toys

You can always spot a parent around the holiday season. Their hair is a frazzled mesh of cow licks and stray strands as if it’s been pulled by a crowd of frantic people. Their eyes dart around in all directions desperately seeking something that could suddenly appear at a moment’s notice. They break down and cry during commercials that advertise “the hottest toy of the holiday season.”

Scandinavian Toys"R"Us licensee Top-Toy has taken a new approach to making sure kids get what they really want for Christmas: a fully gender-blind catalog that erases the line between boys' and girls' toys.

In a pleasantly surprising move, a Swedish toy company called Top Toy has made a giant leap for gender equality amongst children. Top Toy's Christmas catalog features an interesting twist: the boys are the ones who are playing with dollhouses and the girls are happily playing with the Nerf guns.

In a move that will delight toy lovers everywhere, the National Toy Hall of Fame announced 12 nominees for induction this year, including some of our personal faves, like the Magic 8 Ball, little green army men and 'Star Wars' action figures.

This is a timelapse video of the process involved in taking the "Success Kid" meme and turning it into a tiny sandstone statue. Don't you want a tiny "success kid" you can keep in your pocket like a lucky rabbit foot?

Here are 11 awesome toys from the 1990's we wish we could play with right now.

Toys in the '70s sure were awesome, but let's face it -- they weren't always well-thought-out. In that spirit, we present 'Hugo: Man of a Thousand Faces,' a large plastic doll that surely qualifies as one of the most disturbing toys of all time. If you owned one, you have our sympathy.

Holiday sales may be up this year, but some retailers have still managed to find the cloud in the silver lining: unlike years past when hot commodities like Tickle Me Elmo or Zhu Zhu Pets pushed parents into buying frenzies, no single toy has broken away from the pack as a runaway hit.