Six year old Jeorgia Blythin from Chester was part of an ‘elite’ child testing panel that put some of the most sought after toys for next Christmas through their paces. In exchange for playing with the toys, she and her fellow panellists were presented with a free toy and a certificate.

In addition to testing out the Christmas toys the children were invited to Rochdale (yay) to a toy factory to test out this year’s Summer toys, before they hit the shops in June. The kids will get to play in the factory’s custom built toy test-shop on such toys as Bob the Builder and Rupert Bear.

The idea is that the children will be able to show which toys will be in most demand this Summer.

Martin Yaffe’s toy director, Peter Hatton, said:

The first Play Panel gave us such great insight into what children really want last year that we can’t wait for them to be let loose on the outdoor toys! Who better to trial toys and give us honest feedback than the children they have been designed for?

We plan to use the information to compile a definitive ‘top outdoor toys’ list for summer 2008 – ensuring that parents are left in no doubt as to what their young ones will love to play with and what will get them out into the fresh air this season.

OK, so the Teletubbies haven’t ‘actually’ killed anyone, that we know of. Though of course we can’t be certain they haven’t, but we don’t have any evidence to suggest otherwise, so we’re going with they’re all perfectly innocent.

That yellow one looks a bit suspect though, don’t you think?

Anyway, back to the point of the story. Fake Teletubbies were seized by Trading Standards in the UK, and they were found to be potentially very dangerous to children.

A spokesman for Trading Standards said:

Tests showed one toy, which cost less than £5, contained more that 10 times the legal limit of lead.

Personally I wouldn’t go near a real Teletubby, never mind one these little trolls, but I guess kids like ‘em.

via

Following on from our recent article about McFarlane Toys and the series of Halo 3 action figures, they have now released pictures of the figures. You can see the photos of the whole series here.

Our Halo 3 Series 3 figures are making their way to stores, but until they get there, feast your eyes on these latest images.

Our good friends at Microsoft have generously given us the opportunity to contribute some McFarlane Toys/Halo 3 downloadable content on Xbox Live.

Starting Monday, April 14, you will be able to download a free dashboard theme and gamer picture pack featuring your two favorite things: McFarlane and Halo. Just in time to gear up for the new Map Packs releasing Tuesday.

These are an excellent set of figures and a worthy addition to any toy collector’s, well, er collection.

It sounds like we’ve made it up doesn’t it? However we haven’t, Hollywood tough guy Matt Damon went postal on a child’s dolls house, brandishing a baseball bat and smashing the toy to pieces.

No, this wasn’t the latest outburst from a Hollywood brat upset at someone who’d cut him up in his car, it’s part of an awareness campaign where celebrities are destroying toys to highlight the growing number of deaths in Darfur, Sudan.

Nip Tuck actress Joely Richardson can be seen ripping apart a teddy-bear.

Matt Damon said:

After the genocide in Rwanda we all shook our heads and said never again.

Today, as killings mount in Darfur, we need to make never again a reality and demand protection for the most vulnerable.

I just hope that no children were around to see the stars destroying toys. Imagine being a little girl who wanted a dolls house, only for Matt Damon to smash one up in front of you.

In what could be one of the most pointless (yet entertaining) experiments to date, scientists have discovered that male monkeys prefer boys toys such as cars and blocks.

In a series of interesting and rather stupid experiments the male monkies were seen to play with boys toys over girls toys, supposedly proving that the desire to play with male orientated toys is an inerrant genetic trait.

The full story can be seen on the Telegraph website.

This video is from the 2008 Toy Fair and shows the latest toy car range from Corgi, the H2Go cars. These are powered by water, Hydrogen powered Powered cars. Who needs batteries when you have water?

This could make Duracell  a little nervous.

The quality of Chinese toys has been in the news a lot recently, especially with some very high profile product recalls just before Christmas causing massive losses in profits and leaving parents disappointed. The UK and the USA have joined together to pledge to keep a closer eye on the quality of Chinese toy products and to persuade the Chinese to increase their quality.

via the BBC

Poundstretcher in North Sheields has been fined £10,000 by a court for selling potentially dangerous toys. The store was found to have sold two products to Trading Standards workers that had dangerously high levels of lead paint, one of the toys had excessive levels of lead and chromium.

The toys in question were both Abacus toys, so if you’ve bought an Abacus for your child from Poundstretcher you may want to remove the toy from their toybox.

Poundstretcher Limited were prosecuted under the Consumer Protection Act 1987 at North Tyneside Magistrates’ Court.

The company admitted the offences and were fined £10,000 with £1,770.81 costs.

If Mario Kart is your idea of a great time you’ll love this Mario Kart slot racing system in the same style as Scalextric. Firebox.com are currently offering this great set for 40% off, at just £29.99. The full retail is £49.99. You can purchase the game here at Firebox.com.

This high quality Carrera slot-racing system is fun for racing geeks of all ages as it brings the smash hit Nintendo game to life in a way that pixels and bleeps simply can’t compete with.

I’ve been in this situation before. Your child has just been born, it’s a boy and you’re overjoyed naturally because now you can buy a Scalextric.

When my first son was born I rushed straight out to Argos and bought a Subaru Challenge Scalextric set, which my son had to wait at least 3 years before he was old enough to touch. The important thing though was that I had the practise before then, so I was able to impress him with my car handling skills.

Naturally I still lost, to a 3 year old… I should have made him play when he was 6 months old, might have stood a chance.