As we head deeper into the holiday season, parents and others with youngsters on their shopping lists are challenged to find the best toys of the year. Retail giants have compiled their lists, including the “Hot Toy” list for the 2013 Holiday Season from Toys R Us and the “Best Toys of the Season” from Barnes and Noble.

Unsurprisingly, tech and electronic toys dominate the wish lists of many kids we know. About two-thirds of the toys on the Toys R Us list rely on supplemental power, requiring an electrical outlet or batteries. A popular playset this year, the Fisher-Price Imaginext Batcave, is also app-enabled, and features digital content like games, videos, and commercials when scanned with an iOS device. Such tech integration is increasingly common, however, both the toy’s advertising copy (which only mentions the app peripherally), and lukewarm user responses to the app suggest that the technology here is more an afterthought than an integral component to play, raising broader questions about toys that include technology for its own sake rather than purposefully incorporating it into the product’s design. Some user reviews lament that the app redirects children’s play to and through a screen, substituting children’s imaginations with computer visualization. Tablets are hot items, too–in fact, PBS noted that parents planned to purchase more tablets than traditional game consoles this year. The most popular kids’ tablets range in price from $99 (Vtech InnoTab 3S with a 5” screen) to $229 (Kurio 3S with a 10” screen). Why purchase a children’s tablet instead of an adult tablet dedicated to children’s use? As speed and performance have improved in the latest generation of kids’ tablets, making them viable competitors on the market. Kids’ tablets feature built-in security functions for web browsing and content control, and while devices designed for adults are customizable with such features, parental control is at the heart of the models made for young users. Kids’ tablets come preloaded with apps and often feature libraries and web stores of pre-curated content. Apple’s Kids’ app store, launched this fall alongside the release of iOS 7, similarly helps transform the iPad into a kid-friendly device. The Kurio enables families to set up eight separate user profiles and to assign blocks of time for particular users, while the InnoTab 3S offers a “wish list” feature so children can earmark desired apps for parental review. A third main concern is durability, addressed by the rubber bumpers protecting these devices. In addition to the fun and educational content pre-loaded onto each device, it is also worth considering how these tablets initiate children to particular interfaces and software platforms. Some, like the LeapPad Ultra and Vtech InnoTab run on proprietary operating systems, but others run on Android 4.2 Jellybean, potentially priming them to work with tablets running Android in the future. Tablets for kids are also geared toward a variety of age ranges, from the Innotab 3S for ages 3-9 and the LeapPad Ultra, for 4-9 year olds, to the Tabeo e2 (5 years and up) and Kurio (which boasts the broadest range at 3 and up). While those designed for younger children may not “grow” with them as readily, it is difficult to assess whether those for older children or a greater range of ages will keep better pace, given the rapidity with which both hardware and software obsolesce in an increasingly competitive market. Of course, many kids still want to play console games, especially Skylanders (with its new line of SWAP Force figures) and Disney Infinity, a strong Skylanders contender released this August – both are available on a number of systems, including Xbox, PlayStation, and Wii. In both titles, the player places a character figure on a portal connected to the console, thereby “transporting” the character into the game as an avatar. Character figures (sold separately and in prepackaged bundles) store the avatar’s particular abilities and behavior, as well as save the player’s progress within the game. In one play mode, Disney Infinity enables players to combine characters from the worlds of different films, (for example, characters from The Incredibles and Pirates of the Caribbean) may team up for adventures and work collaboratively to create new levels. Similarly, the new Skylanders SWAP Force figures offer seemingly endless possibilities. Players are able to mix and match the top and bottom halves of the figures, creating hybrid creatures and combining characters’ unique abilities in innovative ways to aid players. In addition to tablets, consoles, and video games, marketers are touting toys from more traditional categories (plush, construction sets, ride-on toys, games), many of which are, in their contemporary iterations, now battery-operated, such as the Imaginarium Mountain Rock Train Table ($129.99) and My Little Pony Princess Twilight Sparkle ($49.99). On the Toys R Us list, two of the toys hug, one flies, and nearly one-third talk or sing (not counting the tablets or video games). Two simulate flatulence, though their farting features are designed to elicit different reactions: the You and Me Tub and Toot doll, marketed to girls, produces “an unexpected surprise” when the doll’s arm is raised, while the Ugglys Pug Electronic Pet, geared toward boys, “makes over 30 disgusting sounds, including burps and farts.” Other popular electronic pets this year include Spin Master’s Zoom Pets Zoomer Dalmatian, which kids can train and take care of, and the Aquabot from Hexbugs, a fish that swims. Toys that plug in and power up are nothing new (before batteries, mechanical toys wound up), and it’s possible to find playthings without such features. Nevertheless, I’d argue that we should think about new ways in which traditional and tech-driven playthings are merging, bringing the physical and the digital together. It will be interesting to see which toys on these lists become top-sellers, enduring playthings, and short-term trends. Meredith A. Bak is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Film and Media Studies at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, PA. Her research interests include media archaeology and the intersection of “old” and “new” media, particularly in relation to children’s media and material culture. Her current project focuses on how pre-cinematic visual media like early pop-up books and optical illusion toys helped cultivate children as media spectators near the turn of the twentieth century. A second project on augmented reality toys in development. Before completing her PhD, Meredith worked in museum education at the Museum of the Moving Image in New York, and as a teaching artist in public schools for the Urban Arts Partnership, instructing in the areas of animation, video production, and game design. Twitter: @meredith_bak