{"id":3261,"date":"2011-06-25T10:22:32","date_gmt":"2011-06-25T03:22:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wellconnectedmom.com\/blog\/?p=3261"},"modified":"2011-06-25T10:22:35","modified_gmt":"2011-06-25T03:22:35","slug":"astra-specialty-toy-showcase-part-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wellconnectedmom.com\/blog\/astra-specialty-toy-showcase-part-ii\/","title":{"rendered":"ASTRA Specialty Toy Showcase Part II"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Shellie Driscoll<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Lori Cunningham and I attended the ASTRA <\/a>Showcase in Anaheim last week to see fun toys perfectly suited for the specialty toy market. \u00a0 \u00a0 Check out the post on ASTRA Specialty Toy Showcase Part I<\/a> to see Lori’s top toy pics. \u00a0 This post, Part II, \u00a0highlights my faves from the show.<\/p>\n

\"\"Sqwishlanders<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n

Sqwishland.com<\/a> is an online playground for kids. In their booth, Sqwishland.com was showing these cute little animals that are kind of\u00a0squishy (therefore Sqwishland) and kids can buy and trade them with their friends. \u00a0The characters (called Sqwishlanders) also come with a special code that they can enter into the Sqwishland.com website and take care of their Sqwishland characters. \u00a0Online they can also play online games and earn points.\u00a0 The online website is very cute!\u00a0 They sell Sqwishlanders in 6 pack tubes, 12 packs, a mystery capsule, party mix, DIY Sqwishland, and a bracelet where you can display all your Sqwishy’s. \u00a0Prices run from $4.95 for a set and up.<\/p>\n

\"Eiffel<\/a>Nanoblocks<\/span><\/h2>\n

OhioArt and has a new product called Nanoblocks (www.world-of-toys.com<\/a> or www.mynanoblock.com<\/a>).\u00a0 These are so cool!\u00a0 They are kind of like Legos but different and they make really neat 3D animals.\u00a0 They also have a castle, the Eiffel Tower and the Taj Mahal. \u00a0The Eiffel Tower retails for $19.99 but prices vary for smaller and larger sets.<\/p>\n

\"Fun<\/a>Bananagrams<\/span><\/h2>\n

One game that caught my eye was called Bananagrams<\/a>. \u00a0 Their booth looked like a fruit stand. \ud83d\ude42 \u00a0Basically it’s a scrabble type game where everyone gets a certain amount of tiles. \u00a0Then everyone comes up with as many words as they can using their tiles all at the same time by connecting them vertically or horizontally.\u00a0 There are special words that you use during the game like “Peel”, “Split”, “Bananas”.\u00a0 They also have two other games that are similar but with different rules: \u00a0Appletters, Pairs in Pears, and fruitominoes (like dominoes). \u00a0Prices range from $14.99 – $24.99.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Active People<\/span><\/h2>\n

There was a lot to see at the \u00a0Active People booth. \u00a0 They have innovative skill and motion toys: Astrojax (I tried this and it is very tricky but fun!), Yo-Yo’s called Yo2, Xa Xa ( juggling balls – I can juggle 3 balls-they were impressed), Boing light balls (also juggling balls but they light up), paddleballs, \u00a0and Kiwido (basically a swinging toy with flag-like tails).\u00a0 All of their products are classic toys but are taken to the next level in play. \u00a0Some very fun stuff. \u00a0Toys run from $5.99 and up.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Zip-Bins<\/span><\/h2>\n

Neat-OH International makes these great toy storage bins called Zip-Bins.\u00a0 They are colourful stiff padded boxes\ufeff that fold out into a playmat and hold toys such as Legos, blocks, Barbies and accessories, cars, trains, and much more.\u00a0 These fun storage boxes have different designs on them like Star Wars, Legos, Barbie, unicorns, dinosaurs, farm, etc, sure to appeal to any kid.\u00a0 With the play mat folding back into a box, it couldn’t be easier for your child to play with and store his\/her favorite toys.\u00a0 These boxes are really cute and practical.\u00a0 Zip-Bins sell range from $9.99 for the mini box sets to $24.99 for the larger box sets.<\/p>\n

If you haven’t already, be sure to catch the first post in this series, ASTRA Specialty Toy Showcase Part I<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Still looking for more fun ideas?\u00a0 Be sure to check out our Top 5\u00a0Favorite\u00a0Toys from the the New York Toy Fair,\u00a0Part I<\/a>and\u00a0Part II<\/a>.\u00a0 Great new products are showcased in these articles.<\/p>\n

Of the 10 toys we showcased in Part I and Part II, which ones are your favorites?<\/p>\n


\n<\/span><\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We scoured the showroom floor of ASTRA to find the funnest toys for 2011. This article is part II of our series.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3274,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[698,13],"tags":[735,732,736,737,738,739,740,280,734],"class_list":["post-3261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-games-2","category-kids","tag-active-people","tag-astra","tag-astrojax","tag-bananagrams","tag-nanoblock","tag-ohioart","tag-sqwishlanders","tag-toys","tag-zip-bins","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wellconnectedmom.com\/blog\/p-content\/themes\/atahualpa342\/images\/articles\/2011\/06\/1894-31.jpg?fit=270%2C300&ssl=1","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wellconnectedmom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wellconnectedmom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wellconnectedmom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wellconnectedmom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wellconnectedmom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3261"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wellconnectedmom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3261\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wellconnectedmom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wellconnectedmom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wellconnectedmom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wellconnectedmom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}