It's time to be both excited and jealous. Very excited because you will find something amazing for every kid you know in the two dozen or more gadgets shown on this list.
Jealous, because you will remember your childhood full of nostalgia, and imagine how cool it would become if you could play these clever devices in a certain way.
Although most of these technical toys are designed to entertain and/or educate children, some of them are suitable for children of all ages. The main goal is simple, is to let these potentials illuminate the recipients both visually and literally. The listed prices may fluctuate due to the latest offers and discounts.
The PowerUp 4.0 kit combines simplicity and refinement, which is a fan’s dream. It adds a DIY style to flying paper airplanes in an absolutely modern way. Control the gyro-stabilizing motor via your smartphone, and the companion app not only helps with real cycling and barreling, but also reports on flight performance and suggests future improvements. Along the way, the carbon fiber fuselage and nylon reinforced nose can help your aircraft survive various aviation adventures and fly again.
Buy it at PowerUp Toys for $71.19.
HeyKube is an ingenious transformation of the classic Rubik's Cube. It uses rotating lights in the center square of each face to guide you how to solve puzzles in one rotation without the need for an app. It does have a companion application that can take you through the seven-stage process it follows in each solution. However, if you are lazy, don't worry. No matter how you mix, you can always solve this rechargeable cube in the dark within a few minutes.
Who needs two turntables and a microphone? The VTech KidiStar DJ mixer has a wide range of lighting and sound effects, 15 built-in songs, and the ability to transmit other music via audio cable or Bluetooth. Add some fashionable vocal labels, and children can record and play their superb mix and match through the headphone jack or onboard speakers, and enjoy countless hours of music feast.
Buy at Walmart or Amazon, starting at $49.99.
In the world of temporary game structures, AirFort-there are now a dozen cool designs-does not require traditional stacking of blankets and sofa cushions. It uses a standard 20-inch box fan (purchased separately) to instantly inflate this spacious, silky cocoon hovering above the ground. The children enter the dome with friends, snacks, flashlights, and whatever they need. Moreover, separated from the fan by a safety net, they will feel the breeze when playing, hiding or hanging out. Most importantly, when it's time to clean up, it will put it back in its bag within a few seconds.
Buy at AirFort or Amazon, starting at $49.95.
It is never too early to learn to run a business. Through Plugo Farm, children cultivated the awareness of managing resources, satisfying customers and caring for animals. The system uses cute figurines to interact with Android, Fire or iOS tablets running companion apps. The kit includes a farm base, five crops, four animals, a tractor, a bucket, feed, eight flags, a manager and a foldable magnetic gamepad. But PlayShifu also offers a cheaper version ($34.99) without a gamepad, in case this is not your first Plugo system.
Buy it on PlayShifu or Amazon for $59.99.
Every child wants a mobile phone. Now you can give them one without worrying that they will lose it or you have to mess up parental controls. Gabb Watch is very safe because children can only make calls or be called by up to 10 contacts that you set up in the mobile app. Likewise, they can send messages in the form of fixed text (which you can create and edit) or record impromptu short voice clips. You can actively track their location in real time and choose to be notified when they enter or leave certain areas (ie, home and school). As a final reward, it includes a proprietary game that allows them to earn points by taking care of various virtual pets. Oh, it also tells the time.
Buy it at Gabb Wireless for $99.99.
Teenagers between the ages of 6 and 13 can feed the plastic thread with a rechargeable pen that is easy to hold and not hot to the touch, and can safely and creatively explore the world of 3D design and drawing. 3Doodler has visual and tactile functions and can teach them to solve problems. Although this fun Steam kit is equipped with everything they need to get started, additional kits can help kids build more advanced structures, such as roller coasters and other more complex engineering feats.
Buy it on 3Doodler or Amazon for $49.99.
With the help of Tacto Electronics, PlayShifu discovered how children can learn about circuits without risking electric shock. That's because the system does not use FireWire and only uses physical statues that interact with applications running on compatible tablets. Through STEM puzzles and story-based games, children between 6 and 12 years old learn how to build more than 50 gadgets. All along, the only thing they can inspire is their interest in repairing.
Buy it at PlayShifu or Amazon for $49.99.
Respecting BuddyPhones' dual main instructions, Cosmos is designed to be child-safe (the volume is limited to 85 decibels) and can easily share an audio source with another set of headphones (using their BuddyLink system). But they added active noise reduction, voice enhancement learning mode and detachable cantilever microphone on this basis. Although Cosmos can be used by wires, they are rated to last a full 24 hours via Bluetooth. As a bonus, these young cans are available in six child-friendly colors.
The second generation of popular Jooki children's speakers use apps and special tokens to play audio. In the app on your phone, you can associate the desired songs, playlists and podcasts with specific tokens or figurines. (This rock star bundle includes eight tokens and five figurines, enough for the whole family.) Then, when your child touches the relevant token or figurine to the speaker, it will immediately start playing the audio content -In fact, with Near Field Wireless Technology (NFC), it actually starts playing before touching the speaker. Most importantly, this latest iteration is able to assign Spotify playlists to tokens and figurines. Therefore, children can start playing their favorite artist or radio station on their own, and adjust the volume and track through the intuitive controls of the screenless speaker.
Gravitor is not exactly a drone. Flip the switch and it will automatically hover. Or you can tilt its antenna while launching, it will rotate and turn in the room for a while, and then find a place where it can hover fairly stably. Another way to control it is to place your hand under the rotating propeller to encourage it to hover higher. But other than that, it is almost just an energetic rogue aircraft.
Buy it at Walmart or Amazon for $18.24.
Lovebox is essentially a Wi-Fi connected wooden cube with a detachable lid that allows children to send digital photos, drawings, stickers and text messages to your phone. When you reply or send them a new message, the physical heart outside will rotate until the lid opens. To show that they like your message, they will rotate the heart shape and send you a heart shape animation in the app. This is a fun way to help kids who are too young to use a mobile phone still feel connected to relatives. Different boxes have different designs. You can also purchase "spinnies" separately. In addition to the 20% discount on Black Friday, they currently offer discounts on multiple Lovebox purchases.
The Moonlite projector is created by a mother-daughter combination in real life based on their night reading courses, using the flash on the phone to project the storybook image from the circular scroll onto the wall or ceiling. In addition to the single story and starter pack versions, there are now various gift packs—each with five story scrolls—including an Eric Carle collection and stories based on characters from Frozen and Winnie the Pooh .
Crazy stunts and zero damage? This is what this Air Hogs wild remote control car has to offer, thanks to super soft wheels. Just like its name, in addition to a series of flips, spins, and roller skating, Jump Fury can also perform jumps that are almost 2 feet high. Therefore, before a high-end dinner, this may not be the first thing you ask them to reach for. But for hours of indoor games, this rechargeable remote control car is just a ticket.
My Little Morphée is named after the goddess of sleep and provides a way for children to concentrate, calm, relax and fall asleep. This app-less, screen-less device provides 192 well-designed soothing music tracks, natural sounds and meditation journeys for toddlers and teenagers. One of the two keys controls the animal totem they want to choose, as a guide for them to explore themes through generosity, happiness, confidence, and curiosity. The other main control selects which universe they want to teleport to. All that remains is to choose a shorter or longer session, and then they can doze off.
Buy it on Morphée or Amazon for $99.99.
A quick reminder: There may be dozens of fairies in your house at the moment. But don't worry, they are harmless, virtual and fun. You can try to capture them with Got2Glow Fairy Finder. There are several ways to find fairies by carrying this colorful glowing jar around the house. When you catch fairies, you can interact with them. If needed, you can even catalog them using QR codes with the help of optional apps. However, before you try to collect more than 30 available sprites in 4 rare levels, the trickiest part may actually be finding this fun virtual treasure hunt gadget in the store, as it turns out to be very popular this season.
Buy it at Walmart or Amazon for $34.88.
Blazer the Dragon and Skye the Unicorn want to teach your little guy how to code. Each of these Coding Critters MagiCoders comes with its own set of accessories, the most important of which is a "magic" wand. Toddlers will program how these special creatures should move, and they will run around on the floor obediently. This is a great way to get young children interested in starting to explore STEM skills.
Buy it from Learning Resources or Amazon for $54.99.
Children desire positive reinforcement. Goodtimer provides them with 32 tokens, a rechargeable lighting timer, and a system that rewards good behavior. They get tangible incentives that are important to them based on the actions and parameters they helped establish. It is not exactly a toy in itself, but children seem to really like how it can cultivate healthy habits through play. Since every child needs his own device, Goodtimer offers unit discounts for families who purchase multiple devices at once.
If you are looking for STEM toys suitable for small children, this one is very cool. Artie Max is a robot that can paint. Just insert three marks on its back side down, do some coding on your computer, and it will recreate various colorful patterns. Most importantly, this remotely controllable robot has smart sensors, line detection and built-in tutorials to help your budding young programmers teach six major coding languages.
Yes, this toothbrush will play the infamous Baby Shark song. It also plays treasure hunts. But it actually also encourages healthy oral hygiene. The handle is equipped with sensors that can detect tilt and movement to assess (and report to the parents through the lighted nodes) whether the child is doing a good job of brushing his teeth. Can I play the system? perhaps. But when your child learns how to operate, their kitchen knife will turn white and sparkle. Other BriteBrush versions include Game Brush (which offers a variety of additional games) and a version featuring Sesame Street’s cute Elmo character.
Buy it at Walmart or Amazon for $19.96.
They will come to life when you don’t watch them. When you give this 7-inch tablet to the animated star in the Toy Story movie and your child, it's just right. Its themed bumper shell (which can also be used for cars, Frozen and other familiar Disney themes) and the content curated for it are all child-friendly. Each Disney tablet includes exclusive books, games and other features suitable for its theme. They both provide one year of free access to GJiang.
Buy it at Pebble Gear for $99.99.
According to the specifications of the Razor Crazy Cart Shift, it can travel up to 5 miles on a single charge. But it is almost impossible to verify this number because it was specially made to avoid driving in a straight line. This cunning little tricycle is capable of drifting, sliding, and seemingly endlessly spinning-it can be done for a dime. In low-speed mode, it can travel several miles per hour, but in high-speed mode, it reaches a respectable 8 miles per hour, which is fast enough for children who are low to the ground. If you want to know, yes, they did make a bigger, stronger, and faster version for adults.
Earlier this year, Robosen and Hasbro announced a truly self-modifying Optimus Prime robot toy. Although that drooling nostalgic version sold out almost immediately, its equally complex cousin T9 Interstellar Agent is actually available. You can start its very satisfying conversion from 10 voice commands, you can also start it to dance, wave your hand or fire a fake bullet at you. But doing this is where the app becomes interesting. Because T9 is a highly articulated robot, you can program it to do push-ups or turn into a truck and drive around. In other words, if you (that is, um, that special kid on your list) want a super cool transformer that can be programmed, this is definitely a robot to requisition.
Today, technology is everywhere, even backpacks. This refers not only to the items carried inside, but also to the backpack itself. This is the case with Pix's Mini Backpack. When plugged into a USB socket or powered by a portable battery, it can display pictures, messages and simple animations wirelessly uploaded from a mobile phone or tablet to its flexible, waterproof LED panel. The app contains some preset pictures available for purchase and allows users and/or wearers to create their own pictures pixel by pixel and frame by frame. The result is a highly personalized and fascinating bag, which is more than just a school bag.
Buy it on Pix or Amazon for $169.
Since Segway took the lead a few years ago, the world of self-balancing scooters has come a long way. Now they provide a fun-looking ride designed for people 8 years and older, who are between 43 and 70 inches tall, and weigh between 44 and 132 pounds. It can traverse sidewalks and accumulated dirt at an angle of less than 15 degrees. Many of its safety features include ambient lights, anti-skid tires, three riding modes (maximum speed of approximately 4, 6 and 9 miles per hour), self-balancing optimized for children, and real-time voice safety reminders. The app has remote control, lighting settings and other personalized functions. Of course, it contains a built-in Bluetooth speaker. Because every self-respecting tween needs to prepare the tune as they roll.
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