Kid stuff

Discovery Whodunit Forensics Lab

Children know splatter patterns, but they're usually creating them, not decoding them. Put your morbid-minded little one to work on CSI: Neverland Edition with Discovery's Forensics Lab ($80), complete with microscope, slides, test tubes, and evidence. Your junior crimefighter will learn how to analyze handwriting, blood type, and fiber samples through six increasingly difficult cases; you can buy four additional cases for $20. Now you'll have to wipe the fridge for prints when you sneak a snack.

Fisher-Price Power Wheels Escalade EXT

After you pick up an Escalade for yourself, get this $300 version for your favorite low rider (kid, that is). They'll only be able to escort an entourage of one in this two-seater, but they can drive on the grass and rev that 12-volt engine up to 5mph, just enough to hit a safety cone and pretend they're bumping a valet in the Hamptons. The Escalade has a realistic grille, side-view mirrors, and chrome wheels, plus an FM radio and a player with three tunes: rap, pop, and rock. Now, where's the Lil' John sippy pimp cup to go with it?

Hasbro FurReal Friends Butterscotch Pony

"Daddy, I want a pony!" When your little girl begs for an animatronic palomino friend (and Donatella Versace isn't answering her calls), answer the plea with a pony ($300) she can pet, brush, and feed a carrot. This is not a sophisticated AI pet like the Aibo, but the pony will respond to sound, voice, touch, and light changes with sniffs, whinnies, tail whisks, blinks, and ear wiggles. Mount the steed, and it'll make clopping sounds. We don't know what was wrong with Monty Python's coconut shells, but there's progress for you. One advantage of technology: never having to explain the glue factory.

LG Migo VX1000

What kid doesn't want a phone that looks like Shrek? For teens, you'd probably want a prepaid phone, but for smaller ones, the Migo is a good, basic, easy-to-use phone at a reasonable price ($35 with service from Verizon). It doesn't have a camera, text messaging, or games, but the school will probably thank you for that. The Migo can receive any calls but can call out to only four parent-programmable numbers, so youngsters can't speed-dial American Idol or prank-call Australia. For further protection, the Chaperone service taps into the Migo's GPS so that parents can see on a map where their kids are. As the saying goes, it's the next best thing to being there.

Pottery Barn iChair

If you hear the faux-street bleatings of another tween idol coming out of your expensive speakers, you may weep onto your rare vinyl, and that's not good. But you don't want to discourage kids from listening to music, and you don't want them blowing out their hearing with cheap earbuds, so the iChair ($399) may be a good solution. This ultrasuede seat has a subwoofer under the seat, a pair of speakers up near the sitter's ears, and an audio jack that should work with any game system or MP3 player. Like your forehead after hearing too many Hillary Duff tunes, the iChair comes in black (charcoal) or blue.

Radica 20Q

Can you and your kids outwit a $20 gizmo? Prepare to feel like a chimp. 20Q (as in 20 questions) started life in 1996 as an online game built on a neural network. The game's AI has learned as more people have played, increasing its synaptic connections so that it has improved at selecting questions and finding answers. This puck-shaped handheld version picks your brain by displaying questions on its screen, and you press buttons for yes or no. After 20 questions, the device guesses the answer, and apparently it's correct more than 95 percent of the time. Your young'uns will build their own synaptic connections trying to beat the game. Meanwhile, you can be humiliated out of their sight by playing the mobile phone version.

Radica Digi Makeover

Before your darling niece or daughter leaves the house looking like Britney, Christina, or a clown ho', let her practice fashion virtually. Radica's Digi Makeover ($60) has a digital camera and a touch pad that plug into a TV, so she can just snap a photo and start playing with new makeup, hair (more than 50 styles and colors), clothes, and accessories. When she finds a cool look, she can save and display it in Photo Booth mode. It sounds like fun for girls of any age, though we wish there were a Tim Gunn or Isaac Mizrahi chip to offer praise or intervention.

SmartLab TV Remote Control

Here's a way to homeschool: no TV for the kids until they figure out how to make their own remote. SmartLab's kit ($19) includes all the parts they need to build and program a TV/VCR remote, plus a book that explains how infrared light and energy make the device work. Next challenges: adding a GPS locator for when you lose the remote, and building in a motion detector that beeps when your heinie comes within crushing range.

Wild Planet Spy Video Car

We live in nosy times--heck, the U.S. Navy is even training dolphins to find mines and other targets. Those without cetaceans can give their 007-year-old a head start in Espionage 101 with the Spy Video Car ($160). Like many toy cars, this one navigates with a handheld controller. But it also has a video camera that transmits wirelessly to a headset with an LCD eyepiece, so you see wherever the car roams, up to 75 feet--plenty of distance to see what siblings, pets, and Boo Radley are up to. Bonus: the camera sees infrared, so your spy kid will have night vision. Parents, that means lock the bedroom door.

WowWee Robosapien V2

Dude, we want one. The two-foot Robosapien V2 ($250) looks like a funky stormtrooper, has a snotty attitude, and dances better than most of the contestants on So You Think You Can Dance. The robot interacts with its environment through infrared vision, microphones that pick up sound, and sensors that detect touch, distance, motion, and colors, including skin tone--reach out your hand and it'll give you five. You can manipulate it through voice commands and a controller and can train it, too. Besides getting down, the Robosapien can walk, run, sit, lay down, throw objects, and bust some martial arts moves, and it has a vocabulary of up to 160 phrases. We reckon that makes V2 more pliable and talented than most of the child actors in Hollywood. Oh, and if you and your young Einstein want to geek out, there are all sorts of tricks and hacks you can try on your Robosapien.