Many years ago I found the FamilyFun T.O.Y. Awards and was
very glad I did while shopping for all of my nieces, nephews and friends without
kids of my own. Years later, the T.O.Y.
(Toy of the Year) Awards are just as crucial to my holiday shopping as they were
when I was cluelessly
shopping and begging other parents in the aisles to help
me decide on the perfect gift.
FamilyFun recruits real families to test the toys that are submitted and work hard to provide the best of the best based on a variety of factors, and they really do find the gems each holiday season. This year they tested over 300 toys for kids of all ages and selected 30 lucky winners out of the bunch that were given the coveted award.
While perusing the winners, I found not one but two favorites from HABA that made their list this year, the Henry HABA Strong Armor and the HABA Expedition Dino Game. You probably already know about how much love I have for HABA and all the ways it encourages my kids to use their imaginations, learn about the world around them, and take playing seriously. But, you probably don’t have any idea just how much my kids love the brand.
If I could invite you all to take a tour of our toy box, the
first thing you would notice is that all of the toys encourage open-ended play. You would also find that most of the toys on
top that are played with most often are made by our friends at HABA. The makers of good quality, classic toys that
just beg to be played with over and over again, HABA has been delighting little
ones since 1938 and filling our toy box since 2008.
A few months ago we fell in love with the HABA Pirate’s Treasure Play Tent and even though I swore toys wouldn’t take over our main living room, this has been up since the day it arrived and we have no plans to take it down. And, how could I possibly take away their “castle”, their pirate cove, distant tower, play house, grocery store, school… and whatever else they dream up?
Since the HABA tent is their castle at least a few times each day, I knew as soon as I saw the Henry HABA Strong Armor that it was going to be a big hit. But, “hit” doesn’t even begin to describe the love my kids have for playing princess and knights with the new play armor.
The dragon-encrusted armor is soft and padded and the kids
will wear it for hours, pretending to be the valiant knight through squeals and
giggles. Even my little guy who hates to
be restricted loves the armor and would wear it all day if he wasn’t limited by
things like sharing with his sister and sleep.
Since they love it so much, I’m happy it can fit a variety of sizes
thanks to the adjustable belt fastener, which means they can wear it for years
to come.
As completely adorable as it is to see a kid in a suit of
armor, when you add in the adorable matching accessories {including an opening
and closing helmet, mace, soft sword,
and shield}, the play gets even more fun and the smiles even
bigger. We are hoping to add the Henry
HABA Strong Hobby Horse to the ensemble in the future to up the cuteness and creativity
even more. As if it wasn’t heart melting
enough.
The second HABA item to win the award is the awesome Expedition Dino game. Unlike a traditional board game that is flat and dull, the Expedition Dino game moves into the 3D realm and makes it fun for even the littlest players. Armed with a hammer, a chisel, and your own dinosaur explorer, Tim, you become the excavator of prehistoric giants. Taking turns rolling the dice and using the equipment granted to you, the object is to carefully collect petrified bones from the rocks before the trapped dangerous dinosaur is exposed.
Even though my daughter is on the younger side for dino
exploration at age 4, she was absolutely mesmerized by the game. It was a great way to practice the abstract
idea of board games in a really fun way that makes it seem more like a toy than
a game. By taking turns and having her
count each of the dice rolls and then move Tim the correct amount of spaces, it
was a great introduction to the world of strategy games instead of just
color-coded preschool games. Of course,
the hammer and the chisel did make it an easy transition.
I love that even though the game was fun at age 4, there are many more variations we can try out as she gets better at excavating. With how much fun she has had playing the game these past few days and how many times she’s asked to play it again, I know that Expedition Dino is going to be a fun game we return to over and over, which is perfect for all the rainy days of fall and winter ahead of us.
As you're out shopping for the holidays, you should definitely check out the FamilyFun T.O.Y. Award winners, starting with these two from HABA. They would be the perfect gift for that hard-to-buy-for preschooler and a great addition to any childhood toy box.
A big thank you to HABA for sending the Henry Strong Armor and Expedition Dino game for review. All opinions are 100% ours and no form of monetary compensation was received in exchange for this very Rave Review.
