Wait till you try these amazing little vehicles that will follow any dark line you draw! These Doodle-Track vehicles are truly magical! Bring home a blue or red sports car. Small enough to fit in your hand, yet these are loaded with play power. Each vehicle comes with it's own set of colorful stickers, a thick black marker and a small pre-drawn track. The little vehicles have an optical sensor that will follow lines drawn by a thick washable marker or crayon. The company also plans to make tracks with signs and seasonal decorative themes available on line that kids can download and print out at www.doodletrackcar.com.  This is a wonderfully open-ended toy that allows kids to dream up new ways of playing. Add original tracks into block settings or create your own raceway for multiple Doodle-Track vehicles to run. This comes under the heading of many good things come in small packages! Requires 2 AAA batteries. Marked 4 & up.   We think this will be enjoyed by older kids as well...not to mention their parents.    The company has signed a verification form complying with our safety requirements. We did not independently test this toy in a lab.

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

We've told you about these Shake 'N Go cars before. To charge them up you have to shake them and off they go.  You get two cars in this new Extreme Speedway set that is packaged with a marvelous set of tracks with a goodly supply of pieces that can be set up in six or more formations. Unlike last season's track, which could only work as a circle, this is far more open-ended. Kids can construct a loop with figure eight track, an oval within an oval, a circle within a circle or many other choices.  Follow the patterns shown or create your own. There are so many ways to use the Easy Track Changeup. The set includes a ramp and barrels for doing tricks. A memorable gift! 

  The company has signed a verification form complying with our safety requirements. We did not independently test this toy in a lab.

SNAP IDEAS: Making the track fit together is pretty open ended now and the pieces are big and easy to put in vrious formations.  But the best parts of this toy are the cars themselves. In fact, you can buy the cars separately. There is no remote controller to make them go. You need to shake the cars and count to ten and va-va-va- voom off they go! There's plenty of built in practice since you ned to count and shake them everytime. What a fun payoff for counting!

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

Happily Thomas and Friends are back! After all of the lead issues, it's nice to see that the company has regrouped and come out with something that will attract train fans! Push one of the special trains through the station and Sir Topham Hatt will great the trains. While we were originally concerned that this additional of technology would overtake the experience, it really enhances the play possibilities. We also LOVE that there is a volume setting since the out of the box setting is really loud. If you already have a lot of trains, you can also just bring home the Stop and Greet Station ($69.99) or the new Cranky the Crane ($69.99) and the new talking trains ($14.99 each). It's all really pricey but very innovative and special.

The company has signed a verification form complying with our safety requirements. We did not independently test this toy in a lab.

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

Five little rubbery vehicles with faces on the front are a good fit for toddlers small hands. These can be used flat out on the floor or with the Tonka Fold ‘n Go Garage or the Round About Railway. A fleet of rescue trucks can be added to the action. These are designed for the youngest players. The company has signed a verification form complying with our safety requirements. We did not independently test this toy in a lab. 12 months & up.

Age: Toddlers, Preschool. Award Year: 2009.

Choose from a loader, dump truck or an excavator, ready for serious action in the playground sandbox or at the beach (they also function with snow). These construction trucks have working parts, are paint-free, and lightweight enough to take along with ease. Our tester, liked how easily they could be carried up and down steps for use indoors and out. Made from recycled milk jugs and sawdust, this company has focused on eco-centric toys from the start. 3 & up. The company has signed a verification form complying with our safety requirements. We did not independently test this toy in a lab.

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

Instead of a remote, these two soft bodied vehicles are activated with big buttons on top. One activates the horn or siren, another moves the vehicle forward and another backwards. Two other buttons move the chassis from left to right or right to left.  A lot of actions for toddlers to remember. But there will be plenty of trial and error and easy to activate motion. A better choice for 3's & up.
The company has signed a verification form complying with our safety requirements. We did not independently test this toy in a lab.

 

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

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.

Age: Preschool. Award Year: 2001.

Age: Preschool. Award Year: 2001.

Age: Preschool. Award Year: 2001.