March 2012 Notable Toys — Arts & Crafts

Piperoid is a paper craft robot designed and produced in Japan. The robot is made out of just paper pipes with pre-drilled holes and marks to cut, fold, and connect the pipes without the need of glue or tape. All kids need is a pair of scissors, and with minimal assembly they can bring their own Piperoid to life. Launch date: April 2009.

Explore flights of fancy with five fantastical butterflies you build yourself. With this kit, kids get a close-up look at the fragile, fluttering creatures living in butterfly gardens. A one-of-a-kind tool allows kids to create oversized butterflies for their bedroom walls. "Wallscapes Butterflies includes a unique device that allows for 3D butterflies to be created easily by anyone. This interior decoration kit provides a social occasion to craft pretty, cheerful and fun projects that can be hung on a bedroom wall, placed inside a locker at school, or gifted to a friend," Nancy Storment, marketing & PR rep at SmartLab Toys, told TDmonthly. Launch date: April 2012.

Containing 72 soft felt triangles in 9 colors, a flocked game board, and 50 illustrated cards, teach color, form, and design to kids without their knowing that they are learning the fundamentals of design. The instructions offer increasing challenges, from Elementary Figures to Negative Space to Perspective to Translucency and Representational Imagery. "Mosaics offers a highly sophisticated introduction to the basics of art and design for children," Regina Gelin, sales and marketing rep at eeBoo, told TDmonthly. Launch date: February 2012.

Midwest Design Imports offers many styles of feather hair extensions to choose from. We carry ready-made and individual feathers for those people who prefer to design their own "Feather Hair Extension" look. Launch date: June 2011.

The Everythingland Mailbox is a kid-sized mailbox that will fit standard cards and letters.  Made from sturdy 275# corrugated cardboard with white paper linerboard the mailbox can be decorated using paint, markers, crayons, glued on paper, fabric, photographs, beads, stones, seashells and sculptural media. The mailbox is made personal and important to them and when the art project is complete the mailbox is a great prop for pretend play or daily family communications. "The design details of our product sets us apart; material selection, shape, fit, scale and function separates our toys from other corrugated cardboard toys as well as other toy mailboxes," David Berglund, president of Metamorphic Toys, Inc., told TDmonthly. Launch date: August 2011.
Awards: 2012 Dr. Toy Best Green Toys, 2012 Dr.Toy Best 20 for $20

Young fashionistas get to design their own outfits, makeup, hairstyles, and accessories with our 75 pages of lightly printed outlines of faces, figures, and fashionable extras. The grand finale to the fashion show is the Look Book portfolio of keepsake album pages with die-cut frames, perfectly sized to display their best work. Launch date: August 2011.