HOW-TO Find The Best Toys for Holiday Season #TTPM

Our children deserve the best in play and in learning. That is one of the missions for the country’s showcase called TTPM – Toys, Tots, Pets and More. Every product presented at the show has been through a rigorous testing: played well and figured out. The toys need to bring joy and learning opportunities to a child. Such toys need to be affordable to parents, too. TTPM team is dedicated to do just that.

Celebrating TOYS, TOTS, PETS AND MORE
for the Upcoming Holiday Season

This Holiday Season, TTPM unveiled its best choices in toys during their Holiday Season showcase New York. We also had a powerful chance to interact with pets during the show part that featured the best products for dogs and cats. Here’s my overview of the toys categories that were featured during the TTPM show, and then I’ll offer you some insights of my favorites in separate posts as we approach the holiday gifting time and celebration of child’s play.

What truly stood out during this Holiday Season at TTPM event was how STEM-oriented the majority of toys and games were! This is great news, especially that our national Department of Education has been directed to allocate at least $200 million per year in grant funds towards high-quality STEM education.

STEM – Science. Technology, Engineering and Math.

Toys play a huge part in an emotional, psychological, mental, and physical development of each child. The brain forms synopsis – connections – that play a vital role in how each child processes and assimilates information with her lifestyle, interests and goals. Toys are not a frivolous waste of time – they are the key to many successes each child could be an active part of.

TTPM Holiday Showcase this year has become one of the leaders of identifying the key players in toys and games for our children. I love seeing how diverse and multi-functional toys could be! And, Yes, a STEM element in many is a sign for powerful changes how children explore, learn and grow up.

Here’s in a gist of the categories spotlighted at TTPM. I will post a few more posts for you to see a rich abundance in toys options for children.   

4 Toy Categories Were Featured at TTPM

– High Tech Toys
– Tech & Animatronics
– Innovative Basic Play, and 
– Star Wars – wow, this one got its own feature category, no less!

High Tech Toys

LEGO

I am biased when it comes to LEGO. I adore this type of toy as it gives infinite ways to build and to create some of the unpredictable structures. Right now, LEGO is following a TECH path, incorporating some STEM elements into their already superb construction sets. TTPM has given me some of the best options to see what’s new in this company’s offering this Holiday Season. There’s no boundaries for improvement. LEGO is offering a magical world of creativity to our children.

With a Coding feature, the kids can assemble LEGO construction sets and make them move. I love it, as it makes LEGOs such a cool thing to become a display piece, a project item or anything that a child would imagine and build.

NINTENDO

VITECH DROPMIX

With this toy-game, a child can easily compose a music piece that will be hers or his forever. The process is so creative, it could easily draw in your child to spend literally hours with this musical outlet. I watched how a 5-year-old was building his own composition on this DropMix machine. It is simple, yet develops one of the best areas of our brain that “hears and responds to” music.

Tech and Animatronics

HATCHIMALS

Who is inside? How quickly can it hatch? What color my Sparkly Pengualas or Shimmering Draggles will be? Hatchimals have been hatching by a million throughout the globe. This Holiday Season, they will wow their owners with their surprises and variety. With over 70 Hatchimals CollEGGtibles to collect this season, the fun is to find the ultra-rare species. There’s so much to draw from this Hatchimals experience! Nurturing the egg, rubbing it for a Hatchimals to hatch, then caring for it with love and care. This toy is a delight when it comes to early childhood and tween education.

Keep in mind that Hatchimals can be found in many forms and shapes: 

– Glittering Garden
– CollEGGtibles
– Hatchimals Surprise

FINGERLINGS

LUVABELLA & LUVABEAU DOLL
FOR BOYS AND GIRLS

These dolls have been created to bring nurturing fun to young caregivers at heart. As you notice, there’s a boy and a girl in this collection. The company also offers the dolls with skin color variations become an excellent playing partner to a child.

Inside a doll, there’s a “smart” mechanism that allows it to interct with a child:

– Soothe a doll with her pacifier when she gets fussy
– Watch her laugh, blink, purse her lips and more
– Give this doll her Lamby toy, and she’ll start playing with it and even kiss her!

These dolls have been designed to appeal to the youngest of the children who love taking care of others. With response mechanism built into the doll, a child could figure out and build scenarios of play. The sky’s the limit when playing with this toy. All in all, this Luvabella and Luvabeau dolls have over 500 unique responses build into them – WOW!

Innovative Basic Play

L.O.L. SURPRISE

We never were shown what’s inside! But by now it should be available in stores. LOL Surprise holds a toy that could become a collectible! Be on the lookout for these in stores.

FLIPAZOO – FLIP ZEE GIRLS

There’s no stopping us when we want to deliver the best in toys and games to our child. Tech toys offer one side of development. The toys that drive a change and nurture with a different, non-tech design, can be as entertaining and crucial in child’s development. We are talking FlipaZoo and Flip Zee Girls.

Flip Zee Girls are colorful, plush companions who can change from a baby to a full-grown personality in a couple flips! Each doll has a name, a mantra, and a character to be known for. Girls from toddlers to tweens would absolutely love these dolls and treasure their companionship.

PIKMI POPS

These Pikmi Pops are adorable and very, very addictive! You would want to collect all of them. There are over 45 of cute mini Pikmi Pop plushes in 12 yummy scents. You can go after mini or jumbo plush Pikmi Pops. All are adorable and will bring more fun to your child, becoming their security toy and a go-to friend.

Star Wars

SWORDS & ROBOTS & ALL

You would love to have these Jedi swards and BB-8 life-size figure for your collection! Just in time for Star Wars: The Last Jedi™, you can interact with BB-8, and he would follow you like he did in the movie with Jyn Erso. And as each every Jedi, you gotta have this amazing sword, too.

Some Of My Favorite Holiday Season Toys

FAO SCHWARTZ

I am biased here: I absolutely adore FAO Schwartz toys and collection they offer. From toys to decor, their display is certainly one of my favorites! From a snow globe to a nutcracker, they know how to vow us visually and admire their products any time of the year.

VAMPERINA & BUILDING SETS

This new doll will quickly become a favorite for the girls. This girl who came to Pennsylvania from Transylvania is very different from anybody else around her. The teaching moments she presents are so valuable for those kids who are shy and need some encouragement to believe that them being different is what makes them beautiful. Besides, Disney Vampirina is coming out on DVD October 17. 

BEAT BUGS

For the generations who were raised on Beatles, this amazing group of Beat Bugs would be a cool reminder of what made Beatles famous. These backyard adventuresome bugs introduce the music sung by John Lennon and the band in a very child-friendly format. Check out these amazing creatures on Netflix. Each episode is dedicated to one song and its history. We’ll hear P!ink, Sia, Eddie Vedder, James Corden and The Shins. The toys are very innovative and include some transportation devices like a musical submarine.

PLAYMOBIL

From Pharaoh’s Pyramid to Advent Calendar, Playmobil has presented some of the best in their collection. Truly innovative, bright and calling to be played with. Here’s a sample of the available items for the upcoming Holidays:

PLAYMOBIL Petting Zoo
Hicup & Toothless
NHL Locker Room Play Box
Advent Calendar Royal Ice Skating Trip
Santa’s Workshop Advent Calendar

K’NEX

K’nex delivers some of the fun and educational construction sets ever! The majority of the K’nex toys were the best representation of STEM movement and fun through play. 

INFLATE-A-MALS

Very interesting and comforting toy is presented by these Inflate-a-mals. The surface is made with the softest fabric ever and reminds me of my Cornish Rex cats – the softest fur on earth. With each animal as tall as 6 feet, your child has an opportunity to explore and learn a difference between a real-life animal and a toy it is represented through.

The company carries dragons, unicorns and super heroes. Whatever your children want to imagine and play with – these imagination-driven toys will deliver.