February 2010 Notable Toys — Kits

Top Chef, Food Network, and “Julie & Julia” have made cooking popular once again, and BANDAI’s Chef Kids capitalizes on this current popularity. While most cooking programs are aimed at adults, the Chef Kids line includes instructional DVDs created for kids with interest in the kitchen. The ChocoPot lets kid chefs make chocolate treats using a battery powered pot and three molds. Everything is included—just add chocolate!

This kit teaches Young Scientists about animal tracking through exciting hands-on science experiments and activities. Identify animal tracks, learn about the animals that make the tracks, cast animal tracks, play the tracking game, create animal track prints, design an animal track poster, and explore real animal tracks in nature. Includes eight realistic animal footprint molds, large colorful poster, and eighty animal game cards. Launch date: Spring 2010

On this latest Magic School Bus ride, Ms. Frizzle and her students take Young Scientists back in time with the dinosaurs through these marvelous experiments. Young Scientists create a timeline, design a diorama, build a wooden dinosaur replica, make cast and mold fossils, mold clay dinosaur teeth, simulate a dino dig, fold 3D dinosaurs, and much, much more.

In this new addition to the Magic School Bus Series, Ms. Frizzle and her students take Young Scientists on a wild ride with solar energy to the rescue.  Young Scientists explore the greenhouse effect, collect real carbon dioxide, recreate global warming in a bottle, use a solar panel to spin a fan, make a solar secret code, design solar spinners, watch solar energy inflate balloons, and much, much more. Awards: Parent's Choice Award 2010

Jacquard Products' Funky Groovy Tie Dye Kit, a 2010 Tillywig Top Fun Award winner, includes everything a parent needs to introduce their child to the fascinating art of tie dye and supervise the creation of up to 5 adult size T-shirts. With easy-to-follow instructions and pattern tying guidelines, the kit also includes: pre-measured Procion MX dye in red, blue and yellow; soda ash dye fixer; 3 squirt bottles; rubber gloves and rubber bands.  Launch date: February 2010.

Jacquard Products' Hoop Painting Fun Bag, a 2010 Tillywig Top Fun Award winner, includes all the professional-quality supplies needed for painting hoops using four different techniques: silk painting, watercolor, salt or sun-printing. Kids can express their artistic side by creating stunning sun catchers or one-of-a-kind wall art pieces. Launch date: February 2010.

Fun to work with and easy to use, colorful wool felt makes unique jewelry. With simple tips and lots of examples for inspiration, design a fashionable bracelet, necklaces, pin, barrette and 2 pairs of earrings, all with this one great kit! Two bonus projects in every kit! Turn the box into a mailbox, birdhouse or special treasure box. The inner tray is perfect for framing your art. Ages 8 and up.  

These science construction kits are designed to allow young minds to build and understand Solar, Water, Elastic, Dynamo and Wind power sources while building kinetic models and vehicles. They are "well-conceived and comprehensive kits with many variations and high value," a representative of Perisphere & Trylon, Inc., told TDmonthly. Launch date: May 2010.
— John MacDougall, owner of Golden Apple Learning Store in Pleasanton, Calif., was impressed with the Wind Energy kit with giant turbine blades at Toy Fair 2010. "We love renewable energy education kits," he said.
— ''Science kits do well overall,'' Cheryl Richmond owner Punkin Doodles Havre, Mont., shared with TDmonthly.

The YOUTHpreneur It’s My BIZkit contains everything to get a child’s part-time business up and running,  including professional guidance and practical advice for both mentor and child. This kit will teach young entrepreneurs essential concepts related to business, communication and charitable giving by allowing them to experience it firsthand. A seven step kit, this product is complete with brief case, reference guide, workbook, stationary, thank you cards, money pouch, and mentor's guide.

This kit includes four assorted tubs of gluten-free Aroma Dough play dough, three cookie cutters in bright colors, a rolling pin and an 11" x 17" Splat Mat to be used as a surface for molding and creative play.

The Daisy Fold & Go goes with any Easy Daysies Magnetic Kit. It is a magnetic board that kids can take anywhere. Grandparents and babysitters can easily know a child's daily routine. It can be personalized with a dry erase marker. Users can place magnets down the middle or use the "To Do" and "Done" columns for a reward system. The back stores unused magnets.

This kit includes chemicals needed to grow a Rose Quartz crystal cluster of up to 4" in diameter. It comes with the Space Age Crystal Growing chemical, a stirring rod, a display pedestal and instructions. Within just a few hours of transferring the chemical to hot water, pouring the mixture into the vessel and letting it cool, crystals will begin to form and then continue growing for many days.

This spy kit in a book-shaped box includes spy glasses, a decoder, ID cards, a listening device and more items a kid will need to be a double agent whose job it is to track down some top-secret files.

Designed to teach girls about cosmetic chemistry, this kit includes ingredients to make custom scents and indulge in a crystal mud treatment and a sea salt scrub. Girls can also buff and shine their nails for a finished look.
— Two of 40 retailers cited Scientific Explorer as a best-selling educational brand in fall 2009. The Curiosity Zone in Ashburn, Va., sells dozens of Scientific Explorer kits per month, Owner Mary Porter told TDmonthly.