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This year’s top toys unveiled in time for holidays Testing council announces annual Children’s Choice awards Emma Jackson emma.jackson@metroland.com
EMC news - Santa’s job is a little easier now that the Canadian Toy Testing Council has unveiled the top 10 toys on the market for 2013. More than 500 children between the ages of six months and 12 years tested toys for a period of eight to 12 weeks. Their feedback formed the basis for the council’s Children’s Choice Awards, which it hands out annually just in time for the holiday shopping season. Though toys seem to increasingly require batteries or a high-tech touchscreen to operate, the council’s kid testers gravitated towards toys that involve a little imagination. For children under two, Little Tikes won for its DiscoverySounds activity garden that plays music and includes many windows and cubbies to explore. “I like the sounds that the garden makes,� said Ethan Gayed, 5, who announced the Children’s Choice Award for Little Tikes. A Fisher Price kitchen and dining room set, complete with plastic pizza, cookies, dishes and pans was also a huge hit. “We can make food and pretend to cook things,� said six-year-old Barrhaven resident Lyra Erhardt. “And then we can pretend to eat it.�
Building toys were also popular. The Ed Creator DaVinci Block gears, which won in the three years and up category, use magnets to stick together in an infinite number of combinations and designs. Bill and Betty Bricks, which won for five-year-olds, are a set of traditional wooden blocks that turn into towering skyscrapers in no time. Playmobil won for sevenyear-olds with its Future Planet ranger headquarters play set. While building the space station is fun, playing with it afterwards is the best part, said Dillon Snasdell-Taylor, a seven-year-old Carp resident who announced Playmobil’s Children’s Choice Award. The Playmobil set did have one high-tech feature: a working solar panel that powers a large fan on top of the space headquarters. Board games like Pick N’ Choose – which requires players to sculpt, hum and act out clues – the rapid-fire jewel game Mine Shift and strategic ogre-outsmarting game Race to the Treasure all won awards as well. This is the council’s 60th anniversary, and Liliane Benoit said the independent toy testing authority relies on more than 200 Canadian families to determine which toys stand up to the test of safety and durability, how well they function and how much fun
PHOTOS BY EMMA JACKSON/METROLAND
Ottawa resident Ethan Gayed, 5, announces a Children’s Choice Award for the Little Tikes DiscoverSounds activity garden at Algonquin College on Nov. 13. The Canadian Toy Testing Council awards the market’s best toys annually for ages six months to 12 and up. they deliver. For the full list of kid-approved toys for this Christmas season, visit www.toy-testing. org.
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Four-year-old Constance Bay resident Calyssa Dyck, left, cooks a pretend meal with Barrhaven’s Lyra Erhardt, 6, and Kanata’s Nathan Favreau, 2.
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Ottawa South EMC - Thursday, November 22, 2012
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