This holiday season, get your kids the toys of tomorrow! Toy Insider Senior Editor Marissa DiBartolo stopped by Fox 40 in Sacramento to show off the latest high-tech toys. For more on the items featured in this segment, check out the product notes below, and for our complete rundown of the best gifts for the holidays, check out our complete holiday gift guide.
- Aura is a gesture-controlled drone that uses patented Gesturebotics technology powered by LocoRobo.
- The wearable glove controller will have users feeling like superheroes—the drone is controlled by hand motions made while wearing the glove.
- Kids can fly Aura up and down, forward and backward, and even perform tricks like a sideways flip.
- Aura puts the power in kids’ hands, removing the learning curve of using a joystick controller to pilot their flying robot.
- Automatic features like Auto Takeoff, Auto Hover, and Auto Landing offer ultimate control for the perfect first flight right out of the box.
- Built-in height and distance limiters keep the drone under your power, and make Aura perfectly suited for indoor use.
- Safety frame protects the drone from bumps and drops, and protects people from propellers.
- Ages: 6+
- MSRP: $99.99
- Available: Target, Toys “R” Us
3DOODLER START ROBOTICS PEN SET (3DOODLER)
- With the 3Doodler Start Robotics Pen Set, kids can engineer the future, the perfect toy set for a budding roboticist and engineer.
- Kids can follow the step-by-step Activity Guide included to create simple robots, as well as two-legged, four-legged, and six-legged walking or crawling robots.
- This 3-D printing pen and its creations are cool to the touch and use BPA-free plastic, making it completely safe for kids to use.
- Each set contains a Special Edition 3Doodler Start 3D Printing Pen, a motor and battery pack, a themed Activity Guide with more than six unique projects, themed DoodleBlocks for “drawing” your own mechanical parts, DoodleSheets, four packs (96 strands) of 3Doodler Start Plastic in eight colors, and a Micro USB Charging Cable.
- Age: 8+
- MSRP: $69.99
- Available: Amazon, Barnes & Noble
LEGO BOOST CREATIVE TOOLBOX (THE LEGO GROUP)
- The LEGO BOOST app guides children through a build-and-code experience in a series of game-like challenges.
- Kids can build and customize Vernie, their own personal talking robot friend, code its behavior, and complete fun activities with the included play mat.
- When kids speak to Vernie, it will respond with facial expressions that reflect its mood.
- Vernie can move in all directions at variable speed on its large tracts, see objects and colors, sense distance, grip and carry accessories, make hand gestures, and launch darts from its shoulder-mounted shooter.
- Vernie also senses and reacts to impacts and knows when you pick it up.
- Rebuild Vernie to create the M.T.R.4 (Multi-Tooled Rover 4), the Guitar4000, Frankie the Cat, or the AutoBuilder, all controlled via a tablet with the free downloadable app, which also includes digital LEGO features.
- Ages: 7 to 12
- MSRP: $159.99
- Available: Online at shop.lego.com and LEGO brand retail stores
PLAY-DOH TOUCH SHAPE TO LIFE STUDIO (HASBRO)
- Open a Can of Imagination! Create a world of hands-on adventures and see Play-Doh creations come to life in ways never imagined before. To start, simply download the Play-Doh Touch app, shape a Play-Doh creation, place it on the Shape to Life Studio, and scan it with your tablet or smartphone. The creation will come to life on screen, ready to explore!
- With the digital character stampers, create new friends that will unlock their own unique worlds and personalities when scanned into the app. Scan more creations made with the digital action stampers to see the surprising effects they have on other creations in the app. Keep shaping and scanning more creations with the cutters and tools to customize and enhance the world.
- Even when the Play-Doh creations go back in the can, save them in the app to play another day. Interactive adventures await!
- Ages: 3+
- MSRP: $39.99
- Available: Apple.com and select Apple retail stores, Amazon, Best Buy, Kohl’s, Target, Walmart
LUVABELLA/LUVABEAU (SPIN MASTER)
- Luvabella is a loveable, lifelike baby doll that comes in a variety of girl and boy doll options in different ethnicities.
- Children can care, nurture, and play with Luvabella and Luvabeau using the doll’s interactive accessories and pacifier.
- From feeding time with her spoon, play time with her Lamby, to nap time with her bottle, Luvabella will respond with natural reactions. Kids can watch her laugh, blink, purse her lips, and more.
- Feed her with her spoon and she’ll begin to chew and learn new food words.
- Ages: 3+
- MSRP: $99.99
- Available: Amazon, Target, Toys “R” Us, Walmart
