The Hottest Summer Toys

I recently had the opportunity to meet Chris Byrne (a.k.a. The Toy Guy) content director of family-friendly resource site TimeToPlayMag.com. Chris is a leading expert on toys, play, and children’s trends with more than 27 years experience in the toy industry, and is also a frequent guest on various TV shows. Chris met with me and several other bloggers to discuss toy trends over lunch. About a week after the lunch I was thrilled to receive a a box in the mail full of Chris’ favorite toys of the summer (my children were even more excited). In addition, TimeToPlayMag.com has agreed to give a box of toys to one lucky Celebrating Family reader as part of the upcoming Blog Bash 2011! Check out the toys below and then I will give you more information on how you can win your own toys.

We received quite a few toys in our package.  All the toys in this picture to the left are the toys that will be in the prize package (except for the football), although color and style may vary. They include Leapfrog Interactive World Map, Leapfrog Tag Reader, Gazillion Bubbles Bump ‘N Go Bubble Bug, Pokemon Attack Figure, DaGeDar Power Launcher, and DaGeDar Ball Bearings.

Of all these toys my three year old daughter liked the Gazillion Bubbles Bump ‘N Go Bubble Bug the most. She laughed like crazy the whole time she played with it. Bubbles come out of the back of the toy while it crawls around on the floor. Whenever the Bug bumps into something it backs itself up and keeps on crawling around. Even my seven year old son enjoyed this one. This toy is available at several retailers and ranges in price from about $10 to $20 depending on the store.

My seven year old son loves to explore and so his favorite toy was the Leapfrog Interactive World Map (which requires the use of the Leapfrog Tag Reader). The map is doubled-sided with a physical map on one side and a political map on the other. My son was able to play games, go on a treasure hunt, explore different countries and cultures, and review map basics. There is also an option for children to quiz themselves and test their knowledge, while parents can use the Tag reader and their computer to follow their child’s play and learning progress. ($40-$60 with the Tag Reader)

At the blogger luncheon, The Toy Guy gave us each three cool new toys that are not pictured above and are not part of the giveaway (sorry!). These toys are called Fyrflyz and were a hit with my kiddos. They are being compared to yoyos because they have strings and can be used to do tricks, but I found them much cooler than yoyos. We play with them at home but we also took them camping and had a blast. They come in three colors and are in limited availability right now. The pictures below show the blue FyrFlyz in its packaging and also some of the cool tricks my son did with his FyrFlyz.

“But what about the giveaway” you ask? If you would like to win some of these toys for yourself, then you must check back here between June 22 and June 26 for Blog Bash 2011.  During this event approximately 150 bloggers will be offering various prizes guaranteed to be worth at least $100! So not only will you be able to enter to win some toys on this page, you will also be able to enter 149 other giveaways! Wow. This should be fun.

Which toy do you think your child would most like to have? Feel free to leave a comment. Share and let’s talk about it.

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