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Dream of getting birthday greetings from Geoffrey the Giraffe, hunting for dinosaurs or having a disco party in a toy store? Toys "R" Us Times Square, the retailer's New York flagship location, is introducing the Giraffic Birthday Party program, which offers a professionally planned birthday party at the store. It includes all dress-up materials, props and activities, plus birthday punch and cake. Parties can be arranged around different themes, like Dinosaur Expedition, Dancing Divas, Princess Adventure, Superhero Celebration and more, all customizable for ages 3 and up.

Wowwee has partnered with Arad Productions to bring a CGI version of its Robosapien R/C toy to the big screen by 2009. Avi Arad, former chairman and CEO of Marvel Studios, will be producing the film, which does not have a storyline yet but should include other robotics characters from the WowWee family. Arad, who has a slew of Marvel comic book-related movies under his belt (including Spider-Man 2 and Spider-Man 3, X-Men: The Last Stand and Ghost Rider) is currently working on Bratz: The Movie, a live-action film based on the popular MGA Entertainment doll line.

The Lego Group is teaming with online video game developer NetDevil, Louisville, Colo., to create a massively multiplayer online game (MMOG) themed around the construction toy maker's brand, which has already found considerable success in a series of bestselling Star Wars-themed video games from LucasArts.

Wooden toys, fairies, Spider-Man collectibles, bobble heads, and holiday items for St. Patrick's Day and Easter were featured items highlighted in Playthings.com's weekly Product Showcase during the last month, including items from the following companies: Aeromax, b.dazzle, Balitono, Barefoot Books, Blue Orange Games, Cranium, Diamond Select Toys, Family Games, Fiesta, Funko, Front Porch Classics, Haba, Harcourt, Hollow Woodworks, Houghton Mifflin, ImagiPlay, Imperial Toy, Innovative Kids, Mary Meyer, Mega Brands, Melissa & Doug, Nabaztag, National Geographic, Silver Dolphin, Sleeping Bear Press, Sassafras, Schleich and Zizzle.

Second time around: Jedi-knights-in-training, families with kids and plenty of adult fans filled the halls of the Jacob Javits Center in late February at the second annual NY Comic Con, eager to be the first to play the newest video and trading card games and to see first-hand what new collectibles would be available at retail later in the year. See page 12 for the latest NY Comic-Con news and updated info about the show's 2008 edition.