Drawing with the Glow Board
The glow board's markers come in six dazzling neon colors -- red, blue, yellow, green, orange, and pink. With these colors at their command, kids will be able to create a multitude of different drawings. Perhaps they will envision a galaxy with stars and planets, or render an undersea adventure. The markers have medium tips, which can draw thickly but also offer the ability to draw finer images. A tracing sheet comes with the board to help kids get ideas for their artwork. This toy is recommended for children ages six and up, and requires three AAA batteries (not included.)

About Crayola
Crayola first began developing its world-famous crayons in 1903, with eight original colors. The company is now the world's most popular manufacturer of children's art supplies and it produces more than 120 different crayon colors. Crayola recently celebrated its 100th anniversary and continues to innovate in the field of children's art.

N-Strike Raider CS-35 Blaster Ages:6 and up

What We Think Fun factor: Durability: Ease of assembly: Educational factor: Novelty factor: The Good: Enormous dart capacity, and 2 modes of rapid fire. The Challenging: Can be time-consuming to reload. In a Nutshell: A truly formidable blaster with a huge ammo capacity.

The N-Strike Raider CS-35 is sure to make short work of your Nerf-blaster foes. View larger.

Maximum Firepower and Versatility
The CS-35 features a durable plastic frame, intended for intense play. It is based a classic Tommy gun design, complete with a drum magazine. This magazine can be used as an accessory with any other compatible N-Strike blasters. The CS-35 comes with an adjustable stock, which you adjust to fit the length of your arm. It also has a tactical rail, which you can equip with a variety of N-Strike accessories.

With a 35-dart capacity, the CS-35 has a truly massive payload of foam. Because of this, you might expect it to be a bit cumbersome, but it is actually surprisingly mobile. The blaster is lightweight enough to sprint with, and you'll be able to blind-fire around a corner with ease. You also shouldn't have to worry about running out of darts. The CS-35 comes with 100 darts, including 65 clip-system darts. The darts are gentle and soft, so younger kids will be able to get in on the action.

There is one downside to the huge dart capacity: each dart has to be reloaded individually, so preparing the blaster for play can take several minutes. Still, the fun you will have is well worth these moments of tedium.

Blast Your Enemies Away
The CS-35 fires reliably in battle, and is free of the jamming that often plagues Nerf guns. It uses a pneumatic pump to propel the darts, allowing you to be in control of the rate of fire. The pump allows for two blasting modes -- multiple darts at a time, or single shots. The multiple-dart mode is particularly fearsome, since it will empty all 35 darts in a matter of seconds.

Making a simple flying UFO took only a few minutes. View larger.

Create your own complex inventions using parts such as the fan motor, alarm speaker, and over 60 other pieces. View larger.

What We Think Fun Factor: Durability: (what this means) The Good:Makes learning about electronics fun. The Bad:Physics principles can be difficult to understand. In a Nutshell:Interactive, hands-on way of playing with electronics that is fun and educational. At a Glance Ages:8 and older Requires:4 AA batteries

Real Electronic Parts
Electronic Snap Circuits includes real circuit components just like the circuit boards inside radios, televisions, computers, and other electronic devices. This set makes it easy for anyone to create simple electronic circuits and devices. To operate, you simply snap the electronic elements onto a plastic grid, and then connect them together with wire pieces that snap easily into place.

The SC-300 lets you build electronic devices such as a whistle chip, speaker, alarm circuit, LED, lamp socket, fan motor, and a speaker. Additional pieces can be purchased separately, or in different models, and they can all be used together to create larger and more elaborate projects.

Making Electronics Fun and Easy
The included instruction manual offers 305 projects ranging from a simple light switch to a noise-activated burglar alarm. We found the color-coded instruction manual clear and easy to understand, and we had no problems creating any of the projects we tried. The projects are organized by levels of difficulty, and each project teaches an objective such as "To show how electricity can only pass in one direction through an LED."

We definitely experienced a sense of satisfaction as we completed each project, and we definitely learned about electronics concepts. The manufacturer recommends the set for ages 8-108; younger engineers should be able to easily follow the diagrams for each project, but will probably require their parents to help explain how everything works. So a word of warning to parents: Brush up on your high school physics! Although the instruction offers some good information, we found that we still needed to brush up on the physics we learned years ago so we could understand concepts such as the difference between a circuit in parallel and in series.

Unique Learning Experience
Creating a flying UFO from "scratch" with rudimentary electronic pieces was highly satisfying to us, and we think Electronic Snap Circuits may well help young students gain and foster an appreciation for, and interest in, how electronics work and are built.

For students who are already learning about electronics in school, this set creates a hands-on experience that makes for more fun than reading about how these things work in a textbook. So don't be surprised if report cards come back with higher grades after playing with this toy.

Parent-Child Bonding Experience
The Elenco Electronic Snap Circuits would make a great parent-child bonding experience that is both educational and fun. As you work through each project with your child, don't be surprised when you, too, are learning something new and interesting. And after you've completed all the projects, you can create your own! The combinations are limitless!