Chocolate Fountains

You may have seen Chocolate Fountains in use at a wedding reception or other large party. These melt chocolate and pump them up into a cascading fountain for people to use for dipping fruits, breads, pretzels, etc. You can buy these in a large style for hundreds of dollars, or you can buy a smaller crock pot style one for under $100.

Also, Rose Art has come out with a toy version called "The Real Chocolate Fountain". Despite the "real"-ness of it, though, it's important to note that it uses chocolate syrup instead of melted chocolate. The effect, although possibly fun for kids, is nowhere near the same.

Creatrix Blocks and Book Combo

Creatrix is a neat new product by Fisher Price. Each Creatrix set includes a book and a bunch of fun looking building blocks that kids can use to make the characters that they meet in the books. For example, using the Underwater Fun set, kids can make the octopus, turtle, and fish characters that are in the book and play with them while reading, or they can build their own creatures free-style. When not in use, the pieces store in a book-style box and kept on a bookshelf.

A Classic Toy that should come back

Every year, more and more toys from the past get recycled. This year we're seeing the comeback of Trollz, Furby, Cabbage Patch Kids, and others. One classic toy I'd like to see come back is Fisher Price's Adventure People.
These toys (usually playsets made up of figures, vehicles and accessories) are from the 70's, and have people camping, sky diving, riding motorcycles, going on safaris ... but the figures represent normal people, not superheroes, fashion dolls or licensed characters. Not in stores, but like almost any Classic or Vintage toy, sets of them can be found at eBay.

Dora Knows Your Name Doll

Part of a new collection of dolls / interactive toys this year, the Dora Knows Your Name Doll. It looks like you use a USB cable to hook it up to your computer and download a name and other words that the doll uses to speak in personalized phrases. Other Toys in the Collection include Winnie the Pooh and Elmo.

Read With Me DVD

Fisher Price has a new learning toy his year called the Read With Me DVD system. It features a unit that looks something like a video game controller, but is actually a wireless remote control that you program to work with your DVD player. It comes with a DVD-ROM of a book being read, and additional boks are available separately. Kids can just listen, or they can follow alomg in the book, and there are also interactive activities, games and quizzes.

One of the first things that impresses me is the lineup of DVD/Books that are available for it. Many classics and traditional favorites are available, including Dr Seuss, Corduroy, Where the Wild Things Are, Chicka Chicka Boom, Boom, etc.

New Backyardigans Toys - Part two

Less than half the size of the Cuddle Pillows, the Backyardigans Plush Toys are 12 inches tall and are available as Pablo, Uniqua and Tyrone.

Atomic Blox - new blocks that light up

There are several interesting new lines of blocks and building toys out this year. Atomic Blox, for instance are plastic blocks that come with eletronic circuits built into them, so that you can make structure that light up. See the Atomic Blox Website for some cool-looking examples of how they work.

Amby Baby claims to soothe colicky babies

In addition to helping you find toys, NewToyFinder.com also helps you find new and unique products for babies. One of those products is the Amby Baby. It's a new kind of baby bed that hangs from a frame kind of like a hammock. The motion it creates is supposed to help babies sleep, and sounds like it would be especially good for babies with colic.

Backyardigans Cuddle Pillows now available

If you have a child that loves the cartoon The Bacyardigans, you'll be happy to know that some new toys and gifts based on the show have come out just in time for Christmas.

One item is the Backyardigans Cuddle pillow, which is 27 inches tall, and available as several of the characters.

New versions of last years hit Aquadoodle

One of last year's hot toys was the Aquadoodle, a drwaing mat for little kids that is activated by water, so it isn't very messy, and it erases itself as the water dries. This year, there are a couple of cool licensed versions available. One is the Disney Princess Cinderella version ... and the other is the Thomas the Tank Engine version.

Fistful of Power Collectible Toys

Spinmaster, the company that brought Moose's Mighty Beanz to the U.S. a couple of years ago, now has a new line of collectible toys called Fistful of power.

Small and relatively inexpensive, these toys are designed for game play. Several games, actually. In one game, each person grabs a"fistful" of these guys and throws them down like dice. Whoever has the most that landed face up wins. It's actually a litle bit more involved than that, but that's the general idea. They can also be used to play aYahtzee-like game either alone or with others.

Action Figure Notes

Dino Warriors are new action figures coming from Panache Place in Summer 2005 ... PALz, the micro sized figures that came out for Buffy the Vampire Slayer, are now available in an X-Files collection ... Shockini, the build-your-own figures with interchangeable part will soon have a new Toxic Avengers collection available,