OTTAWA – Lucca Dyck is busy manipulating a photo he just took with his tablet, stretching it out in funky ways and then flipping back periodically to one of his other digital art projects with a tap of his stylus.
Lucca is only four, but he’s already discovered the allure of the app. At this year’s Canadian Toy Testing Council’s awards, the LeapPad Explorer Learning Tablet was one of the top 10 picks of their kid testers, including Lucca.
Still, despite the allure of the tablet, most of the favourites chosen by the 500 children who try out toys for the council were decidedly low-tech.
For example, some of the pint-sized testers assembled at a suburban hotel sat down to play Sneaky, Snacky Squirrel, a board game geared towards children three and up. Kids steal acorns from another player’s board with a cute squeezable squirrel.
In another corner, a toddler zoomed around on the Play ‘n Scoot Pirate Ship, a brightly coloured vessel on wheels that a child can straddle and sit on.
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A group of girls gravitated towards a table of Maplelea dolls, brushing the shiny black hair and putting on different articles of clothing. The company Avonlea Traditions this year introduced the character Saila Qilwaq, a resident of Iqaluit who the manufacturer describes as being proud of her Inuit heritage.
Liliane Benoit, executive director of the toy council, says there’s been renewed interest in old-school playthings this year.
“The trends this year notably have been a return back to board games, an emphasis on family quality time together. The traditional games, or toys that you’ve seen through the years – Star Wars, Lego building construction toys, the imaginative toys – those are the trends,” said Benoit.
“But surely you also see the little high-tech gadgets for children so that Mom and Dad can keep their own expensive ones and they also feel they’re part of what Mom and Dad do on a daily basis.”
The council has a larger list of award winners, its “Best Bets,” that it releases alongside the children’s choice awards every year. Both lists are part of its 2012 Toy Report.
Among the best bets was a crib toy, the Northern Lights Soother, which features a Canadian wilderness scene and lights that flash to the music of a parent’s attached MP3 player. Testers also liked Perplexus toys, a line of transparent spheres with elaborate labyrinths inside. Kids manoeuvre a steel ball through the maze by manipulating the sphere.
The council, a volunteer charitable organization, has been testing toys since 1952.
“What they should be avoiding, are exactly what we test for. So we look for function, we look for durability, we look for battery consumption, we look at safety,” said Benoit.
“Obviously as a parent looking at a box, that’s hard to do, so I would direct you to the Toy Report, because we’ve taken all the guess work out of that.”
The council also reviews children’s books. Some of the tomes highlighted this year include Caroline Merola’s “A Night on the Town,” the tale of monster Pickles McPhee and his trip to the big city. “It’s Not About the Apple,” is geared towards slightly older kids, and presents different versions of the Snow White story.
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