December 2008 New Specialty Toys — Battery Operated

Suitable for ages 6 months and up, this snail is outfitted with a shell that spins as it rolls. It comes with a five-piece stacker shell and one with colorful beads that move all around.
— “They're very easy to communicate with [and] their billing is straightforward,” Pat Cooley of Cooleykatz Toys in Livermore, Calif., said of this preferred vendor. Seventeen percent of 52 retailers named International Playthings as a favorite supplier in fall 2008.
— Two of 64 retailers named this product as a best-selling infant and toddler toy in March 2009.
— “It grows with the child and lasts,” pointed out Theresa Oppenheimer, owner of Toy World in Wayzata, Minn. Janet Hoo of Hoomade Toys in Phoenix, Ariz., told TDmonthly in spring 2009 her store sells about 40 of this item each month.

This 26-piece introductory set includes a complete figure 8 of track with a riser to support the overpass, a train car and a battery-operated Thomas the Tank Engine character train. Thomas runs on his own at the touch of a button, pulling cars behind him. Children can stop him at the station of Sir Topham Hatt, allowing them to act out their favorite Thomas stories or invent their own. It is fully compatible with all other Thomas the Tank Engine wooden railway sets.
— “Thomas the Train has had major resurgence,” said Christine Osborne, owner of Wonder Works in Charleston, S.C., when asked in October 2008 about top-selling hobby items.
— “We sell Thomas trains; [they] would be our best selling,” answered Terry Young, owner of Doodlehopper 4 Kids in Springfield, Va.
—  Amy Barrett, owner of Lasso the Moon Wonderful Toys in Helena, Mont., told TDmonthly in October 2008 that Thomas the Tank Engine is one of her overall best sellers.