Congratulations to the best toys that have been awarded our Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Platinum Award for Tweens & Teens! To read our full review of each toy click through the titles below. You'll find our entire evaluation and shopping information as well. GAMES & PUZZLES MarbleBrain Workshop Otrio ( Spin Master) Marbles Brain Workshop Rock Me Archimedes (Spin Master) eeBoo Women March! 500 Piece Round Puzzle (eeBoo) Hasbro Connect 4 Shots (Hasbro) ThinkFun Shadows in the Forest Game (Think Fun) Jenga Pass Challenge (Hasbro) Mudpuppy 500 Piece Keith Haring Double Sided Puzzle (Mudpuppy) Gamewright Zoinx (Gamewright) Gamewright Tiki Topple (Gamewright) Thinkfun Word A Round 2 (ThinkFun) Harry
Congratulations to the best toys that have been awarded our Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Platinum Award for Early School Years! To read our full review of each toy click through the titles below. You'll find our entire evaluation and shopping information as well. DOLLS Fur Real Chewbacca (Hasbro) American Girl Luciana Vega (American Girl) Creativity for Kids Sequin Pets, Happy the Hedgehog (Creativity for Kids) PUZZLES AND GAMES eeBoo Snow Party Floor Panoramic Puzzle (eeBoo) Innovative Kids Big Builder 60-Piece Floor Puzzle (Innovative Kids) Peanuts 100 Piece Puzzles (Ceaco) eeBoo Pretend Play Grown Up or Veterinarian (eeBoo) ThinkFun Kaleidoscope Puzzle (ThinkFun) Lion in my Way (eeBoo) Blue
Congratulations to the best toys that have been awarded our Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Platinum Award for Preschoolers! To read our full review of each toy click through the titles below. You'll find our entire evaluation and shopping information as well. PRETEND PLAY Hardwood Unit Blocks Starter Set (Lakeshore) Hape Pop-up Toaster (Hape) Hape Coffee Maker (Hape) Hape My First Waffle Maker (Hape) PlayMonster Automoblox Minis Sets (PlayMonster) DOLLS Corolle Ambre Doll (Corolle) Ameena Doll (Selma’s Dolls) Manhattan Toy Groovy Boys Justin (Manhattan Toy) TRAINS, TRACKS, & VEHICLES Hape Grand City Station (Hape) Hape Crank Powered Engine (Hape) Rail Wooden Grand Central Station (Bigjigs) Brio Wor
Congratulations to the best toys that have been awarded our Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Platinum Award for Toddlers! To read our full review of each toy click through the titles below. You'll find our entire evaluation and shopping information as well. ACTIVE PLAY Mega Bloks Shape Sorting Wagon (Mattel) Fat Brain Toys RollAgain Tower (Fat Brain Toys) Duplo Animal Brick Box (Lego Systems) Vtech Go!Go! Smart Wheels Little Vehicles (VTech) DOLLS Corolle Sweet Heart Toffee Pink Doll (Corolle) Groovy Boy Justin and Groovy Girl Jessica (Manhattan Toy) Wee Baby Fella 12" Boy Doll (Manhattan Toy) Cuddle + Kind Mermaids (Cuddle + Kind) PUZZLES Chunky Lift Out Puzzles (farm and safari) BigJigs notified
Congratulations to the best toys that have been awarded our Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Platinum Award for Infants! To read our full review of each toy click through the titles below. You'll find our entire evaluation and shopping information as well. Manhattan Toy Jazzy Ball (Manhattan Toy) Peek and Seek Cognitive Rattle (SmartNoggin) Noisy Bug Activity Toy (eeBoo) Mon Bebe Calin Floral Bloom 12" Baby Doll (Corolle) Whimsical Wheel (Sassy) Do-Re-Me Textured Tunes (Sassy) Laugh & Learn Smart Learning Home (Fisher-Price)
(SimplyFun $40.00) Good for a rainy day or a fifteen minute after dinner game. It's a marble game played on a "maze" board that allows players to push the marbles forward or sideways. In doing so players try to line up matching colors and take them from the board. Matches can be made horizontally, vertically, but not diagonally. It's easy to learn the rules and less easy to make the matches as the board begins to empty. Players need some dexterity and setting the board up with no matches to start the game takes some thought, as well. It's an entertaining game for adults and kids that may sharpen some spatial reasoning skills and visual perception. It's math, STEM and fun all rolled together.
(Hape $99.99) Wake up! Wake up! Fire! Fire! Here's a multi-level firehouse setting for dramatic play with plenty of action. Sound the bell! Hit the button to set the lights flashing on the firehouse. The firefighter doesn't just slide down a pole, the pole is designed to swirl the action figure round and down. See the white triangle hanging on the left side of the building (picture below)? That's the Cool Secret, the best part according to our tester. Pull it and the firehouse doors open and the truck races into action. The setting includes firetruck with ladder, helicopter, firefighter, rescue dog and many smaller accessories; axe, fire extinguisher, flame, fire hydrant, radar dish, flag, a
(Quercetti $16.99) Put a skyway on the wall and let the fun begin! Use the moldable sticky adhesive to attach the tracks and flip baskets to your wall. Finding just the right distance is a hands-on physics problem to solve and resolve. There are multiple ways this can be arranged. Test it until you get the balls to roll or jump from one track to another. Marked for 4-10, but 4s and 5s will only be able to play with the finished skyway. This will be a better choice for older 6s-9s who will be able to find ways to build their skyways. Ages: Early School Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Gold Seal Award 2018 Click here to purchase the product from Amazon.com
(American Plastic Toys $24.99 ) Kids are fascinated by gigantic work trucks and this one is a wow-ee truck. With a big sleek white and grey cab and body, the recycling unit in totally appropriate green. It has stickers on the three compartments for paper, plastic, and metal. It rolls on big sturdy wheels and there’s a container on the back-end for loading larger items. Older toddlers and young preschoolers will probably sit on this and ride it foot to the floor. It really is pretty gigantic and a showy big toy that will not break the bank. Ages: Older Toddlers, Preschoolers Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Gold Seal Award 2018 Click here to purchase this product from Amazon.com
(Alex $9.99 ) This may be just a short-lived novelty or turn into a creative exercise in ‘where can I hook this Slinky up next?’ Kids will need some adult help in securing the clamp high on a table, door, or rail on a staircase. Once the Slinky is hanging free the little car’s wheels are placed on the Slinky and watch it twist and turn down, down, down. Buy two and they can race side by side. 5 and up. Ages: Early School Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Gold Seal Award 2018
(Hape $24.99) With enough pieces to make a figure eight track and a two-car blue and white passenger train, this set-up is a good way to start or add to your preschooler’s wooden train collection. The European style train has a modern sleek look with dome style windows. As the train moves along it climbs over the short tunnel and later glides through it. There’s a uniformed conductor/engineer with a stop and go paddle and a passenger with a briefcase. Along the way the train will pass a traffic light and tunnel warning and railroad crossing signs. Ages: Preschoolers Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Gold Seal Award 2018 Click here to purchase the product from Amazon.com
(Corolle $25.99) Newest of the bath 8” mini dolls, this soft body bald baby comes dressed in non-removable bathing suit. Designed to go into the tub or pool with toddlers, this one comes with a yellow boat that the little doll can sit in. A toy that will add fun to bath time. You can also find Mini bath dolls in a multicultural collection ($17 each) without the boat. 18 months and up. Ages: toddlers, preschoolers Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Gold Award 2018
(Hape $50.00) An elaborate train set with 37 pieces including lifts for the tracks and spirals that the train will roll through. There is a station house with clock and figure, and a very special engine that is solar powered. Put it in the sunlight to charge and then push the buttons to see the lights come on and hear the engine sounds. NOTE: The train itself runs on kid power. It does not move with solar power. Also, the Solar train and car ($ ) can be bought separately and added to other train set ups. Ages: Older Preschoolers Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Gold Seal Award 2018
(Vtech $34.99) Be sure you are buying the updated version of this walker. The old model has an old-fashioned handset phone; the new one has a cellphone. But what we like best—this walker has adjustable 2-speed controls on the wheels. For beginners, you want a walker that won’t go flying forward and this one has some tensions to control the wheels. It also seems to have enough of an opening for unsteady toddler’s feet to step without getting tripped up. The walker works both on bare floors and carpets and is available in gender free primary colors or gender specific pink. To add to the fun, it has music that is activated as the toddler walks. It’s called a Sit to Stand Walker because it’s des
(Gamewright $14.99) Our testers loved playing this cooperative card game where you have to work together where you have to build the four piles up by either color or number. You have to work together and against the timer in order to beat the task at hand. The fun part is that everyone has a goal that's on a card in their hand but they can't say it out loud. It kind of feels like playing SPIT but with more options and you're working together. Ages: Tweens, Tenns Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Platinum Award 2018 Click here to purchase the product from Amazon.com
(Hape $21.99) With all the amazing new trains we’ve seen this season, this is one of our newest favorites! It’s totally child-powered with a simple twist of a crank. No batteries, no solar plates, no kidding—your child simply needs to turn the crank handle around and around and the tiny generator inside the train is powered. It’s like the battery-free flashlights you may have used in the past. There’s a switch on the bottom that needs to be turned on and a button on top to press and then the magic begins—lights, sounds, action! The sleek bright red engine is ready to roll and even pull a few cars along. Just when you thought you had seen every train add-on imaginable—here’s a new winner! Ad
(Kellytoys $10.75 and up) There are several new Squishmallows this season. Emma is a grey and white small elephant-like Squishmallow with stitched features, pink ears and a jingle inside. Paige is one of the flat stackable Squishmallows, just the right size for kids to sit on. It’s pink and white with a catlike face and tiny ears . Or look for the larger and more upright Puff, 16" Penguin or Hoot the grey Owl. All of these soft squishy pillows have stitched features and velvety covering. These are totally soft and huggable BUT they are not to be put into a crib! Just as you would not put a pillow into a crib, these are in fact, exactly like pillows that are potentially dangerous for small sl
(Mindware $29.99) A little porcelain house in the shape of a mushroom. It comes with two tea lights that turn on and off with ease and paints for decorating the fairy house. Every house will be unique, though young painters will surely take some of the ideas on the box and instruction booklet. There are directions that include washing the lamp, painting and then baking it (an adult step). Craft kits are a great time to reinforce reading comprehension skills and making the connections between following the steps to make the end-product a success. A good project for 8s and up. Since the end-product is breakable porcelain, this really is a choice for older kids. Ages: Tweens Oppenheim Toy Portf
(Redwood Ventures $25) So, you like sushi…but what about the flying kind? This an amusing game is for older kids and family gatherings with sushi that does fly above the air jets of the sushi machine. Players work against the clock to catch the flying sushi on their “order” cards. It’s not easy to catch against the timer and gravity as you try to capture the sushi with chopsticks and put the order together in a tray. We’re not sure how long this will hold interest, but as a novelty toy for the holiday, it’s sure to produce good cheer. This is currently available at Amazon, but it is much less costly elsewhere. 8 & up. Ages: Tweens Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Gold Seal Award 2018 Click here to pu
(Sassy $9.99) Put this on the feeding table or any smooth surface for the large suction cup holder. Easy to activate with a swipe of a hand, this is a refreshed version of an old favorite from Sassy— a classic spinning toy with interesting rattles sounds and objects to touch, taste and spin. 6 months and up. Ages: Infants Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Gold Seal Award 2018 Click here to purchase the product from Amazon.com
