Toy Making No Longer Child's Play

Shhh.

Don't tell the kids, but Santa's helpers aren't jolly little elves tapping out toys at a North Pole workbench. They're designers with advanced college degrees dreaming up play using 3-D computer imagery.

It's no wonder considering the kinds of high-tech toys they're making to keep up with an audience acquainted early with DVDs, MP3s and other letter combinations that may baffle their parents.

"Kids today are born digital," said David Ciganko, director of product design at toy maker Fisher-Price Inc., where most of the "elves" now have industrial design degrees.

It's obvious to anyone who's watched a toddler pick up a stuffed animal and expectantly squeeze the hand to will it to life.

"When you live in a world where the microwave will talk to you, it's logical that Elmo will talk to you also," said independent toy consultant Chris Byrne.

Fisher-Price estimates more than 80 percent of its toys now have some electronic component: from once-simple stacking toys that have evolved to play music and light up, to the Pixter Color unit that puts color graphics capabilities into the hands of preschoolers.

"It's not that the play has changed," Byrne said. "Children are still learning words and letters and numbers and playing with favorite characters. where It's just that it's more consistent with the sort of computerized world that they live in."

Kathleen Schwab of West Seneca was well aware of the trend as she shopped for Christmas presents, referring to wish lists from her 10 grandchildren, ages 5-12.

"It's all electronics," she said outside a toy store at a suburban Buffalo mall.

Her grandsons listed things like Game Boys and Nintendo, but she was ready to head for a bookstore.

"It makes it hard because my son doesn't want them to have electronic toys because they sit down in front of them all day and become zombies," Schwab said.

Jim Silver, publisher of the Toy Book, an industry monthly, said most toy makers work hard to avoid producing what he called "watch me toys" — where the toy does all the playing and the child is passive.

"Most companies are trying to have the electronics interact with the child and get the child more involved, increase the time they play with it and make the whole play experience better," Silver said.

Tina Zinter-Chahin, senior vice president of research and development at Fisher-Price, said it's important to take into account the child's desire for control.

"The technology should be there to enhance the play experience. It should help them get started," she said, "but it certainly shouldn't take over."

The company's talking Rescue Heroes, for example, use open-ended phrases to help start a story in the child's mind without telling the child how to play, said Kathleen Alfano, director of child research.

"The Rescue Hero will say `We need help here. There's a fire,"' she said. "It plants a seed."

Silver said such technology is extremely important to the success of toys. Old classics such as construction sets and basic board games still do well, he said.

"But when you look at the environment that children are living in — from the DVD players they have and the computer games, to the video game systems that they're playing with at age 5 — it takes a whole lot more to keep the child interested than it did 10 years ago," he said.

Toy Wishes, an industry trade magazine, reviewed new toys and interviewed parents, children and retailers to come up with a list of a dozen "must have" toys this holiday season. Virtually all were technology driven.

Making the list: the Barbie "Cook with Me" Smart Kitchen (KIDdesigns, $129.99), which features Barbie's voice telling children how to cook; the Bratz Formal Funk Runway Disco (MGA Entertainment, $99.99) with its motorized fashion runway and disco with working lights; and Neopets Interactive Talking Neopets Plushies (Thinkway Toys, $29.00 to $34.99), voice-activated pets that interact with one another and recognize each other by name.

Children become comfortable with the cause-and-effect nature of interacting with technology, Byrne said, and can develop an almost fearless approach to the technology they will face in school and the rest of their world.

It was for that reason that Darlene Stark, out shopping with her 11-year-old son, was just fine with the electronics on her son's list.

"School is very stressful," she said. "You have to be well-ahead. It's not `tie-your-shoes-and-write-your-name' anymore."

Byrne said those who worry that technology could hamper a child's creativity should sit down and play with the kids or watch how they play.

"It is a very creative play. It's just that the creativity doesn't look the same way it did when you were a child," he said. "It's not drawing with crayons necessarily, it's drawing with Pixter.

"Technology has not displaced classic play," Byrne said. "It's just making the toy box bigger."