As the unemployed father of a 4-year-old daughter who is starting to notice the ads on TV and in magazines for Christmas toys, I worry about the high-priced gifts from Santa that she may soon start asking for.

And along comes the $95 Maru doll, which is supposed to be the hottest new doll of the year and received the 2008 iParenting Greatest Products Award. As a new dad, I don't know if $95 is out of line for a doll, especially a new and popular one, but I do know there are at least three other dolls in our house that could be used as doorstops because they're certainly not being used as playthings.

Maru is 8, incredibly realistic-looking with fashionable clothes, and has arrived in the United States from a country that isn't named to live with her aunt and uncle. She comes with a storybook (don't all dolls?) that details how her new friends are helping her adapt in her new country.

Brace yourselves, parents. The Christmas catalogs are starting to appear, and before long you'll be noticing all those dog-eared pages that signify where you can find the toys on your kid's wish list.

But smart moms and dads know that it pays to shop around. It could be that one or two of your child's picks can be found in -- a dollar store?

While browsing through Family Dollar's Christmas Toy Book, I was impressed by the brand names I saw there and even more impressed by the prices. Most of the toys in this online catalog were reasonably priced at $10 or $15, with some even less, some a little more and one item in the electronics section that was $30. Here's just a sampling of what I found:

In a move that's sure to help parents of indecisive children, Toys R Us has just released its five toy trends for the holidays. The list is culled from data which Toys R Us collects from its stores throughout the world in order to determine what toys kids will want this holiday season.

Toys R Us doesn't just look at sales figures to determine these trends, the list also includes influences from the adult world. Bob Giampietro, the Senior Vice President of Trend and Innovation for Toys R Us, provided the following commentary on how some of the categories and toys made the list: "Children continually emulate and adapt based on what they see and hear in real life, and this is reflected in the trends we've recognized this year.".

The Toys R Us Toy Trends for Holiday 2008 include:

• $avvy Savers
• Adorable Animatronics
• Curious Kids
• Earth-Friendly Fun
• Music: My Way

While all of the categories should prove helpful to gift givers this season, the $avvy Savers category caught my eye, especially after Bob Giampietro linked the trends to current events. The $avvy Savers category focuses on toys that help kids save their allowance as well as budget for a big ticket item that they didn't get to unwrap on Christmas morning. I know I would have loved to get one of the items, a laser protected safe, back when I was saving up for a Super Nintendo!

Keep reading for 3 toys that aren't only fun but can educate your children about money. And also see the best discounts in the toy book catalog.

If you're wondering what the kids are going to be asking for this holiday season, you can get a preview on what will be tops on many wish lists with the "Hot Dozen" list from Toy Wishes Magazine. The list won't save you any money -- the cheapest item is a $12.99 set of Bakugan Battle Brawlers and the most expensive a $300 ride on triceratops -- but it will help you navigate what will be a frenzied toy market out there this year.

Wal-mart and KB Toys are already in something of a price war, trimming prices on key toys well before the holiday season really starts. Toys R Us, whose PR team contacted us about our Black Friday forecast thinking it was too gloomy, is still, however, optimistic about its prospects this year.

However it turns out, shoppers will certainly buy a lot of toys this year -- they do every year -- the only question is whether or not they spend enough overall to satisfy retailers and economic forecasters.

I'm a big fan of classic toys that encourage kids to think and be creative instead of being passively entertained by flashing lights. GraveyardMall.com is offering this 32-piece wooden train set for $9.99 plus $5.99 for shipping. It includes:

12-Curved Tracks

4-Straight Tracks

2-Crossing Tracks

4-Wooden Trains Which Magnetically Attach To One Another

2-Wooden Traffic Signs

2-Wooden Trees

4-Wooden Animals

2-Building Pieces

TopSavings.com reports that the Consumer Product Safety Commission is giving away a free coloring book about toy safety.

Normally we would now provide the link to fill out the form but, remember: this is the federal government and that would be far too easy. So you'll actually have to call and talk to a well-paid government employee:

Office Hours: 8:30 until 5:00 (EST)
Phone Number: 1(800)638-2772
Product Number: #283 coloring book

There are a lot of things I could worry about. Those floods in the Midwest. Oil is around $140 a barrel. We hit the one million mark in home foreclosures recently. Iran. Is Lindsay Lohan going to get her life back on track? But right now, my daily ire is aimed at a toy called Boingee Bubbles.

It was made by a company called Imperial Toy, which may be the finest toy company in the world. It's been around since 1969; they're apparently a well established business that specializes in making toys that involve bubbles. I know next to nothing about the company, and right now, I really don't care to know much. All I know is that this one toy that their name is behind, this one toy that my wife bought yesterday at a Kroger for $6.99, is either the one defective Boingee Bubbles of an otherwise bodacious bunch, or possibly, it's just a lousy product.

It is admittedly kind of a cheap shot to write some commentary and take a company to task in a public forum rather than call up their operator on the phone and asking for my money back. But I'm just fed up, from years of occasionally buying products from a variety of companies and hitting some sort of anti-jackpot of doom.

And, yes, we only paid $6.99, but it's not like we paid that price for a stereo and then are stunned to find that it doesn't actually play music. This is a toy. Shouldn't it work -- at least once?

My wife bought this Boingee Bubbles, some toy-contraption with a fan and "wands." You dip this fan with bubble wands into a tray of bubble soap, and then you press the battery-operated toy, and the fan spins, and the fun begins.

The McLoughlin Brothers created the first coloring book in 1880 (The Little Folks Painting Book), and it was an instant hit. Young children -- and older ones too -- loved the idea of being able to create artwork without the skill and focus required to draw or paint. Coloring books remained popular for another century or more, with the 1960s generally seen as the golden age. They were cheap, easy, required no adult supervision, and incredibly fun. Quick confession: the last time I went to Florida I brought one with me and had more fun than anyone over the age of 12 should ever be allowed to have on an airplane.

But since the 1960s, the coloring book has declined in popularity, and it's seen as passé in many circles. Giving a child coloring books as a gift might be seen as stingy and out of touch. You can get nice ones for $1 each at Wal-Mart. Now things are more complicated. To encourage your child's inner artist, the Madison Avenue geniuses want to sell you a Disney Princess Magic Pictures Magnetic Drawing Activity Set, for $14.99. And it isn't just art of course. Instead of giving a kid a recorder, he'll want Rock Band for Playstation 3 -- $169.99, not including the $300 Playstation. Barbies aren't even good enough either. Now young girls need a Bratz The Movie Party Bus for $48.98, but that's a small price to pay. You do want your daughter to grow up with the moral compass of Paris Hilton, don't you? Meanwhile our national savings rate is negative for the first time since the 1930s and kids are fatter than ever before, families rarely have dinner together, and television viewers are actually having to endure another season of The Mole. Something went wrong.

Of course none of these problems can be fixed quickly, if at all. But as a small sign of protest and a commitment to encouraging creativity and maintaining fiscal sanity, I'm asking you to make the next non-essential item you buy a child under the age of 8 a coloring book.

The Daily Deal for Sunday, May 24, 2008

Some of my favorite pieces of "junk mail" to be delivered to my home are the mail order catalogs from Oriental Trading Company. They are always packed with hundreds of inexpensive ideas for parties, gatherings and just plain fun. I even use those catalogs to teach our three year old, words, colors and shape recognition, because the bright lively pictures help to keep her attention.

The most recent catalog I received from Oriental Trading features a big section of beach and pool toys. In particular, I would like to direct you to a special deal on Star Spangled beach balls. At just $9.95 a dozen, these beach balls are a real cheap way to keep a bunch of kids busy in the back yard. Even if you don't have a pool, beach balls always promise a lot of fun! The price is right, and shipping is just $7 bucks more to anywhere in the continental U.S. Oriental Trading also has beach balls in several other fun styles.

For some other summertime fun toys, including an inflatable pool for just $6.00 or inflatable fish for $6.00 a dozen, just click on this Summer Fun Link and it will whisk you away into Oriental Trading's beach toy land. You'll even find floating drink coasters there, which will help to keep your twelve ounce beverages "cool in the pool."

Enjoy your summer time fun, and please always watch your kids by the water.

A few years back, in the hazy, mythical days of 2004, my wife and I took a trip to Eastern Europe. The dollar was strong then, and an underpaid English instructor and his bookstore-staffer girlfriend could travel like royalty on the other side of the former Iron curtain.

We wandered all over, reveling in the grotesque history of the area and its rich, potato-based cuisine. Finally, we drifted into Brno, eager to see the city's famed freeze-dried Capuchin monks. Unfortunately, the monastery was closed for the winter, but we vowed that someday, somehow, we would venture back and revel in the wonder of dead, shriveled monks.

About a year after we came back to the U.S., Gelitin, a Vienna-based art collective, unveiled what may be the coolest public art project since England's Cerne Abbas chalk sculpture. Gelitin's "Rabbit" is a 200-foot long pink bunny that is sprawled across a hill in Italy's Piedmont region. Filled with straw, the stuffed animal is made of soft cloth and features "guts" that are artfully strewn around it. Visitors are encouraged to crawl all over the bunny, reveling in its weird texture and grotesque design.

It's kind of funny, if you think about it. Years ago, kids played with wooden blocks and Legos, arguably environmentally-friendly toys. Of course, you could point out that a tree was cut down for the blocks, and the Legos are plastic, which means they'll someday be in a landfill for a long time. But that's why I said "arguably."

So, anyway, suddenly the blocks and Legos are tossed aside for video games and battery-operated toys, and you have not only raw materials going into those playthings, but they expend a lot of energy.

So now toy makers and toy stores like Toys R Us are coming full circle and thinking green by going back to the basics, as I mentioned in a WalletPop story about a week ago. But now we've come across a toy manufacturer who manages to be "green" and have electronic toys -- that don't need batteries.

InventorSpot.com has a story about the Zen Design Group, which is making toys that last for 15 minutes, operating with the same principles a battery-operated toy has -- all you have to do is turn a little crank for 60 seconds, something kids like doing, or a parent could easily enough do. These are their SEE toys, which stand for "Safety, Ecology, Economy." Safety, you say? Sure, the inventor, designer Sun Yu, told the Detroit News that he was inspired to make these toys because of his son. When he was younger, "he used to sit in the [shopping] cart and grab batteries," Yu said. "Children learn at a very young age what batteries are and what they do." He added, "Batteries and toys are not a really good mix, a lot of kids swallow batteries."

The Daily Deal for Tuesday, Feb. 5: Napoleon Bonaparte once said that "An army marches on its stomach." 200 years later, the words still hold true; a soldier can't wage war for long without a full stomach and a full ammo clip. Thank heavens for ThinkGeek's Marshmallow Assault Rifle, which manages to combine munitions and rations in one sweet package.

This delicious weapon has two barrels: the bottom one shoots mini-marshmallows, which are handy for laying down a fine surpressing fire. While your enemies cower in fear of your mini morsels of terror, the top barrel can shoot its delicious payload of full-sized marshmallows up to twenty feet. Best of all, after the surrender, you and your opponent can discuss the terms of the armistice over s'mores.

For a limited time, ThinkGeek is offering the Marshmallow Assault Rifle for $14.99, over 60% off its regular price of $39.99. When it comes to the field of honor, ThinkGeek has truly found a way to make war sweet!

I have a bin in my basement. It's filled with brightly-colored plastic toys, each with dozens of buttons and a little plastic grate inside which is housed an electronic speaker. They've come from various sources -- a well-meaning aunt or uncle, a thrift store, a great sale at the supermarket -- and they've all ended in the same place. Banishment.

If someone else can't stand the noise, do you think you're going to be able to? Having been in this parent business for going-on-six years, I can personally vouchsafe for the typical parental behavior when faced with a Toy That Drives One Crazy. First step: Hide the toy. Second step: When the child finds the toy, again driving you crazy, you find a better hiding place, usually a garbage bag on the back porch or in your car trunk. Third step: Deliver bag stuffed with equally annoying toys to the nearest Goodwill or thrift store. Fourth step: Drive away fast, don't look back.

Chances are, that toy that's so alluring to your child in the thrift shop was victim to the four-step crazy-making toy program. You should definitely leave toys that make noise at the thrift store, where they can annoy the staff. After all, they're paid for this!

This post was written as part of a series on how to thrift shop smarter. Read more on what to buy, and not to buy, at thrift stores.

If you're one of the handful of people who has any money left after the holiday festivities, it may be a good time to head back to the store to do shopping for any toys you might be buying for next year's gifts.

That's because, according to Kiplinger, toys are likely to rise in price by 5-10% in the coming year as manufacturers pass on increasing quality control expenses in the wake of a slew of recall fiascos.

Another possibility is to stick with high-quality classic toys that are less likely to require extensive changes. As my mother recently wrote on WalletPop, the ones with the fewest bells and whistles are often the best for kids anyway.

For more ideas, check out Kiplinger's list of 15 Can't-miss Classic Toys. Among the favorites are board games, Play Doh, Nerf balls and, heaven forbid, books.

But for classic simplicity and low price, my favorite gift for young children will always be the coloring book.