Ali flocked to this toy first, saying that she really likes to make bracelets at home. This loom featured a storage base that held rubber bands and beads and a loom on its lid. The included bands seemed unusually thick. “I think the bands are hard to...

$24.99

This kit comes with enough perfume base, scents and vials to make four roller ball containers of perfume, as well as a selection of glitter and stickers to add some extra pizzaz. “I’ve never tried this before, but I really like making things,” said A...

$9.97

It’s a Nerf gun that shoots Nerf cars - cool, right? The kids in the older group largely ignored this toy, but some younger testers enjoyed this during our free play session, and parents also got a kick out of loading the cars in the gun and firing t...

$49.99

This was one of Hayden’s top pics. He said it was a bit tricky to load up the 20-dart belt, but he liked how it lighted up when he pulled the trigger. It’s supposed to fire the entire belt in less than 20 seconds, but he said it felt “kind of slow.” ...

$19.97

Even inside a fluorescent-lighted conference room, kids enjoyed this glow-in-the-dark race track and cars with undercarriage lights. It was one of Ali’s top picks. The tracks came apart easily when you wanted them to and stayed together tight enough ...

$99.99

We had to read the directions a couple of times to get this game going, but it wasn’t hard to learn. It’s the newest generation of the classic Simon game and comes in headset form and has you looking like a cast member of "Tron." Watch the colored li...

$24.99

Both Rylan and Ali chose this as one of their favorite items, which is to be used with Virtual Reality games and apps downloaded to a smartphone. We couldn’t get the recommended app to work with our smartphone, but we downloaded a maze app. Mom Camil...

$14.99

For the price, this seemed like a decent deal for this type of toy - and as one parent pointed out, it’s a nice one to have if you have more than three kids over at a time. The set came with four mini-basketballs and seemed sturdy, but the automatic ...

$24.99

The older boys took this to a darker hallway to watch it light up with every kick. They loved it immediately. “Woah. That’s so cool,” said Hayden. “I want this. I love it,” said Rylan, who picked it as one of his favorites. They said it seemed a litt...

$17.99

Kids and parents didn’t flock to this tabletop version of cornhole right away, but those who did seemed to enjoy it. Instead of real beanbags players take turns flicking or tossing little metal disks toward the holes, and more than one parent wished ...

$14.99

Surprisingly, kids and parents didn’t flock to this, but it’s the kind of toy that requires a bit of quiet time to assemble and discover. Kids build their own droid and customize it with stickers, and control it and go on missions with a Droid Invent...

$99.95

Kids didn’t seem too interested in this kit, which seemed a bit pricey and required concentration. It included a battery, blinker, buzzer, photoresistor, and other electrical doo-dads, as well as a conductive silver ink pen. You draw with the pen in ...

$79.99

We had a hard time figuring out how to get this truck to go in reverse, but eventually figured it out. The packaging brags it goes up to 30 mph, and kids seemed impressed by the speed. “The wheels are really bouncy when it crashes,” said Hayden. If i...

$99.99

This kit allows you to build your own pet from more than 20 parts. We got it started before the toy test and snapped together a body and a couple of legs, but it largely sat untouched during testing time. The robot comes in dinosaur or fox versions a...

$39.99