August 2010 Notable Toys — Gifts

The "Gotta Love Me" plush characters from Fiesta include the Everyday Critters: Puddles the frog, Sunshine the bear, Rascal the puppy, and Whiskers the cat. This plush line also features Jungle animals including Leo the lion, Mimi the monkey, and Peanuts the elephant. Each has an embroidered heart and endearing “Gotta Love Me” message.

Monkey Monkey Music offers a deep commitment to putting the child back into children’s music with Meredith LeVande's second album, What Are the Odds? The album finds the middle road between baby songs and pop band songs where kids’ lyrics are simply added to music that would otherwise be played for adults. Meredith’s music is not only child-friendly, it’s truly child-appropriate, having been created with the healthy growth of the child in mind. "Her songs are joy-filled expressions of pure, childlike fun. One listen is all it takes to recognize that Meredith really loves being around children," Waldmania PR Publicist Elizabeth Waldman Frazier told TDmonthly.
— “As soon as I pushed play, my 19-month-old son started bopping to the music,” reported Shonda of The Knowlton Nest. Shonda was struck by Meredith’s “happy, upbeat and friendly child-like voice” throughout “music that was contemporary, yet simple” and “appealing to kids and adults.”
— Toni Morton of Toni’s Treehouse provides a track-by-track analysis of the CD, highlighting the knock-knock joke based song "Who's a Knockin'?" and “the surprising sounds of a banjo and dobro” in the food pyramid song "Frogs Eat Butterflies."

This fall tee features a fairy that comes complete with a velcro-attached dress. Girls can remove the dress and attach a different one. Additional dresses are sold separately. Fairy dresses are handmade in the USA. Made of tulle, special glittery fabrics, and flowers.

The original Mimi is a 30" x36" blanket made from high-quality chenille. It is designed to be just the right size for comfort and convenience. The blanket is easy to clean and is machine-washable.

The Handstand Kids Cookbooks are fully-illustrated, international children's cookbooks that introduce children to the language, culture and cuisine of three different countries (Italy, Mexico and China) while encouraging healthy eating, community involvement and helping out in the kitchen. Each kit comes uniquely packaged with a cooking accessory. The Italian Cookbook is packaged in a pizza box with a chef's hat, the Mexican Cookbook comes in a tortilla bag with a child-sized oven mitt and Chinese Cookbook is packaged in a take-out box with a set of chopsticks.

One sheet of LEGO® Bionicles themed acid free 3D stickers per package. Great for scrapbooking and decorating arts and crafts projects.

One sheet of LEGO® Bricks themed acid free 3D stickers per package. Great for scrapbooking and decorating arts and crafts projects.

One sheet of LEGO® Classic themed acid free 3D stickers per package. Great for scrapbooking and decorating arts and crafts projects.

"Wham-It - The Anti-Stress Device". For anyone who needs to relieve some stress in these stress filled times. Tongue-In-cheek humorous suggestions for when and how to use Wham-It are printed on the back.  A sample suggested reason for interfacing with Wham-It could be "favorite outfit becomes too tight".  A sample suggestion for extreme use of Wham-It could be "run with scissors and Wham-It!"  Retailers: Wham-It comes with a free counter display plus one free Wham-It.

Read anytime and anywhere with this cool new product from Mark-My-Time. It’s a bookmark with page clip, countdown and cumulative timer and bright LED book light all in one. The makers of the Mark-My-Time digital bookmark and digital metronome have created the perfect gift item for your young readers.  The Mark-My-Time digital booklight features a bright 3 LED light on an adjustable arm, a clip to attach the bookmark to the pages of your favorite book, and three cool camouflage prints in pink, blue and green; or, three animal prints in zebra, cheetah or pink leopard. All these features, plus the homework help timing functions: cumulative timer up to 100 hours, 60 second fluency timer, and countdown session timer that alarms when you are finished and even turns off the light. Take the work out of nightly reading homework logs.

Bedrock Buddies are Pillow Pets straight from the pre-historic ages. Children can revisit the land of dinosaurs with these super-soft plush creatures that are snuggly companions for imaginative play and comfy pillows for bed, television or travel time. Bedrock Buddies include Pterodactyl, Triceratops and T-Rex pets. "The My Pillow Pets products have been safety tested and use high quality chenille to make a snuggly soft toy and pillow," Heidi Niehart, Director of Sales and Marketing for CJ Projects told TDmonthly.
Awards: 2009 Dr. Toy Best Vacation Product; 2009 iParenting Media Excellent Product Award; 2009 Mr. Dad Seal of Approval

DINGaRINGs' natural wooden teething ring, luxuriously soft body and gentle rattle are designed to make them ideal gifts for newborns and teething babies. This product is "the ultimate non-plastic baby toy," Kate Nicolson, director of O.B. Designs, told TDmonthly.
Awards: 2009 Life InStyle Trade Fair Top 10 Kids Products

With huggable soft plush bodies, luggable detachable straps, lovable personalities and stuffable zip open mouths, these multi-play toys are designed to be an adventure buddy, soft toy or pajama keeper. "A usable toy from toddlers to school aged kids," Kate Nicolson, Director O.B. Designs, told TDmonthly.

Each Penguin pendant hangs from a matching color adjustable slider cord. Each dozen comes in an assortment of colorful pink, purple, blue, and black penguin pendants speckled with glitter on each bracelet.

Each glass heart pendant comes in either pink or blue, and hangs from an adjustable matching color satin cord. Watch as the UV beads change colors in the sun.

Each bag contains 12 rubber band bracelets. The rubber bands contain letters P-E-A-C-E and peace sign symbols.

Four separate heart keys dangle from this adjustable ball chain with a matte finish. The four hearts spell out the word "LOVE." This necklace also has one iridescent rhinestone hanging from it.

This blanket features plush white minky swirl material and soft blue satin, finished with blue and white satin ruffle trim.

Take this soft plush ladybug on strollers, backpacks, car seats, and even on luggage. At bedtime it’s back on the crib, bedpost or curtain to watch over you. This Curtain Critters plush animal features a head approximately 5" in size, an elastic safety loop (in the back of head), and child friendly velcro pads (on hands). Machine washable. Available in 10 different designs.

Take this soft plush butterfly on strollers, backpacks, car seats, and even on luggage. At bedtime it’s back on the crib, bedpost or curtain to watch over you. This Curtain Critters plush animal features a head approximately 5" in size, an elastic safety loop (in the back of head), and child friendly velcro pads (on hands). Machine washable. Available in 10 different designs.

Take this soft plush monkey on strollers, backpacks, car seats, and even on luggage. At bedtime it’s back on the crib, bedpost or curtain to watch over you. This Curtain Critters plush animal features a head approximately 5" in size, an elastic safety loop (in the back of head), and child friendly velcro pads (on hands). Machine washable. Available in 10 different designs.

Take this soft plush giraffe on strollers, backpacks, car seats, and even on luggage. At bedtime it’s back on the crib, bedpost or curtain to watch over you. This Curtain Critters plush animal features a head approximately 5" in size, an elastic safety loop (in the back of head), and child friendly velcro pads (on hands). Machine washable. Available in 10 different designs.

This Marvel superhero-themed Silly Bandz 24-pack includes Iron Man, Spider Man, Wolverine, Captain America, The Incredible Hulk and Thor. These bands can be collected, worn or traded with friends.
— In a July 2010 survey, Marc Holcomb of Toys & Co. in Greensboro, N.C., cited sales figures of about 1,500 Silly Bandz a week at his three stores and online shop. “They've brought a lot of new faces in,” he said.
— Fifteen of 38 specialty retailers told TDmonthly in July 2010 that rubber band bracelets are a top-selling product. Nine of the 15 specifically mentioned Silly Bandz.
— TDmonthly  first reported on kids collecting rubber band animals back in 2005.

These best-friend necklaces come in nine treat-themed designs, including ice cream-and-cake, coffee-and-donut and milk-and-cookie. "Best friend necklaces have always been one half heart for one friend and another half heart for the other. Now, both friends get to have two charms each so the necklaces are the same but opposite, with one large charm and one small," Violet Gumdrop's Darcee Matlen told TDmonthly.