The holidays have come and gone. In your mind, you’re thinking that you have to wait until fall to see new toys make it to the retailers; In reality, new toys are hitting the shelves as you read this.

New Zhu Zhu pet characters are already for sale. Lego has introduced their “Atlantis” collection. Ben 10 has come out with a new line of Alien Force construction toys. There are also new construction toys from Mega Bloks featuring Dora the Explorer and Thomas the Tank Engine, brand-new additions to the Barbie Fashionistas line and totally new Barbie “I Can Be” line. If you haven’t yet seen the Vectron Wave, it’s a new radio control toy that uses your hands to control the action. There are also new toys from Playdoh and cute little Snuggimals from the Furreal Friends.

Over the next month, tons of new toys will be coming out, and this years new outdoor toys will also start becoming available. We will be reviewing and showcasing the best as they hit the shelves. So, if you are looking for a new toy for a birthday, or just because your child needs something new to play with, there’s plenty to choose from.

Play Categories: Industry News, products

Here’s the drill, you are stuck in a long checkout line with a bored child who is way past his or her tolerance for adult to-do list errands. What do you do? What do you do?

Answer, grab your iPhone or iPod Touch and play a video game! No, I’m not suggesting you tune the child out and escape into a game on your own. But find a game that you can both play together like Issac Newton’s Gravity from Namco.

Issac Newton’s Gravity is a new game in which you arrange objects like ramps, gears, bumpers and blocks in order to guide a falling object to hit a switch. This is a great game to play with kids because you can handle the iPod but rely on your child’s input and creative ideas for where to place the objects in the game.

The game costs $3.99 and can be purchased through the iTunes App Store. While there, take a look at some of the other hundreds of games available and see if you can find the perfect game to play with your kids.

Play Categories: Video Games

By Mary Kay Russell, Inventor of Kubit2me, “The Ultimate Toss-It-To-Me” Game!
President, Kubit2me, Inc., Kubit2me
You can also follow her on Twitter and Facebook

Great ideas come to us at the most random times, don’t they?

About six years ago, a friend of mine and I decided to put together a fun little book club for our 10-year-old kids’ class of fourth graders.  We picked out some great books that the kids would love, came up with cool games and activities that would excite and delight, and ran it all with parent volunteers at the school.  Sounds pretty innocent, right?  Yep, that’s what I thought until one of the games I came up with – a game I called Kubit2me – turned into my obsession.

For the next three years, my simple life was turned upside down.  My days were still filled with what I always did as a stay-at-home mom to four boys – tending to my family’s needs, cooking, cleaning, laundry, car-pooling and the occasional mani/pedi.  But when the last child was tucked in for the night, I kissed my husband good-night, put on my comfy pj’s and my game-inventor hat and went to work.

Being new to the toy industry and out of the working world for the last 15 years, I had a lot to learn.  Night after night I was a keyboard tapping, mouse shuffling research fanatic, learning everything I could about trends in the toy industry, intellectual property, packaging design, overseas manufacturing, warehousing and fulfillment, sales and distribution channels, marketing and advertising – making sure I covered every base before deciding to self-produce and bring my game to market.  Armed & dangerous and ready to go, this game inventor was about to become a game manufacturer.  OMG!

My work routine was the same almost every night – I would work from 10:00 PM until 4:00 AM, sleep for two hours, wake up to get the kids off to school, then start my day again.  Mid-day catnaps were my new best friends.  Good thing – because sadly, I no longer had time for my best friends.  BFF get-togethers at Starbucks and Panera were now replaced with meeting graphic designers, outsourcing agents, attorneys, and sales reps.  Weekend getaways with friends were replaced with visits to toy stores and trips to trade shows.  Thankfully, my friends were very understanding, incredibly supportive and always there for me when I needed them.

Striking a balance between my work life and family life was a bit of a struggle.  At first, my kids were little more than slightly amused by my new “hobby.”  Sometimes they’d pass me by while I was on the computer (as usual) and say, “Look at you mom, like you have a real job … how cute!”  I really think they thought I was going through some kind of mid-life crisis.  I can remember countless times trying to tell them that this was for real, and that one day people would actually BUY my game.  They’d just smile and nod politely (secretly snickering amongst themselves, lest they hurt my feelings by cracking up in front of me at the absurdity of it all) and then walk away, slightly confused by what their mother was becoming, somewhat annoyed by the fact that I was no longer there for them 24/7.  I knew they would learn to accept it.  I knew this would be good for them too.

So here I am today, producing and selling three award-winning Kubit2me self-expression games in toy stores nationwide and through numerous online retailers … a product line that I brought to market by myself.

The best part?  Besides the gratification I get when I hear from people who have played my games and love them – the absolute best part has been the transformation in my boys.  Their nonchalance has been replaced by curiosity.  They see with their own eyes what can happen with hard work and dedication.  They’ve come to understand what it means to have the spirit, passion, patience, and perseverance of an entrepreneur.  They have become resourceful, self-reliant young men.  And best of all, their indifference has been replaced with pride, especially when their friends say, “Dude, your MOM made that game???”

Play Categories: Time to Play Guest Blogger

Remember a couple of weeks ago (January 6 to be exact) I posted about Nintendo’s record number of Wii consoles sold in December? At the time of the post, we didn’t have the exact figures but Nintendo was estimating that they would be over 3 million. Well, those final official figures were released by the NPD Group, which tracks U.S. video game sales, and the total number of Wii consoles sold in December amounted to 3.8 million units. Wow!

Click here to read the original post from January 6.

Play Categories: Video Games

The latest Super Monkey Ball game, Super Monkey Ball Step & Roll for the Wii, lands in stores next month and to celebrate, Sega (the game’s publisher) has partnered with Chiquita Brands (the banana company) for a promotion that is, um, bananas!

Starting next month, Chiquita bananas in supermarkets will feature special Super Monkey Ball stickers and the bananas themselves will appear in the video game. The two companies will also sponsor a “Super Bananza Sweepstakes” to win prizes, including one grand prize of a family gaming-room makeover. This grand prize will include a 50” HDTV, a couch and four gaming chairs, a copy of Super Monkey Ball Step & Roll, a Wii, Wii Balance Board (with Wii Fit Plus) and “other great prizes from Chiquita”, which I’m guessing will include plenty of bananas. It’s not clear at the moment whether you will need a sticker from the banana to enter the sweepstakes or not but, once open, sweepstakes entries will be accepted at www.chiquitabananas.com.

Super Monkey Ball Step & Roll will be the first Super Monkey Ball game to support the Wii Balance board, which will allow players to move through the game’s popular floating maze levels using their whole body. Look for the game in stores on February 9, 2010 and keep an eye out on the bananas in your supermarket around the same time.

Play Categories: Video Games

By Tiffany Bowen, Founder, Lattes and Life
You can also follow her on Twitter

It’s January, and that means many moms and dads are working on their New Year’s resolutions to lose weight and get healthy. Why not make it a family effort? It’s never too early to introduce a healthy lifestyle to children. Use meal planning as a springboard to discuss healthy food options. Let them choose new fruits and vegetables to sample. When you instill an appreciation for healthy eating in your child it will stay with them as they grow. In our overweight and unhealthy society it’s very important to plant the seeds of healthy eating from that first spoonful!

Include your children in your exercise resolutions as well. Kids have an innate desire to move their bodies, as any parent knows. Take advantage of that to keep you moving and on track for fitness. Not only will you be improving your family’s health, but you’ll also increase your family’s fun!

Here are some ways to include your kids in your fitness resolutions:

1. Wii

If your family has a Wii, there are many family-friendly games that will get everyone off the couch and jumping, dancing and laughing.

2. Family Walks

Go on regular family walks around your neighborhood. Don’t let the chilly winter weather stop you! As long as it’s not too cold everyone can bundle up.

3. Snow Fun

Take advantage of snow days! Build snowmen, have snowball fights, dig tunnels and make forts!

4. Play Active Board Games

There are quite a few family-friendly games that require you to move around. Check out Elefun, Cranium Hullabaloo or Twister and get moving!

5. Good Old Fashioned Floor Play

You can always sneak in some great strength training using your younger children as weights! Lifting, carrying and wrestling with them will get your muscles working and them giggling!

Make this year’s resolutions a family effort and everyone will benefit. You’ll increase your family’s fitness while enjoying quality family time.

Play Categories: Time to Play Guest Blogger

Whether its a TV, computer, cell phone or game console, one of the most frustrating aspects of buying a media device is how quickly it is replaced by a new and improved version. Nobody wants to plunk down a couple hundred dollars on something that will be obsolete in a few months and it sounds like game console makers finally agree.

Microsoft, the maker of the Xbox 360, has consistently stated that they have no plans of introducing a new Xbox within the next few years. The most recent announcement was at least week’s CES in Vegas, where the company stated that the 360 is just halfway through it’s intended life span. Nintendo and Sony have also made similar statements about the Wii and PlayStation 3.

This is great news for anyone who has been thinking of purchasing a new game system as prices are at an all time low and the companies are assuring us that these consoles are here to stay.

Play Categories: Video Games

Last week was Jim’s turn to be in Hong Kong, this week it’s mine. The trade show here is the second largest in the world, and it’s where the “toy year” officially starts. Many manufacturers started showing things privately in October, but here in Hong Kong at the amazing Convention Centre that juts magnificently into the harbor from Hong Kong Island, or in the hundreds of showrooms and hotel suites on the mainland, this is where the toys you’ll be trying to find ten short months from now start to take shape.

Many of the executives and designers have been here since just after the New Year. They work with buyers and have easy access to the factories in China—a couple of hours away by train. The suggested changes that are devised in these meetings can quickly be implemented and new models delivered in a few days’ time.

One of the big things everyone is talking about is cost—how to give consumers more value for their money. That’s great news for anyone buying toys, but it can cause headaches for the companies trying to meet that challenge. For example, I spent an hour today with a small toy company that has a line of awesome products that will be unveiled in the U.S. this year. (Sorry, specific details are under wraps.) I talked to the lead inventor, who has a Ph.D. in robotics, and he told me that it took six months to figure out how to get a toy to run for a long time on AA batteries. Why even bother trying to do something like that? Well, it allows the toy to be sold at an affordable price and to perform at a level that won’t disappoint kids. Sounds like a pretty good reason to me.

And this show is big, there are more than 2,000 companies exhibiting from 46 countries. And there are thousands of buyers here from all over the world, all of them hoping that they will find a market for their toys.

It’s a lot to try to see it all in only a few days!

But this is truly where the toy year starts. A lot of people in the toy business are on the road for the first few months of the year non-stop. At the end of this week, many of the companies leave here and head for the Nuremburg toy show in Germany—the largest toy fair in the world. It’s so big, they have one huge convention hall that would easily cover the space of five football fields devoted only to model trains. (Model trains are big in Europe, still.) There the manufacturers will show their toys again, with some improvements.

Another company I spoke with today has an amazing electronics product. (Sorry, still top secret.) They showed it to me and said that by next week when they head to Nuremburg they hope to have the next round of development complete.

After Nuremburg comes the London toy show and finally, New York. Even then, though, the work isn’t done. After all the shows, manufacturers still have to work out details such as how to manufacture the toys, and how much it will cost the retailers to buy them and how much they can sell them for. It’s a long process that ends with final meetings and the hope that after all is said and done the retailers will begin placing orders and production can start. In many cases, orders are finalized by the end of March or the beginning of April, so the toys can be made in time to spend 6 weeks being shipped from Asia and be on the shelf at the beginning of the holiday shopping season.

It’s also a very risky business because there’s no guarantee that a toy will make it through the process and thousands of dollars—or more—may go down the tubes. A toy might ultimately be too expensive. Or there could be too many other things like it on the market or… There are lots of reasons, and many of them might not be that obvious. However, every once in a while, I’ll stumble across a toy as I’m roaming the shows that makes me scratch my head and say, “What were they thinking?” My favorite right here in Hong Kong two years ago was a two-foot-tall purple plush gorilla that was operated by remote control and played “Johnny, Be Good.” I guess somebody thought it was a good idea.

If this year is like the past, though, the good ideas will far outweigh the bad, and at the end of the toy year for us, there will be tons of excitement for you. Stay tuned!

Play Categories: Experiences, Industry News

By Dana Adams, Founder, Mrs. Moneysaver
You can also follow her on Twitter

Perhaps you’re among the twenty percent of consumers carrying holiday credit card debt right now. Or maybe you just overextended your budget a bit in the midst of gift-buying and travel, putting your family in lean financial times this month.

Either way, with the fresh start of a new year, now is the time to gain control of your finances.  Making frugal decisions now can lead to greater financial freedom in 2010, allowing you to concentrate more on the things that really matter in life.  And learning to live more frugally may just be easier than you think.  The four steps below will give you a great start on making more frugal decisions.

1.  Assess needs versus wants. Before you buy, ask yourself if the purchase is truly a need, or just a want.  If you determine it’s a want, then decide if it’s a purchase that you have room in your budget for.  Thinking about needs vs. wants before you buy helps ward off unnecessary, impulse buys that tend to be budget-busters.  This simple change in thinking before purchasing has personally saved my family hundreds, if not thousands!

2.  Wait before you buy. Before you buy, wait.  In waiting, two things happen.  First, this waiting period helps you determine the true need.  Often, if you wait to buy something that you “need”, you find you can make-do without.  Second, waiting gives you time to find the best price on an item.  Before you purchase, research the cost of the purchase across different retailers and wait for rock-bottom sale prices.

3.  Track your spending. If you don’t have an idea of what you’ve spent until you get your credit card bill or bank statement, you’re likely to spend more over the course of the month.  Tracking your spending as you spend doesn’t have to involve detailed itemized budgets and shoeboxes full of receipts though!  Try using a free website service like Mint.com to track your money.  You can link your credit and bank accounts to Mint, and they will sort and track your spending for you.  It’s a time-saving way to track where your money is going.

4.  Use coupons and shop sales. We have cut thousands off our grocery, household, and baby expenses each year by shopping sales and clipping coupons- without sacrificing lifestyle.  When an item that is frequently used in your house goes on sale, stock up enough to carry you through until the next sale.  And then begin matching coupons to those sales for extra savings.  (Find out where to get coupons here.) While couponing might seem overwhelming or time consuming at first, after a little practice, you’ll stream-line the process to work for your family’s needs.  You can start small in coupon savings, perhaps just saving on a couple of items a week at first.  The savings will still add up quickly and encourage further couponing!

With the start of a new year, so many resolve to get physically fit over the next twelve months.  But this is also the perfect time to get financially fit.  With just some simple changes like those above, you can gain control over your money instead of having your money control you!

Dana Adams can be found blogging at Mrs. Moneysaver, where living frugal is living better.  Dana shares how Mrs. Moneysaver readers can learn how to stretch money farther through nationwide grocery strategies, coupon clippings, free products, and frugal advice. It’s easier than you think! Get Started!

Play Categories: Time to Play Guest Blogger