Oaklee’s social media guru, blogger Sue Kirchner, recently attended the 2015 Chicago Toy & Game show with her kids. Here are their picks for holiday gifts.
Still looking for ideas for fun and unique Holiday gifts for your kids, grand kids, or nieces and nephews? We recently attended the 2015 Chicago Toy & Game Fair and found some great gift ideas for kids of all ages. Not only was the show fun but it was great to see all of the kids playing with the games and toys and gauging their reactions. Here is a list that mixes our favorite toy and game picks from the show as well as those we saw the kids engaging with the most.
(Definitely put this show on your “must-attend” list for next year. All of the families and kids in attendance were having a blast!)
1. Laser Pegs – Promoted as the ultimate construction toy for kids, Laser Pegs are similar to Legos, but they light up! How cool is that? The sets allow you to make vehicles, animals, and even National Geographic Landmarks. These building blocks work with any bricks so you can add them in to your existing Lego creations. These toys are S.T.E.A.M. approved.
2. Versa Bricks – Similar to Laser Pegs yet great in a different way, Versa Bricks claims they bring great toys together. Versa Bricks are building blocks that allow your child to build using Lego’s, K’Nex, and even Hot Wheels tracks. They allow kids to integrate their favorite toys to create fantastic new inventions.
3. Sago Mini Plush Gift Pack – With 8 million downloads worldwide, kids love Sago Mini apps to express their wonder, creativity and curiosity. If you know a little one who loves to play the Sago Mini app then they will love this Plush Gift Pack including their favorite character as well as a cardboard box house they can decorate for their new friend.
4. Maze Racers – My 13 year old daughter loved this game. It is an easy to play, uniquely fun game where you build and race marble mazes. The game comes with two magnetic maze boards (one for each player) and a bunch of magnetic maze walls. Each player build the trickiest marble maze they can. When they’re done, they swap mazes and race to complete the maze. First to finish their maze wins!
5. Cover Your Assets and Nuts About Mutts Games – The most awesome part of the Chicago Toy & Game Show is getting to meet the game inventors. These are passionate entrepreneurs who love sharing their fun ideas. Brent Beck is the man behind Grandpa Beck’s Games and we really liked his game Cover Your Assets for kids 8 years old and up, where you race to stack and protect your assets to become a millionaire first. Nuts About Mutts is a fun color and dog breed matching game for kids 5 years old and up.
6. Spikeball – This was one of the coolest active games we saw at the show for older kids. Spikeball is a team sport that can be described as bounce volleyball or a mix of volleyball and foursquare. Each team serves a small spikeball to the other team by bouncing it off of a net so the other team can’t return it. It’s fast paced, fun and quite the workout. There are even Spikeball tournaments and leagues forming as the game popularity grows.
7. NHL Fastrack – This game is so simple and yet highly addictive. It’s a fast-paced, table-top version of air hockey. Players use the elastic cord to shoot pucks through the opening at center ice. Get all 10 pucks on your opponent’s side and you win the period!
8. The EXTRAORDINAIRES Design Studio – We loved this activity! It’s not a toy and it’s not really a game but we were entranced. The EXTRAORDINAIRES Design Studio offers kids (and adults) a way to step into the world of design. It could be fashion design, product design, building design, or even vehicle design. You pull a card featuring a character, an Extraordinaire, then pick a project asking you to create a uniquely designed ”something” for the character. Each Extraordinaire is a larger-than-life character with extraordinary needs. It’s your job to design the ultimate objects to fit their worlds! We brought this out at Thanksgiving and kids and adults sat and created for a long time. This is from the same people as Rory’s Story Cubes which my kids still play, causing them to laugh out loud.
9. Brightz Bike Accessories – Express yourself! Kids will get a kick out of customizing their “ride” with colorful lights. Brightz are some of the coolest bike accessories around. Multi-lights, solid lights, wraps, and cool colors! Kids can mix and match to create a bike that’s all their own style.
10. Star Wars Remote Control Zero Gravity Tie Fighter – Spin Master was showing off a lot of different products at the show and while a good size crowd was amazed at the realistic, motorized Legendary Jedi Master Yoda who teaches kids to be a Jedi, more kids were in line to play with the Remote Control Zero Gravity Tie Fighter. This remote control toy defies gravity by driving on the walls, ground and upside down!
There were a lot more toys and games at the Chicago Toy & Game Fair that we liked, but these picks were unique and really had Wow! factor.