Hot Wheels Color Shifters Blaster
(Mattel $22.99 Score:)

Hands down one of our favorite toys of the year.  If you have a child in the Hot Wheels zone, this is a must have toy.  Because the play experience involves water (and more the better!) we'd say this is a better choice for outdoors...or parents that don't mind water all over the counter.  The cars react to cold and hot water - and will turn a different color when put into either temperature. Seriously cool.  Best yet, it comes with a squirt bottle so you can change the cars by squirting them.  If you don't want to buy the whole set - we'd suggest buying one of the cars - you can use your own squirt bottle and have the same experience.   The car that turns from blue to yellow is much more dramatic than some of the other color changes (yellow/orange).  The company has signed a verification form complying with our safety requirements. We did not independently test this toy in  a lab.

We waited with great anticipation for the bigger and more tricked out Custom Color Shop ($37.99)...it includes a launcher that sends the car either through a waterfall at the top of the toy or down a ramp.  Here's the deal, we found the launcher somewhat hard to do (to get it to hit the waterfall point consistently was challenging to say this least)...and the water at the top and bottom will need more adult intervention than the Color Shifter Blaster.  It looked like it would be really great, but our testers preferred the less expensive version -- that they could handle more independently. Nice when the less expensive toy comes out on top.

SNAP IDEAS: Quite apart from the "magic" of changing the colors of the little cars, this is a great toy for working on developing hand stregnth. Squirting the water calls for sqeezing the spray bottle and if you want to add to the fun, how about counting to see how many squirts it takes to abra-ca-dabra the change of color. Buy the whole set up or look for the color changer cars that are sold separately. Any clean sqqirt bottle will do the trick!

Age: Preschool, Early School Years. Award Year: 2009. Click here to purchase the product on Amazon.com.

Rokenbok Monorail Building System
(Rokenbok Toy Co. $$149 Score:)

The Monorail is the big news this year in Rokenbok. This open-ended construction/remote control vehicle setting just got even better. "It's awesome!" our seven and 10 year-old testers said. You can add several R/C vehicles to the mix. This innovative system is expensive, but offers greater interest and challenge than other train or car sets we've seen. Will work with original sets. 6 & up with adult assistance. Takes 3 AA batteries.

Age: Early School Years. Award Year: 2001. Click here to purchase the product on Amazon.com.

Construction Truck with Hard Hat
(Little Tikes $20 Score:) If you're looking for a showy gift at a reasonable price, you won't do better than this set. These vehicles are articulated for easy action and made to withstand sand and water. Choose a working dump truck or loader.

Age: Preschool,Early School Years. Award Year: .

Country Crossing Play Set
(Brio $100 Score:) Set includes a raised girder, farm animals, train, and engineer. The Track & Stack City Set ($130/38 pieces) with elevator, stacking supports, signs, and figures was not ready for testing, but looks more complex to assemble.

Age: Preschool,Early School Years. Award Year: .

Thomas the Tank Engine Drawbridge
(RC2 Learning Curve $30 Score:) Cleverly designed, this totally assembled bridge/tunnel has a lever that lifts the low bridge so tall trains can pass. The Firehouse ($30) has a fire truck that pops out when you ring the bell. Also new are Thomas or Percy Express Packs ($30 each). These sets include a battery-powered train.

Age: Preschool,Early School Years. Award Year: .

Thomas the Tank Engine Wacky Track
(RC2 Learning Curve $18 Score:) What an innovative way to get a curved track! Just bend the segmented pieces of track for a curve in the road! Or add two Bumpy Tracks ($18) plus a warning sign that adds a little drama to the action. Also new, an Arched Viaduct ($24.99) with two curved arches, which connect to two pieces of ascending track.

Age: Preschool,Early School Years. Award Year: .

Mountain Action Figure 8 Set
(Brio $39.95 Score:) This is your basic 25-piece figure eight set with extra mountain twist thrown in for over-and-under action. Comes with a battery-powered engine, two cars, and one play figure. A good beginning for 3 and up. For a more advanced and pricier set consider Country Crossing Play set($100/35 pieces) with raised girder, animals, train and engineer. Track and Stack City Set($130/38 pieces) is still more complex. It includes an elevator, stacking supports, signs and figures. Looks more complex to assemble, but our 4 and 5 year olds testers had no problem with getting this assembled independently. They combined it with other sets they own. Parents were pleased with this innovative design and its sturdiness. New Curious George and Builder Bob sets were not available for tasting at press time.

Age: Preschool,Early School Years. Award Year: .

Intelli-Train Deluxe Set
(Lego Systems, Inc. $99.99 Score:) The four drivers all have unique "driving ability" and when placed in the train, something new will happen. This is an update of one of our old favorites. This update has bigger train cars than the earlier version. Placing sensor bars on the track also changes the direction and/ or sound effects. There's a fuel hose with sound effects and a working crane plus vehicles that run on the "road". Comes with 92 pieces, but we suggest that you not wait too long to buy add-ons, since it's the kind of toy that comes and goes from the line. Great fun, but doesn't replace a wooden set. 4 & up.

Age: Preschool,Early School Years. Award Year: .

Remote Control Bridge
(Brio $50 Score:) The 25" bridge is controlled by an infrared light. It also has lights and warning bells when the bridge goes up. Looked promising but wasn’t ready for testing. Still top rated, last year’s Remote Control Action Train (Brio $50 ), a sleek white train—very European looking, with lights at the front. (888) 274-6869.

Age: Preschool,Early School Years. Award Year: .

Mgears Remote Control Racers
(Learning Resources $29.95 Score:) Our testers liked the speed they got with this 213 piece Grand Prix Racer. The base comes with the wheels already on (last year we had trouble getting the wheels on!). "The directions sometimes have too many steps in them—they should be more like Lego's." "It really works, the gears move when you make the car go." "Much better than last year’s tethered remote control; it goes much faster too." 7 & up. (888) 800-7893.

Age: Early School Years,Later School Years. Award Year: 2005.