Dream Toys 2013 at The Toy Retailers Association Expo Shows us What's Hot This Christmas

Like a kid in a toy shop! That was my Aaron.  We went to Dream Toys today!

He spent much of the expo on stage with the child actors/models who were on hand for press photos.  THEY had an early start rising at 4 to be at the event for 6 a.m. whereas we rose at 08:30 and rocked up at 11 a.m.  I am glad we did as it was an intense day.  No wonder Aaron was asleep 2 hours early tonight!

Having arrived at 11 a.m. I think the main photos had already been taken, for the Evening Standard and the Metro etc...  Aaron did model for quite a few Hasbro photos though, and incidentally Hasbro had THREE toys featured in the top 10!

A panel of independent toy experts has selected some of the items expected to fly off the shelves this December, including a robotic puppy, Lego and a toy gun.

It was literally a dream come true for Aaron to get his photo taken with "Turtle Heads" as he calls them:

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I was very happy to see that the manufacturers of Baby Annabel have made a Baby George doll - gorgeous!

The Top 10 toys, as voted by the Dream Toys panel, which represents 80% of toy retailers in the UK, believes these are the Top Toys that will take centre stage this Christmas.  

They are:

Dream Toys 2013:

1. City Coast Guard Patrol – Lego Company - featured in the collage below (bottom left)
2. Doc McStuffins Doctor’s Bag – Playset Flair - Aaron played with this, and funnily enough there was a child model dressed up as Doc McStuffins and when Aaron pulled an ear off a Teksta Robotic Puppy she DID successfully fix it - she is standing behind Aaron in the Teksta Puppy photo below!
3. Flying Fairy by Flutterbye – Spin Master Toys UK - I saw these being demonstrated many times during the day and they are EXCELLENT!  RRP is £34.99 but they are currently £23.89 at SMYTHS
4. Furby Boom! – Hasbro - BOTH of the nieces that I went to Santa's Grotto at Harrods with want one of these, EACH.  NOW I finally know what all the fuss is about.  They interact with an app, you can feed them and they even electronically on the app (if you look after them well enough) digitally hatch an egg!  Now this MUST have retails at £59.99 but is currently only £46.89 at Smyths.
5. InnoTab 3S – VTech Electronics Europe
6. LeapPad Ultra – Leapfrog Toys
7. Monopoly Empire – Hasbro
8. Monster High 13 Wishes Doll – Mattel - Aaron paid no heed to these but I thought they look FABULOUS!  Apparently they have a big boy following too!
9. Nerf N-Strike Elite RapidStrike CS-18 – Hasbro - Aaron's playing with this on stage in the photos below.  With a VERY patient, very fun member of the Hasbro team!
10. Robo Fishbowl – Zuru-Geemac - we spent a long time at this stand.  They are a superb idea if you are worried about a first pet and the whole "a pet is for life not just for Xmas" thing!  Featured in photos below!
11. Teksta Robotic Puppy – Character Options - featured in the collage below (bottom right)

We saw all of them today, but Aaron was fascinated with some of them.

Yes, I am also confused that there are in fact ELEVEN but they must have had someone that they did not want to leave out LOL!!!

I am now going to do OUR TOP 10 TOYS.  If I get to ten from Aaron's I won't include mine, but I'll see what his add up to from today.

So here are our top 10 from what we saw and played with today:

(oh and ours do really add up to 10!)

1. As featured above the Vtech Toot Toot Drivers' Train Station was definitely Aaron's favourite and was so at Christmas in July as well.  It's been reduced from the RRP of £49.99 to £39.99 at Smyths
2. Aaron got a lot of fun out of playing with the Hasbro Nerf N-Strike Elite Rapidstrike on stage with one of the Hasbro team.
3. Somebody came up and added the above Turtle Head to our goodie bag. I am eternally grateful as he has played with it all evening, as well as the many other toys we were gifted.
4. The car track above is VERY popular with Aaron - he played with it for over an hour in Hamleys on Monday and loved it again today.  It is the Tagamoto Enforcer Road Set and is also on offer at Smyths reduced from £29.99 to £22.49.
5. The Doc McStuffins Doctor's Bag Playset.  I had to include this as it is one of Aaron's most favourite TV shows!
6. My son loves HEX BUGS! At Christmas in July, at Hamleys AND again today! A real fan!
7. I had to include the Flying Fairy as I saw it so beautifully demonstrated several times today.
8. The Thomas Adventure Castle had to be included as Thomas is Aaron's all time favourite and we have a Take 'n' Play Thomas set at the moment (a different one) that Aaron plays with for hours.  The one we saw today is on sale at Argos for £29.99 instead of the RRP of £34.99
9. We BOTH loved the Robo Fish and I would highly recommend for any family thinking of getting their first fish.  Aaron was fascinated with these.  I have a video which I will upload as soon as I get a moment! The bowl is at Smyths for £14.49
10. Aaron did not give these a 2nd glance at all but I am including them as I think they are dead cool: Monster High 13 Wishes Dolls.

You'll see some of our top 10 matches the Dream Toys' Panel top 10.

This post has taken me hours to put together so I hope you have enjoyed it - if you have, please leave a comment.

I have not been compensated in any way to write this post.  Yes I got a goodie bag for attending, but I paid my own travel to get there and all words/opinions are mine and Aaron's alone.

If you want to see all of the photos I took today, they are << here!
Bye for now,

Liska xx
@NewMumOnline over on Twitter - catch me there!