January 2011 Notable Toys — General Toys

Puzzles feature natural wood grain as a back drop to vibrant silk-screened colors. Matching patterns and colors on the board help children place the pieces. Puzzle pieces are chunky in size and easy for little hands to manipulate. Comes in four designs. Launch date: January 2011.

This illustrated wooden board comes with color-coded ladybugs that are rounded and raised to provide easy removal and placement on the board. Use this matching ladybug game to introduce the concept of fair play and taking turns while sharpening focus and memory. Launch date: January 2011.

This game includes 27 wooden dominoes with cute-as-a-bug illustrations for each number. Tiles come in a portable bug habitat with sliding mesh window. Launch date: January 2011.

Soft drum features numbered circles that make different drum sounds and say the number or color with every touch. Bottom of drum features opening with Velcro-like closure that provides access to sound device. Lanuch date: January 2011.

Learn sounds and colors with Manhattan Toy’s Rockin’ Sounds Guitar. Guitar features numbered keys that play different musical notes or say numbers and colors with the touch of a key. Change between different sound categories: numbers, colors and musical sounds with the touch of a button. Launch date: January 2011.

This colorful outfit includes an apron and chef's hat. Apron features two pockets and a waist strap that ties in back. Fits girls' size 4-6. Launch date: January 2011.

This play food set includes a pizza pie plate, a "loaded" pizza cut into six slices, and a kid-safe pizza roller. Launch date: January 2011.

This play food set includes a colorful strawberry, velcro banana, fried egg, pancake, and two strips of bacon. Launch date: January 2011.

Enjoy a Groovy Girls tea party with the Tea-rific Tea Set. Tea set includes a tea pot, four tea cups and saucers, creamer and sugar bowl. Launch date: January 2011.

The Cooks in the Kitchen Set is sure to bring new life to your favorite play kitchen. With pots, pans and two spatulas all colorfully designed, cooking up something fun has never been easier. Launch date: January 2011.

This colorful set matches other items in the Groovy Girls collection. Set includes four bowls, flower-shaped plates, forks, knives and spoons. Launch date: January 2011.

The LEGO DUPLO ZipBin Legoville Toy Box and Playmat has a colorful city theme and can be used as a fun storage container for DUPLO blocks as well as an easy to clean playmat. Sturdy, strong, stackable, portable. DUPLO Blocks not included.

The LEGO DUPLO ZipBin Toy Box and Playmat has a colorful animal theme and can be used as a fun storage container for DUPLO blocks as well as an easy to clean playmat. Sturdy, strong, stackable, portable. DUPLO Blocks not included.

This mansion doubles as storage. When fully opened, it is a girly, two story house for Barbie and her friends. When shut, kids can store anything from Barbie to makeup to notes passed in class.

This double sided playmat and animal figurine set allows children to creatively experience the safari environment. Real Relics Safari-Land includes 4 museum quality animals and a large wipe clean 2-sided playmat.

This dinosaur playset allows children to explore realistic, prehistoric figurines and there environement. Real Relics Dino-Land includes 4 museum quality animals and a large wipe clean 2-sided playmat.

Keep your child neat with ZipBin Fire House PlayPack.  ZipBin Fire House PlayPack is a backpack that looks like a Fire House. Pull the velcro firetruck flap open to see inside the firehouse. It acts as a playset, but is also useful for storing die-cast trucks and other toys. When play is done, the firehouse zips up, capturing the toys inside for easy clean up!  This play set includes 1 - 3" die cast firetruck with ladder. 

Among the sand and glitter in the I Spy Wonder Tubes are I Spy pictures. Find the floating pictures in the tube to answer the I Spy riddle/rhymes. There are three different sets of riddles and five different colors to collect. "The I Spy Wonder Tubes are unique because they feature the I Spy images AND I Spy riddles," Carol Comes, senior product manager at Briarpatch Inc., told TDmonthly. Launch date: February 2011.

In this simulation of a real paleontology fossil dig, children dig for a fossilized shark tooth, brachiopod shell, gastropod shell, and “squid” shell. These real, millions of years old fossils are enclosed in a “brick” and are revealed by using the supplied scraping and brush tools (similar to what real paleontologists use). Young paleontologists then take a closer look at these fossils with the enclosed magnifying glass and learn about each fossil using the provided fun fact cards. "This is a unique fossil dig in that there are 4 real fossils embedded in each brick," Esther Novis, president of The Young Scientists Club, told TDmonthly. Launch date: January 2011.

Ms. Frizzle and her students take Young Scientists on a wild ride with the Magic School Bus as they explore the world around them with a microscope. Young Scientists learn about the history of the microscope, explore the different parts of a microscope, and discover how to use a microscope. Young Scientists make slides of water droplets, plant parts, textile fibers, all kinds of paper, crystals, and more. This investigative bus-shaped kit comes with a microscope, blank slides, cover slips, tweezers, collecting vial, 20 colorful experiment cards, prepared slides of fungi and algae, and a data notebook to record observations. "The Magic School Bus is a very popular brand that is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. This microscope kit uses the characters from the popular books to get the kids excited about the microscopic world around them," Esther Novis, president of The Young Scientists Club, told TDmonthly. Launch date: March 2011.

Ms. Frizzle and her students take Young Scientists on a wild ride with the Magic School Bus as they explore the field of chemistry. Young Scientists make sticky ice, use litmus paper, measure pH, perform chromatography, make bubble sculptures, wake-up fungus, create slime, form a bouncy ball, learn about density, produce a milk rainbow, plate copper, explode a volcano, and more. This bus-shaped kit comes packed with science components, 51 colorful experiment cards and a data notebook to record observations. "The Magic School Bus is a very popular brand and is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. This bus-shaped kit is unique in that it is a lab in a bus! It comes with 51 instructions cards which provides hours of science fun," Esther Novis, president of The Young Scientists Club, told TDmonthly. Launch date: March 2011.

Ms. Frizzle and her students take Young Scientists on a wild ride by jumping into electricity. Young Scientists generate lightning bolts, use anti-static sheets, make cereal dance, bend a water stream, create static hair, construct an electric circuit, build a light switch, experiment with insulators and conductors, design electric games, and more. This kit comes with a colorful circuit board holder. "The Magic School Bus brand is a very popular brand and is celebrating its 25th anniversary. Our Magic School Bus line has great manuals that engage Young Scientists into the exciting science experiments that are explored in each kit," Esther Novis, president of The Young Scientists Club, told TDmonthly. Launch date: January 2011.

Creative Whack’s newest product is both a challenging puzzle and a creativity toy. Star-Balls's 32 magnetic pieces can be rearranged in countless different ways. Polarity dots help you reassemble the star shape by combining the 5-legged stars with the 3-legged "tri" pieces. Star-Ball pieces can also be combined with the award-winning Ball of Whacks for even more creative possibilities. "The geometry of Star-Ball embodies the golden ratio found in mathematics, art, and nature," Lynn Araujo, communications director of the Creative Whack Company, told TDmonthly. Launch date: February 2011.

DoodleMark™ allows children and parents to interact with books together. Whether practicing sight words, working on vocabulary, learning to write letters, bookmarking their progress or just doodling a funny picture, this product is designed to help build a child's confidence in their reading and writing. It can be used as a classroom tool, at home to reinforce what's being taught in school, and as an incentive for reluctant readers. "DoodleMark is the world's only bookmark and drawing pad that clips to a book," Jennifer Kendra, VP sales and marketing at ReMarkable Reading Concepts, told TDmonthly. Launch date: November 2010.