The Toy Association announced “Oh So Classic!” as a top toy trend of 2017 during New York Toy Fair back in February, and as we approach the holiday season, this trend continues to grow. In… read more
Five Retro Toy Lines that Need a Proper Reboot
Netflix Kids: Connecting Families from Stream Time to Playtime
There’s always going to be a debate about how much screen time is right or wrong for our kids. While I tend to think that I watched a lot of TV and movies as a… read more
Racing Into Fun: An Inside Look at the Toys of Disney•Pixar’s Cars 3!
My girls are both car-obsessed, and that’s something that I can really get behind. If you ask my wife, she’ll probably say that my enthusiasm is a little overboard. (She says we have too many… read more
Star Wars at 40: Raising Strong Women & The Forces of Destiny
When the dust settled from Star Wars Celebration Orlando, both attendees and those who watched from afar (thanks to the live stream) were buzzing about the future of “a galaxy far, far away.” While the… read more
Share Your Love of Pop Culture with these TV & Movie Cars!
When you become a parent, there’s a lot of things that you’re not prepared for. For most, what immediately comes to mind are the lifestyle changes, the costs involved, and the overall weight of being… read more
An Important Step for Play: Mattel’s “Dads Who Play Barbie”
It’s incredible how much things can change in what seems, on one hand, to be a few short years, but on another, the result of decades of struggle. As my wife and I celebrate our… read more
Going Rogue with Star Wars… Again
Last year around this same time, I was out in Los Angeles, more than 1,500 miles from my Illinois home, living a dream that I never knew could be a reality. As Disney/Lucasfilm prepared to… read more
Doing Good: Thinking Local for Holiday Giving
The commercials have begun, The Toy Insider’s Holiday Toy Guide has been released, Santa will soon be arriving at the mall, and the peppermint mocha is flowing. Whether you consider yourself a pre-Thanksgiving or post-Thanksgiving… read more
Spooky Toys and Frightful Fun For Halloween… and Beyond!
When the air turns crisp and the dark nights come sooner, one certainty is that Halloween is lurking in the distance. While tricks and treats spring to mind, there’s plenty of frightful fun to be… read more
Space is the Place: A Return to Out-of-this-World Learning & Play
Growing up in the suburbs of Chicago during the early 1980s, it seemed like “space” was everywhere. The UHF stations in Chicago were still airing a lot of sci-fi carryover from the ’50s, ’60s, and… read more
