ShareThisBy HELEN MALANI
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
If there's one shopping lesson to be learned from the ghost of Christmas' past, it's that the early bird gets one of the 400,000 Play Station 3s that Sony will release in the U.S. in time for the holidays.
But in case you didn't get your name on a pre-order list for the Sony PS3 or the other hot new game console, Nintendo's Wii, here's how you can snag them. Pack a lawn chair, warm clothes, food and water and set up camp outside your local Best Buy until Nov. 17 and Nov. 19when the PS3 and the Wii are each released respectively.
Or you can pay above the manufactured suggested retail price for scarce items such as the Elmo TMX, current asking price around $200. With prices like these, it's no wonder that according to the National Retail Federation, total holiday retail sales are expected to increase 5 percent over last year, bringing holiday spending to $457.4 billion. In comparison, holiday sales in 2005 rose 6.1 percent to $435.6 billion.
Music, creativity and coordination are themes that run through this year's other hot picks starting with instruments from everyone's favorite blue-faced trio, the Blue Man Group. With a keyboard and percussion tubes among the musical toys lineup, any MP3 player can be plugged into the instruments and kids can play along with their favorite tune. Perfect for kids 8 and up, and priced from $19.99 to $79.99, you can find them now at www.fao.com.
And have you ever had your little ones grab your expensive digital camera after taking every picture to see how they look? Well, give them their very own Kid Tough Digital Camera from Fisher Price. It is oversized and covered in rubber so you can drop it and bounce it all you want. It's big and it's built to be kid tough. Available at www.target.com for under $60. This is one of my favorites.
Another hit for the very young is sure to be Leap Frog's Little Leaps Grow-with-Me Learning System. This hands-on toy console works with a DVD player to bring a world of puppetry, animation and live action to a TV screen while teaching the concepts of numbers, letters and language development. It's appropriate for ages 9 to 36 months and features four language modes. "It even has its own cuddly character set called the Little Leaps Learning Friends to join them on the learning journey," said Sharon Delman, LeapFrog's vice president of marketing. It can be found at www.kbtoys.com for $39.99.
Speed Stacks StackPack, a set of stacking cups, tests one's dexterity skills. If you haven't heard of this competitive sport that is popping up in schools all over, check out the video of the record holder at www.speedstacks.com. You can also find links for online retailers as well and it's priced under $40. It's great for kids, tweens and young adults.
The ultimate in creativity and imagination is Lego's Mindstorms NXT. It's the classic fun of Lego but built for the 21st century tech savvy kid. The robotic toolset is for inventors 10 years and up and retails for $249.99 at www.discoverychannelstore.com.
We all know that music helps kids learn. To see if your baby is a budding Beethoven, Fisher Price's Laugh & Learn Baby Grand Piano is available at national toy retailers with a suggested retail price of $49.99 or through www.babycenterstore.com, which has it on sale for 15 percent off.
Helen Malani is the chief shopping expert for Shopzilla.com, an E.W. Scripps company, and the largest comparison shopping search engine on the Web. For more columns visit www.scrippsnews.com.
