Here are eleven new toy recalls. Three if which have too much lead. I didn’t think they still made toys in this day and age with lead in them. oh well, hopefully none of you have any of these in your homes. Note: the toy pictured is real. It was recalled back in the 50’s.

Oeuf LLC of Brooklyn, N.Y., is recalling 1,400 infant bouncer seats. The tubular metal frame can break, posing a fall hazard to infants in the seat.

Tequila Rose Distilling Co. of Weston, Mo., is recalling 60,000 Tequila Rose Strawberry Cream candle sets. The martini glass containing the gel candle can break while the candle is burning, posing fire and burn hazards.

Hunter’s View of Peoria, Ill., is recalling 200,000 additional tree-stand harnesses, after an April 2005 recall of 500,000 harnesses. The harnesses could fail during use, resulting in a hunter falling from the tree stand and suffering serious injuries or death.

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I saw this short local news story online regarding Webkinz. It briefly touches on the dangers of your kids becoming addicted to their Webkinz. Through Webkinz.com a child has to take care of their virtual pet, on a fairly regular basis. The pet needs to be fed and interacted with to stay happy. This is the double edged sword of this hot toy. You child learns things like responsibility without the parents having to flush a neglected pet down the toilet. On the other hand this is another way for kids to become virtual couch potatoes.

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Being the son of a Latin teacher I always heard about how younger kids learn additional languages easily.  Given this fact and the huge advantages people who speak multiple languages have I don’t understand why more parents don’t take the initiative to give their kids toys that foster a love for language.  When I was growing up in a small town in VA, the only foreign language I had access to was Dad’s Latin lessons and the brief Spanish lessons on Sesame Street. 

With the Internet and the advances in modern toys teaching kids a second language should be a no brainier; but we as English speaking Americans have never seen a huge need for this.  As the world shrinks people will have to be better communicators.

I live in a neighborhood where there are at least five different languages spoken and my son stays with a family that speaks Hindi.  I never thought to really try to get him to start learning a second language like Spanish or French but the time may be coming where he’s old enough to start.  The advantages are huge, especially as they get into high school and have to take the required foreign language classes.

There are some bilingual toys on Amazon but I don’t know if any are worth getting.  More challenging will be getting my son to play with them.  I’ll let you guys know soon.

Being the dad of two boys doesn’t get me in tune with the culture of young girls. You can insert your own joke about that here.

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.

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There are three recent toy recalls we just want to alert everyone about. These are all from the Consumer Product Safety Commission. The details are below:
Parent’s Magazine Record-a-Voice Toy Cell Phones
Reason: choking hazard
Stores sold at: Target stores nationwide from September 2006 to January 2007 for about $8.
For more information call (800) 247-6144.

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I won’t lie to you.  I am a dad.  I tend to look at toys from a dad’s perepective.  That means that for me to personally like a toy, I need to like playing with the toy.  Needless to say I don’t like too many of my sons’ toys.

I just found a blog called Wonder Mom.  Wonder Mom just did some reviews for LeapFrog.  I love the story about how she used some of the free stuff from LeapFrog to get through a wedding reception.  The toys may have changed from generation to generation but the goal is the same, keep the kids quiet so you (us, we, the parents) can get a bit to eat.

Enjoy!

Happy Meals are great for one reason; they have boys and girls toys. My question is where are the “boys” toys for this latest set of toys based off of the ubiquitous American Idol (AI)? The current offerings of a microphone, hand clapper, sunglasses, and fake ipod are pretty lame.

I’m sorry McDonalds but you guys really missed the mark with this one. My son could care less about American Idol gear because he’s a boy. It is widely known that the target demographic for AI is young girls. My 3 year old son could care less about that show.

The last round of Happy Meal toys were great, they included boys toys like Ninja Turtles which my son loved. He didn’t even watch TMNT before getting his first turtle action figure and it didn’t matter because boys understand action figures. Boys don’t understand lame stuff like microphones and fake ipods.

I don’t know if other parents had this fantasy growing up, but I always envisioned my (future) kids playing with the toys I kept from my childhood. Don’t ask me why I thought this but I had an opportunity to put this to the test the other day.

My 3 year old son had two of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles from the last McDonald’s Happy Meal toy line. He took them to day care the other day and came home with only one. He was a little upset so I remembered that I had several original TMNT’s in the package from the last time the were popular. Yes, I did do a small bit of toy collecting in my youth. I quickly checked Ebay to see if I was about to destroy hundreds of dollars of precious mint condition toys. Fortunately old TMNT’s, still in the package, are pretty much worthless.

I then went into my small stash of unopened action figures (don’t be impressed the stash is pretty pathetic) and presented two TMNT figures to my son. His response to Daddy’s selflessly offering toys from his childhood to him? “Um….lets see what else you have daddy.” Hmmm…..”That’s all Daddy has.” My son then proceeded upstairs to continue watching his Diego DVD.

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Ever go to the local Target looking for a toy only to find a ton of the one you already have, that your kid is not playing with anyway? This typically happens with the “hot new toy” or item in a line of toys relating to a hit movie, Cars (from Pixar) being a prime example.

While researching cool websites for toys I found this post on a site called ToyBender.com. It is basically a blog written by a toy collector. The blogger is a male who collects, from what I can tell, action figures ranging in price from retail to obscene. He also posts neat classic ads for toys like commercial and comic book ads.

He recently posted an article called “Toy Collecting is for Losers: Defending Toy Collecting.” The article is about how toy collectors are not all like the 40 Year Old Virgin. Ok, that’s fine. I believe him even though ALL the toy collectors I have ever met are in fact freaks who do still live with their parents. However, given the size of the toy collecting industry I can believe that there are some socially, well-adjusted toy collectors.
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Unless you’re Amish these days you’re going to need a metric ton of batteries for electronic devices, especially for your kid’s electronic toys. Whether the toy is a remote controlled car, an electronic hand held game, or a talking doll the simple fact is that the games and gadgets for children are going to need batteries. And these toys nowadays tend to go through batteries like a Hummer goes through premium unleaded. So how does a parent deal with this never-ending and expensive cycle of buying and throwing away batteries? ToyViews.com recommends you use rechargeable batteries for all your children’s’ precious electronic toys.

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