Okay, so I know I declared the LEGO people set a Christmas toy fail just yesterday, but you’ve gotta believe me that I have no idea how many of the above figures came from that particular set. I’m pretty sure at least two of the aliens are from a different set – this one in fact…

LEGO Space Police Gold Heist

This set is, by the way, just as awesome as it looks. The picture nowhere near does it justice. I’ve linked to it on Amazon.com and it’s only $20.00 (I think we paid around $30 at Toys R Us). Ana chose this set herself with her Christmas money and just last week put it together. Well, in all honesty, my husband put the ship together. Good thing he’s a woodworker because you definitely need a firm grasp on spacial reasoning for this one (which I do not have). So, we do love LEGO, see? LEGO, don’t be mad at me for declaring that one toy a Christmas fail…it’s just that the other sets sort of outshone it. I mean, look at this one! It comes with tiny lego handcuffs for the bad guy alien space villain! Designing LEGO sets has to be like the best job ever!

Bla Bla Dolls, sold at blablakids.com, are the latest cool trend among the tween set, or so my 9-year-old niece informed me on Christmas day when she received one from her grandmother. She found me examining the toy with a very puzzled look on my face because, quite frankly, it looks like a baby toy and she’s definitely past the baby stage.

I have to admit that the dolls are adorable, and very funky with a sweet hand made quality that makes them utterly unique (yes, I’m happy to write catalog blurbs for your company, feel free to send me an email at toymaven@toygraveyard.com).

Anyhoo, being the self-proclaimed toy expert that I am, I decided to investigate the company further. The back story behind the dolls is very sweet. Two friends who are also designers were visiting Peru where they stumbled upon an entire village of expert knitters and the idea of Bla Bla Kids (hand knit products for children) was born! See for yourself I don’t make this stuff up, folks.

The dolls are $34 or $44 depending on the size. Yes, that seems like a lot for what is essentially a sock monkey (at least that was my first thought when I saw my niece’s doll), but these are HAND KNIT in PERU using all NATURAL FIBERS. I bet they don’t come packaged in lethal plastic pod-like containers that take an engineering degree to open without incurring bodily harm too. I’ll find out around May, because Ana wants one and that’s when she turns 9.

OH MY GOD, MY BABY’S TURNING 9!

Sorry. The best thing about the doll was that my niece carried it around with her all day on Christmas. Her mom (my sister in law) informed me that she has another one that she takes with her everywhere. In my experience, there are very few toys that earn that kind of worship.

A favorite toy is something magical. I think these dolls may have a bit of magic sewn into them because the minute I held my niece’s Bla Bla, I felt like I wanted to play with it and love it forever and ever.

There’s a little toy store near me that sells all manner of toys that you can’t find in Toys R Us or Target. It’s overstuffed with puppets, Playmobil sets and doll house furniture and it’s just one of those places where kids get completely lost in (think Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium). This is the place where my 8-year-old (A), discovered her first Hog Wild Bender.

The next bender will occur when she’s in college, I’m sure (ba-dum-chee).

A owns the above Bender, as well as a few others that I’ll list in a second. Benders remind me of the kind of toys my childless uncle owned – you probably had a relative just like this too – very fun to hang out with, loved to read science ficton and go to newly released Star Wars flicks and had a house devoid of anything childlike except fragile toys like G.I. Joe collectibles and model planes which, of course, you weren’t supposed to touch, except you couldn’t help yourself because there was nothing else to play with…

The strange thing about Benders, or at least some Benders, is that the package says “not a toy!” They are actually quite fragile and if you bend them too much, their limbs tend to fall off. As such, I wouldn’t recommend these for kids under the age of 8. I have seen several different age indications for various benders from 6+ to 8+ but they all share the same wiry fragility – so buyer beware.

We own the following wonderfully cute and fun-to-play with Benders:

Space Monkey Benders

Bug Benders, Wasp

(The Bug Benders are good starter Benders as they’re pretty sturdy)

Frankenbender

(my favorite)

Benders retail from between $5-$20 and make really good gifts. All Benders come in a tin case of some sort and in some instances the case is part of the toy itself (A has a skate board Bender and the top of the case is the skateboard).

Okay, I really love this thing and since I’m handling it on a daily basis I couldn’t resist a quick write up. Get this – it’s a night light, that’s cordless AND rechargeable! Every single night I remove it from its magical charging base in E’s room, and put it on the nightstand next to her bed. She’s now old enough to put it back on the base in the morning (but I often do it for her if she forgets). My older daughter uses hers as a reading light sometimes at night (not that I know she’s reading when she should be sleeping, but I digress..)

I bought one for each of my girls in yellow (they also come in white, pink and blue) a couple of years ago and A (who is 8 going on 15) still loves hers. The cool thing about them is they have about 8 hours of light after they’re fully charged (charging takes a full 8 hours). The product description claims 10 hours but I think we only got that much juice for like the first month.

This was my solution to making sure both kids had a night light even when we lost power. We’re in a rural-ish area of New York and it gets absolutely pitch black in the house when the power is out, causing much terror, shrieking and stubbage of toes. I’ve actually used this light in a power outage more than once to navigate safely to the flashlight (which is never where it should be) and/or candles.

My one complaint is that E’s light went a bit wonky after a year and would flash wildly on the base. It still held a charge and we used it for another year after the flashing started, though we had to throw a towel over it while it was charging because it was highly annoying. Now it won’t seem to hold a charge, but A’s night light is still going strong. I don’t know if E dropped hers or what.

I’m delighted to see they’re still selling this on Amazon for about $20 – $25 (same price as I paid). Here’s that link again…
Mobi TykeLight Portable GloMate

Makes a splendiferous gift too!

But I digress..

So, when my mother asked for some toy ideas to get my daughter, I suggested she buy her a Liv doll. I’d seen the dolls at Target and they looked interesting (I particularly liked the fact that you could replace the hair because we have many poor balding Barbies thanks to my fashionista daughter). So my mom got her the Liv Katie Doll

There are a lot of things I like about this doll, notwithstanding the disproportionately large head size.

1)   The doll seems to be very well made and it’s got poseable limbs, which is a change from the piles of stiff-legged, pointy toed Barbies my daughter already owns (There’s actually a line of new Barbies with poseable limbs and I got one of those for her for Christmas – but that’s a WHOLE other review).

2)  Katie really looks like a pre-teen girl albeit with too much collagen in her lips. I like that my daughter is finally playing with a more realistic doll than something out of a Playboy magazine. I mean, Barbie is just a bit creepy that way. I’m just saying..

3)  The details on the doll are impressive, right down to the hair which, as mentioned above, is detachable. Katie came with two sets of hair. The hair is affixed to the head with a sort of peg (so when the doll doesn’t have a wig on, there’s a hole in her head). The wig stayed in place and really there’s nothing else to say about that. If the wig kept falling off then I would’ve mailed her back to Spin Master Toys in a tiny body bag.

This doll gets my highest recommendation. I don’t say that often. Buy it. It’s a well-made, interesting toy that your child will likely love (if she likes Barbie and/or other fashion dolls). Here’s the proof of the doll’s worthiness – when I brought my daughter to Toys R Us to spend some of her Christmas money, she bought another one – Liv Sophie

The best part is that the dolls are relatively cheap. They were about $20.00 in Toys R Us, but I’m seeing them for as low as $13.00 on Amazon right now.

But don’t you see? That’s the problem! Ugly Dolls are yesterday’s news. They’re so “plush 1.0.”

So are you ready for plus 2.0?? I mean, wouldn’t it be nice if someone took that ugly plush theme and came up with an unlimited number of ridiculously cute Ugly Doll possibilities, then let your child be the judge of exactly what her doll would look like?

Well guess what, my friends, someone has. Let me introduce you to the new face of Ugly – Curly Q Cutie!

No, really, it’s THAT cute. We have four of them in our house, and I have given gift certificates to at least two children who fell in love with my daughters’ Curly Q Cuties.

In a nutshell, this site uses a very simple interface (even my 5-year-old has mastered it) which lets children choose a monster body shape, eye shape, mouth shape, belly shape, body color…etc. etc. – you get the picture. There are THOUSANDS of combinations and kids absolutely love getting the monsters in the mail (takes about ten days). I highly recommend these as great gifts (if you can get past the fact that there’s no instant gratification here).

The price is good too – $25 per monster and $15 for a fairy tooth. What’s a fairy tooth? OH GOODY, I’M SO GLAD YOU ASKED!!

Yes, it is what you think it is. A tooth-shaped pillow that has a little pocket in the back for your child’s tooth. I mean, really, it doesn’t get any better than that.

Let me just end with this, because words just don’t do these dolls justice.