Loaded with sensors, servos, switches, and other high-tech stuff, today’s toys push the envelope. Voice-activated Commandobot processes 36 different system commands, 18 are voice activated. Other features: Available in a variety of eye colors, skin tones, and ethnicities. Built-in calendar keeps track of current date and time, birthdays, and holidays. Sensors tell her what food she is eating, when her hair is brushed, and whether she is clothed or not. MGA Entertainment's My Dream Baby moves through four growth stages where she learns to speak, recognize her name, sing songs, recite ABCs, play peek-a-boo, and eventually gain a 500-word vocabulary, all while physically growing about 2 in. Sensory's RSC-300/364 next-generation chip, used in MGA's Commandobot, runs a full suite of speech and audio functions. Unlike other robotic dogs on the market, Me and My Shadow is soft like a traditional stuffed animal. Fisher-Price's electromechanical robotic puppy, Rocket the Wonder Dog, responds only to its owner's voice. An IC preprogrammed with motion sequences lets him walk, pant, scratch fleas, and move his eyes and eyebrows. Sensors on Rocket's legs, neck, and eyes track his position for each motion. The newest voice-activated gadgets from Radica USA's Girl Tech line include a real, working Password Phone, and Password Notes, a portable safe for keeping secret items secure. Both items respond to only one Not so long ago, a simple soft and cuddly stuffed animal or a new wardrobe for Barbie was enough to bring a smile to a little girl's face. Young boys would spend hours hunkered down in the front yard building forts with Lincoln Logs just to attack and destroy them with tiny green army men. My, how times have changed. Now, many kids have at least one computer at home and several at school to use everyday. Kids, it seems, can't get enough of electronic technology these days. This has toymakers scrambling to bring more sophisticated offerings so they won't be disappointed. Luckily for both toymakers and parents, electronics have become much more affordable and accessible in the last five years. Toy companies are using many technologies to create truly amazing toys with reasonable price tags. Some of the leading
