In honor of the day…13 Great Games (all under $20!)

While we usually like lists of five or a dozen, we realized today’s list of 13 Top Games Under $20 was meant to be!  Happy Friday the 13th.  Read our reviews at www.toyportfolio.com.

The games included are:

Richard Scarry’s Busytown Eye Found It Game (I Can Do That Games)

Rainbow Race (International Playthings)

Scrabble Slam Card Game (Parker Brothers)

Appletters (Bananagrams)

Yamslam (Blue Orange Games)

Pairs in Pears (Bananagrams)

eeBoo Fairytale Game (eeBoo)

Ring-0 Flamingo (Gamewright)

Uno Moo! (Mattel)

Too Many Monkeys (Gamewright)

I Spy Flip 5 Games (Briarpatch)

Dr. Seuss Super Stretch ABC Game (I Can Do That Games)

Curious George Discovery Beach Game (I Can Do That Games)

Pick of the Day: Jenga Max

I used to play Jenga all the time. It’s my kind of game–you have to be decisive and you’ll know within moments if you win or lose.  So I was pretty psyched when I saw the new Jenga Max (Parker Brothers/Hasbro)  at Toy Fair…it looked great.  I then stopped thinking about it.  My mind was quickly full of Barbie Nail Printers and toys that read your brain waves.  Then about two weeks ago–I realized that we hadn’t received Jenga Max.  Oh no!    So we just got to try it out.  Read our review and you can watch our demo.

toyportfolio.com: Six Great Games to Play with Your Kids

Here are six  great games to think about for the holidays. The complete reviews of these award winners are on our site, www.toyportfolio.com

Active Fun Games

Dr. Seuss Super Stretchy ABC Game (I Can Do That Games)

Boochie (Gamewright)

Pure silly fun

Feeding Frenzy (International Playthings)

Ring-0 Flamingo (Gamewright)

Concepts and Strategy Games

eeBoo Color Dominoes (eeBoo)

Double Shutter (Blue Orange)

Toy Wars and George Costanza’s shrinkage factor

Even though most of us haven’t even contemplated buying our Halloween candy yet (ok, I’ve contemplated but I haven’t bought any yet), the major box retailers want you to think holiday toy shopping TODAY!  Walmart has expanded its offer of  toys for $10 to 100 items…KB Toys saw that and raised it to 200, and Target is  trying to match prices.  There’s free shipping to be had…and if you’re really sharp, you can find certain Barbie dolls for as little as $5.

So what’s a toy consumer to think?

1. Toy prices are getting a much needed adjustment. All of that toy safety testing costs a lot –and if you’ve bought a toy recently you’ll know that the added expense has been passed on to consumers.  While we don’t rate toys based on price, we have had sticker shock here as we’ve watched the prices just continue to climb for the past two years. So from this point of view toy wars are good, very good.

2. Less Inventory. If there’s something your child wants for the holidays, buy it early.  Tight inventories is another way retailers have protected themselves this year.

3. Shrinkage…

One of the trends we’ve watched this season is shrinkage…which always makes me thing of Seinfeld’s infamous shrinkage episode with George in the Hamptons.

Toy makers are making many of the same type of toys they used to…but smaller…much smaller…and much less expensive.

For example, last year we featured Playskool’s $300 Kota My Triceratops Dinosaur. This high tech dino-wonder was big enough for your child to sit on!

This year, the same manufacturer is offering Kota & Pals  Stompers – Triceratops.  He walks on my desk. Watch the video. He’s very cute and he actually walks (something the big guy can’t do)…but still, this is what the price wars mean.

So does this mean you should buy only $10 toys this holiday season?

There are in fact lots of toys for $10 and under that are really great. We have many award winners that fit the bill, but buying lots of “stuff” seems like a mistake in the long run. Keep in mind that 60% of our toy dollars are spent this time of year…so bringing home toys that will have lasting play value makes more sense in terms of having toys your kids will play with after the holidays are over.

Open-ended toys and supplies are a better bet. I love novelty toys as much as the next guy…and there are some on our list this year.  The holidays are about making dreams come true, but if you’re looking to make your dollar stretch…buying more open-ended toys is the way to go.  Art supplies, games (that are played again and again), blocks, pretend props (toy kitchens, dollhouses), and toys for active play (ride-ons, sporting equipment)…all will be enjoyed  for a long time and played with differently as your child grows.

Pool your resources. If there’s a toy that your child really wants that costs a little more, have your family chip in. Much more fun to get the present you wanted, then lots of little token gifts from aunts and uncles.

The olden days. There was a time when we didn’t go to the toy store with a shopping cart.  We got fewer toys…not necessarily a bad thing.

Get Your Screwdriver Ready. One way to keep prices down…toy makers leave more for parents to do. Many toys don’t even come with the pre-drilled holes.  If you’re handy with a power drill/screwdriver, you’ll be fine. If you’re not, we warned you.

Make it count. We started the toyportfolio with the tag..we test all the toys so that “you don’t waste your money or your child’s time.”  So  no matter what your budget, we’ve tried to take the mystery of finding a great toy.   So take a look at our Platinum List!

Read my interview with eeBoo’s Mia Galison

Anyone who sends me a picture of themselves having a pillow fight is totally cool…

Read the complete interview with the Founder of eeBoo, Mia Galison.

Baby Chicks…thoughts?

We just got a game where each player sits on their seven eggs…literally you sit on the egg cards.  Each player takes a turn rolling the dice–to see which kind of chick has been hatched…yellow, white or red.  Each player then removed a piece from under them and if it matches they place the egg on their nest in front of them.  One of my problems is tha the red chick really isn’t too red…but we’re all sitting here wondering if we really want to be sitting on eggs?

Pick of the Day: I Spy Flip 5

If you’re fans of the I SPY series, you’ll want to take a look at Briarpatch’s new I SPY Flip 5.  The idea is to match similar images that appear on the play pieces (disks that have images on both sides).  The picture can be a photo or a silhouette of that image (a star fish, a horse, a panda, a ballerina, etc.)…At each turn, players take turns saying “1, 2, 3, 4, flip 5″—that player then flips five disks.  Players then look for matches –call them and collect them. The player with the greatest number of matches wins that round. The player to win five rounds wins. Our game players liked looking for the matching images–and the pace of the game. This is one you won’t mind playing again and again.  It’s a step above straight matching games–calling for a more developed sense of visual discrimination.  You can introduce the game to a younger child by using fewer disks–making it a bit less overwhelming. At $12.95, it’s a good price for a game that you can easily take along if you’re traveling–all of the pieces will fit easily in a big zip lock bag. There’s also a Dino Flip 5 that we’ve sent out for additional testing–we think dino-fans will love it…same idea but with images of dinosaurs.  Both games are marked 4 & up and will work with 2-4 players.

Snow!!!

For the first time in five years, the public schools (and private) are closed in New York City. Lots of kids are  home. Looking for something to do?  Here are a few low tech projects:
1. Make a fort (armed with a few sheets and flashlights) this is just the type of day for this type of cozy fun.
2. Scavenger Hunt- no matter what the age, this can be a great game that will take up some time!

3. Set the table- with arts and crafts projects that will make for a special snow day dinner setting.  Kids can make name cards, a centerpiece (you can make a city with Matchbox cars and blocks).

4. Pick a color- Have your kids pick a color for the day. Put on all their clothes in that color. For younger kids, they can make a book of their favorite “yellow” things.

5. Snow- when you go outside have the kids fill up a jar with snow.  Then let everyone guess how long it will take for the snow to turn to water. A little science experiment on the kitchen counter–my favorite kind!

Pre-Toy Fair Buzz: Does your three year old need a BlackBerry?

Part of LeapFrog’s new product line this year includes the Text & Learn that references the design of the adult BlackBerry.  While there seems to be a lot of uproar about this latest grown-up device scaled down for the sandbox crowd, there’s really nothing very new about the concept.  When fax machines were new (remember that?), Tyco had a really neat version for kids.  The typical toy phone has gone through many variation that track the design and functions of the real thing.  So it didn’t really seem that unusual to me that there would be a BlackBerry styled toy–given the adult dependence on their devices.  In terms of play value, preschoolers love taking on grown up roles with literal props. Pretend kits for playing office, restaurant, firefighter, etc. are generally a huge hit with this age group.  It’s developmentally right on target in terms of expanding their own sense of themselves in a larger community.  Of course that doesn’t necessarily mean they need this particular electronic prop or any other.  The proof will be in the game play – which is really hard to judge until we see a finished product and try it out with kids.  There is another problem that every parent runs into at some point…even toddlers know the difference between your keys and   some fake set of toy keys.  Most kids will not accept the substitution!  On the other hand,  if this is a fun, easy to take along hand held device that has age appropriate content–it might be very appealing.

Math Phobic? Here’s a Great Math Game

My friend Lisa could attest to the fact that I was extremely math phobic as a kid. It just wasn’t my thing. My mother was great on the early hands-on math lessons…fractions were taught with Hersey’s chocolate bars. Leave it to her to find a fun connection to chocolate! But I never could get that chocolate rush when doing factors or geometry…

If this sounds remotely familiar–I have a game that makes practicing your math skills fun….really. Double Shutter is an updated version of an old pub game called Shut the Box. Here the game comes with two rows of numbered tiles. Roll the dice and then flip down the numbers you come up with…now you can play by adding, multiplying, dividing, or subtracting the numbers on the dice. I prefer the addition level. The object is to be the first one to flip down all the tiles. From Blue Orange Games (there are two versions — a jr. version has only one row of numbers).