In somewhat of a bazaar crossover; Mattel has just released a line of Wizard of Oz Barbie and Ken dolls. I get that the Wizard of Oz is a timeless classic, but in this day and age are little girls still interested in that movie? I guess Mattel ran out of colors for Barbie’s dress and decided to mix it up a bit.
If you look closely at all of the dolls, including Dorothy, the Good Witch, the bad witch, the Lion, the Scarecrow, and the Tin Man; you’ll see that they all resemble the characters from the movie with one exception. The Wicked Witch of the West is beautiful. They clearly just took a spare Barbie doll and put black clothing on her. It’s odd that they wouldn’t take the time and effort to mold some new heads for the doll with a huge ugly nose, which was easily the witch’s most defining feature.
The first toy that caught my attention is the Spider-Man 3 My 1st from Hasbro. This is basically an action figure that has two webs, that more closely resemble discs, that shoot out from Spidy’s hands. The brilliance behind this toy is that it is an action figure that is meant for the 3 year old crowd. The problem with almost ALL action figures is that they are meant for older kids because they come with very small parts that can be a choking hazard. Not the case with the Spider-Man 3 My 1st Spider Double Web Shooter. This one gets a thumbs up in my opinion. You can pick up this guy for $20 at Target.
Finally a toy that encourages the kids to play in the street at night! Seriously this thing is pretty cool. The Spy Video Car is a radio controlled car with a night vision camera mounted on it. Kids can see everything the car sees with a special set of goggles. The R/C Spy Video Car is small enough to navigate the living room without smashing into too many pieces of furniture. As a parent all you can do is hope that this thing is loud enough to hear coming so you don’t get caught doing something I don’t want the kids to know about.
Anyway while stumbling around the web I saw a press release for casting calls for Kitt. Kitt is a character from the “American Girl” toy line which is 100% owned by Mattel. Mattel is working with HBO to make a movie about this doll/story character named Kitt. The film will be called “Kitt Kittredge: An American Girl Mystery.” The film will take place in Depression era America and star Abigail Breslin from Little Miss Sunshine.
There is no end to the number of building toys out there, from Lincoln Logs, to Tinker Toys, to 
If your child doesn’t have a Webkinz yet, get ready to be begged for one. Webkinz is probably the biggest fad with the 5 to 12 crowd right now. Webkinz are stuffed animals with a digital twin on Webkinz.com. Webkinz come in a ton of different animals like, dogs cats, bears, koalas, and birds. Each Webkinz has its own unique code that identifies it with its online twin on Webkinz .com. Be warned, Webkinz aren’t in every toy store in the US. You may have to hunt around to buy one. Amazon.com has a huge selection in their future releases section of their toy department.
I’ve seen a ton of the new types of inflatable pools at Target. If you haven’t they look very sturdy and range in size from small, for the kiddies, to huge. Big enough for several adults. They are built from Dura-Tech, which is a very strong kind of rubber. This new generation of pools seem to be built around that same principal that allows your neighbors to have those huge, inflatable lawn ornaments for the holidays. Basically they stay inflated via powerful fan that runs continuously.
