Buy Now...

I think I have avoided all the really top toys simply because everyone will be promoting them and they are all rather expensive, I have a couple towards the bottom of the ‘top ten’ and several from the ‘Creative Top Ten’.

As always it is easy to tell you about what was seen in the hectic displays. It is now up to the various manufacturers to fulfil their promises and send the requested samples. I am sure that most parents will be delighted – and relieved - that I have steered away from the more expensive offerings.

Firstly Magnaman a superhero built from parts and held together with magnets, this is described as a wicked construction set from Rose Art and their offerings start at £9.99.

Next something that will be a huge hit – even without external promotion – if I say Carol Vorderman do I need to add Sudoku, there are two handheld units at £19.99 and £29.99, I hope to tell you more shortly when samples arrive.

Popular articles

more

Geomag was something I covered last year, a construction toy with magnets that has sets that start from only a few £’s but this year they can contain images selected and constructed by the user, I suspect that DVD covers and magazines will suddenly lose their characters.

I have always loved dogs (and dare I say cats) but Street Muttz around £20 will I am sure be a real winner, it probably has as much computing power as an early computer. Radica will I am sure enjoy great success with this loveable pooch.

Hasbro is probably one of the best known brands around everyone must have played Monopoly, it was difficult to choose just one from their offerings but it has to be i-Dog a very cute mutt that will I am sure end up being a big boys toy, it plays along to an MP3 player and is a certain winner at less than £30, again lots of internal power.

The stand next door has another competitor and this one may appeal more to the real child it is somewhat bigger but IZ from Vivid Imaginations does much the same things as far as I know from the press release as i-Dog. I await a sample to tell you more.

Another name everyone will know is Lego and they had many fantastic models on display, I selected one at £24.99 that is a huge powerful giant dump truck complete with a couple of figures. Certain to be a Christmas winner and more reasonable on the pocket than a lot of others.

Anyone who hasn’t been on a desert island for the last few years must have heard of Bob the Builder. Born to Play have an amazingly tough Scrambler (quad bike) that happy ran over my foot on more than occasion. Just over £20 should get one of these remote controlled items, another certain winner.

Sub £15 items were a little short but one certainly worth considering is Cadoo from re:creation it is said to improve, acting, sculpting, sketching and problem solving.

Something for big kids from Flair, World Poker Tour I would certainly prefer to play poker live rather than online, actually holding those chips in the hand has more meaning than flicking them on a PC screen and the WPT Official Tournament Set looks impressive in the press release or maybe their Professional Card Shuffler.

A firm that caught my eye with a model car track racing set to maybe trouble Scalextrix. However the price and size put it out of the bounds of this roundup but another item on the Impact stand was a very worthy item RNLI Lifeboat, the larger remote control model almost half a metre is great for use on ponds. However I asked for the much smaller model and that is more the garden paddling pool or even the bath, every unit sold produced a donation to the RNLI and that really deserves to succeed.

Lastly certainly the cheapest - less than £10 - is an insect in a tank called Insect Cage Gallery from Tomy Toys, a cute item that would make an excellent gift and there is movement and even sound, small and neat.

I hope to tell you more about all the above in separate reviews as and when items arrive and even the ones - there are some - where ‘batteries not supplied’ does no longer apply.