Most Popular Toys for Children of a Certain Age

Popular Toys for 4-year-Olds

Why Buzz, LeapStart, and T-Wrecks Top the List for Popularity With Four-Year-olds

Four-year-olds are at a stage involving lots of imagination and high levels of activity. And, their motor skills and conversation skills have significantly developed over that of a younger toddler. Because these skills are new, the child will be in wonderment of new toys that allow the child to use them. Currently, three of the hottest toys on the market for four-year-olds according to a Toys R Us employee include Buzz Lighyear, the LeapStart Learning Table, and the Hot Wheels T-Wrecks Playset (note: DVDs are currently very popular with children, but have not been included as a toy for the purposes of this paper). All of these toys exhibit the types of features that four years will naturally gravitate towards such as a high degree of tactile interaction via sound, color/light and moving parts coupled with a degree of fantasy and wander to spark the child's imagination. This paper describes how these three toys offer these features and why the child might find them appealing.

Buzz Lightyear is a colorful super hero with a laser that lights up and makes blasting sounds. When children press Buzz's buttons they are treated to battle sounds and responses such as "Never tangle with a Space Ranger, my friend. Buzz also has retractable wings and his space helmet opens and closes. Buzz's creators have added many features to appeal to four-year-olds and other small children.

Buzz's popularity with children already stemmed from his fantasy character in the hit movie Toy Story. His voice recordings are designed to make the children think that Buzz is talking specifically to them and many may seize the opportunity to think of Buzz as their "special friend." Sound, movement, and color/light are all a part of Buzz Lightyear's ability to interact with children and to hold their attention.

The LeapStart Learning Table is a toy that takes full advantage of audio, color and interactivity with the child. Everything on the learning table that the child touches reacts to the prompt by doing something such a having a frog play a trombone, having a book sing the alphabet or having a colored keyboard sing each color the child presses. The LeapStart Learning Table offers two modes, a learning mode for teaching numbers, colors and letters and a musical mode allows the child to create music, play songs and hear music. The child changes the modes by flipping the page of the book on the table. Most four-year-olds are likely to be captivated by this toy because it is so highly interactive and because it appeals to the child's senses. Although not as strong on the fantasy scale as the other two toys discussed in this paper, the toy takes make playful use of animals and other objects to teach sounds.

The third most popular toy is the Hot Wheels T-Wrecks Playset. This toy ranks highest on the fantasy list. It is a huge, two-foot, eight-inch T-Rex that devours and spits out cars from its mouth. Children that are fascinated by dinosaurs will be among those keenly attracted to the toy. And, there should be many thanks to the hit fantasy movie Jurassic Part. It allows many opportunities for interaction. Children launch cars with an attack ramp, shoot cars up the T-Rex's back using a motorized booster and can knock the captive car out of the T-Rex's jaws. The T-Rex shoots out cars very fast and the toy has many electronic sound effects that convey car races and the roar of dinosaurs. The Hot Wheels cars must be purchased separately from the T-Wrecks Playset, but are definitely a part of the appeal of the toy. They are interesting, brightly colored models with attention to shape and detail.