And The 'Oscars' For The Best Toys Go To . . . . .

While everybody knows that the Oscars for the movies will be awarded this Sunday, very few people realize that the 'Oscar' awards for something more important (In our view) - Best Toys of The Year', have already been handed out, two weeks ago, at a grand gala held by the Toy Industry Association in New York City. In case you missed them, here is a list of the big winners!

Overall Toy of the Year, Best Girl Toy of the Year and Most Innovative Toy of The Year - ZHU ZHU PETS

These life-like hamsters won not one, but three awards, including the 'Best Toy Of the Year'. The four unique looking toys are battery powered and programmed to make 40 different sounds, whilst scooting around. They come with many accessories including a 'fun' house which has a special sensor that will 'tell' the hamster what 'room' they are in enabling them to make appropriate sounds.

Activity Toy of the Year - CRAYON TOWN

This fun activity allows preschool kids to color and build three-dimensional worlds and then using their crayons build fun things like trees and animals.

Boy Toy Of The Year - BAKUGAN 7-IN-1MAXUS DRAGONOID

The Bakugan 7- In-I Maxus Dragonoid, won the award for in the Best Toy for Boys category. As the name indicates, this one offers not one, but seven toys disguised as one. Based on the Vestoria (show's second season), the stand-alone game combines seven different Bakugans - one real, the rest traps. You can play with all or combine them into one giant Bakugan Dragonoid robot!

Educational Toy Of The Year - LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT

This new creation by Lego is a far cry from the construction bricks they started out with. Combining the best of LEGO and robotics technology, it comes equipped with high-tech sensors, motors and software, allowing kids to design, build and program robots to do exactly what they want! To read more about this amazing toy check out http://mindstorms.lego.com.

Game Of The Year - SORT IT OUT

In this fun family game, one person reads a list on the topic card, and sends the rest of the players scrambling to arrange the information in correct order using colored tiles. While the game originated in Australia, it has become a favorite all over the globe.

Electronic Entertainment Toy of the Year - RUBIK'S TOUCHCUBE

Think of this as the original Rubik's cube on steroids! It is the first electronic cube featuring touch sensor technology, a motion detecting accelerometer and colored lights in every square. If you could never solve the original cube, this is the one you need - it has a built in hint feature that will guide even the most novice cube solver to complete the puzzle.

If you own any of these toys or believe that a totally different one should have received the awards be sure to let us know, by adding your comments below.

Source: toyassociation.org