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Oct 1, 2008 7:25 pm US/Eastern
Early Holiday Toy Preview: What's Hot This Season?
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
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It's never too early to send Santa your holiday wish list for this season.
CBS 11 News
October 1 seems way too early to be thinking about it, but Christmas is only 86 shopping days away.
So which will be the hottest toys of the holiday season?
The new Web site "Time To Play" unveiled its top 16 "Hot Hot Holiday '08 Toys" and towards the top of the list is "Bakugan," a game featuring spheres with built-in magnets that transform into battle brawlers when rolled across metal gate cards.
"This is the next generation of Pokemon. It's just been blown off the shelves. This is the hottest toy on the market right now," says Jim Silver, Editor-In-Chief of Time To Play.
Other super hot toys look like old favorites, but they are not. "Elmo Live" can now tell jokes, sing songs and play games.
"Elmo sits down and reads books with you," Silver says.
CBS 2's Magee Hickey picked "Biscuit," an animatronic dog who responds to six different voice commands as her favorite.
Among the other super-trendy toys were the Star Wars Clone Trooper voice changer helmet, and the "Clickables" DVD with charms and gems that connect to the computer to create your own fairies.
There were also lots of super-sophisticated construction toys as well as "Guitar Hero World Tour" and "Rock Band II."
But even toys that didn't make the list had 9-year-olds enthralled, like the "Air Hog" suction car.
And no matter what's happening in the economy, the experts say toys are always recession-proof.
Studies show that during tough economic times, parents cut back on gifts for each other way before they economize on toys for their children. (But the good news is that really hot toy, the "Bakugan" is less than five dollars for each battle brawler.)
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