa & Doug bead stringing kits” are the best-selling craft item at Let's Play in Hillsboro, Ore., Owner Shirley Reilly told TDmonthly in fall 2008. Reilly said she sells around 20 kits per month.
— Fifteen percent of 44 retailers said Melissa & Doug supply their best-selling craft kits.
— Kim Emigh, VP of E-commerce at Growing Tree Toys in State College, Penn., told TDmonthly in a Fall 2012 survey that this was a top-2 best selling jewelry item at their store.

This pop art kit comes with bottle caps, charms, glitter and gooey glaze so that kids can make colorful, retro creations. The goo dries into a hard, shiny coating overnight. The caps feature safety-coated edges.
— “Klutz books are our main focus regarding arts and crafts for both boys and girls,” said owner Kevin Pohle of his Denver, Colo., toy store, The Wizard's Chest.
— “We sell a lot of Klutz books,” said Lesa Smith, owner of Whiz Kids in San Luis Obispo, Calif.
— Eighteen percent of 44 specialty retailers named Klutz as a best-selling product line in fall 2008.

This kit includes four big, chunky pull-back monster trucks, ready to take a custom paint job and adhesive decals dreamed up by a young designer. On their giant wheels, these lifted pickups are fit to race, roll, and smash their way around. The early auto enthusiast is provided with the four assembled trucks, acrylic paints, a paintbrush and two sheets of stickers.
— “From Creativity for Kids, the [Monster Trucks] have been great,” John Naisbitt, owner of Thinker Things in Del Mar, Calif., told TDmonthly.
— “Monster Trucks … sell well,” said Jeanette Lauture, owner of Aunt Jean's Toys and Treats in Montclair, N.J.
— “It's a great line; we sell tons,” said Jake Thomas, co-owner of Applause Toy Store in Bracebridge, Ontario, of Creativity for Kids, which 20 percent of 44 retailers listed as their best-selling craft line in fall 2008.

Just the cozy cottage backyard birds are looking for, the Home Tweet Home bird-house has a real thatched roof and unique décor as provided by the child. The wooden house has various windows for the residents, pegs for perches on the outside, and attached twine to hang from. It includes weatherproof paint in six colors, a paintbrush and instructions.
— “Alex is strong in the arts and crafts area,” said Randy Horn, owner of Learning Express in Glen Ellyn, Ill.
— “We've done well with the Alex craft kits this year,” said Richard Belanger, owner of Scalliwag Toys in Belleville, Ontario.
— Sixteen percent of 44 retailers listed Alex as their top-selling craft kit supplier in fall 2008.

The Kidzsack is a high quality, multifunctional, and durable bag with a screenprint that kids can color in using the 8 provided color markers. The Sea Life Kidzsack design includes common sea creatures such as a dolphin, stingray, and octopus.

The Kidzsack is a high quality, multifunctional, and durable bag with a screenprint that kids can color in using the 8 provided color markers. The Castle Kidzsack has received the 2008 Preferred Choice Award in the Creative Activities category.

This set includes supplies to make six handcrafted ornaments to give as gifts or to adorn the Christmas tree. It comes with hanging ribbon and gift envelopes.
— Creativity for Kids “offers kids 2 to 12 years old a craft they can do alone or along with other friends, [and the] prices are just right, too. Also, they have never given me a problem with returns,” Jeanette Lauture, owner of Aunt Jean’s Toys & Treats in Montclair, N.J., told TDmonthly in late 2008. More than 7 percent of 52 retailers named the company as a favorite supplier.

The Burj Al Arab — a luxury hotel built on an artificial island in the Persian Gulf - has already become an iconic landmark of Dubai. Currently it stands for the world's tallest hotel and the world's tallest structure with a membrane facade. Our 1/1000 scale model depicts all the beauty of the building, including the helipad and the hanging restaurant. Size when assembled: 12.8 x 5.5 x 5.1 in. / 32.5 x 14 x 13 cm. Launch date: November 20, 2008.

The Sports of All Sorts Kit optical illusion eye-hand challenges provide hours of independent, brain-powered, sit-down sports fun. Kids find and crayon morphed shapes on distorted coloring pages to make color appear in the right place in the sports cartoon reflections. They complete the morphed picture, create their own morphed drawing, navigate a morphed maze, connect the dots, predict a reflection, and more. The activities help develop logic and perception skills, flex problem-solving mental muscles, exercise fine motor control, test spatial intelligence, and spark imagination and creativity. The kit contains 32 coloring page activities (“Soccer” is shown), two mirror-perfect Morph-O-Scopes (easy assembly), 16 non-toxic crayons, a Sports Kit Enrichment Guide to maximize learning, and instructions in English, Spanish and French — all in a portable “desk” convenient for travel. The activities engage boys and girls, kids, tweens, teens and adults, as they have universal, cross-cultural appeal. The Sports of All Sorts Kit is made in the USA and meets or exceeds all U.S. safety standards. It's the second Morph-O-Scopes Kit offered by OOZ & OZ, whose Circus Kit earned 19 national educational toy awards.
The Sports of All Sorts Kit has received the following awards and honors: 2009 Dr. Toy Best Vacation Children's Products,  a “Recommended” endorsement from the National Association for Gifted Children, 2009 The Toy Man Editors Choice Award, 2009 The Toy Man Award of Excellence, and 2009 The Toy Man Seal of Approval.  “No other products on the market use OOZ & OZ's exclusive technology or have earned as many toy honors," Myrna Hoffman, managing director and chief morphologist of OOZ & OZ, told TDmonthly. Launch date: December 13, 2008.

WIth the typical red plaid shirt and workman's tools illustrated on this art smock, it protects a child's clothing from arts and crafts, and also serves as a pretend play outfit. It is 100% waterproof and can be fastened on from the back with velcro.

This art smock has a cheerleader design theme, complete with pom poms and the typical cheerleader style outfit. It is 100% waterproof and can be fastened on from the back with velcro.