The Settlers of Catan: One of The Hottest Gifts This Holiday Season

Board games have always been popular. People enjoy the camaraderie of gathering around a table with friends for a little friendly competition and a couple of laughs. The giants in the board game world have always been the twin titans, Monopoly and Risk. Both games are great, but a new challenger has been slowly growing in popularity. This challenger, a board game called The Settlers of Catan, is one of the hottest gifts this holiday season.

Developed in Germany by a lover of board games, The Settlers of Catan is a unique board game experience in part because the mechanics of the game or simple and easy to learn while the dynamics of the game are complex. In short, The Settlers of Catan is easy to learn and quick to play, but each game is like no other. There is no one way to win and every game develops differently.

The Settlers of Catan has become a phenomenon around the world. The game has been translated into thirty languages and has sold an amazing fifteen million copies. In the United States, sales of the game doubled last year and it is available for sale in major retailers like Barnes and Noble, Toys “R” Us and Borders. In the process, The Settlers of Catan is changing the very idea of what a board game is.

In essence, The Setters of Catan is about discovery. Players are on an island named Catan, exploring its terrain, utilizing its resources and building settlements. They are competing for those resources of course, but they are doing it non-violently. You can’t win by attacking your neighbor or burning his crops. Instead, you must bargain with your neighbors, help them in return for help and generally plan ahead. In addition, since the island is being discovered as you play, every turn changes the dynamics, sometimes for the better or sometimes for the worse. In short, you can’t win without cooperating and you can’t cooperate without coming to some agreement with your fellow players.

The Settlers of Catan is the most interesting board game to come along in some time. Why not travel to Catan this holiday season and see for yourself?

Nerf N-Strike: Powerful Foam Dart Blasters

The Nerf brand is one of the most well-known names in toys. Everyone, at one time or another, has tossed around a Nerf football or sunk a few free throws using a Nerf basketball. Nerf is also behind one of the hottest toy lines this holiday season – The Nerf N-Strike, a collection of some of the baddest and most powerful foam dart blasters and accessories around.

Nerf N-Strike foam dart blasters allow you and you friends to be a mean lean Nerf fighting machine. Best of all there’s a whole bunch of Nerf N-Strike blasters that you can choose from, each one able to unleash a whole lot of N-Strike wallop on the bad guys! Check these out.

Maybe you want some heavy firepower? Then try the Nerf N-Strike Vulcan EBF-25 blaster – an awesome, fully automatic dart cannon! This battery powered bad boy can fire three darts a second in automatic mode or be switched to single shot mode for those times when you need to make one dart count.

Then again, maybe you’re more the silent but deadly type. Then you need the Nerf N-Strike Longshot CS-6. This long range blaster is more than three feet long and can launch foam arrows up to 35 feet away! You can even use the targeting scope for even more accuracy.

Finally, maybe you’re feeling the need for speed. Then check out the Nerf N-Strike Raider Rapid Fire CS-35. This blaster holds 35 darts in a clear pump action drum that lets you see when you need to reload. Blast off a round at a time or let ‘em fly all at once. Booya!

Nerf N-Strike blasters come with a whole bunch of accessories like laser sights, holsters, ammo boxes and more! There’s even a new Nerf N-Strike video game that you can use on your Nintendo Wii or DS systems!

So what are you waiting for? March on down and pick up one or all of the Nerf N-Strike foam dart blasters and open an extra large can of foamy whoop-butt this holiday season!

Mindflex Game-Move An Object With Your Mind

Telekinesis is the ability to move physical objects using only the power of your mind. For years, the very existence of telekinesis has been debated. People such as Uri Geller have demonstrated the power of the human mind over the physical wold by bending spoons and stopping watches without touching them. The mainstream scientific community, on the other hand has derided telekinesis and lumped it with other so called “psychic” powers such as extrasensory perception and telepathy. Each side believed they were right. Each side refused to listen to the other. So matters have stood for years. Now however, a revolutionary toy has arrived that will amaze and delight believers and non-believers. Meet theMindflex Game.

So, what is the Mindflex Game? Well, if you have imagined being able to move a physical object with the power of your mind, then the Mindflex Game is for you. In the Mindflex Game you wear a headset that measures and amplifies your natural brainwaves. When you concentrate and focus your mental energies, a small foam ball will rise on a light stream of air. If you break you concentration or lose your focus, the ball will descend. The object of the Mindflex Game is to hone and exercise your mental concentration so that you are able to maneuver the foam ball through a series of increasingly difficult obstacle courses. You are able to play alone or with others in an amazing mental olympics!

There is no other game on the market like the Mindflex Game. It goes without saying that the Mindflex Game is the hottest toy on the market this holiday season. Forget about everything else. If you want to give your kids the ultimate thrill this year, then the only choice is the Mindflex Game.  The Mindflex Game utilizes very advanced technology and the natural power of your mind to create an interactive gaming experience like no other. You think you’ve got what it takes to be a Mindflex Game master? There’s only one way to find out!

Melissa and Doug Deluxe Standing Easel Review

Getting the right gift for creative youngsters can be a tricky. The Melissa and Doug Deluxe Standing Easel is one of the best items available today for stimulating a child’s creative spirit. As with other products in the Melissa and Doug line of products, this easel is an all-natural wood product. The rigorous quality standards assure that it will hold up to many years of being used.

Kids of ages four through ten are sure to enjoy the Deluxe Standing Easel. Parents will appreciate the fact that the height can be adjusted, allowing it to grow along with the child. Two other benefits are it’s sturdiness which keeps the easel from tipping accidentally, and it’s ability to fold quickly for convenient storage.

Being creative is made easier with the Melissa and Doug Deluxe Standing Easel. It is more than just a simple easel. Either of its two sides boast an ample-sized chalkboard or dry-erase board. An easily attached paper roll is also included, giving your child a place to paint with brushes or their fingers. All of this brings out the creative artist in any child, giving them many fun-filled hours to draw, paint, doodle, or otherwise express themselves.

The easel comes with the previously mentioned chalkboard and dry-erase board, a paint tray, four brightly colored cups, and four clips for displaying the young one’s masterpieces. Whether your young artist prefers paints, crayons, chalk, oil pastels or watercolors; the Melissa and Doug Deluxe Standing Easel is guaranteed be a delightful gift. The kind of gift they will use for many years to come. They will smile when they see their art hung on the refrigerator. Who knows, maybe someday one of their “early works” may even be proudly displayed in a museum.

Fisher-Price Brilliant Basics Baby’s First Blocks

Among the most important decisions a parent can make is what toys to get for their young child. Young children, especially babies, need toys that are educational and interactive.

Ideally, the toy should be helping the young child achieve an important developmental milestone, appropriate for his or her age group. There are so many different children’s toys on the market today, each making different claims in regard to a child’s well being, that it may be difficult for aparent to decide what toys are appropriate for their child. Luckily, Fisher-Price has made this decision an easy one with their Brilliant Basics line of children’s toys.

The idea behind Brilliant Basics is to provide a child with simple, classic interactive toys that match the child’s level of development. One of the best of Brilliant Basics toys is the Fisher-Price Brilliant Basics Baby’s First Blocks. In fact, the Fisher-Price Brilliant Basics Baby’s First Blocks is one of the hottest toys this holiday season. It’s no wonder.

The Fisher-Price Brilliant Basics Baby’s First Blocks consists of ten brightly colored blocks in different shapes. The blocks come in a clear bucket with a shape sorting lid. The bucket also has a handle and acts as a storage container, so the Fisher-Price Brilliant Basics Baby’s First Blocks can be taken anywhere. A child can fill the bucket with the colored blocks and dump them out, or he or she can drop them into the bucket through the shape sorting lid. Both of these activities are excellent practice in developing hand/eye coordination and fine and gross motor control. As a child grows older, the Fisher-Price Brilliant Basics Baby’s First Blocks grows with him. The blockscan be stacked and sorted, so that the child can learn about identifying colors and shapes and matching colors and shapes. What a simple, yet wonderful, toy!

Children are our most important resource. The Fisher Price Brilliant Basics Baby’s First Blocks recognizes this fact. It is an excellent way to insure that your child’s developmental needs are met while his or her curiosity about the world is nurtured and nourished.

Candy Land – Sweet Little Game For sweet Little Folks

Candy Land – An Old Favorite That’s Still Sweet

One childhood memory we all share is playing the board game Candy Land. Who among us doesn’t remember the excitement of getting moved forward to the Candy Cane Forest or the frustration of getting stuck on a licorice spot for a few turns while our friends raced ahead. Candy Land is probably the first board game most of us ever played. Well, guess what? Candy Land is alive and well and is one of the most popular toys this holiday season!

Candy Land has been around for over sixty years. It was the first board game developed especially for younger children who couldn’t yet read. As everyone knows, the object of the game is to be the first one to land exactly on the last square on the board. Players move by drawing a card with a colored square printed on it. The player then moves to the nearest square on the board that contains that color. Players can also land on a licorice space that causes them to lose one turn. In the older versions of the game, this was a colored square space with a black dot, The player unfortunate enough to land on this space couldn’t move until he or she drew a card that contained the same color as the space with the black dot. There are also six cards that contain pictures of places on the board, like the Gum Drop Mountains or the Candy Cane Forest. If a player draws one of these cards, they are moved immediately to the square on the board where that particular place is located, no matter if it’s forwards or backwards. So, sometimes it’s a good thing to visit Lollipop Woods and sometimes it’s not!

Candy Land has been released in several special editions, as well. This means that you can now play the Winnie the Pooh version of Candy Land, the Dora the Explorer version of Candy Land or even the SpongeBob SquarePants version of Candy Land!

In a world that’s moving faster and faster, it’s nice to know that some things, like Candy Land, haven’t changed. What it said on the box still holds true. Candy Land is still a sweet little game for sweet little folks.

Bakugan Battle Brawlers: The Game Sensation Sweeping The Nation

Looking for the hot toy this holiday season? Well, look no farther than Bakugan Battle Brawlers. Bakugan Battle Brawlers are the game sensation sweeping the nation that’s based on the popular Japanese Bakugan anime television series. Just like the TV show, Bakugan Battle Brawlers are chock full of wham, bam, slam excitement that’s guaranteed to provide hours of battle brawlin’ fun.

Bakugan Battle Brawlers is a 2 player game. Each player has a team of 3 Bakugan Brawlers and each is trying to be the first to capture three gate cards. It’s that simple!  The players sit facing the other on the floor or across any other hard surface like a table. They each select a gate card and lay the gate cards between them so the two cards touch. Then the youngest player selects a Bakugan Battle Brawler and rolls it like a marble towards the gate cards. Now, the fun begins!

A Bakugan Battle Brawler is a small sphere until it lands on a gate card. When it does, the gate card causes the Bakugan
Battle Brawler’s sphere to open revealing the Bakugan Battle Brawler inside. When two Battle Brawlers land on the same gate card they battle it out until one wins. The player who owns the winning Bakugan Battle Brawler gets the gate card and gets to go first in the next round. The battles continue until one player has won enough battles to collect three gate cards.

Because there are over a hundred different Bakugan Battle Brawlers to choose from, no two games are ever alike. Who wins the game all depends on which Bakugan Battle Brawlers you pick to play with and which Bakugan Battle Brawlers your opponent picks to play with. You can also amp up your Bakugan battles by getting the Bakugan Battle Arena to play on or by using the Bakugan Launcher to aim your Bakugan Battle Brawlers during the game. There’s even a neat Bakugan Collector Case to store your Battle Brawlers in when you’re not playing. How cool is that!

So, are you ready to rumble? Then make sure you pick up the Bakugan Battle Brawlers this holiday season!

Bananagrams – Real Fun for the Entire Family

Game lovers all over the globe, especially those who love word games, rejoice! Bananagrams is one of the hottest games this year. You will want to grab a copy of the game for your family, and extra copies for a fun-filled gift to give the people on your list.

What is Bananagrams? The name just about says it all! It’s anagrams gone bananas. In simpler terms, it is a word game that consists of 144 lettered tiles. While it may sound like this type of game has been done before, Bananagrams puts its own unique spin on the gaming experience. The banana theme is found throughout and adds to the fun.

The game was designed to be easy to play by all ages, fast, and portable. It’s not unusual for a round of Bananagrams to be played in just a few minutes. Why is it so fast-paced? Because it is not a game where everybody takes turns. Instead, everybody plays at the same time.

The rules are very simple, so there isn’t much of a learning curve. This allows players of all ages to play with each other. Bananagrams starts after players take a pre-determined number of face-down tiles and someone says “Split!”. Then the everyone flips their tiles over, with the players making that intersect vertically or horizontally. The first player to run out of tiles wins.

Several variations are included to make family play time, family fun time. This is the type of game that not only brings everyone together, but is also sure to become a favorite.

It’s no wonder the game is finding a large and welcoming audience around the world. Banangrams is a must have on any of this holiday season’s hottest gift lists. So, buy a bunch of this a-peel-ing game and soon you will be going bananas, too.