Coolest Toys Under $50

Even during the economic downturn, there are many affordable new toys available for holiday gifts. In fact, many offerings -- including award-winning, eco-friendly, or educational items -- are under $50. Here's a look at 25 of the coolest, freshest toys on the market. We've organized them by age, for infants up through 'tweens... and beyond.

Sot Barnslig Soft Toy
IKEA
Price: 49 cents each
Age: Infants and up

Swedish housewares chain IKEA offers colorful, stylish toys for kids. These miniature stuffed animals, sold separately, include a tiny alligator, elephant, panda, and elephant.

E-Racer
Suzuka
Price: $20
Age: 2 and up

This sleek miniature car is not only elegant, but it's also earth-friendly. It's made from sustainable bamboo wood.

Dance Cam
Playskool
Price: $49.99
Age: 3 years and up

This static device, placed on or near a TV, captures pre-schoolers' images and beams them to the TV screen. It also plays music from an MP3 or CD player, so little ones can watch themselves sing and dance to 20 classic songs such as "Old McDonald Had a Farm," along with animated characters.

Discovery Kids Smart Animals and Scanopedia
Jakks
Price: $4.99-12.99 for figures; $29.99 for Scanopedia
Age: 3 and up

This award-winning system features lifelike, miniature plastic animals and dinosaurs embedded with barcodes that kids swipe with a scanner, sold separately. When they do, a pre-recorded voice sounds from the scanner, offering facts about the creatures.

Munny
Kid Robot
Price: $9.95 - $29.99 toy figurines; $4.99 crayons
Age: 3 and up

Ultra-hip boutique Kid Robot, known for its stylish Japanese clothing and expensive, one-of-a-kind designer items for adults, developed this toy for kids, a smooth, blank figurine with a round head and limbs. It can be customized by children (and playful adults) with crayons.

Cat in the Hat, I Can Do That!
I Can Do That Games
Price: $19.99
Age: 4-8 years

This game, which features artwork from the classic Dr. Seuss book "Cat in the Hat," requires kids to get active. The game cards ask them to do tasks, like "take four giant steps." The game won a Parents' Choice Gold Award and the National Parenting Center Seal of Approval in 2008.

Hot Wheels Turbo Driver
Mattel
Price: $21.99 for game controller
Age: 5-15 years

To update the classic Hot Wheels toy car franchise for a generation of kids who play video games, Mattel created this game controller that lets them virtually drive vehicles in an online 3D racing game, "Race The World," at HotWheels.com.

Rubik's Revolution
Techno Source
Price: $19.99
Age: 5 and up

Some parents might remember Rubik's Cubes from their own childhoods; today, kids have an updated version of the classic puzzle, which adds flashing lights and sound effects to make game play more complex--including mimicking light patterns, one of the new challenges for players.

Lego City
Lego Systems
Price: $3.99 and up
Age: 5-12 years

This recent addition to the enduring Lego franchise features kits that let boys and girls assemble vehicles and buildings for a miniature city. For less than $4, kids can make a mini fire truck--which comes with a fire chief figure in uniform.
 

Ugly Dolls
Pretty Ugly
Price: $6 for a keychain; $10 for small doll; $20 for a standard (foot-high) size doll
Age: All ages

Ugly Dolls are soft, stuffed creatures with a cult following. Pictured here are the newest characters released in 2008, including a playful dragon and cuddly ghost.

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