Released: November 22, 2006

Toys test: Best educational toys

Source: Herb Weisbaum, MSNBC

Kids are naturally attracted to new toys. But it doesn’t take long for them to decide whether that toy is fun or boring. Just because it’s on the shelf or advertised on TV doesn’t mean it’s a good toy. You can’t even go by what your kids tell you they want — they’re too easily swayed by TV commercials.

That’s why I do my Toy Test each year. I’m not trying to find the “hottest” toys — there are plenty of those lists around — I want to help you find toys that your children or grandchildren will play with over and over again.

This year we tested 100 different toys, all new for 2006, including dolls, board games, drawing toys, construction sets, and remote-control vehicles.  All were donated by the manufacturers.

The test was open to all toy makers who had products that fit our two categories —educational and bargains (toys for $25 or less). But I chose which ones to accept for testing based on 25 years of experience rating toys.

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