May 2009 Notable Toys — Science & Nature

Our 12-foot-long Giant Evolution Timeline Poster displays 600 million years of evolution with colorful ancient creatures, fun facts and plenty of awesome activities! With the same great graphics as the floor mat, this poster version is just as engrossing for kids. Includes 12-page Activity Guide. Retails for $29.99.

This deck of large illustrated cards includes one card for all 67 creatures on the Giant Evolution Timeline. Each card includes an illustration, creature name and pronunciation, size comparison figure, paragraph of fun facts, and more. Great alone or in combination with the Giant Evolution Timeline Play Mat or Poster. Retails for $19.99.

This product is designed so that realistic flashes attract real fireflies, which can fly in but can't fly out. It allows kids to see fireflies up close and could serve as a house for nocturnal insects. It offers five light modes for five firefly species. The Firefly Attractor "safely attracts fireflies and captures them without anyone touching or harming them," a representative of Summit Products told TDmonthly. Launch date: 2009.

These kits are designed to offer everything kids need to learn about the basics of robotic science while constructing fun machines. There are four styles: Robotic Bird, Robotic Ball Collector, Robotic Bubble Blower and Robotic Beeper. All parts snap together with easy to follow instructions. Each kit requires 2 AA batteries, not included. Launch date: 2009.

The bladder stores pee until an individual is ready to go. Most bladders hold as much liquid as a can and a half of soda. Nerves in the bladder wall tell when it’s time to go. "This super-soft, bright yellow 6" x 4" urinary bladder plush is perfect for telling someone when urine love," Founder Wendy Bryan of I Heart Guts told TDmonthly. Launch date: May 5, 2009.

The spleen keeps the blood tidy and fresh. This queen of clean serves as the primary blood filter and largest lymph organ. It brings blood into contact with lymphocytes, which happily attack foreign bodies, and cleans worn-out red and white blood cells. "This adorable 6" x 6" plushie is perfect for the lymph enthusiast lurking within us all," Wendy Bryan, founder of I Heart Guts, told TDmonthly. Launch date: May 5, 2009.

The stomach creates a highly acidic environment used to digest cookies, ice cream, bacon and more. This lil' guy's digestive juices help break down food for the intestine, which absorbs the actual nutrients. This orange 8.5" x 5.5" tummy is part of the I Heart Guts collection, which is "icky yet adorable," the company's founder, Wendy Bryan, told TDmonthly. Launch date: May 5, 2009.

Behold, the intestine and appendix in soft plush form. The small intestine absorbs nutrients from food while the large intestine takes in water and excretes solid waste. The tiny appendix, seen here sticking out at lower left, doesn’t do anything, but adds to the I Heart Guts plush collection. This 9" x 7" pillow-like plush "is cute, yet slightly disgusting," Wendy Bryan, founder of I Heart Guts, told TDmonthly. Launch date: May 5, 2009.

This quality Dobsonian style telescope features a 76 mm aperture reflector optical tube. FirstScope is an ideal entry level astronomical telescope, as it is designed for easy observation. The user simply navigates the night sky by moving the tube in the direction of their desired object. The compact design makes it easily portable, and the FirstScope is also stylish enough to be a decorative fixture on a bookshelf or desk. The FirstScope is the Official Product Of the 2009 International Year of Astronomy. The FirstScope pays tribute to Galileo Galilei and many of history’s most notable astronomers and scientists by displaying their names around the optical tube. Launch date: April 2009.

The DVD's images of peaceful, flowering gardens and multidimensional stones transitioning in an artistic display of creation, accompanied by tranquil nature sounds, are designed to shift the mind to right-brain thinking and free viewers from anxiety and stress. It comes with colorful 5” x 7” postcards to mail or frame. "'Healing Stones and Gardens' suspends time for an extraordinary moment and facilitates a journey to a sacred place where we can reconnect with inner divinity," Sue Defabis, project manager at Five Star Publications, told TDmonthly. Launch date: 2009.

A tribute to family, friendship and forty-five years at summer camp, "Campingly Yours" paints a poignant picture of character, charisma and courage, lovingly nestled in America’s heartland. Punctuated with vivid imagery and laugh-out-loud humor, Thomas C. Adler’s memoir is "a heartwarming journey of a lifetime at summer camp," Sue Defabis, project manager at Five Star Publications, told TDmonthly. Launch date: January 15, 2009.

The Seahorse is one of nature's most startling creations. The Ancients thought these creatures pulled the chariots of Neptune. We have reduced it to an endangered species. This book explores the science and the mythology, the biology and behavior, the beauty and mystery of this unique dazzling fish.

Based on the new Spitzer Hall of Human Origins in the American Museum of Natural History which opens in February 2007, The Book of The Genome takes the young reader to the cutting edge of science, exploring and examining the tools by which we study our origins, some of the milestones in human origins, human movement across the Planet and the beginnings of being human through language, music, art and tools.

Amazing Jellies presents an entertaining and authoritative look into the little-known world of what we commonly, but incorrectly, have known as jellyfish. Jellies are among the most beautiful and unusual animals on earth. They are found in all the oceans of the world and even in some freshwater lakes and rivers.

They come in all sizes, from 3mm to 12 feet across and 100 feet long. They are 95 percent water, with a little bit of prote in, oil, and salt. Jellies have lived on the earth for millions of years, and their fossils have been found in rocks 650 million years old. They have no brain, no liver, no kidneys, no heart, no lungs, or gills. They do not need blood, have no eyes, nose or tongue. They can be lethal and are nearly always beautiful.

Disappearing Giants: The North Atlantic Right Whale was our first collaboration with The New England Aquarium, and with the same depth and clarity, Amazing Jellies provides the reader with a thorough understanding of jellies andtheir role in the ocean. The book takes advantage of the most recent research into jellies, with a chapter based on a special exhibit at the New England Aquarium also titled "Amazing Jellies." Beautiful color photographs accompany a clearly written and wide-ranging text.

The Dangerous Book for Boys: Electronics presents information on electronics every child should know through fun, engaging, and impressive experiments and activities. Children ages eight and up learn how to construct simple electronic toys, such as a joy buzzer and insect.  It comes with a 32-page, full-color experiment manual and retails for $35.95. Launch date: Fall 2009.

This game includes an inflatable globe with more than 270 animals printed on it. The point of the game is to locate the animal using a variety of clues. Children 4 and up can play up to four levels. Level 1 starts by identifying an animal's silhouette in among one of six sections of the globe. With the highest level, the player is only given a verbal description of the animal. "Everyone is able to play given that the game has different levels of difficulty," Shantel Cartwright, in sales and marketing for TEDCO Toys, told TDmonthly. Launch date: May 2009.

The base of the Rolling Earth Puzzle Bank is a savings bank with a screw-on cover. The Earth Globe is a puzzle. Place the globe on the base and nothing happens; however, place the magnetic jet airliner on the equator and the globe begins to turn as the jet circumnavigates the Globe. It runs on 4 AA batteries and comes assorted with light blue and dark blue globes. "People will be amazed by the simplistic magnetic science that makes the Earth turn. The motion is mesmerizing as the plane moves around the globe," Richard B. Freeman, VP of domestic sales for Fascinations Toys & Gifts, told TDmonthly. Launch date: May 2009.

The TK2 Microscope kit gives you the tools, knowledge, and skills you need to view virtually any specimen you can find. The microscope is a dual light 40-, 100-, and 400-power metal and plastic microscope. The two battery-powered LED light sources allow for both the viewing of large or opaque objects lit from above and the viewing of thinly sliced or translucent specimens lit from below. It has a 10-power ocular lens; 4-, 10-, and 40-power objective lenses; and an aperture wheel. The lenses are all professional-quality optical glass. The microscope is durable and powerful, permitting years of continued observations.

Global warming — the steady increase in Earth’s air and ocean temperatures since the mid-20th century — is one of the most discussed and studied topics in the scientific community today. This kit introduces you to Earth’s climate and the issue of global warming with 23 hands-on experiments. This kit gives you the basic knowledge you need to understand the climate, why it changes, and how our actions affect it.
— “Science and robotics are extremely popular,” said Dean Nelson, owner of Wizard Kids Toys in Toledo, Ohio, who told TDmonthly in June 2009 that Thames & Kosmos is one of his top-selling lines for boys.
— Two of 47 storeowners said Thames & Kosmos account for their top sales in boys' items during a summer 2009 survey.

Hydropower has been used for hundreds of years in watermills and is now commonly used to generate electricity in applications such as hydroelectric dams and tidal power plants. Explore the power of water by building models and conducting experiments with them. Learn about how different devices are used to extract useful energy from moving water — from a waterwheel in a small stream to a giant turbine in a tidal power station. Build a waterwheel, a sawmill, and a hammer mill to harness the energy of moving water to do different types of physical work.

Head into the lab for an in-depth investigation of genetics, the branch of biology focused on heredity and variation in organisms, and DNA, the acid that holds the blueprints for life. See genetic material with your own eyes as you isolate the DNA from a tomato in a test tube. Investigate inheritance and learn how traits are passed down from parents to children. Learn about dominant and recessive genes and play inheritance games to determine how traits will be expressed.

Astonish yourself with optical illusions and amazing visual phenomena as you explore the science of human perception in this fascinating kit. Experiment with light and the color spectrum by building a color wheel, a fiber optic peacock, and diffraction glasses. Learn how the eye and a camera are similar and how they are different. Build a camera obscura and pinhole glasses. Investigate lenses and light refraction. Experiment with spatial vision and depth perception with 3D glasses and an Ames room model. Find your blind spot and watch things disappear. Awards: Parent's Choice Award 2010

Find out how Earth’s rotation creates day and night, how Earth’s axis and revolution around the sun causes the seasons, and how the moon’s rotation around Earth gives us the phases of the moon. See for yourself how meteorites formed the craters on the moon. Make a moon flipbook and a moon calendar. Build a sundial and a solar collector to experiment with the sun. Grasp a comet’s tail and learn about how meteoroids become falling stars.  A full-color, 32-page experiment book guides your space exploration.

Core Science MS-1 is a supplemental science curriculum for students entering grades 5 through 8. By performing the experiments in this kit and completing exercises in the accompanying workbook, students will lay the groundwork for success in natural science courses in school. Students will gain familiarity with commonly used science terms, methods, and tools, preparing them for future studies. The full-color, 96-page experiment manual provides illustrated instructions and explanations, and the black-and-white, 48-page workbook guides students through each experiment and allows them to record their findings.