Toy Whimsy

Chuggington Party Ideas - Guest Blogger Lisa Kothari

Do your preschoolers love the show Chuggington?   New in the United States, young children are quickly falling in love with these train engines called Chuggers.  The show follows the adventures of three main characters: Wilson, Brewster, and Koko.  Set in the modern world, the colors and animation graphics are truly stellar and pop off the screen. It’s set to become very popular and is a perfect train party theme that includes these lovable chugger characters.

For your Chuggington Party Invitation: 
Using bright square pieces of card stock, print off pictures from the Chuggington website, and glue to the front of the card. Inside or on the reverse side, write all of your party details.
For your party decorations, be inspired by the bright and bold colors used in Chuggington: stoplight red, lime green, bright blue, and canary yellow as the perfect choices for your party colors.  You can purchase balloons, streamers, and tableware in these bright, bold solid colors as the basis of your party decorations.
Create Chuggington Train Tracks leading to the front door of the party.  At the front door create and hang a sign that says “Let’s Ride the Rails of this Party!”
Make sure to have the Chuggington theme song playing in the background as the kids arrive.
For your Chuggington Activities: 


• Chuggington is about exploring, discovering, and teaching positive life lessons — such as listening closely to directions. Create party activities that allow your guests to explore and discover the Chuggington Party area.
• When the children arrive, ask them which Chugger they want to be, and face paint a little Chugger on their face.
• As the kids wait for everyone to arrive, provide them with craft materials and brown paper bags to create their own Chuggington paper bag puppet. The kids can take these home as a party favor.
• Give the kids a series of directions that they must listen carefully to and follow. 
• Play Load a Chugger.  Have train toys available for loading up of rocks, sticks, twigs, dirt, and any other “natural” items you have around your yard. If inside, have the kids load up small toys like marbles, jacks, small balls, etc. Create a relay race by dividing the kids into two teams and having them carry their loads back and forth from one end to the other.  The first team to load/unload and finish the race wins.  However, everyone can win if it’s just for fun.
• Play Brewster May I? like Mother May I?
• Play Chuggington Chairs like Musical Chairs.  Make sure to use the show’s music during this game.

For your Chuggington Party Menu:

• Purchase a train cookie cutter and cut out sandwiches, gelatin, and brownie train shapes for the kids to enjoy together.
• Serve a Chuggington Fruit salad with grapes, kiwis, berries, apples and any other brightly colored fruits.
• Serve Chuggington Mocktails. Use a favorite flavor of Kool Aid or juice and place skewers of fruits inside each drink for additional edible decoration.

Send the party Chuggers home with their Chuggington puppets, boxes of crayons, and small train goodies, i.e. train chocolates, keychain, coloring pages, etc.

Have a Chugger Good Time!

--Lisa Kothari
Peppers and Pollywogs, Inc.
www.pepperspollywogs

Operation - Flash Back Friday

Everyone knows the game Operation.  But do you know the patient's name?  It's Cavity Sam! Here's some more about the game from wikipedia:

Operation is a battery-operated game of physical skill that tests players' hand-eye co-ordination. Made by Milton Bradley, it has been in production since 1965, the year in which the game was invented by John Spinello.

The game is a variant on the old-fashioned wire loop electric game popular at fun-fairs and the flammer stores around the United States. It consists of an "operating table", lithographed with a comic likeness of a patient (nicknamed "Cavity Sam") with a large, red light-bulb for his nose. In the surface are a number of openings, which reveal fictional and humorously-named ailments made of white plastic, and more recently green rubber.

We carry a few different versions of the game:

How about a commercial break?

And another (I think Joey Lawrence is in this one!):

And you have to check out this guy's Halloween costume!

Ahhh that's just good family fun!  Have a great weekend!

--Laura M.

Mad Men Barbie Dolls - We Saw This One a Mile Away

Back a few months ago we here at Toy Whimsy were lamenting the fact that there were no Mad Men Action Figures.  Someone must have heard our cries of anguish - and that someone must have been Barbie herself.  In the New York Times today, there comes news of a Mad Men/Barbie agreement to be part of the publicity behind the new season.

Soon, the show will enter a realm of the pop-culture pantheon that its creator, Matthew Weiner, says has surprised even him: Mattel plans to bring out versions of Barbie and Ken styled after four “Mad Men” characters.

The dolls are part of a premium-price collectors’ series for adults that Mattel calls the Barbie Fashion Model Collection. Although there have been Barbies and Kens based on other TV series, among them “I Love Lucy” and “The X-Files,” the dolls will be the first licensed line for that collection, Mattel says, with a suggested retail price of $74.95 each.

Mattel is licensing rights to the characters from Lionsgate, the studio that produces “Mad Men” for the AMC cable channel. There will be 7,000 to 10,000 copies of each doll, to be sold in specialty stores and on two Web sites, amctv.com and barbiecollector.com.

The characters to become dolls are Don Draper, the show’s leading man; his wife, Betty; his colleague at the Sterling Cooper agency, Roger Sterling; and Joan Holloway, the agency’s office manager who was Roger’s mistress. 

Here's a little sneak peek at the dolls:

 

My birthday is in July.  I see a set of these for my desk in my future!

This partnership shouldn't be too much of a surprise seeing the success Barbie is having with the Twilight series.  So what is next?  I'd love to see some True Blood Barbies.  What pop culture Barbies would you like to see?  Leave us a comment!

--Laura M.

Bella Sara Birthday Party Ideas - Guest Blogger Lisa Kothari

The world of Bella Sara, published by Hidden City Games, is an exciting, popular on-line game for girls everywhere caring for horses.  Back in the 70s, we had figurine horses with long hair that we could brush and style and play with.  Bella Sara is playing with horses new millennium style and it’s popular!  Starting with simple trading cards, girls outfit their cottage rooms with items that they purchase in the Bazaar, using horseshoes to make the purchases. Little girls love caring for their horses and outfitting them as well.  The creator of Bella Sara, Gitte Odder Brændgaard, is particularly interested in providing positive messages on each card as well.
With such a popular game, it would be a lot of fun to create a Bella Sara Birthday Party.  Using the game and its positive messages for inspiration, you can create a fun, creative party for your favorite birthday girl.

Check out these ideas:

For your party invitation, purchase a few packs of Bella Sara Cards, e.g. enough to provide one to each of your guests.  Take purple or pink heavy card stock, and cut it down to the size of your Bella Sara cards.  Write all of your party details on the card stock, and using glue, paste the Bella Sara card to the front of your invitation.  Request that your guests bring along their party invitation to the party so they can use their trading card at the party.  These invitations can either be hand-delivered or sent regular mail.
The decorations can be any color scheme that appeals to the birthday girl.  Pink and purple solid tableware, balloons, streamers, and confetti would make a good choice.  Choosing solid colored patterns will be budget friendly.  On the party table, make sure to scatter markers around and the guests can write positive messages on their cups and napkins and/or pictures of their horses.
Once at the party, as an opening activity, have the guests create their own Bella Sara names, and personalized trading cards.  Make sure to have art supplies readily available for these creations.  After everyone has finished, ask the guests to state the name they chose and why.  Award prizes for Most Creative Name, Longest Name, Shortest Name, etc.  Make sure everyone receives a prize.
Just like each Bella Sara card comes with a positive message, have the guests create their own positive messages and have them share them with each other.  Alternatively, or in addition, create different positive messages and place them into a hat.  Have the guests each pick one and describe what it means to them.
Horseshoes represent the capacity to purchase stuff to take care of the horses.  Have a Horseshoe Hunt where the guests must find as many horseshoes as they can around the party area and yard.  Real horseshoe credits would be an excellent prize and special prize for the winner.
Of course, the guests may want to get on-line and play with their horses.  Make sure to have capacity for this, e.g. if you have more than one computer available, make sure that you have them set to play.  A majority of the party will be taken with playing the game together.
As a party favor, send the guests home with new packs of Bella Sara trading cards and their own Bella Sara cards that they created.

--Lisa Kothari
Peppers and Pollywogs, Inc.
www.pepperspollywogs

Magnetic!

Sometimes the simplest toys are the most popular...and, sometimes, they aren't really "toys" at all.  Case in point: magnets.  Magnets have been always been fun to play with but, this year, magnets seem to be making a comeback.  For example,  Buckyballs are small magnetic spheres which can be used to build various 3D shapes.  Simple, yet highly addictive...and very popular.  (We saw a few knockoffs of it at Toy Fair in New York this year.)

Another popular magnetic toy is Magna-Tiles.  Magna-Tiles are multi-colored plastic tiles with magnetic edges that allow kids to build all kinds of structures.  (It also comes in a both solid and translucent versions.)  They can also be used to help kids understand shapes, basic geometry and basic physics as well.

There are lots of other magnetic toys out there (including puzzles, games, and more) at a variety of price points.  But, the end result is the same -- magnetic toys will be "sticking around" for many years to come. -- E. Christian Moore

Magic 8 Ball - Flash Back Friday

Invented in 1946, by the son of a "clairvoyant", today I found myself wondering how many bad decisions have been made on the recommendations of the Magic 8 Ball. Still made and sold by Mattel, the Magic 8 Ball is today's flash back Friday toy.

How does it work? For that we turn to Wikipedia:

It is a hollow, plastic sphere resembling an oversized, black and white 8-ball. Inside is a cylindrical reservoir containing a white, plastic, icosahedral die floating in alcohol with dissolved dark blue dye. The die is hollow, with openings in each face, allowing the die to fill with fluid, giving the plastic die minimal buoyancy. Each of the 20 faces of the die has an affirmative, negative, or non-committal statement printed on it in raised letters. There is a transparent window on the bottom of the 8-ball through which these messages can be read.

To use the ball, it must be held with the window initially facing down. After "asking the ball" a yes-or-no question, the user then turns the ball so that the window faces up, setting in motion the liquid and die inside. When the die floats to the top and one of its faces is pressed against the window, the raised letters displace the blue liquid to reveal the message as white letters on a blue background. Contrary to popular belief, it is not necessary (or recommended) to shake or jostle the ball before turning it, as doing so can create air bubbles that may visually distort the answer.

What about a commercial?  I couldn't find a commercial, but I did find a video (NSFW- Language) of some guys microwaving a Magic 8 Ball. And I found a clip from Scrubs, "The Human Magic 8 Ball"

I do like that show.  I also found this commercial for All State Insurance with the President from 24.

I don't know what it is, but now I want to buy both a Magic 8 Ball, and some new car insurance.

Here is a list of the possible outcomes from asking the Magic 8 Ball a question:

● As I see it, yes

● It is certain

● It is decidedly so

● Most likely

● Outlook good

● Signs point to yes

● Without a doubt

● Yes

● Yes - definitely

● You may rely on it

● Reply hazy, try again

● Ask again later

● Better not tell you now

● Cannot predict now

● Concentrate and ask again

● Don't count on it

● My reply is no

● My sources say no

● Outlook not so good

● Very doubtful

So, 10 good replies, 5 either way, and 5 negatives.  Interesting.  Good to know if you are going to base some of your decision making on this tried and true method.

"Will my readers have a great weekend Magic 8 Ball?"

"Signs Point to Yes"

--Laura M.

Phineas and Ferb Party Ideas - Guest Blogger Lisa Kothari

Phineas and Ferb is a very popular TV show. Are your children fans of these two step-brothers who will do anything to escape summer boredom? There's something to their schemes, humor, and pet platypus, Perry, and the cast of characters, like Candace the sister ready to out them at every turn, and the mad scientist, Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz.  This would make an excellent summer party theme for kids, but can also be fun for those kids with winter birthdays that want a taste of summer vacation.

For a Phineas and Ferb Invitation: use colorful orange, green, and blue card stock and create a surfboard invitation card.  Write all of the party details on one side of the invitation and on the other side make sure to use a Phineas and Ferb glib statement to begin the thematic fun: Ferb, I know what we're gonna do today...Party Hardy!

For your party decor, use the colors orange and green for your balloons, streamers, and table ware. 
Create a beach scene either in your backyard or in the party room with a sea of balloons in pearly white, blue, and green, surfboard pictures, shells, sand (if outside), beach balls and toys, and whatever else you have around your home to bring it alive.
For your party activities, watch episodes carefully to inspire your party games and fun:

• When the kids arrive, provide them with Phineas and Ferb T-shirts for the guests to wear during the party and to take home with them as a party favor.
• Hire a face painter to draw summer scenes on the kids' faces: surfboards, roller coasters, parade floats, and more would be fun.
• Once everyone has arrived, begin the games.
• Find the Lawn Gnomes that Dr. Doofenshmirtz has hidden.  Hide chocolate gnomes (or other types of miniature chocolates) for the kids to find during a two-minute scavenger hunt.
• Have the kids sing and perform Glitchi Glitchi Goo, Phineas and Ferb's one-hit wonder song. 
• Mt. Rushmore Carving.  Just like Phineas and Ferb try to carve Candace's face into Mt. Rushmore, give the kids modeling clay and see what faces they can carve.
• Can your party guests melt chocolate with lasers?  Divide the kids into pairs and give each a chocolate bar and a laser pointer and see what happens?  Is there any way they can melt their chocolate bars?
• Hold a Bigfoot Race.  Divide the kids into two teams and give each team a pair of large shoes that they must put on and race from one end and back to the team.  First team done wins!
• Set up a Bowl-a-Rama game for your guests using empty soda bottles and plastic bowling balls. 

  For your party menu:
Serve up grilled cheese sandwiches (a Candace favorite), platypus crunch (trail mix), and a large bowl full of Jell-O in orange and lime flavors.
Phineas and Ferb try to create a giant ice cream maker to help their friend. Have the kids make their own ice cream.  Alternatively, create an ice cream bar for the kids to make their own concoctions to enjoy.
For your party favor, send them home with shoelaces, of course, and their T-Shirts.

--Lisa Kothari
Peppers and Pollywogs, Inc.
www.pepperspollywogs

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!

Today is the day of Dr. Seuss

A wonderful man as ever let loose

He taught us to rhyme

and to always find fun

today is the time 

to say "We love you a ton!"

Seems everyone is celebrating Dr. Seuss' big day today.  Even the First Lady got in on the act by reading The Cat in the Hat to a group of school children.

So we will celebrate the way we know best, with a bunch of Suess toys, and just forget the rest!

Dr. Seuss Cat in the Hat Finger Puppets

Manhattan Toy Dr. Seuss Horton

The Wonder Forge Dr Seuss Classic Cards

Plush Sneetch

New Dr. Seuss Quote Vinyl wall Art Decal Decor "A Person's a"

Cat in the Hat I Can Do That! Game

Dr. Seuss Cat in the Hat Fish in a Teapot Action Plush Costume Hat

Manhattan Toy Dr. Seuss The Grinch - Medium

The Wonder Forge Green Eggs and Ham Speedy Diner Game

Dr Seuss Cat in the Hat Costume Boy - Child Medium 8-10

Horton Hears a Who! - You to the Rescue!

Trend Lab Dr Seuss Velour Cat In The Hat Chair and Ottoman, Olive

Are You My Mother? Hardcover Book with Plush Animal Character

Child Dr Seuss Horton Elephant Costume

Dr. Seuss Trivia Game

Manhattan Toy Company Dr. Seuss Fox in Socks

LeapFrog Tag Activity Storybook - Green Eggs and Ham

LeapFrog Tag Classic Storybook the Cat in the Hat

Dr. Seuss Fish Slide by Schylling

Manhattan Baby Dr. Seuss Plush Toy Sweet WHO Boy Snuggle Pod

I'll leave you with a quote from my favorite Dr. Seuss book, The Birthday Book,

"Today you are you! That is truer than true! There is no one alive...

...who is you-er than you! Shout loud, “I am lucky  to be what I am! Thank goodness I’m not  just a clam or a ham Or a dusty old jar of  sour gooseberry jam! I am what I am! That’s a  great thing to be! If I say so myself,  HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!”

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!!

--Laura M.

Celebrate National Reading Month - Guest Blogger Dr. Carolyn Jaynes, PhD from LeapFrog

Getting Ready for School and Motivating Young Readers

Did you know that this is National March into Reading Month?  Every March, communities from coast to coast enjoy Read Across America events designed to promote children’s love of reading.  While many of these celebrations take part in school settings, the fact remains that children’s experiences from birth, before they enter Kindergarten, significantly impact their language and literacy development, as well as their attitudes toward reading.  Children preparing for school can benefit from experiences that support and reinforce skills and concepts they will encounter as they enter the classroom one morning this summer or fall. In short, what parents do to support their children’s language and literacy development makes a difference (See reading tips “Get Kids Ready to Read…Then Keep Them Reading”).  Children win when parents and teachers reinforce the same concepts and skills that will make them stronger readers and writers.  As your child prepares to transition to more formal school experiences, keep these three important points to keep in mind. 

 

Oral Language Development is Key

Oral language and literacy development go hand in hand.  That is, when children are talking and listening—whether they are retelling a funny story at the dinner table or singing rhyming songs as they pick up toys—they are learning that words and language are part of the fun.  At the same time, they are developing skills like sequencing events and recognizing rhymes that are linked to future success with reading and writing.  So talk and listen, explain things and ask questions, sing songs and make up simple chants.  Turn car trips and walks to the park into opportunities to predict the weather based on the clouds, plan a birthday party, or create your own silly limericks.  And as you help your child make predictions, outline plans, and recognize the sounds and rhythms of language, be assured that you are reinforcing skills that will help them comprehend what they read, organize their writing, and determine word spellings in the years to come. 

 

Variety is Essential

Providing children with a wide variety of experiences helps them build background knowledge and conceptual understanding that will support their future growth as readers and writers.  And broadening your child’s sphere of experiences does not require more money or time.  It can be as simple as taking a new route to the grocery store and talking about the different things you see along the way, or exploring new shelves in the library that contain nonfiction books about cheetahs or trains or some other passion topic that piques your child’s interest, or volunteering to walk a dog from the local animal shelter.  Each new experience and every new book introduces your child to vocabulary, ideas, and knowledge about the world that will help them comprehend what they read and express themselves with greater precision and sophistication as they move into the classroom and beyond.

 

Modeling is Powerful

The behaviors and attitudes you model for your children are powerful teachers.  We all know that young children learn from watching what we do, or don’t do.  The first lessons that children learn about the value and purposes for reading and writing take place in the home.  As children observe their parents reading, composing emails, making lists, or chatting on the phone, they are developing their first understandings of how literacy-related activities can provide entertainment and fun, help us communicate and connect, allow us to organize and plan, and help us learn something new.   As children prepare for school where they will learn a range of essential literacy skills through a carefully designed curriculum, they will continue to learn a lot, from you, about how people actually apply these skills and make use of literacy in the course of their everyday lives.  What you model at home is linked in significant ways to what your child will learn in the classroom.

 

With these three important points in mind, above all, strive to honor your child’s natural gift for play by keeping it fun, being open to a little spontaneity or goofiness, and remembering that helping your child recognize the fun and value of words and language invites them to follow a path filled with lifelong readers.

 

Carolyn Jaynes is a Learning Designer for LeapFrog Enterprises, specializing in language and literacy development.  Before coming to LeapFrog, Dr. Jaynes was an assistant professor of literacy in the teacher education department at Sacramento State University, a literacy curriculum developer for the Lawrence Hall of Science in Berkeley, and a classroom teacher in the San Francisco bay area.  She earned her doctorate in educational psychology at Michigan State University where she was a researcher and professional development consultant for the Center for the Improvement of Early Reading Achievement (CIERA). 

 

References:

Darling, S. (2005).  Strategies for Engaging Parents in Home Support of Reading Acquisition. The Reading Teacher, 58(5): 476–479.

Strickland, D.S., Morrow, L.M. (2004). The Role of Literacy in Early Childhood Education. The Reading Teacher 58(1): 86-100.

Wooly Willy - Flash Back Friday

So you might not know this toy from the name, but I bet that checking out this image will give you some flashbacks...

He has a "Magnetic Personality" don't you think?

Here's some information on Mr. Wolly Willy from wikipedia:

The brothers Donald and James Herzog developed Wooly Willy while working in the Smethport Specialty Company, their father's toy production company, in Smethport, Pennsylvania, United States. The company produced tops, horseshoe-shaped magnets, and other toys until the vacuum forming devices of the 1940s and 1950s allowed the company to manufacture air-tight containers of transparent plastic. Such containers kept Wooly Willy's metal filings from leaking out and moisture that would rust the metal from leaking in. The artwork for the first Wooly Willy was created by artist Leonard Mackowsk. Broadfield Toy Co., Inc., of Hempstead, New York, United States created a similar toy called Whiskers in 1925.
Priced at US$0.29, Wooly Willy was successfully launched on the market in 1955 A buyer for G. C. Murphy dime store chain initially purchased six dozen of the toy and expected not to sell them for a year. The buyer called Herzog just two days later and ordered a thousand dozen for nationwide distribution F. W. Woolworth Company also distributed the toy. More than 75 million Wooly Willies have been sold.

As I have said before, and I'll say again, sometimes the simplistic toys are the most fun and have the best longevity in the market.

I couldn't find a commercial but here is some fun animation that shows you how Wooly Willy works if you haven't ever played with one.

Have a great weekend!

--Laura M.