Toys to fill Easter baskets
It’s that time of year again, when Peter Cottontail and all his bunny helpers hop into homes with treat-filled baskets and toys for good little boys and girls. Here are some of our favorite nonfood items to fill your kids’ baskets.
Figure Series 13: Blind bags (PLAYMOBIL)
PLAYMOBIL has created even more figures to inspire imaginative play, and these blind bags will be a hit with the kids. The latest series features 24 different figures that can be collected, assembled, disassembled, and mashed up. Each figure comes unassembled which adds to the fun: your kids can put them together or mix and match the interchangeable parts with other figures to create entirely new and original characters. $2.99 each.
Glove-A-Bubbles Animals (Zing)
If it’s spring, bubbles can’t be far behind. Are you ready? There are eight Glove-A-Bubbles animals (although Bunny is egg-stra cute for Easter), all of which are adorable and somewhat less messy than a traditional bubble wand. As you might guess from the name, the bubble solution goes onto a little glove and lets the kids create waves of bubbles by waving their hand around. You get two packs of bubble solution for $2.99.
Stikbot Easter Eggs (Zing)
Just in time for Easter, these adorable, colorful eggs — each filled with a bunny or a chick — will be a huge treat for any Stikbot fan and are perfect for filling baskets. But there’s more to Stikbot than looks. The poseable figures help teach kids two very cool skills: patience and how to create stop-motion animated movies. We love the combination of tech and no tech in this. And kids love the open-ended opportunities for play. They use their minds to design their movie and manually pose the figures. Then they use tech to record. Stickbot has nearly 200 million views on YouTube, and many kids make their own YouTube channels dedicated to their own “spinoff ” or inspired themes. At $4.99 each, you can afford to put all your eggs in one basket.
Care Bears Care-Moji Figures (Just Play)
The blind-bag trend continues, even though these stylized 2-inch mini Care Bears figures come in capsules. Each one contains one of 12 figures that are equally great for collecting, playing with, or displaying. $3.99 each.
Bunny Surprise and Lamb Surprise (Just Play)
These are the latest (and most Spring-appropriate) of the newly rebooted Puppy and Kitty Surprise family of toys. Soft and huggable, mommy Bunny or Lamb Surprise plush (with a plastic face) both come with a “surprise” number of babies in her litter: either three, four, or five per doll. Kids will have fun seeing how many babies she has, and then cuddling, grooming, and taking care of all the precious little bunnies and lambs (as well as mom). Mommy Bunny Patches and Mommy Lamb Bliss are sold separately for $24.99.
Eggnots
Are your kids allergic to eggs? Are you vegan? Still want to participate in the whole egg-dying tradition? Now you can, with these ceramic egg kits, which provide an alternative to natural eggs that’s as attractive as your artistic abilities will allow. Prices start at $9.99 at