The Best of Summer Playthings : Consumers: When 27 youngsters rate the newest toys, they agree with an expert that outdoor sports items are this season’s hot tickets.
Estelle Carlson’s second-graders were looking forward to the test. It’s not everyday that school includes trying out hot new toys for summer--baseball bats with built-in Grand Slam sound, bubble-action jump ropes and guns, sting-free volleyballs and square balls.
So when 27 youngsters lined up on the playground at Mt. Washington School, they were ready for their new consumer role.
Most items were outdoor sports toys that are “a great encouragement for kids to get out of the house,” said toy expert Jim Silver, who provided the majority of the test toys through several toy manufacturers. And the price range is reasonable: from $4 to $23.
Silver recently crisscrossed the country promoting new toys from six different companies. He is co-publisher of the Toy Book, a trade journal that judges best-selling toys and publishes the monthly results on a “What’s Hot” list.
Most toys were so new that they had not yet been evaluated for Silver’s list. Among the most popular was Aviva Sports’ Sound Swing baseball bat ($14.99), designed for children ages 4 and up. The unusual 27-inch foam bat mimics the sound of a cracking hit when properly swung. It comes with a matching foam ball.
Several boys and girls in Carlson’s class took turns at bat after setting up the ball on a T-ball stand. It was an instant hit.
“I really like the bat with the sound,” said 8-year-old Daryl Hand, explaining that if you swing it right it makes a louder sound. “I’m going to ask for one for my birthday.”
Hand and several other classmates also gave high marks to several football toys, among them the GripFootball ($10). The foam football, which will be available in August from Grip Toys Inc., can be caught easily with special gloves with Velcro-like pads on the palms and backs--”Jerry Rice gloves,” as Silver calls them.
“With these gloves, you can even catch on the back of your hand,” said Mark Jespersen, 7, who also liked the Rocket Pro Bullet Football ($7), a soft, foam ball by MarvLee Inc. with a built-in gyro that makes the ball rumble when its thrown and caught.
Grip Toys’ 1991 GripBall model ($10), a baseball caught with Velcro-like paddles that fit over the hands, also scored well with the second-graders.
Carlson favored the easy-to-catch balls, explaining: “At this age, so many kids miss and then they don’t want to play. The Velcro is wonderful for them because they don’t miss.”
Another ball the kids found irresistible was a new square model called Q-Ble ($4), also from MarvLee. It bounces well, and “doesn’t roll as far if you can’t catch it,” according to Tyne Gaudielle, 7.
Gaudielle also found another plus: “When you throw it in the air, it looks like it turns into a star.”
Two new bubble toys from CAP Toys were highly rated. Both girls and boys liked the Giant Bubble Gun ($9.99), which can make basketball-sized bubbles. It runs on two AA batteries that are not included. When the handle is squeezed slowly, you get a large bubble or you can rapid-fire smaller ones.
Jessica Bates, 7, preferred the gun to the bubbling jump rope, but said that both should have larger bottles of bubble liquid “because you run out too soon.”
The Bubble Jumper ($8.99), a 7-foot neon-colored plastic rope that makes bubbles when children jump, “was fun and I’d buy one,” said Ashanti Clark, 7. “But I like the bubble gun better.”
Aviva, a subsidiary of Mattel, scored another 10 with its new sting-free Volleyball ($14.99), which has an inflatable core covered with pink and green neon Teslon nylon.
Jake Watkins and Chris Hebein, both 8, spent most of their time at the volleyball net and said they liked the new ball because it “bounced better” and “doesn’t hurt your hands like a regular one.”
Kenner’s new Nerf Master Blaster ($22.99), which shoots eight soft foam balls in rapid succession, appeared to be nearly as popular at Mt. Washington School as last year’s Nerf Bow ‘N’ Arrow ($19.99). The new spandex toys from OddzOn were also well-received.
The Koosh Paddle set ($16.95) featured spandex-covered paddles that gave the Koosh ball greater bounce because of the trampoline-type action of the paddles.
Woosh ($6.95), a multicolored spandex flying ring, similar to a Frisbee, could also double as a sun visor. It was fun, “but hard to catch,” said Steven Brody, 7. “It would be more fun if you were playing with your dog and he caught it.”
Brody said overall he still preferred the Super Soaker 50 ($14.95), now in its second summer and still the top toy on Silver’s “What’s Hot” list.
Larami’s Super Soaker has recently drawn fire across the country because of several incidents in which teen-agers turned it into an assault weapon, filling its tanks with bleach or ammonia and spraying people.
Some officials have called for a ban on the toy gun, but the fact is, Super Soaker is still so popular that most toy stores can’t keep it in stock.
“Super Soaker is perfect,” said Brody. “It’s just fun.”
For his part, Silver said that the whole issue of the danger of Super Soaker has been “blown out of proportion.
“You can take anything and make it dangerous. If you want to take Super Soaker off the market, then take baseball bats off. Far more people get hurt or killed by baseball bats.”
