Toy and game companies asked to name their own holiday drivers for retailers this season submitted a lineup running from a $29.99 squeezable plush to a $279.99 wooden space railway. The picks come from the manufacturers themselves rather than a sales ranking, and they cluster around familiar franchises, open-ended building, sensory and social play, and a growing share of connected, app-assisted products.
Franchise-driven play
Licensed characters anchor much of the list. The Pokémon Co. International marks 30 years of the brand with an Elite Trainer Box at $49.99 for ages 6 and up, introducing a Futuristic Rare card rarity, all-foil cards and the return of 30 classic Pokémon. Tonies adapts the same characters for audio: its $199.99 Toniebox 2 set, for ages 5 and up, bundles four figures — Pikachu, Squirtle, Charmander and Bulbasaur — that play themed stories and songs when placed on the screen-free player. Jazwares offers a $79.99 interactive Pikachu with more than 100 action and sound combinations, touch sensors, blinking eyes and mouth movement; the toy was created by Wow! Stuff.
Bluey appears in two submissions. The LEGO Group's 106-piece set, $24.99, pairs Bluey and Rusty mini-figures with a school scene containing a mini kitchen, café, hospital and baby-care area. A separate five-story playhome stands 2 feet tall, sells for $149.99, gives each room themed accessories and projects spinning stars and moons from its chimney. Playmates Toys' $37.99 Mega Thunderzord answers a chest button with more than 15 phrases and sounds while its eyes light up, and Jakks Pacific's $19.99 Donkey Kong playset sends 2.5-inch Donkey and Diddy Kong figures along rails and vines.
Building, vehicles and modularity
Construction and vehicle sets lean toward expansion and portability. BRIO's 56-piece Space Deluxe set, $279.99, extends its wooden railway into a multilevel layout with tunnels, a space station, a rover and a shuttle with lights and sounds; astronaut figures wear magnetic suits that connect to a tether inside the shuttle. CONNETIX packs 32 compact magnetic pieces, two sheets of reusable stickers and a carry tin into a $25 travel set, and Magna-Tiles' lighthouse kit supplies a Lighthouse Rescuer figure, a sea turtle, a rescue raft and shoreline pieces for building docks, waves and towers.
Mattel's $214.99 dollhouse, for ages 3 and up, offers nine indoor and outdoor play areas, two pools, two slides and more than 65 accessories, with a modular design that joins two structures into one large house or links them with a bridge. Melissa & Doug's modular room pieces run $9.99 to $34.99 for ages 0 to 2. Fat Brain Toys' $129.95 tube-building set uses adjustable airflow to send foam balls racing and hovering, and Hasbro's $54.99 11-inch action figure converts to a car in four steps.
Sensory, plush and social play
Sensory and social items carry lower price points. Goliath's Chester, $29.99 for ages 8 and up and running on three AAA batteries, wiggles and emits comedic sounds when squeezed, and dances when its head is pressed. Just Play's 18-inch Tiggle Me Elmo Giggle Max, $39.97 for 18 months and up, combines laughter with full-body movement. ZURU's walking Mommy Elephant reveals two to four baby elephants that hook to her tail as a train, and Moose Toys' $32.99 unboxing kit mixes five slimes with more than 50 mix-ins.
Horizon Group USA sells slow-flow glitter gel stress toys, $4.99 to $8.99, under licenses including Squishmallows, Hello Kitty, SpongeBob SquarePants, Minecraft, Hershey's and Bluey, and Yoonique's 4-inch farm plushes, $4.99 each, wrap a squeezable rubber core in fabric.
Tech-assisted and collectible picks
Several picks add a digital layer. Hapiko's voice-powered sticker maker uses AI to generate and print sticker combinations, with built-in filters and a design intended so the device is not always listening. Cra-Z-Art's instant-print camera produces black-and-white photos in seconds and ships with markers and stickers for decorating them. Golden Bear's $99.99 Strikesphere basketball trainer guides drills through light cues across three game modes and tracks high scores on an LCD board, while Fizz Creations' keyring arcades, $16.99 to $39.99, carry PAC-MAN and Tetris.
Collectibles round out the list: Super Impulse's Drip Drops mini sneakers, 16 styles in Series 1 spanning Hot Wheels, Godzilla and Smiley designs, arrive in a display shoebox with real laces, a case and a keychain; MGA Entertainment's $11.99 mini dolls, for ages 4 and up, cover eight music genres inside pink disco balls topped with a spinning record player; and TOMY International's woodland-themed blind boxes, $18.99 to $24.99 each, pair collectible figures with uplifting messages.