Toy Fair Goes High Tech

By Anita Hamilton

Just when parents thought toy-buying season was safely behind them, manufacturers began unveiling their lineup for next Christmas. At the annual Toy Fair in New York City, it's hard to find anything without an imbedded microchip. Mattel's X3 Microscope ($100) comes with a built-in digital camera and hooks up to a PC, so kids can view magnified objects through the scope's lens, then save the images on the computer. Meanwhile, Lego is unveiling its Robotics Discovery Set ($150), which lets kids age 9 and up build elaborate creations like a moving robot that can follow a flashlight in the dark. Companies that couldn't think of anything original this year are reinventing old favorites. Microsoft's line of ActiMates Interactive Teletubbies ($60) speak and sing, and come with touch-sensitive color screens on the tummies, which display geometric shapes. Most perplexing is Tiger Electronics' new electronic yo-yo, the E-Yo ($15), which gives a digital readout of its average speed, distance traveled and total time in use. If this seems of little use to you, remember that E-Yo comes from the same marketing whizzes who brought us Furby last year.

--A.H.