FAO Schwarz Selling Exclusive Cabbage Patch Dolls

It's the 30th Anniversary of Cabbage Patch Kids Dolls and FAO Schwarz is celebrating by being the exclusive seller of Cabbage Patch Kids Collector Edition Dolls. Pretty cool! The 3 new dolls seem pretty successful to me. They have that over the top Cabbage Patch cuteness along with that hard to pin down but definitely weird edge. Enjoy!

Check 'em out here.

3 Best Plank Building Toys for Kids and Adults

Blocks aren't just for kids anymore. In fact, some blocks aren't even called "blocks" anymore - they're called "planks," and an entire world of very entertaining and fun building play has opened up thanks to these relatively new plank building toy sets.

The idea is simple but compelling. Push "blocks" to the next level by instead making high quality wooden "planks" that are precisely cut and sanded, feel great to the touch, and where each piece weighs almost exactly same. Thanks to the quality workmanship of these plank sets, playing with such simple but high quality planks feels very special, as if you're working with an architectural modeling materials - which explains why these toys are so popular with architects and engineers!

I recommend at least considering toys made by the following 3 brands if you're in the market for building sets which are well made and which stimulate creative and imaginative play.

Kapla Planks are the original plank toys, made in France, out of pine wood. Kapla Sets tend to be the priciest. The packaging for Kapla planks is truly beautiful, as they come in simple wooden boxes which can be used to store the planks.

Keva Planks are a more moderately priced rival to Kapla planks, made of maple wood. My survey of the marketplace at the time of writing shows that Keva planks tend to be less expensive than Kapla planks. Keva planks are the same size as Kapla planks, and could thus be used as a lower cost complement to a  collection of Kapla planks, or as an alternative.

Citiblocs are similar to Keva and Kapla plank systems, but go off on an interesting, somewhat different direction. The biggest difference is that their sets consist of  planks (or "blocs") of different sizes. These differences might make for some welcome variation in structures and play. The other big difference is that many Citibloc sets come in different color themes which really are quite beautiful. Like the Keva and Kapla sets, Citiblocs are well made wooden toys. They also seem to be the least expensive option.

I have played with all three and they're all great. You can really feel the quality with which these building sets are made, as they have a great tactile quality to them and feel wonderful to the touch. Overall, these sets are a welcome alternative to the world of cheaply made (and often over priced) plastic toy sets which dominate today's toy market.

Lego is the Biggest Toymaker in the World.

Yep, according to this Guardian article, Lego is the biggest toymaking business in the world.

It's quite a remarkable story actually, as the once ailing corporation has made such a big turn around that it has quadrupled its revenues in less than 10 years, making it bigger than Mattel (the maker of Barbie), the next biggest rival toymaking corporation.

How has it accomplished such a feat? As the article points out, it boils down to simple profitability - Lego can take one kg of plastic that costs less than $1 and then package that plastic into sets that it then sells for $75 per kg. You have to be an idiot to fail with a business model like that.

Frankly, I'm not surprised that their profits are so high. Over at my household, we've been diving into Legos and the price of these sets is intimidating - especially for what you get. My youngest just had a birthday where she received a few Lego sets, and I have to say, as much of a fan of Legos as I am, with a soft spot in my heart based on loving them as a child, it is kind of shocking the paltry amount of plastic bricks Lego sells for $15 or $20 dollars. These sets are small, as in you don't get a lot of pieces, and the pieces you do get are tiny.

I could go on and on about why I think Lego overprices their stuff, but let's just say that they make an excellent example of toy miniaturization taken to absurd levels that I talked about in a recent post about ripoff toys.

For example, I saw my daughter struggling - even with her tiny fingers - to take a Lego composed of one single square bit of plastic that was meant to represent a piece of food and place into a slightly larger teeny tiny food bin. Anyone want to take any guesses as to how long it will be before this tiny single square Lego brick is lost forever, vacuumed or swept up or lodged in some nook or cranny in the floorboards? The set had a lot of teeny tiny single square pieces.

On a more positive note, I hope that Lego designers and marketers are getting good salaries for the value that they add to these piles of plastic! They're the true heroes here.

Toys R US and FAO Schwarz Sales

Toys R Us is having a 15% off sale this week, for both online and in store purchases.

FAO Schwarz is having a Buy 1 Get 1 for 50% Off sale for all Calico Critters items. This is an online only sale. See site for details. That Calico Critters play set looks pretty cool.

The Lego Movie: Not So Bad.

So, like millions of other fellow Americans, me and my kids checked out The Lego Movie recently. Verdict? A qualified thumbs up - a thumbs up for sheer laughs and entertainment value, a more measured so so for being a standard Hollywood flick which doesn't get to the level of greatness.

To pick up from my last post, I was incredulous about this film, since any film so blatantly linked to a commercial product just seems like an extended advertisment and/or product placement opportunity.

And there's no doubt there's an aspect of this to The Lego Movie - it's unavoidable. But what's also unavoidable in this flick are a lot of laughs. A surprising amount.

The plot? Well, the plot isn't that clever, novel, or frankly, that interesting (it's the classic tale of a child seeking parental love and affection from a distant parent who has lost the "spirit of play"), but it does propel the story forward in a way that keeps the laughs coming.

And as I said the laughs keep flowing, from start to finish. It's the kind of humor that works for both adults and children alike. A lot of sarcasm and snark between characters that's funny and never mean. There are plenty of pop culture references, but never in a too over the top sort of way which might alienate little kids who don't get the references.

Visually, it's quite stunning. Needless to say everything is made out of 3D cgi'd Legos. I mean everything. Clouds in the sky are made out of Legos. Explosions, smoke and fire are made out of Legos. One sequence set at sea is particularly amazing as waves that are made completely out of Legos rise and fall in sort of a realistic way.

By sort of realistic I mean that none of the movement in the Lego world happens smoothly or realistically. It all happens "lego-ishly." That is, in sort of a herky jerky stop animated style which somehow seems to be correct for a world made entirely of plastic bricks.

This flick resides squarely in the cinematic terrain mapped out in movies like Wreck It Ralph, The Incredibles, and of course, the Toy Story movies. These are all movies with perfectly acceptable and commendable stories which function as premises for a series of engaging, entertaining, and "wow, cool!" visual sequences. It's hard to criticize these movies as they do what they're supposed to do - entertain - and they do it well, but at the same time, I would hold them up against movies like, say, those made by Hayao Miyazaki (Totoro, Kiki's Delivery Service, Spirited Away, Arietty, etc.). where the story and visual world's they take place in mesh together seamlessly in one engrossing experience.

In Miyazaki's movies, the moral of the story isn't treated as sort of an afterthought pasted on to a series of gags - in fact, in some Miyazak movies you'd be hard pressed to find any heavy handed "lessons for kids" at all. They're simply wonderful, rich fantasies that stay with you. Does The Lego Movie get to this level of movie goodness? No. Not even close.

What The Lego Movie provides is about 90 minutes of laughs and diversion. And within 10 minutes of leaving the theater, my oldest turned to me and asked, "can we get some more Legos?" Kind of says it all, doesn't it?

The Lego Movie: Maybe Not So Bad?

Legos! When I started this blog I knew I'd end up talking about Legos sooner or later, but I didn't realize I would be talking about a Lego movie. Funny that.

Right away I will admit that I have a negative initial reaction to movies with names like "The Lego Movie," and I doubt my reaction is all that special or strange.  I mean, when the name of a product is front and center in a movie's title - especially in a kid's movie - isn't it normal to think the flick is just an extended exercise in product placement and just an expensive (both to make and to see) form of extended-length advertisement? Well, that's my reaction anyway.

On the other hand, the title "The Lego Movie" also has a hip ironic read as well, right?

"Dad, can we go see the Lego Movie?"

"What's it called?"

"The Lego Movie!"

Might as well name it what everyone would call it anyway.

So my initial reaction to hearing about the film was negative, largely based on the name alone. But I'm hearing that it's a decent film.

Both the LA Weekly and the LA Times give it good reviews.

And I'll admit, this faux "bloopers" reel made me chuckle. Maybe this flick's worth a viewing?

When Toys Become Art

Okay, so this post isn't exactly about kid toys - but I have to admit I relate to this guy's level of creative obsession. I'm no child psychologist or child development expert, but I wouldn't at all be surprised to find out that there's a connection between imaginative, creative play during childhood and the kind of intense, tenacious creativity shown by the creator of this amazing model train setup, Bruce Zaccagnino.

h/t Gawker

GoldieBlox: Too Cold. For Now.

This is my second post that’s critical of GoldieBlox so I just want to say right out of the gate that I'm not on some sort of crusade against GoldieBlox. Honest. It’s just that this is a new blog and I’m still finding sources for toy-related news to comment on. It just happens that GoldieBlox is getting a lot of media attention, which naturally has caught my eye. In fact, as a father of two daughters, I'm very interested in GoldieBlox and support what they're trying to do.

Jezebel has just posted a piece on GoldieBlox makes a few good points. They are: 

 - GoldieBlox don’t have a lot of replayability i.e. kids play with it a couple times, get bored, and then move on to other toys which have got more going on. 

- As a company GoldieBlox are doing a much better job at marketing their toys than they are at producing engaging and fun toys.

- GoldieBlox are expensive for what you get.

One could just make the third point - that GoldieBlox are expensive for what you get - and leave it at that, because obviously replayability and the marketing being flashier than the real product wouldn’t matter much if GB sets were dirt cheap. But the first two points do help explain why GB aren’t a great value for the money.

My youngest daughter got the above GoldieBlox set from one of her grandmothers for Christmas, so I can speak from experience here. And our experience more or less is in line with the criticisms made in the article.

The box the toy comes in is beautifully printed with bright appealing colors (and not pink!). The toy comes with a nicely made story book that gets your kid in the mood for playing. The toy pieces themselves are well made. It’s definitely not a piece of crap toy set.

But this basic set just doesn’t haven’t much going on.

First off, the approx. $30 price tag isn't insignificant to my retired mother living on a fixed income. The toy was a significant part of her Christmas present budget for both of her granddaughters. $30 is a lot for anybody!

From there, things have played out in much the same way as the Jezebel article describes. My daughter played with it a few times and moved on. She's come back to it a few times, but just hasn't been captured by it the way she has by her Playmobil or her Keva planks. She specifically mentioned that she needs more "goldieblox" in order to get any good play going. Maybe we'll get her some for her birthday, we'll see.

My $.02  is that it’s hard to promise the world - that is, challenging the conventions of toy marketing and toy design - and then deliver. And the louder and more successful the marketing of that innovative product that you’re trying to sell, the more you better deliver on the promise.

Long story short, GoldieBlox has been very successful in marketing, and in a way that’s been both a blessing for them as well as a curse. But it doesn’t have to be a fatal problem. With the success they’ve managed so far, all the have to do is keep improving their product and I think their customers will love the company and become fans. There’s obviously an audience for this kind of toy. It’s a very engaged and vocal market. Make them something they love and they will turn around and buy more, as well as also providing all sorts of great word of mouth advertising. Keep at it, GoldieBlox, and you'll get it "Just Right."

FAO Schwarz Sale

Newsletter News: FAO Schwarz has got an online only sale going on. Save 25% off all FAO Schwarz brand toys. According to the newsletter, the sale last until Feb. 15th.

Birthday Season Approaches!

Well, Christmas has barely ended and already it seems like every weekend one of my daughters has a birthday party to attend.

Statistically speaking I guess the summer is supposed to be peak birthday time, but compared to the lack of birthdays in December and especially January, the uptick in birthdays feels like a real influx. If past experience is any guide, we'll be very ready for the birthday party calendar to mellow out by the time the school year ends.

It's all good fun, and we love celebrating with our friends and showing them we care. Showing them we care leads to the topic of this post: birthday presents.

What are you getting your child's friends? What are the kids in your world requesting for presents? Do you have any special tips or tricks for preparing for a flood birthday parties? Do you buy the same presents for all the kids in your children's circle, or do you try to find that perfect gift for each child?

I hate to say it, but our family is more last minute than we wish. I've often thought about taking a special trip to the toy store or maybe making a special online mail order to stock up on presents, but as good as these ideas are, I've never quite had that level of follow through.

We'll return to this topic as birthday season gets into full gear, but for now you'll have to excuse me - I have to order some birthday presents for an upcoming party!

Look Out, Velociraptor!

Not many dinosaurs have the name recognition and instant notoriety that Velociraptor has. Thanks to Jurassic Park, a whole generation of kids have come up terrorized by idea of the speedy carnivore.

If you're someone, or you know someone, with Velociraptors on the brain, then you might be interested in this plastic Velociraptor dinosaur figure made by Safari Ltd. It's a great dinosaur figurine, sculpted in a dynamic hunting pose and hand painted in colors that are quite possibly realistic for how the terrible lizard might have actually looked. Pair this one up with the Safari Triceratops dinosaur toy that we mentioned last week, and  you have the makings for some dramatic dinosaur combat!

Available at a low price from the Wild Animal Store, a great source for animal figures, animal replicas, and animal toys.

Ripoffs in Toyland

Not to be a downer, but I had a few thoughts today about how too many toys are mostly about ripping off parents, and not so much about delighting children.

These thoughts were inspired by cleaning up, believe it or not. I was organizing one of the kid's toy shelves, and I wanted to move some books from one shelf to another, including a new boxed set of books the girls received last Christmas. You know, one of those book series that are sold as a group, usually in a nicely packaged box that the books are kept in. So I reached for the box, barely touched it, and the whole thing sort of fell over, the books fell out, knocking over other toys and books in the process.



I barely touched the box! Putting everything away, I realized that what had happened is that I had reached for the box assuming that it would be a sturdy paperboard box, the way most boxes for books USED to be. Instead, this particular box was very flimsy and barely held the books it contained upright. So when my hand sort of clumsily, oafishly (I admit I'm a clumsy oaf) brushed against it, the box couldn't contain the books inside and they fell out all over.

To put it another way, the box for the books was cheaply made, thinner than usual paper stock, somewhere between paper board and a heavy card stock. Why was it made this way? To save money for the publisher and increase the profit made on the boxed set.

Don't we see a lot of this these days?

Here's another example. During a shopping trip to Target last Christmas, I went to check out different playsets that my 5 year old daughter might enjoy, My Little Pony playsets in particular. I was hoping to find a boxed set of all the main characters. I was prepared to pay around $20 or $30 for such a set, if I could find one.

I was disappointed to find only one set that frankly, felt like a big ripoff that I couldn't buy. For about $25, all I could find was a set of tiny little "sparkly rainbow" versions of the main MLP characters. If it wasn't this set shown here, it closely resembled it:

Now, I'm no fool. I've been around the block a few times and I've bought toys like this. Sure, kids are small, their hands are small, and perhaps their love of MLP is so strong that they will be perfectly content to play with these teeny tiny representations of their favorite MLP characters. 

I want to emphasize again that these toy ponies are tiny. Very small. Like an inch and a half high. They're not much to play with and needless to say they're begging to get lost. And we parents are asked to pay around $20 or $25 for this unsubstantial package.

And that's the point, isn't it? We know, and the toy makers know, that our children really really want these toys, no matter how small or overpriced they are. In fact, our kids are mostly oblivious to things like size and price.

This kind of miniaturization is a trend. It is based on the idea that the smaller the toys are made - without lowering the price of the toy - the more money can be made. And parents can be trusted to keep paying, because they want to get kids toys that they love, no matter the quality.

/Rant off for now, but I gotta say, I find this trend annoying.

A Look at a Few Frozen-related Toys

There's a whole world of Frozen-related toys out there. Dolls, figurines, and playsets. For this post I'm going to take a look at some of the playsets and figurines I've noticed, plus a review of a figurine set that I bought. This obviously isn't a review of all the many Frozen-related toys out on the market.

I haven't seen any of the Frozen castle playsets in person, but here's one that I seem to see photos of most often:

I have to admit Elsa's castle is looking a little Liberace to me, but then I thought that during the movie too, so I suppose it's just being true to the movie.

This next set below is much cooler looking. It's the sisters' inherited castle at Arendelle in all its glory. Again, I haven't seen this one in the flesh, but it looks quite big compared to the figures, and it's wonderfully detailed in a way that should capture the imagination.

Moving on from castles, here are some figurine-oriented playsets: This one below seems to be quite common. Right off the bat, the packaging itself makes a great impression - the way the figures are positioned and posed is like movie advertising key art come to life. I don't own this set nor have I seen it in person so I can't speak towards its quality, but the figures look nicely detailed with rich colors and textures.

And then there's this baby. This is the set I got for my youngest. Again the packaging is really nice and tempting.

Also, kudos to Disney for not making the figures next to impossible to get out of the packaging even once the box is open. I'm sure some of you know what I'm talking about - packaging where the toys are so twist tied and affixed to the packaging that you need heavy duty shears to get them out, not to mention incredible patience to do it while a kid is hopping up and down next to you dying to get their hands on the toy. No, in this case, open up the box, slide out the molded plastic insert that the figures are encased in, and the figures pop out and are ready to go.


And what nice figures they are. Sven, Christoph, Hans, Olaf, Anna, and Elsa are all here, ready to go re-enact whatever scenes you want or go on whatever adventures you can imagine. They're well made visually. The female figures get real fabric clothes. The menfolk get molded plastic get ups.

Elsa looks beautiful as always, but I have to give best design credits to Anna's outfit and overall appearance. Her dress falls below her knees and is patterned with traditional Scandinavian-looking markings. To keep her warm is a lovely dark magenta cloak. Completing her look are some cool-looking big black boots!

Most of the figures move in various ways, though not in the same ways. Some can sit, some can't. Sven doesn't move at all. My biggest criticism of the set - and it's a big criticism - is that me and my youngest discovered very quickly is that not all of these figures stay standing! This is bad, bad, bad! Elsa is the worst offender - it's almost impossible to get her to stay standing. All the other figures you can kind of get get them to stand after some messing around. It's a major flaw in the design of these figures in my opinion, and I would have thought twice about buying this set if I'd known.


Like these particular toy sets or not, the way Disney releases its movie-related toys in dribs and drabs over the course of many years means that we will be seeing different versions of Frozen toys for years to come. For toy lovers, and especially toy lovers who are fans of Frozen, this will be interesting to watch.

Toys R Us Sale

Newsletter News: Toys R Us is having a two day sale on selected items like some Melissa & Doug toys, Skylanders, etc. 40% off plus free shipping is a very good deal.

Triceratops Plastic Animal Toy by Safari

Hey look, it's everyone's favorite Cretaceous herbivore - the fierce, sturdy, but kindly Triceratops.

Actually, we know very little about Triceratops, but I imagine them as gentle giants browsing forests and plains and raising their young in herds, only to be occasionally hassled by carnivores like Tyrannosaurus Rex. Herbivorous underdogs of the Cretaceous? It's a pleasing idea even if it's all fiction.

At any rate, Safari Ltd. has got us covered when it comes to providing us with a great animal toy version of the Triceratops. Wonderfully detailed in a lifelike pose, hand painted with realistic colors, this guy can sit on your desk or on your shelves as a conversation starter or he can be added to your child's toy collection where he will launch all sorts of creative and imaginative play.

Sold by The Wild Animal Toy Store, a great source of plastic animal toys and animal figurines.

Review of "Frozen"

I don't intend for movie reviews to be a big part of this blog, but now and then, as I run across something noteworthy, sure I'll write a review. Why not?

So, I took the kids to see Frozen a couple of weekends ago. The verdict? Thumbs up - we all liked it a lot.

Frozen fits nicely into the Disney canon of Princess Movies. The setting is some vague, unspecified Scandinavian country during some vague, unspecified Napoleanic-ish era. Against this sort of generic Northern European backdrop a simple tale of family - namely, sisterly - love unfolds.

It's a pretty straightforward storyline. It goes from A to B to C with not much in the way of twists, turns, or surprises. The Princess and the Frog, Tangled, and Brave are all more complex in comparison, but what Frozen may be lacking in terms of a complex storyline it most surely has in extraordinary visuals and in great musical numbers.

That's right, Frozen has songs - and great songs too! Me and my kids found ourselves going on YouTube to hear the tunes over again, and then, having the songs lodged in our heads, spontaneously breaking out into song, singing them over and over together throughout the day. Several of them are quite catchy, and as you would expect from Disney, the lyrics are irresistibly and relentlessly positive and uplifiting.

As I also mentioned, the visuals are wonderful. So many films aren't worth the ticket price of seeing them in theaters, especially when so many movies can be found online for free, but Frozen is an example of a flick worth seeing in its natural habitat - the theater. We did the whole thing up properly - going to a nice theater with reserved seating, splurging on snacks, and then taking the whole thing happily and with wide eyes. I've never seen snow and winter rendered so beautifully. No detail was neglected, and the entire visual experience was rich and deligthful to take in.

Criticisms? Well, as I said before, the story is quite simple with not much in the way of complexity or surprises. Brave and Tangled feel more developed in comparison, and they're not exactly complicated stories either.

But I obviously liked the movie and I recommend it. In fact, I liked it enough to go out and buy my youngest a Frozen figurine playset - a topic definitely under the purview of this site!