This digital metal detector allows kids to hunt for lost or hidden treasures. It includes headphones with audio tone alert and volume control. Launch date: November 2008.

With the Bionic Ear, children can listen to faint and far-away sounds with a range up to 300'. It includes digital record and playback with headphones, plus background noise reduction that makes the hearing amazingly clear. This product helps kids "learn how the secret spies listen to sounds and conversations far away," Janice Hudy, sales and marketing assistant at POOF-Slinky told TDmonthly. Launch date: November 2008.

Kids can create their own ancient Egyptian pyramid, scare friends with the built-in mummy sounds, and use the built-in hieroglyphic decoder to read and write their own hieroglyphics — all while learning about ancient Eygpt. Launch date: November 2008.

Kids can learn all about mummies while creating their own from the inside out. With this project, children wrap, paint and display their mummy in the provided carved stone resting place. Launch date: November 2008.

This educational game for one to four players lets individuals create their own scale-model hurricanes. It includes a board game and activities, plus a 29-page fun fact booklet. Launch date: November 27, 2008.

The Lightning Lab simulates lightning and real storm sounds, and includes a 22-page booklet. "The fun and fact booklet not only guides you through using your Lightning Lab, but it's full of fun and interesting facts about the weather," Janice Hudy, sales and marketing assistant for POOF-Slinky, told TDmonthly. Launch date: November 2008.

This set allows one to build and display all nine planets of the solar system. It includes a 64-page fun and fact booklet that shows how to conduct more than 20 fascinating experiments with the completed models. Launch date: November 2008.

Kids can project their own scientifically accurate views of the ever-changing night sky, and will learn to locate actual stars and constellations. Launch date: November 2008.

This beautiful 3-D mobile of the solar system is easy to balance and hang, and comes with glow-in-the-dark paint for spectacular night viewing. Launch date: November 2008.

Here's a safe and fun way to learn the basics of chemistry without blowing up the house. This kit uses common household substances to make fun things such as rock candy, super bubbles, molding clay, flip-flop slime and more. Launch date: November 2008.

Cryptography, the spy science of secret messages, is everywhere. Kids can learn the secrets to keeping secrets with this product, using codes, cyphers and hidden messages to communicate. "[It] comes with a step-by-step, easy-to-read manual that will guide you through fingerprinting," Janice Hudy, sales and marketing assistant for POOF-Slinky, told TDmonthly. Launch date: November 2008.

Kids can study the basics of chemistry while creating five different types of ooey, gooey ooze: sewer slime, wiggly wonder, power putty, flip-flop slime and glooze. Launch date: November 2008.

This kit introduces the basics of electric circuitry. It can be used as a telegraph, or kids can change the circuit and use it as a bell or buzzer. The battery is not included. Launch date: November 2008.

No tools are needed to make this powerful electric motor that powers its own motorboat and teaches the basics of chemistry. The battery is not included. Launch date: November 2008.

Kids can build a working crystal radio that will pick up radio stations and allow them to experiment with radio waves while learning chemistry basics. No batteries or soldering are needed. Launch date: November 2008.

Kids can whip up and delight in two ooey, gooey slimes, while learning what polymers are and why they act the way they do. This kit contains safe, non-toxic ingredients and includes step-by-step instructions. Launch date: November 2008.

Kids can mix up and enjoy two more kinds of slime that wiggle, bounce and snap. This kit contains safe, non-toxic ingredients. It "comes with an easy-to-read, step-by-step instruction manual to guide you hrough your experiments," said Janice Hudy, sales and marketing assistant for POOF-Slinky, Inc. Launch date: November 2008.

Kids put their aiming skills to the test with this Shuffleboard-style tabletop game that's as fast as it is fun. The game includes dual-action bumpers for lightning-fast play. Launch date: November 2008.

This game balances fun with gravity. Players rotate the pivoting platforms to guide six steel balls and collect points, experiencing nerve-racking action as the balls begin to fall. "It's fully enclosed which makes for safe fun!" Janice Hudy, sales and marketing assistant for POOF-Slinky, told TDmonthly. "It comes with simple, easy-to-read game-playing instructions." Launch date: November 2008.

Kids today can enjoy this classic metal toy as much as their parents did when they were children. Awards: TDmonthly Classic 2008.
— Original Slinkys are one of the top-10 best sellers at the Lollipop Shop in Jonesborough, Tenn., and Kiawah Island, S.C., Co-owner Jeff Gurley told TDmonthly in spring 2008.
— “Slinkys are still doing very well,” Ray Goodhart of Ages & Stages Toy Box in Golden, Colo., told TDmonthly in May 2008, noting that they sell “probably 15 to 20” per month.
— “Slinky — nostalgia does very well,” Linda Hill, owner of Emerald Isle Toys in Emerald Isle, N.C., told TDmonthly in May 2008. “[We sell] 50 per year … [to] kids — not parents — looking for older toys.”
— In May 2008, three of 55 retailers named the Slinky as one of their best-selling novelty items. Original Slinkys are a top-10 best seller at the Lollipop Shop in Jonesborough, Tenn., and Kiawah Island, S.C., Co-owner Jeff Gurley told TDmonthly in spring 2008.

Where to Buy: Rocking Horse Toy Store; Berkira

In this game, players can play from a variety of angles, bouncing the puck off the bumper and into the scoring holes. The game features an auto puck return and an electronic scoring system for fast play. Launch date:  February 2008.

The arcade action shooting gallery features an enclosed shooting area for safe play. Pellets are enclosed at all times, with single or rapid-fire shooting options available. Launch date: February 2008.

Using the magnetic pistol, “load” a pellet and aim it towards the target. Try to hit the knockdowns, spin the spinners and ring the bell. All the pellets are safely enclosed at all time, making the game safe for indoor play. Launch date: February 2008.

This assortment includes the Rocket Glider, Steel Titan and Para Glider, all of which can be launched up to 50 feet in the air. All rockets are made from a soft, safe foam and come in “try me” packaging that emits real rocket sounds.
— These rockets were best sellers at Twirl Toystore & Playspace in Taos, N.M., in early 2009, according to Owner Molly McMullin. “These have been on our best-seller list for over a year,” she told TDmonthly. “We always suggest buying two, because they’re so fun to play ‘tag’ with.”

This version of RamRocket includes all the features of the original, but comes with additional fireworks. Users can light up four fireballs and launch them up to 50 feet in the air. The packing includes a “try me” button that emits real fireworks sounds.