NUMBER 3 = Lego Monster Fighters Ghost Train

Although I am not usually a huge fan of toys that have a high price tag to them, Lego has been around for years and years and has great educational value and longevity. Many fans of Lego actually continue to play with it into adulthood, although I'm sure not too many of them would admit to this! 

The Lego Monster Fighters Ghost Train has a huge array of parts to it, this comes with a spooky looking ghost train that has a prison, glow in the dark features through most of the parts, little ghost and hero figurines and an aeroplane that has a moving propeller, missiles and an absolutely awesome ghost catching weapon that vacuums the ghosts up! 

 This toy teaches children to use great imagination and there is so much to do, even building this up is fantastic fun then there is literally hours worth of play once the Lego has been put together and it is fairly quiet play too, which is always a bonus! 

As this is a high priced present, I would only recommend you make sure that the person you buy this for is really into their Lego and I think you will be onto a winner in the best parents/aunt/uncle/friend award in the child's eyes! 

Unlike some of the items in this top 10 list that may not even see it into the new year (Furby comes to mind!) this Lego train and plane will likely still be getting played with next Christmas. 

 

Alternatives To The Lego Monster Fighters Ghost Train

To give some alternatives to the Ghost Train, I tried to stay on track (ha ha ha , you get it... on track.... humour may not be my forte!) anyway, I usually give some cheaper options in the alternatives section but due to the Lego Train set being such a specific item, I have given some other Lego train sets that cost the same or some actually cost more, don't hate me please!

 I have also included a train set for girls, this is not made by Lego but unfortunately it doesn't seem that Lego actually do girl's train sets, which is quite shocking really in this day and age and for a well known company, tut tut Lego!

 There is also a Lego Duplo set in there for those of you wanting to buy a train set for a younger child.

 Train sets can be enjoyed by children of all ages, and when they have a Lego one that they can actually build up themselves, this brings pride as well as just a toy to play with. They will love to show you and their friends the set that they put together on their own, or with the help of a parent or older sibling. 

 I will say again that this is defiantly in the high priced category, but this can be for a Christmas and birthday rolled into one and when it comes time for their birthday you can just purchase a more reasonably priced part to go with set, like another train or carriage.

LEGO City 7937 Train Station

LEGO DUPLO 5608 Train Starter Set

Hello Kitty Train Station Set

Lego City 7939 Cargo Train

Lego City 7938 Passenger Train

Lego Harry Potter 4841: Hogwart's Express

NUMBER 4 = LeapPad 2

Okay, so I had said that I would buy the Vtech Innotab for my kids when they are old enough but I might have to just wait and see what happens between now and that time as there seems to be 2 similar hand held console type things for kids and the LeapFrog LeapPad is winning the war with me right now! 

 Although obviously similar to the Vtech, the LeapFrog also has a camera with video and microphone but the camera is on both the front and the back. 

More amazing to me is the way the games remember the previous answers and levels of progress of your child and will automatically start to ask harder questions and make game play more difficult to constantly challenge the child. Welcome to the world of modern technology! This is ingenious! 

 I do agree that children do spend far too much time indoors nowadays and most don't get enough exercise due to all of the TV shows and games consoles but this is at least educational and you could save it for night time play or for traveling in the car if you go on long journeys.

 

Alternatives To The LeapPad 2

(Due to the similarities I have just merged the Vtech and the LeapFrog's alternative items into 1.) 

 The Leappad and Innotab's are really quite similar and there are not many other options around at the moment, I have tried to find some alternatives but these are either more expensive or just don't have the same features to them, in fact they don't even come close.

 The items below are as close to these tablets as I could find. The Kurio 7 is probably the most similar but has a much higher price of £159.99 although there is currently £10 off at the moment, it has many features including internet access and many people have described as having more functions that an ipad!

 The Fireman Sam tablet is great for younger kids, I think it looks a bit like the front of an arcade machine! Lots of colourful pictures of Fireman Sam and his friends and nice clear numbers from 1 to 5 to help learning to count. 

 The Vtech Progress laptop is a great choice for getting kids used to using a keyboard and mouse which will put them ahead for learning in school. It is not a tablet like others but as I said previously, there was not a great choice of similar items. (if you find good alternatives to the LeapFrog and Innotab's, please leave a message about it in comments section at the bottom of this page, thanks)

Kurio 7 Android Tablet for Kids

My FIRST Laptop

Inspiration Works Fireman Sam Fun and Learn Tablet

Vtech Progress Laptop

Barbie Fashion Tablet

Lexibook 7-inch Tablet Master

NUMBER 5 = Batman 'The Dark Knight Rises' The Bat

Batman Dark Knight Rises the Bat This toy has been made to look like The Bat from the Batman film, The Dark Knight Rises.

 For me I have to say that this seems rather pricey for what looks like a very plain black toy. It does have missiles that fire and the cool part is the main front missile that launches a foam Batman that you get with this toy. 

I do think that young boys will have hours of fun with this but as I have said, did it really have to be over £30?

 It also has battle sounds too and does seem to made of rather sturdy stuff. Maybe if I was more of a Batman fan I might get a bit more excited about this and perhaps I just need to "get over it" when comes to the pricing of kids toys but this just doesn't seem to warrant the price tag. One really good thing is that it takes batteries which ARE included, yee ha!

 

Alternatives To Batman 'The Dark Knight Rises' The Bat

There was not a lot of Batman alternatives, I was really quite surprised at this as I remember the huge franchise when the first film came out when I was 9 years old, back in 1989. You could get Batman EVERYTHING! 

 There are a lot of Batman items but I thought the vehicles would be hugely abundant, I guess the money in this franchise is from the collectors items so they don't bother so much about the toys? I don't know. 

Here is a small collection of items that are Batman themed. The Quicktek Batpod is the most similar to "The Bat" and is also from the Dark Night Rises film, this is the sort of toy that I was looking for and thought that there would be many others. This builds it own armour around itself and goes on attack mode with missiles that you can launch and fire it at your enemies!

 The Stealth Batmobile is also a battle toy with weapons and also has the more sophisticated look that older kids will appreciate. 

The Fisher Price Batcave is fantastic looking but perhaps for the younger child with its bright colours and more cartoon style features. 

 The |Power Attack Batmobile is a bit scary looking and vicious for my liking, I'm not sure I would want my child playing with this when he is 4 which is the manufactures recommended age but I guess it's not a choice I need to make for another year!

Batman Dark Knight Rises Quicktek Batpod

Batman Stealth Strike Batmobile

Fisher-Price Imaginext Bat Cave

Batman Power Attack Batmobile

NUMBER 6 = Cinderella Doll

Cinderella Doll To be honest, the name "deluxe doll" is something I'm not too sure about, I can't see what is deluxe about this, it's just a barbie type doll with a blue dress on! Sorry to be so pessimistic about this but I guess I'm just starting to see how expensive my Christmases are going to be! My son is 3 and my daughter 2 so I better enjoy the next few before they start knowing what they want for Christmas, at the moment it's Mummy and Daddies we surprises. 

 Anyway, this does look like a very pretty doll and has a lovely little tiara and shoes that look like they are made of glass. There is also a blue ring for the little girl to wear.

 The dress is floor length and is very sparkly looking which will be a selling point for most girls that love glitter and sparkle. There is also a carriage that you can buy separately for a whopping £50!!! It does come come with a horse right enough and the carriage "transforms" into a pumpkin, when I say transforms, I mean it comes with what looks like an orange beanie hat that you put over the carriage!!!

 I loved barbie/Cindy type dolls when I was younger and I know if you buy this for a girl that loves them too then she will get hours of play for years to come, if your budget does not allow for the carriage too then why not ask friends and/or family to chip in together and her it as a joint Christmas present?