Toy Fair, the annual toy trade show in New York City, covers everything from baby gear to collectibles. There are so many fantastic toys to see in one weekend, and there are things to tempt adults as much as the kids they buy toys for. These were my absolute favorite toys for kids this year (with one exceptionally desk-appropriate Star Wars item that’s good for kids AND adults).
DC Super Hero Girls!! The Lego sets here did not disappoint. We love this Super Hero High set, and the bonus purple vehicle here from another set. These will be hitting the shelves in August.
We saw lots of great Lego Friends coming later this year, including a whole line of winter ski kits. Isn’t this ski lift cool?
Some of the new Lego Architecture sets have us daydreaming about European vacations. Look kids, Big Ben! And…the Arc de Triomphe. Coming in August.
There are so many magnet tile toys on the market right now, but we really loved the Magnaflex tiles from WowWee toys. They bend to make 3D shapes, they can be used to create pictures, and they were really satisfying to hold. Great for sensory kids ages 3 and up! They’re exclusively at Toys ‘R Us now, and they start at $19.99 for a 14 piece kit.
DigiLoom is coming this fall from WowWee toys. There are a few digital loom products for kids out there already, but this one, for ages 8 and up, was priced well at $49.99 for the loom and only $7.99 for the refill kits. There were a good number of designs and colors to choose from, and the rigid base strips make it easy to get start looming a project.
Elmoji is also coming this fall from WowWee toys. He’ll use a few of the same basic coding lessons that their COJI robot uses, but Elmoji is geared towards 3+ preschoolers instead of 4+. COJI had some mixed reviews, but we’re curious to see Elmoji works for the youngest coders. It will include Sesame Street icons to help teach kids basic programming. There are tons of toys and games out there to get kids started with coding, but we liked the combination of Sesame Street and a bot designed for slightly younger kids here.
Pacific Play Tents has been a longtime favorite of mine, their designs are so whimsical. GeekMom Karen spoke to their artistic director, Stephanie Zuckerberg, during a Facebook Live post (keep an eye out for her roundup of all the Facebook Live videos she made over the weekend). Stephanie was delightful, and she designs every tent. This mesh tent with glow in the dark stars and moon was particularly great. Imagine living room or warm weather backyard campouts with a clear sky. It’ll be retailing for $84 and is due out in May.
Later this year, Playmates is releasing a line of toys for the reboot of Ben 10. This Rustbucket folds out into a great playset.
Playmates had great stuff this year. For Voltron’s second season, they released these Legendary Lions. They can be bought individually and combined to build your own Voltron, with Black Lion as the base. They’re pricey when all combined, but very cool.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles season 5 will be featuring samurai turtles for the new toy line from Playmates! These are coming soon.
The Manhattan Toy Company makes great wooden toys for young children, and their MiO line has some really cute and clever add-ons for wooden dollhouses and standalone play. Their new food truck is out of stock on their site now, but it’ll be coming back, and it’s adorable. The MiO people have beanbag bodies, which is makes them another great sensory toy for the 5 and under set.
We liked The Manhattan Toy Company’s take on wooden puzzles, too. Stackable, magnetic blocks that can just be blocks, or used as a puzzle to make adorable figures. It was really hard not to sneak off with Red the Fox.
Our favorite from The Manhattan Toy Company were these adventure sets, little soft carrying cases that come with a whole playscape inside. This is exactly the kind of thing we’d love to have in the car for road trips, or even trips to the diner. And the themes are adorable.
Like those dinosaur and animal sets! My four-year-old daughter would take that Jurassic Adventure set everywhere. I may have to add it to her birthday wishlist if it comes back in stock.
Learning Resources was full of STEM options for second grade and under (another Facebook Live post worth checking out from GeekMom Karen), but we especially loved this deluxe lab kit. Sturdy, reusable science equipment, and their social media team posts new experiments to try regularly.
I fell in love with this Time Tracker from Learning Resources. I feel like, for $39.99, this is something I could use in my life to try and time manage with a young child. And make it a game for my daughter, so it completely counts as a toy to help teach the concept of time (if not actual time itself…wait, this sentence is way more philosophical than I thought it would be). This is an update of a previous model, but the idea is you set a timer for kids (reading time, screen time, whatever), and the tracker lights will change as the time gets closer to the end.
We love Lottie dolls! GeekMom Andrea got me hooked on them a few years ago. Modeled on the body shape of actual girls, instead of adult women, these offer some sweet play options. We have a bunch of these in my house, including Autumn Leaves Lottie on the bottom left. Some of these have been around for a while, like Finn (love a boy doll in the line!), but there are some new, super adorable dolls here. And if you didn’t know Lottie before, she is absolutely worth checking out!
The Schylling booth had so many great toys, including these tin retro windup Star Wars toys. I mean, yes, kids can play, too. But really, you want one for your desk at work, right? The ultimate desktop accessory.
Jakks Pacific had these 18″ DC Super Hero Girl dolls, and we couldn’t get enough. They’re coming later this year, along with a line of kids’ capes for every character (even Harley Quinn, you guys it’s completely amazing) and dresses based on the characters. They’re good quality dolls with well-made costumes. I don’t know about you, but this basically would’ve been my dream as a kid. Instead of having an American Girl doll with matching outfits, I would’ve been in heaven sporting a superhero outfit and matching doll.
