The hottest gadgets and gear for kids (and kids at heart)

By Marc Saltzman

Forget dollhouses, footballs and jigsaw puzzles—today’s kids want tech in their toys.

If you’ve ever seen your kids or grandkids with a tablet on their lap, you will know how engrossed they are with the technology—and inherently comfortable with it, too—and so perhaps it’s unsurprising that they would often rather play with gadgets over traditional toys.

Whether it’s video games, tablets or high-tech action figures and robots, many of 2014’s “most wanted” fuse entertainment with electronics. Heck, even Lego has evolved into buildable robots with “on-brick programming,” while many classic board games let you place your iPad in the middle of the action.

Here, we take a look at a few of the bigger tech-infused toys that the young ones will love.

Action figures, digitized
How do you top Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure and Skylanders Giants, which have sold more than 100 million toys between them? If you’re Activision, you launch a third installment in the billion-dollar franchise.

Now available for all major video-game platforms, Skylanders: SWAP Force ($74.99 for the “starter pack”) marries a video game with action figures, which are placed on a “Portal of Power” that’s connected to the console. The moment you place down the characters, they’re unlocked inside the game world. Along with supporting all existing Skylanders toys, 16 all-new fighters let fans swap tops and bottoms to create more than 250 unique character combinations with mixed and matched powers.

Just as in the first two Skylanders adventures, the collectible characters also have embedded memories that retain information from the game, such as acquired skills and levelling up information. So, if a child takes his favourite characters to a friend’s house for a playdate, all of those characters’ abilities will be imported into the friend’s game.

Similarly, Disney has enjoyed tremendous success with its mobile game series, including Where’s My Water? and Tap Tap Revenge. Now the company has taken things a step further with a new platform called Disney Infinity ($74.99 for the “starter pack”).

Starring beloved characters from Walt Disney and Pixar Animation Studios, these games for consoles and mobile devices let players build their own worlds with familiar faces, vehicles and settings. Similar to Skylanders, Disney Infinity integrates collectible character figures that come to life inside the game (when placed on a base). In addition, kids can share their experiences with friends both online and off in the “Toy Box” mode.

For now, the Disney Infinity platform includes 40 collectible interactive pieces based on Toy Story, Pirates of the Caribbean, The Incredibles and Monsters University—with more movies and characters debuting in 2014.

Tablets for toddlers
Worried your kids will drop your iPad or Android tablet?

Young children can now have their very own touchscreen tablet—with educational apps to play on it—with products such as Leapfrog’s LeapPad Ultra ($159.99) and LeapPad2 Power Learning Tablet ($109.99), or VTech’s InnoTab 2 Baby ($99.99) and InnoTab 2S Wi-Fi Learning App Tablet ($59.99).

All of these durable tablets offer an expansive app catalog, plus parents can track their child’s progress through an online feature.

Built for kids ages three to nine years, the LeapPad Ultra features a seven-inch, high-resolution screen, Wi-Fi with kid-safe web access and the ability to download more than 800 fun and educator-approved apps, games, ebooks, videos, music and more. Simple parental settings let mom and dad easily control exactly what experiences a child can access.

Also for kids age three to nine years and available in green and white, or pink and white, the five-inch LeapPad2 Power Learning Tablet includes nine apps out of the box, plus 4 GB of memory to store any others you might want to download for the little ones. In addition, kids can take pictures and videos with front-and-back cameras. The LeapPad2 Power works with LeapFrog’s extensive library of 800-odd apps, games, ebooks and more.

For kids age one to nine years, the InnoTab 2 Baby includes content specifically for infants, including learning games, photo slideshows (with a zoo, forest and sea creatures), a Noah’s Ark ebook, sing-along nursery rhymes, drawing and colouring activities and an app called Baby Sign Language, featuring 100 popular signs. The tablet ships with a soft, removable gel bumper that helps protect it from drops and tumbles.

For kids age three through nine years, the InnoTab 2S Wi-Fi Learning App Tablet supports both downloadable apps and cartridges, including games, ebooks, music and videos, and other interactive activities. Content is based on popular franchises such as Sesame Street, Dora the Explorer, Thomas & Friends, Angelina Ballerina, Mike the Knight, Team Umizoomi and Jake & the Neverland Pirates.

Board games and Lego go high-tech
Hasbro has re-released its classic board games—including The Game of Life, Monopoly and Battleship—but has added a high-tech twist involving the hottest toy today: the iPad.

The Game of Life zAPPed Edition ($24.99), for example, looks like the regular board game at first glance, but there’s a spot in the middle to place your iPad, after you’ve download the free The Game of Life zAPPed app from the App Store. Now, up to four players can take turns spinning a virtual wheel on the iPad, travel around the game board in their little cars and progress through “the game of life,” enhanced by cute animated sequences, sound effects and more than 100 humorous video clips from America’s Funniest Videos seen on the tablet’s 9.7-inch screen.

These videos are all tied to the major milestones in life, such as graduating from school, starting a career, getting married and having kids. For example, you might see a clip of a mother lying with her quadruplets and all laughing uncontrollably (out of sleep-deprivation for the mom, no doubt).

Taking about an hour to complete, this zAPPed game plays very much like the classic Life, except prices, salaries and careers (e.g., video-game designer) have all been modernized. The winner is, of course, whoever finishes “life” with the most money.

One of the hottest high-tech kids, gifts this past holiday season was the Lego Mindstorms EV3 ($399.99), an advanced robotics kit that lets kids build five different robots—such as a humanoid, vehicle and reptile— out of the box. You can also download a dozen more designs from the internet or make your very own creations.

With free smartphone or tablet apps (Android and iOS), you can program and control these creatures to do what you want. Infrared sensors mean that they will also interact with the environment on their own, such as the snake-like robot that lunges and hisses if it senses something in front of it.

Drones, robots and go-karts
Due out this spring, Parrot’s MiniDrone is an app-controlled flying ship that can be used to race, play interactive games or terrorize siblings. Unlike its predecessor, the $349 AR.Drone 2.0, this less-expensive model—likely to be between $100 and $150—is smaller and has wheels for a safer landing, but doesn’t have a camera for rear-time video streaming.

Also available by the time the snow thaws is the Wowwee MiP (“Mobile Inverted Pendulum”), a 10-inch tall robot that you can command with a free app or let discover its surroundings in the autonomous mode. MiP (rhymes with “pip”) can bring you a drink on its tray (included), dance, sing and play games. This new friend will cost you about $99.

If you’d like a robotic companion sooner than later, Spin Master’s Zoomer ($89.99) is billed as the most technologically advanced puppy on the market. Designed for ages five years and older, the voice-activated mutt can learn tricks such as sitting, rolling over and playing dead—all using voice commands. Thanks to its fast-wheel feet, you can take your pup for a walk and pet it when you return, before it naps by your feet.

Chest sensors track objects and help Zoomer avoid obstacles, while five motors and detailed joints enable realistic movement. Coloured LED eyes blink and look at you.

Parents will be happy to know that Zoomer doesn’t require batteries—simply charge it via a USB cable.

And what about go-karts, you ask? Yes, they, too, are becoming more technologically advanced. The Razor Crazy Cart ($499.99), for example, is the first electric go-kart capable of drifting around corner—yep, just like in The Fast and the Furious. Choose between regular go-kart mode or “Crazy Kart,” the latter of which can drive forwards, backwards, sideways and diagonally—thanks to its variable-speed foot-pedal acceleration, 360-degree  steering, pneumatic front tires and anti-tip caster wheels.

With speeds up to 19 kilometres per hour, it’s no surprise this rechargeable go-kart went “fast” this past holiday season, making it difficult for parents to find one to place under the tree.

The recommended age is nine years, with a maximum rider weight of 140 pounds (63.5 kg).

Gaming galore
Finally, there’s plenty of gaming goodness to be had in 2014. In fact, there are not one but two new consoles available.

Sony’s PlayStation 4 ($399.99) boasts powerful graphics and speed—evident in first-person shooters such as the exclusive Killzone: Shadow Fall and Destiny—and if you want to show off your gaming prowess to friends, press the “Share” button on the PS4 controller to upload gameplay images and videos to your favourite social network, such as Facebook (the console is always recording 15 minutes of gaming footage).

If you decide to buy a game digitally, you can start playing while it downloads instead of waiting for it to finish. Those who own a PlayStation Vita portable game system can also use it to wirelessly access and play PS4 games.

Not to be outdone, Xbox One ($499.99) is Microsoft’s next-generation console. It includes an improved Kinect accessory to put your face, voice or body in the game; you can also speak or use air gestures to control other entertainment, such as movies and music. The Xbox One has a number of gaming exclusives, including Forza Motorsport 5, Dead Rising 3 and Titanfall.

Similar to the PS4’s Share button, Xbox One gamers can record, edit and share their experiences with friends around the world and broadcast live games right from their console via the Twitch service.

Out by this summer, Valve’s long-anticipated Steam Machine is coming to your home. In fact, there are a few machines to get excited about. These are console-like computers that run the open-source SteamOS and provide access to the successful Steam on-demand gaming store.

Partners include heavy hitters such as Alienware, Origin PC and Falcon Northwest, as well as lesser-known hardware companies, all of which will launch living-room machines—varying in size, power and price (ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand). Valve has showed off its own box and controller design, too.

Millions of people play games on their Apple iOS devices—such as iPhone, iPad and iPod touch—but, depending on the game, a controller might be better than touchscreen controls (Grand Theft Auto, anyone?). While there are some controllers you can plug into the iOS lightning connector, the SteelSeries Stratus ($99.99) is the first Bluetooth controller for the platform, with support for more than 500 games (and counting) at the App Store.

Available in black or white, the Stratus has pressure-sensitive face buttons, analogue stocks, a d-pad and shoulder buttons. Its battery will last up to 10 hours between charges. Up to four people can play on the same iOS device at the same time. A protective cover for the Stratus can be attached to the back of the controller for use as an added grip.

Game-savvy kids are probably aware of the Oculus Rift—even though it won’t be available until the end of the year. The virtual-reality (VR) head-mounted display of the Oculus VR puts you “inside” the game, thanks to immersive wraparound graphics and smart head-tracking technology.

Dubbed the “Crystal Cove” prototype, Oculus VR’s demo at the Consumer Electronics Show featured its newest (and smallest) headset. The set boasts better 1080p 3D visuals—now utilizing OLEDs, or organic light-emitting diodes—along with reduced motion-blur and more advanced sensors (simulating a 360-degree view and including support for leaning, too).

There were a couple of cool demos. Most impressive was a dogfighting space simulation, EVE: Valkyrie.

Marc Saltzman is a recognized expert in computers, consumer electronics, video gaming and internet trends. You can see him on CNN, CTV’s Canada AM and in Cineplex movie-theatre screens across Canada. Follow him
on Twitter @marc_saltzman. 

Photos: Disney, Spin Monster, Leapfrog, Hasbro, Microsoft