The New Neighbors

Applepie Toys Distribution, Orinda, Calif., the newly formed U.S. unit of Britain's Applepie Toys, brings the company's award-winning Pull Along Pals ($60-$70) toddler ride-ons to the U.S. in three styles. Dippo, the Ride Along Pal Dinosaur, is a brightly painted dino that has a wiggle tail. Ellie, an elephant, is painted in a circus theme and has a trunk that sways. Gracie, a goose, features wiggle action and is trailed by a gosling. Each are approximately 28 inches long by 17 inches high by 9 inches wide.

Collectibles maker Attakus America, Montreal, slips into Toy Fair with a select assortment of cold-cast resin statues based on the Star Wars trilogy, manga favorite Astro Boy and Fox's fledgling film franchise Ice Age. For fans of George Lucas's epic sci-fi series, Attakus offers a 17-inch-tall Probe Droid ($459), last seen menacing Han Solo on the ice planet Hoth; and a Millennium Falcon & Death Star diorama ($3,199) inspired by the original film's concluding battle, that when pieced together weighs more than 300 pounds and measures more than 2 feet tall and nearly 6 feet long. The company's 12-inch-tall Scratt statue ($109.99) immortalizes Ice Age's manic squirrel. Its Astro Boy statue ($39.99) is a 10.5-inch-tall version of Osamu Tezuka's robot boy with human emotions. All of the statues are numbered, limited editions.

The Hydrodynamic Deluxe Building Set ($85) from Bridge Street Toys, Weston, Mass., turns classic girder-and-panel play into a more directly educational experience wherein children ages 10 and up can build an HO-scale (1:87) manufacturing plant with working tanks, pipes, valves and electric pump. Once built, all that's left is to add water and watch the plant function as an ice cream factory, water treatment plant, oil refinery, distillation plant or an industrial structure of a child's imagination. A plastic tote holds all the pieces for transport or storage.

Word Chase! ($19.95) from Beyond Learning, Santa Monica, Calif., is a game designed to help emerging readers ages 4 and up become familiar with "sight words," the top 25 building block words in English upon which most new readers stumble. It can also be played by younger children just learning to identify letters, as well as by older children as a strategy game. Word Chase! is printed with soy-based ink on recycled paper, and a percentage of each sale will be donated to the Children's Health and Environmental Coalition.

Safety Brainiac–Junior Edition ($35.90), from Brainiac Games, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, is a family board game created to help children ages 5-12 learn to make good safety decisions. Players race around the game's board earning "brain" puzzle pieces for answering questions and uncovering age-appropriate safety tips about dealing with bullies, strangers, the Internet, fires, poison and other hazards that threaten the welfare of today's children.

Caboodle! Toys, New York, turns the Noah's Ark story into a collectible chase project with its Noah's Pals animal figures line. The 1:24-scale, hand-painted animal figures ($2.50-$20) are sold in 40 individual pairs, five of which are of endangered animals and 10 of which are of "vulnerable" animals; the figures in both of of these groups will be available in limited editions. When collectors gather and register the entire series on Caboodle's Web site, the company will send the collector a box of "exclusive rewards," details of which are under wraps. Also offered are a Noah figure with doves and an ark to house collectors' entire menagerie of Biblical breeding stock.

Math is the subject that Santa Clara, Calif.'s Emines Inc. is teaching in its two new games, Roll 'n' Subtract ($9.95) and Roll 'n' Divide ($24.95). For ages 5 to 8, Roll 'n' Subtract challenges players to form triangles with their post-subtraction numbered pieces while capturing or having captured theirs or others' pieces. Roll 'n' Divide, for ages 8 and up, has similar game mechanics, but ups the strategy level by letting players flip over opponents' pieces instead of just capturing them. Both games are designed to encourage cooperative and interactive learning, according to Emines, and are stored in child-friendly packaging.

Faux Paw Productions, Laguna Beach, Calif., debuts Bowzers and Meowzers, a series of six children's books, plush toys, animated cartoons, interactive digital content, games, lifestyle products and accessories, based around a world of whimsical cat and dog characters created by artist and ceramic pet products creator Debby Carman. The book series ($14.95) includes titles like Purrlonia's Lullaby and Cha Cha the Dancing Dog, while the toy line begins with an assortment of hand puppets ($11.95) for ages 6 months to 8 years old, sold individually or in a set of all six books with their related puppets ($99).

Freddy & Friends, Greenville, S.C., is bringing to market a book series and line of coordinating reading chairs featuring Freddy, a blue, spotted something that could be a dragon, a dinosaur or an alien, depending on who you ask. The character-shaped Original Freddy Little Rocker and Little Chair ($119.95) are built for children up to 4 years old, while the Original Freddy Big Rocker and Big Chair ($129.95) are for children ages 3 to adult. The first Freddy reader, The Chronicles of the Blue Moon by S.E. Blakeslee, was released last fall.

GeoToys, Neenah, Wis., expands beyond geography puzzles in 2007 to include two new board games and a construction toy. The company's new games are Travel Mania, a trivia-based geography game that sends players globetrotting to collect passports and visa stamps, and Postcards from America, which uses 64 actual postcards in a game that teaches U.S. and Canadian geography. GeoToys' debut construction toy, Marbotz, uses plastic pieces and joints made of marbles to create robot-style characters.

The Easy Draw'N Store Art Center from Grow 'n' Up, Suffern, N.Y., is a multi-purpose art and storage center for children ages 3 and up that features a "Qwikflip" desk, double-sided easel with magnetic dry erase and chalkboard surfaces, four fabric storage compartments, a stool, 77 magnetic letters and numbers, paint cups, paper clips and an eraser. Additionally, the company will debut is Sampson series Sport Center Silver outdoor play center for kids ages 3 to 10. It offers climbing, swinging and sliding features, including a mountain shaped "adventure panel" that doubles as a rock-climbing wall, climb netting, 5-foot wavy slide, two sling swings and a trapeze bar.

Hip Hop Bobbleheads ($11.95), from Grapevine Entertainment, Grapevine, Texas, are limited edition, 6-inch-tall bobblehead figurines in six styles reflecting the most popular team color combinations in school, college and professional sports. To help keep everyone in line, a referee is also offered.

Greenestuff Media, Clinton Township, Mich., brings its children's television series, My Bedbugs, to DVD through Koch Entertainment Distribution this February with My Bedbugs Volume 1 ($14.99), the first of a planned 18 DVD series. The debut DVD features three episodes from the series about three siblings who never leave their bedroom and was created to teach children positive behaviors, good habits and everyday life lessons. A companion audio CD, Bedbugs Party ($11.98), which will also be released next month, will include 30 original songs, five of which are featured in Bedbugs Volume 1.

Cardtivity is a building system for children ages 7 and up from Cardtivity, Morristown, N.J., designed to simplify traditional construction toy play by doing away with typical systems' multitude of different-sized pieces in favor of a "one card" system that uses only a single, patented, plastic-coded card. The initial assortment includes three basic designs: ShipVenture "adventure ship" (in two packaging options), X-Cycle extreme motorcycle and T-Rexerator dinosaur ($19.99 each), as well as a 600-card Mega-Combo set that builds all three individual sets or the Alienator, a 600-card alien-robot. Each Cardtivity set also comes with its own limited edition trading card.

Cheeky Chick ($24.99) from Okiedog Limited, Hong Kong, is both a walker and a foot-to-floor ride-on designed to teach toddlers aged 18 months and up the basics of locomotion. For parental appeal, it features quiet, non-abrasive PVC wheels and a hideaway carrying strap, requires no assembly and folds to 50 percent of its full size. The company also introduces G-Force ($89.99), a ride-on for kids ages 7 and up, that uses a joystick as the main control for steering and braking, and features rear-wheel steering for tricks that other trikes just can't do. Like the Cheeky Chick, it also folds—to a size that lets it fit in the trunk of a car—and comes fully assembled.

Peapod Toys, Calgary, is introducing the Peapod MP3 Player ($89), a rugged yet stylish audio player designed specifically for use by infants and toddlers. The player's key feature is a built-in speaker instead of headphones, an idea that removes concerns over hearing safety; it also allows music, audio books or other sound files to be a shared experience. Each Peapod stores more than two hours of audio using a 128MB flash memory, connects via USB to a computer and comes with music management software. Peapod's Web site will allow parents to browse, sample and purchase children's programming—including music, language learning and other educational content—for download to their Peapod player.

The Stack & Stick building block system ($100) from Peters' Group, Goshen, Ind., features wood blocks that stick in place when applied in stack-like fashion. For ages 4 and up, Stack & Stick sets are offered with a variety of architecturally unique wooden structures, according to Peters' Group, and can help build manual dexterity, hand-eye coordination, problem solving skills, imagination and concentration.

Procon (Asia) Ltd., Hong Kong, is bringing to America its range of plastic replica animals launched this past fall in the U.K. bearing the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals license. The line of hand-finished replicas debuts with 85 SKUs in scales from 1:9 to 1:50, and grouped into six themes—Woodland, Farm Life, Wildlife, Sealife, Dogs & Puppies and Dinosaurs. An additional 40 models will be released later in 2007.

Pure Plushy, Lombard, Ill., lends its name to an assortment of anti-mite, anti-mold and anti-microbe plush toys. Available initially in five styles—dog, teddy bear, rabbit, cow and lamb—the toys ($34.99) are created using the same silver nanotechnology applied to surgical masks to create plush for all ages that's asthma and allergy safe.

NightSprytes SoftSculpts ($15), from Sweet Dreams SoftSculpts, Jackson, N.J., are 11-inch-tall plush (four characters in all) created to scare off monsters and other bedtime bogie men. Also offered is a gift set ($30) that includes one plush toy and a hardcover book, Bedtime with Rollo the NightSpryte.