Toyology

Nearly christmas?

It’s that time of year again where we start getting inundated with people’s predictions of what are going to be the must have toys this Christmas. And, while we do like to consider ourselves somewhat of an authority on the subject, we also like to take other people’s views into account as well. Because we are nice like that.

So we look through the lists, and we look some more, and sometimes we see that they look pretty good.

Littlewoods have put together their Christmas top ten, and there are some sure fire winners in there. The Millenium Falcon (YES PLEASE!), the new Monopoly Electric Live (of course) and the Hello Kitty Coupe Pram (maybe) are all in there. But top of the list is the Innotab, and this is where we see a sure hit.

What with the disturbing fact that young’uns we know, as young as three, are more able with the latest technology than us someone in the toy market has cottoned onto the fact that adults all over the world are in desperate need of a way to keep their tablet computer screens clean. And whilst screen cleaner does exist, prevention is better than cure. And this is where the toy tablet comes into its own. We’re interested to see what competitors will hit the market in time for the festivities.

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By far my poorest pun of 2011, the heat (relative to that of recent months) must have disturbed our usually eloquent wordsmithery waves. Now, you can’t fail to have noticed we’ve been a tad mad about scooters this past week, the race at Brands Hatch means we’ve spent a fair bit of time on-board Razors Ultra Pro Lo (pictured around £120). Here’s a line up of a few other modes of transportation we’ve selected as alternative methods to commute, each one with a capacity weight of 100KG so entirely suitable for big kids.

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We’re back from the wonderous and magical Toy Fair 2011 at Olympia where we’ve wandered round for three days with our eyes agog at what the toys and games industry is going to be offering us this year.

But after much research and consultation we have – just for you – come up with what we’re tipping to be ten of the most superfantastiche things that will be hitting the shelves in 2011.

We’ll give you more details on each one over the coming days, but for now just enough to whet your appetite…

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Or maybe you did. But we’re going to tell you anyway.

How do the reindeer fly?

A long time ago Father Christmas and his helpers discovered magical oats and corn – when the reindeer eat these they become able to fly and leap high into the air.

Does Father Christmas have a computer?

Yes, he uses Apple Mac computers.

How does Santa’s sleigh make it around the world in one day?

Through a combination of lots of practice, hard work, judicious use of time zones and a little magic!

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The Toy Retailers Association, representing about 75% of the UK toy shops unveiled it’s selection of the dozen toys it thinks will dominate this Christmas – Without further ado, here are where the anticipated empty shelf areas are to be found this Yule :

City Airport, Lego UK
Fireman Sam Deluxe Fire Station Playset, Character Options
FurReal Go Go Walking Pup, Hasbro
Jet Pack Buzz Lightyear, Mattel UK
Kidizoom VideoCam, VTech
Monopoly Revolution, Hasbro
Moon Dough Barn, Spinmaster Toys UK
Nerf N Strike Stampede ECS, Hasbro
Paper Jamz Guitar, Wow Wee Europe
‘Pumpaloons’ – action game, Drumond Park
Sylvanian Families Motorcycle and Sidecar, Flair Leisure
ZhuZhu Grooming Salon, Character Options

Gary Grant, chairman of the TRA’s Dream Toys Selection Panel, commented: “This year, the toy industry has combined innovation and creativity to respond to the ever-changing demands of children. The technological advancements used in many of the toys we reviewed this year were simply amazing, and demonstrate how forward thinking manufacturers are. Pete the Geek from Toyology.TV commented “fabulous line up here, not sure how Pumpaloons made the list though” adding “We’ve a video of the event going live later today at toyology.tv go take a look”

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We mentioned our new arrival last week – but just to jog your memory…

We’re now the proud older sibling of our beautiful baby sister site Toyology.tv

Weighing in at a healthy 720 mega pixels (no idea!) with a lovely RSS News Feed and a Twitter account, she can’t read and write yet, but she has some brilliant videos…go say congratulations at www.toyology.tv

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Here at Toyology Towers we’ve been planning a revolution for the past few months, today, we’re proud to tell you all that the first Episode of  Toyology.TV is live – The only .tv station in the world that gives you the low down on the latest toys, the next big crazes for the playground and the kit that’ll fly off the shelves fastest. Presenter Jamie Rickers and Pete the Geek will be bringing you the first couple of episodes together with a crack team of junior toyologists to put playthings through their paces. A new episode each week there’ll be extra elements added to the show like Desperate Mousewives, Big Bruiser, OUCH and the occassional guest presenter. Head off to Toyology.TV and tell us what you think.

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“Hasbro Factory” – Film on the way?

According to trade magazine Toynewsmag ther has been an email leak from within Paramount discussing possible new film ideas, one of which is Hasbro Factory – A night at the Museum type film set in a toy factory. The email is sourced from film fan site The Wrap, and whilst short on any detail mentions other potential projects such as GI Joe 2, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Men in Black 3, Hansel and Gretel and Baywatch.

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Bear Hug

I’m not going to lie to you, I still have my first teddy bear.

She (yes She, not It) sits proudly, bib still in tact, on a very high albeit dusty shelf in my bedroom and I’m pretty happy with that – I like to think she is too.

But, we were slightly shocked to see this week that a whopping third of adults still take their childhood teddy to bed (Does this make me a negligent bear-parent??)

A survey of 6,000 adults across the UK found that more than half of us still have our favourite teddy bear (making ted’s average age 27 apparently) and a THIRD still cuddled him/her to sleep claiming it to be comforting and calming, helping to de-stress at the end of the day.

What’s more, a QUARTER of men said they still take Ted away on business trips as it reminded them of home (so our bear’s are now not only old but extremely well travelled).

I’m now left wondering if my stuffed childhood friend is perhaps wailing to her bear friends – that she naturally goes to visit when I go out – about what a bad person I am, how I put all of her friends in a box in a loft and confined her to a lifetime of dusty, lonely misery…

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Today we launch the search for six junior Toyologists to join us for some toy testing fun these Summer holidays. Each week, for six weeks, in association with ASDA, we’ll be sending six selected candidates, a brand new toy to play with and report back to us on…then, just for that, you get to keep the lot. Teh competition is open to anyone in the UK just click HERE for the entry form and we’ll select the bst haf dozen entries to offer them a fantastic opportunity for the Summer.

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