Child Toys News

Christmas is getting closer and if you haven’t started looking for gifts for your little ones, now is a good time to start. The shopping spree has started and if you’re planning to leave it to the last moment, you’ll probably run into many “Out of stock” signs.

Looking at the current trends I’ve seen on blogs and other news releases, I’ve compiled a list of some of the hottest toys for the 2009 holiday season. Kids know what is popular and they want precisely that, so this list will give you a good idea on what would be a good gift for your child.

Rocky the Robot Truck – Well, toy trucks have always been a boy’s favorite. The bigger the better. This time however, the whole concept of toy truck has changed with the new Rocky Robot Truck. Not only can boys transport heavy stuff from place to place, but they can now interact with it the truck. The robot can speak over one hundred different phrases, and to make play more fun, it prompts kids to make as much noise as possible. Of course, after the play is over, the truck will go to sleep, but guess what! It snores! Haha, this is a great toy. Definitely not an ordinary dump truck!

Rocky The Robot Truck

Bakugan 7 in 1 Maxus Dragonoid -  This is by far the best selling toy of 2009 and something tells me that it’s going to be a hit this Christmas. Maxus Dragonoid is made of seven different Bakugan that unite and create the ‘ultimate monster’. Mwahaha! What is Bakugan? Well, it’s a cool strategy game based on the ‘Bakugan: Battle Brawlers’ series. Basically, player are supposed to capture all of their opponent’s magnetic cards by throwing the Bakugan at them. The Bakugan website has all the information about it. But even without the game, Bakugan toys are extremely enjoyable, thus their popularity this year.

Bakugan Dragonoid

Girl Gourmet Sweets Candy Jewel Factory – Candy is good, but making your own candy is even better. With this new invention little girls can have a great time making their own candy jewels with ease. The set includes packets of colored candy sprinkles, pellets, and string, along with a plastic locket and ring cover.

Girl Gourmet Sweets Candy Jewel Factory

Printies Pets Design Studio – Well, the fashion of getting custom toys is catching on and this is the latest thing to hit the toy market. With the Printies Pets Design Studio, you get the kit and then are prompted go to their website to download the Printies application to your computer. Once installed, you can let your child take over. She will easily play around designing her own PET and then it will easily be printed. After that, you will attach the fabric stencil to the toy and voila, your child has her own custom toy.

Printies Pets Design Studio

Battle Strikers – If I were ten, this would definitely be my favorite gift for Christmas. What’s cooler than having two Battle Strikers fighting for glory while controlled with joystick? Each Battle Striker has its own identity. Their tops are individualized and they fight in your name.

Battle Strikers

Well, hope I managed to give you an idea of what are some of the popular toys this season. Of course, the list can go on and just looking at Amazon’s bestsellers can give you a better image of the whole. Good luck!

Developers are only just beginning to figure out what they can do with the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. And you still can’t even find a Wii on store shelves.

But the battle to lead the next generation is a never-ending one in the gaming industry. And while none of the major console manufacturers wants to talk specifics, developers in the know say Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo are already hard at work putting together their next systems.

Game machines typically are on the shelves for five or six years before a console manufacturer rolls out the next one. With the expense and success of this crop of systems–which have been out two to three years–it could be closer to eight years before we see the PlayStation 4, Xbox 720 and Nintendo “Us”–or whatever they end up being called.

“One of the things I like about this generation is we are still very early and there’s still a lot of room for growth … as we move down those price curves,” says Brian Farrell, CEO of THQ . “Those engines have a lot of steam left in them. We think it could be seven or eight years before new machines start to roll out.”

Epic Games, maker of the hit “Gears of War” series, agrees. President Mike Capps recently said the company estimates new systems will not hit shelves until somewhere between 2012 and 2018.

Both hardware and software manufacturers are already gearing up. Work on Epic’s “Unreal Engine 4,” a graphics engine for next-gen games, has been under way for almost two years now under the guidance of founder Tim Sweeney. “It’s not like there’s anything to show today,” notes Epic Vice President Mark Rein.

Building on the immense success of the ‘LEGO Star Wars’ series, gaming studio Traveler’s Tales stuck to a winning formula by once again combining the LEGO franchise with one of the most beloved film trilogies ever released.

No doubt also part of a cleverly constructed marketing campaign to have this game released alongside the latest Indiana Jones movie, it certainly bodes well for what will probably be another runaway hit for TT.

But have they done enough to warrant another exercise in a button-mashing, LEGO-building, puzzle solving adventure?

If you’ve played the ‘LEGO Star Wars’ trilogy, you will know exactly what to expect. It really is, in its purest form, another Star Wars game with a bunch of different characters and settings.

Is this a bad thing though? Not necessarily, but I for one would have liked to see a bit more innovation in the series. Sure, exploration and puzzle-solving take a slightly more important role in the Indy series, but for all intents and purposes the games are very similar.

Although we’re dealing for the most part with blocks here, do not expect to be amazed by the game’s graphical capabilities. A LEGO block is a LEGO block, and it really can only look so good.

But that doesn’t mean the game is an eyesore, or even remotely bad looking. For while all the characters, props and objects are made of LEGO, the backgrounds, foliage and buildings are not, and the game is a joy to behold in all it’s cartoony, colourful splendour.

Strangely enough, you would expect the game to run as smooth as silk when considering the fairly uncomplicated look of the game, but screen tearing pops up more frequently than is entirely acceptable. A deal-breaker? Not in the least.

The tiny, fake fur was flying as the Barbie-Bratz court battle wrapped up Thursday, with toy industry giant Mattel Inc. and upstart MGA Entertainment Inc. both claiming ownership of the hugely successful Bratz line of dolls.

MGA, which seven years ago debuted the saucy Bratz doll, has maintained from the May 27 start of the trial that Mattel was trying to unfairly stomp out competition to its faltering Barbie empire.

“For 40 years Barbie was the only doll in town,” Tom Nolan, lawyer for Van Nuys-based MGA, said in his closing argument. “And then Bratz came in and knocked her off her pedestal.”

Mattel, headquartered in El Segundo, sued in 2004, claiming that Bratz — known for hip-hugging outfits and bare midriffs that have given some parents fits — were secretly created by one of its own Barbie designers, Carter Bryant, even though he had an exclusivity contract with the company.

Mattel lawyer John Quinn argued to the jury that MGA knew of Bryant’s contract when it committed to developing the Bratz line.

“They helped him because they needed a successful product,” Quinn said. “MGA was with him every step of the way.”

Shortly before the trial began, Bryant and Mattel reached a settlement, the terms of which were sealed by the court and have not been revealed. Bryant has earned more than $30 million in royalties from his Bratz brainchild.

That left MGA to slug it out alone with Mattel, which wants a stake in the Bratz franchise.

The fact that the Bratz dolls have been a sizzling success was one of the few things not in question during the proceedings in U.S. District Court in Riverside. MGA is a private company and doesn’t disclose its earnings, but Mattel contends that its smaller rival has made $500 million a year off Bratz sales, licensing and other revenue. Some analysts place the total as high as $2 billion annually.

During five hours of closing arguments, the lawyers revisited evidence and testimony but, freed of the restrictions that have to be obeyed when questioning witnesses, the gloves came off.

“That’s not evidence,” MGA’s Nolan snarled at one point. “That’s drama.”

He was speaking of Mattel’s questioning the honesty of Bryant’s mother and his life partner, both of whom testified that the designer showed them Bratz drawings in 1998. That’s when Bryant was living with his parents in Missouri and not working for Mattel.

“Mothers don’t lie,” Nolan told the jury.

Quinn was careful not to brand as a liar the silver-haired Jane Bryant, whose videotaped deposition was shown in court.

“Mr. Bryant’s mom sees him through the filter of the greatest love you can have for someone,” he told the jury. “We are saying her testimony should not change yours.”

As for Bryant’s partner, Richard Irmen, Quinn said, “He and Mr. Bryant share a life together. They also share $30 million.”

One of the most discussed pieces of evidence was an ordinary-looking spiral notebook that Bryant used to make notes about a 1999 bank account. Mattel’s Quinn called it the “surprise evidence” in the case.

A paper expert testified in the trial that some of the first Bratz drawings had been done in the notebook and then torn out. It challenged Bryant’s assertion that he no longer had another notebook that he said he used for the first drawings. And Mattel argued that it showed the true Bratz birth came in 1999 when Bryant was working at Mattel.

Nolan dismissed its significance, saying that Bryant uses notebooks randomly, not sequentially. “He grabs a notebook when he needs to make a note,” Nolan said.

And Evidence Eliminator, a software program used on Bryant’s laptop two days before it was scheduled to be examined, was again front and center. Nolan said that Bryant had gotten the program, which can destroy files beyond recovery, to cover the fact that he sometimes looked at pornography.

But Quinn suggested the program might have been used to destroy documents relevant to the case.

There also was much evidence presented that Bryant at least worked on the doll when he was at Mattel. But Nolan argued that the only thing that mattered was when it was actually created.

Bill Price, also arguing for Mattel, got the last word. He said of MGA: “There is a right way and a wrong way to compete, and what you did here is cross that line.”

That being said, the 10 members of the jury were led to a place that’s probably present only in dollhouses for kids who want to grow up to be judges — the jury room.

A school with a national reputation for success in a major Lego competition has done it again.

The Year 6 team from New Lodge School returned from the First Lego league UK finals in Birmingham having won one of the categories and being placed third overall.

By winning the award for their research project, the 10 New Lodge pupils qualify for the European championships in Norway at the end of May.

Their success follows similar achievements in the competition over recent years, but it is especially poignant this year  as it will be the last time New Lodge takes part.

Dwindling numbers in the pre-prep department of the Chichester Road school means New Lodge will close at the end of the school year.

However, all that was put to one side by the team of 10 and 11 year olds as they competed with more than 400 others in the competition designed to promote engineering, science and technology skills.

This year’s challenge required teams to design, build and program Lego robots to complete missions related to nano technology.

They also had to research and give a presentation about the potential uses of nano technology in the future.

Head teacher Sandy Watt said: “The Lego robotics challenge has always been an exciting and exhilarating part of school life for pupils.

“We are absolutely thrilled the team has won a place in the European championships.