The Season's Hot New Toys

Dec. 1 -- It's a jungle out there. Your local Wal-Mart or Toys "R" Us is stuffed with brand-new toys and games — most of them loaded up with high-tech sounds, movement or lights.

For the occasional gift giver, toy land can be very confusing. Thousands of new products are introduced each holiday season. Most toys that were on the shelves this time last year have been replaced with newer items. The toy industry estimates there are about 100,000 different brands on the market

Shopping for kids demands some homework before you buy. "Look at what's out there," suggests toy consumer expert Joanne Oppenheim. "Have a look, too, at home before you go shopping, and see what your child has played with this year."

Oppenheim and others who follow the rapidly changing toy industry also urge shoppers to get past the bells and whistles. "Children need toys that let them pretend and do all the story making themselves," she says.

Chips for a Wriggle, Song and Dance

Hokey Pokey Elmo by Fisher-Price is this year's must-have novelty toy. Thanks to its "chips inside," Elmo can sing, wriggle, and dance his way into children's hearts.

The goofy little doll is great for a giggle, and is another example of how microchips are changing the toy business.

Also new this year is Limbo Elmo. It bends over backward and invites children to do the limbo too.

While microchips embedded in toys can control their speech and movements, lower chip prices have expanded the range of functions toys can now "perform."

Many video games for children are sold not in toy stores but at Circuit City, Best Buy and other consumer electronics outlets.

Touch Technology Toys Touch a New High

Touch technology is changing the growing range of educational games. Leapster All-Learning Game System by Leapfrog and Power Touch Learning System from Fisher Price both get high marks.

"Leapster is very exciting because it has the power of an Apple or a Mac classic computer running on batteries,"says Warren Buckleitner, editor of the Children's Software Review. "You can take it anywhere. It's easy to use."