1. Zhu Zhu Pets
- What Is It? - Cool little motorized pet hamsters.
- What Makes This Toy Fun For My Son? - These little dudes zoom around, make hamster noises, and bounce off of things like they were made of rubber.
- What Should I Look For? - White, Grey, and Tan hamsters; with accompanying accessories such as the Zhu Zhu hamster ball, Zhu Zhu hamster wheel, and a multitude of other interlocking Zhu Zhu playsets.
- Availability? - Very Hard to Find. These are the hot ticket for Christmas 2009. Which means you best bet will be online retailers; just be prepared to pay a premium for anything Zhu Zhu.
- What Is It? - Giant robots battling on earth, based on the blockbuster movie "Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen."
- What Makes This Toy Fun For My Son? - Giant robots that transform into all manner of different vehicles. What boy doesn't love that!
- What Should I Look For? - Optimus Prime, any of the "Combiner" transformers robot sets (such as Devastator,) the interactive Transformers Movie 2 Ultimate Bumblebee, and the Bumblebee Plasma Cannon, to name just a few.
- Availability? - Easy to Find. Lots and lots of giant robots to go around.
- What Is It? - A super happy (CARS movie style) Tonka dump truck.
- What Makes This Toy Fun For My Son? - Chucks speaks 40 sounds and phrases and comes equipped with sensors that "drive" him to your boy when he calls.
- What Should I Look For? - A bright red and yellow dump truck with a huge smile on his face.
- Availability? - Easy to Find. Many Chuck My Talking Trucks are readily available.
- What Is It? - Another hot movie franchise, based on the hit novels, starring vampires and werewolves.
- What Makes This Toy Fun For My Son? - While aimed more at pre-teen and up young girls, werewolf vs. vampire battles and a solid storyline keep boys entertained as well.
- What Should I Look For? - Collectible action figures made by Neca. Highly detailed reproductions of virtually all the major Twilight New Moon characters.
- Availability? - Easy to Find. Online and in specialty shops that is. Neca are not (yet) available in every large retail chain.
- What Is It? - Probably the best portable audio - video player / internet enabled multimedia device on the market.
- What Makes This Toy Fun For My Son? - 64gb of music and video storage, iPod Apps, web browsing, and so much more in the palm of your (sons) hand.
- What Should I Look For? - Apples signature less is more aesthetic, in touchscreen form.
- Availability? - Easy to Find. Just about every electronics retailer out there should be able to supply you with an iPod Touch.
- What Is It? - Pokemon (remember them?) and Transformers robots in one package.
- What Makes This Toy Fun For My Son? - Six mini robot like "traps" combine to make one big robot "warrior" - perfect for battling other robot warriors with or without the accompanying trading card games.
- What Should I Look For? - A big dragon headed "warrior" robot in Bakugan packaging
- Availability? - Easy to Find. Bakugan merchandise is typically produced in healthy quantities, especially around Christmas time.
- What Is It? - Furry red Elmo hands for younger boys.
- What Makes This Toy Fun For My Son? - A vibrating glove lets your toddler play AS Tickle Me Elmo.
- What Should I Look For? - A pair of furry red hands with Elmo's face on them.
- Availability? - Easy to Find. Nowhere near as difficult to obtain ans the original TMX that started the craze.
- What Is It? - The latest generation of Nintendo's king of held video game systems.
- What Makes This Toy Fun For My Son? - Now with built in cameras and sound recorders, the DSi brings a new dimension to portable gaming.
- What Should I Look For? - Similar look and packaging to the standard DS and DS lite, with a small "i" on the box.
- Availability? - Easy to Find. Supply is healthy of just about all the major video game systems, including the Nintendo DSi, this Christmas.
- What Is It? - A nice sized Lego bucket with 405 lego bricks.
- What Makes This Toy Fun For My Son? - What boy doesn't like to play with legos? With the LEGO Ultimate Building Set you and your son can build hoses, helicopters, cars, UFO's, virtually anything his imagination can come up with.
- What Should I Look For? - A cool blue box shaped like a taped Lego brick.
- Availability? - Easy to Find. Since the starter kit is not affiliated with any licensed property, finding one should be simple.
10. Nerf N-Strike Raider Rapid Fire CS-35 Dart Blaster
- What Is It? - A Tommy Gun, Nerf Style.
- What Makes This Toy Fun For My Son? - The largest ammo capacity yet found in a Nerf gun, coupled with a pump action firing system, ensures hours of semi or fully automatic Nerf dart blasting fun!
- What Should I Look For? - Nerf's signature blue and orange blaster, with a big drum chock full or orange dart goodness.
- Availability? - (Mostly) Easy to Find. This is the hottest Nerf gun out right now, so availability may be a bit of an issue with some lesser stocked retailers.