November 23rd, 2008 larry
As we head into Thanksgiving weekend, we thought it would be prudent to fill you in on some of the hottest and most fun toys in case you feel like braving the shopping. In case your kids, nephews, nieces, or grandkids are not being vocal enough, we have listed what is generally considered the hottest toys of the season. We have also sprinkled in some of our favorite toys that may not exactly be mainstream, but that we have received hours of entertainment from. In upcoming weeks, stay tuned to for unique places to look for toys and gifts as well as deals on unique stuff.
First, the mainstream stuff. From playing at friends’ houses, watching the commercials in between Speed Racer and Spiderman, going to the Toy Fair at Navy Pier, talking to manufacturers and talking to retailers, here is what people are buying and talking about this holiday season:
- Animal Scramble combines hide and go seek, knowing your animals, and tag. Hide the animals around the house or basement and listen to clues from the talking giraffe and what you should look for. (ages 3+)
- Bakugan. The Bakugan set of toys and collectibles is one of the hottest things out there for boys right now. The animated show is on the Cartoon Network and these figures and accessories combine game playing and collecting. Part card game, part marbles, part Dungeons and Dragons, and part Transformers it is hard to know if just playing with and collecting the action figures is more fun or playing your Bakugan heroes against your friends is better. (ages 5 and up)
- Crayola Glow Station combines etch-a-sketch, Lite-Brite, and crayons so that you can draw pictures in the dark. We were just at a birthday party where a kid got this present and the kids brawled over who got to draw next. (ages 6 and up)
- Disney Fairies Clickables. Combining on-line and offline toys is going to be a continuing phenomenon. In this arrangement, you collect Fairy accessories which uses secret codes to unlock new stories, games, and puzzles on-line. If you like the idea, also take a look at Webkinz. (ages 7 up)
- Kota the Triceratops. You could spend a few hundred dollars and go see Walking with Dinasaurs once, or you could buy Kota. Push and squeeze his horns, tail, eyes, and legs and watch the dinasaur blink, shake, and move. At the Toy Fair, kids were laughing and playing with Kota like it was a pet. This thing is actually big enough to ride on. (ages 3-5)
- Udance. It is the next generation of dance and physical activity video games. No mats needed because wireless devices track your kids movement as they try to mirror dance moves on the TV. See if you have better moves than your kid. (ages 5-12)
- Elmo Live. It is hard to believe that Elmo is on many of the top toy lists again this year. Elmo Live has uncanny mannerisms, facial expressions, and voice pitch. You’ll think Elmo is actually at your house as he tells you stories, crack jocks, and teaches your kids. You just have to decide if you want more Elmo. (ages 18 months and up)
- Girl Gourmet Cupcake Maker. Cupcakes in 30 seconds with four or five different cupcake mixes that just need a microwave with not too much baking involved. Your girls will feel like a Top Chef. (ages 8+)
- VTech’s V-Motion. We’ll never diss anything Leapfrog because the Leapster is one of our favorite teaching games for letters, words, and numbers. We can play Spiderman or Frogger forever. However, V-Motion has taken things to a new level by combining more physical activity with motion activation technology but still teaching the same key vocabulary, spelling, science, math, and pre-school lessons. It plugs into your TV which brings the game live. Not to be outdone, Leapfrog’s My First Computer is one of the best ways for your kid to learn how to navigate a computer, double click, and drag and drop. (ages 3-7)
- EyeClops. My kid loves to turn off the lights and play with flashlights. Take the game to the next level with actual night vision goggles. Hide and seek has never been this fun. They also have something called the Bionic Eye which is like a microscope that shows images on your TV. You wouldn’t believe what your hair actually looks like under a microscope. (ages 6 and up)
All of these toys are great and if you want to make sure your kid isn’t too jealous of the kid down the block, you’ll want to get one or two of these toys. Mainstream doesn’t mean normal, it means that a lot of kids really like these toys. However, a little off the beaten path, we find a quite a bit of enjoyment from these toys:
- Hullabaloo. Every morning before school for about 3 weeks, we play a few rounds of Hullabaloo. This game combines Twister, knowing your shapes, colors and musical instruments, and really helps kids learn how to follow directions. Listen to the batter powered MC, and run, spin, stomp, and crawl to the different Hullabaloo pods. Follow the directions or lose the game. (ages 4-10)
- Air Hogs. On TV it sounds like they are selling you a Ginsu knife, but these helicopters are really fun, kids learn fine motion skills, and half the fun is getting out of the way of an out of control helicopter. Mom and Dad will find it a challenge to fly to. (ages 8+)
- Loop the Loops. Darda Motors and Hot Wheels have cornered the market on race tracks and race cars. We have two master looping race tracks: Hot Wheels Speed Racer Sky Race (ages 5+)and Darda Nascar Corkscrew Charger (ages 4 and up). The Speed Racer set is absolutely unbelievable and defies all physics and it is Speed Racer, Racer X, the GRX, Snake Oiler, and the whole gang from the movie. The Corkscrew Charger adds an element of competition by providing two tracks which people can race with pullback type of cars.
- ESPN Better Batter Baseball. Tee ball was never so good with this ESPN branded toy. The mechanical arm places the ball into the strike zone and the audio cheers on your kid. Don’t play in enclosed areas as your kid will be hitting homeruns in no time. (ages 3-8)
- Bounceland Jungle with Slide. Go Big or Go Home. We bought this inflatable for our kids birthday. If you play with it twice, it beats renting from one of the expensive outdoor rental places. We have had up to 12 kids in this thing at a time with very few injuries or even crying. Throw nerf balls or any type of ball into the middle and watch the scrum for the balls. Your kid will think he is at an amusement park in your own back yard. (ages 3 and up)
- Shake and Go Crash Up Speedway. Enjoying speed and racecar crashes with minimal moving parts and assembly is a fantastic thing. We brought this toy with to our Lollapalooza booth this year and kids were lined up to play with the shaking, crashing, racing cars. (ages 3-7)
Dad Says: Toys are the lifeblood of getting through the day and the week. Our newest find is Hullabaloo and we can’t stop playing it. It is pretty fun for adults, but if you get anywhere between two and four kids together, they will be laughing hysterically, and you will be cracking up as well.
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November 19th, 2008 larry
Do your kids think that life is unfair? Do they often blame bad luck when things don’t go their way? If so, you may want to take them to see Holes, based on the book (and movie) by Louis Sachar. This production revolves around Stanley Yelnats, a boy whose circumstances take him on a soul searching journey where he learns to take responsibility for what happens in his life. Holes is an Adventure Stage Chicago Production playing at the the Vittum Theater in West Town through December 18, 2008. The show runs 90 minutes with no intermission and is recommended for children 10 and older (4th thru 8th grades). Tickets cost $17 for adults and $12 for children 14 and under.
Most of the play takes place at Camp Greenlake, a work camp for boys in trouble with the law, where there is no lake and nothing is green. This is where our hero Stanley has been sent for a crime he may or may not have committed. He blames a curse from his family’s past for his terrible luck.
The staging of Holes is very stylized. The set is very minimal. When the story flashes back to the mystery revolving around Stanley’s family curse, the characters in present time remain on the stage as characters from the past move around them. Many of the actors play more then one role, using costumes and dialect to differentiate the roles. This is all very effective and subtle, really adding to the theatrical experience.
This is an interesting production where the story is told with flashbacks from different places and times that intertwine with the present. It is a mystery that gradually develops, giving you a very satisfying plot progression. Little by little what begins as a confusing situation, for the main character Stanley (and the audience), makes more and more sense as the show progresses. Culminating in a great ending where all the loose ends come together.
If your kids are aspiring actors, they will love the discussion period after the show. The cast members are very young and inspiring, talking about how they have been acting since very young ages and answering all the kids questions concerning the show and themselves. This production of Holes is definitely for middle school aged children. There is some violence: boys in the work camp fighting with their fists and with shovels, and there is a murder with loud gunshots. I would not take younger siblings along. This a sophisticated production with important themes that I think children of the right age will really enjoy.
Mom Says: Holes was definitely a cut above most productions. It deals with a complicated story very maturely and does not pander to a “child’s” sensibility. Often I feel that theater appeals to girls more then boys, but this story is very male driven and will engage the boys in the audience as much as the girls.
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November 12th, 2008 larry
It is so much fun to see a great show! A friend and I took our 3 and 4 year old sons to see Disney’s Aladdin at Marriott Theater for Young Audiences and we all loved it. This production is filled with action, songs, comedy, and magic. The pacing of Aladdin is fantastic. If you’ve seen the movie it runs about 1 1/2 hours, this show lasts exactly 1 hour. They have edited the story so that all you have is action, no lulls. The audience was packed with young kids who were all engaged throughout the show. It is running through January 4, 2009 and all tickets are $12.
Of course the Genie was the huge hit of the show. His big first scene is really memorable. After Aladdin releases him from the lantern, the energy just pours onto the stage. They have given the actor an awesome costume with a stuffed body and platform shoes to make him a bit larger then life, but it is the actor that makes all the impact. Bringing an animated character created by Robin Williams to life is a tough job, but Bernie Yvon does it. His Genie has crazy energy and great comic spunk. Yvon also has a very strong singing voice. His song “Never Had a Friend Like Me” is wonderful and includes a silly tap dance that was a great addition.
The other cast members contribute great scenes as well. The bad guy in the show is Jafar (Jeff Max) and he’s the perfect balance of evil but not scary. His sidekick is a bird named Iago, who is played by a woman (Debbie Laumand-Blanc) with a puppet. It is really a creative way of incorporating the character. A favorite scene of mine was Jafar and Iago’s duet, “Poor Me.” There is great banter back and forth that gets a lot of laughs. Jasmine is played by an impossibly tiny woman named, Christine Bunuan. All little girls will fall in love with her. She has a spectacular voice that makes the ballad “A Whole New World” (that we’ve all heard a hundred times before) very magical.
There is a lot for parents to enjoy. Of course watching your children giggling during the show is the best part, but they have thrown in a bunch of pop culture references to keep things fun on the adult level. This is a great show for preschool and grade school children. I do not hesitate in recommending it. Please go and have a great theater experience with your kids!
Mom Says: For $12 per ticket this is a highly professional theater experience. The actors are strong , the staging is creative, and there is not a bad seat in the house. After the show the cast comes on stage to talk to the audience. They ask the kids “Who thought the magic was real?” Almost all the children raised their hands. To them the Genie really turned Aladdin into a Prince and they are truly surprised when the actors show them how the trick was done. Aladdin has a lot of magic for the whole family.
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November 3rd, 2008 larry
After downing about 8 Nestle Crunch bars and 12 Reeses peanut butter cups, we needed some way to burn off the sugar and calories. And what better physical activity is there than bowling. We hiked over to eSkape in Buffalo Grove and were surprised that it was much more than a bowling alley. eSkape is right off of Lake Cook Road which was not that hard to get to now that the Edens construction is done. eSkape bills itself as an Entertainment complex and it lives up to that name with bowling, laser tag, arcade, batting cages, a bar, and a restaurant.
We originally went there for the bowling. eSkape allows you to pay by the hour or the game. We knew we were not going to last long so we did by the game ($3.95 per person). Setting up the names on the computerized scoring was easy, but it was hard to find where we could set up the gutter bumpers for the kid. The associates were very helpful and we were off and bowling. One thing we really liked was that they keep the 6 pound balls behind the counter so that they can give them to parents with small children. The fun of bowling is always watching peoples’ body language as they try to steer the ball down the lame with their hips, arms, and legs. Our kid’s running man, jumping, and crawling routine to help his ball down the lane was pure art. He bowled a 72 and he only threw the ball in the wrong lane once.
Next up was laser tag ($7 per person for 15 minutes). Our kid had played laser tag at the outdoor festival on Southport this year, so we took a chance at this 5,000 square foot laser tag facility. The vest is about 2-3 pounds and the laser is a little less than a pound. Our four year old handled the weight no problem. There is also a requirement that you have to hold the gun in a certain way to make it fire correctly. We had to remind him a couple of times to reset his hands. The maze inside the laser park is pretty dark and he was a little hesitant at first, but once he started sprinting up and down the ramps and shooting Dad, the darkness was forgotten. When you get hit, the vest vibrates which he thought was hysterical. He had an absolute blast in the laser area and we came out panting and sweating.
The video arcade is not what eSkape focuses on. They did have the essentials like skee ball, basketball hoops, car racing, spider stomp, and the core military, secret agent games. The batting cages are for 10 and up and are actually behind the bowling alley.
We had a great Saturday afternoon at eSkape. They do a brilliant job of catering to all ages. They have drink specials at night and on the weekend for the adults, a fairly decent restaurant where we ate lunch, and bowling and laser tag that supports all ages. I think older kids, maybe 7 and up, will have an absolute blast with team laser tag and younger kids will just like the thrill of running and shooting and seeing all of the blinking lights. eSkape differentiates itself from the other indoor playgrounds in that they don’t have a heavy focus on video games, but really on phycial activity. They don’t have bouncies or cater to the really little children. So we would say for 4 and up, this is a great place that has enough variety to fill an afternoon or a birthday party.
Review eSkape
Larry and Donna
Mom Says: We went midday on a Saturday. The place was filled by families and children’s birthday parties, it was really fun. I would be hesitant to bring young children there in the evening, as they do host leagues and it looks like they may have a pretty big bar scene.
Dad Says: I thought I was going bowling and was pleasantly surprised that there was so much to do. Laser Tag is not the laser tag I played as a kid. It is a bit more complicated, but we had a great time, running, hiding, and shooting. We’ll be back.
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