The festive season is such an exciting but expensive time, especially for those of us with children. With youngsters being targeted by TV advertising, it is no easy task to sort the wheat from the chaff and to spend our hard earned money wisely.
The British Toy Retailers Association represents over 150 members in the toy industry with its members selling over 90% of the toys sold in the UK market. Being an independant body established over fifty years ago, it serves as the retailer's voice and spokesman taking into account what consumers are requesting, what children find exciting and keeping abreast of the latest trends. Every year, after the major toy exhibitions where all the latest innovations are introduced, they print a report of what they found to be exciting and what they forsee as the top selling toys for Christmas that year.
In days long gone the ultimate high-tech toy was a clockwork train. These days there are truly amazing toys such as life-sized puppy dogs that respond to your every word, dollys that drink, sleep, eat, cry and even pee !! and a whole plethora of electronic toys which range from consoles to voice changing masks to strange little machines that can find weird mutants loitering in the very air that we breathe.
Let’s have a look at a few of this year’s stars and we've simply got to start with that amazing puppy. It’s called “Biscuit – My Lovin’ Pup”, made by FurReal. It costs a a hefty £119.95, but this astonishing full sized Golden Retriever puppy obeys your spoken commands. He lies down, sits, offers you his paw, begs and has a number of sensors that know when you’re touching him so that he can make little puppy yelps and barks whilst wagging his tail. Leave him undisturbed for a minute or two and he nods off and begins to snore.
Let’s move from cute and lovable to high-tech, sci-fi and completely weird. The Catcha Beast is a little hand held, battery operated toy that finds invisible beings that live in the air that we live and breathe. Once the monster is detected then it has to be wound into the machine. It’s pretty to explain, if you click on the following link, there's a video that shows the gadget in use. The Catcha Beast is for sale at £17.95.
Our final offering is priced halfway between those earlier toys. Elmo Live is a much loved character from Sesame Street and sells at £59.95. He’s another amazing creation with the ability to sit on a chair telling stories whilst crossing and uncrossing his legs or waving is arms around as he sings a song. He isn’t voice controlled like Biscuit the dog, but he performs a number of actions if you squeeze his tummy, nose, foot or back.
So there we have it. Our top three toys for Christmas 2008. Check out our top toy website for a selection of other great gifts.
No comments:
Post a Comment