The Hottest Toys for 2011/2012 for Boys and Girls

Within this age range, children tend to like a lot of cutesy things. One of those items are Pillow Pets (Ontel Products Corp). They are foldable creatures combine with a pillow's functionality with a toy's comfort. It converts from pillow to plush and back again. Choose from a Lady Bug, a Dog, a Unicorn or a Bumblebee. There are no batteries requires for this toy.

Sing A Ma Jigs (Fisher Price) are these quirky looking creatures that will sing their way into the hearts of children. They can either sing a song by themselves or your child can harmonize with them together. You would need two AAA batteries for them to work, which is included in the toy already.

If your child loves food-themed toys, then Squinkies Cupcake Surprize Bake Shop (Blip Toys) is perfect for them. They can take home the excitement of a coin-operated vending machine as the toy cupcake opens up to reveal Squinkies bakery. You can choose from over hundreds of collectible Squinkies but are sold separately and no batteries are required for this toy.

For a girl age 4 and up, there's Calico Critters Luxury Townhouse (International Playthings). This 12 x 12 four room townhouse comes complete with a balcony, patio, customized decor pieces and the best part is that it's all fully assembled. For this toy, two AA batteries are required and is sold separately.

New from the Disney Pixar Toy Story 3 franchise is the Imaginext Tri-Country Landfill (Fisher Price). Set up as the final scenes from the movie Toy Story 3, your kids can relive the action with this playset which includes the following Disney toys 2" - scale Buzz Lightyear, Lots-O'-Huggin' Bear and 3 green aAlien figures. Of course, no batteries are required for this toy.

The toy company Tomy is back with their Tomica Hypercity Mega Station Set . This huge set has model trains that stop automatically a at train station while traffic yields. Hypercity also comes complete with roads, trees, lamposts and a convenience store with a Tomikid figure. This set would need four C batteries (sold seperately) to get the full experience of it all.

Not afraid of Bigfoot? Then check out Imaginext Bigfoot the Monster . It's remote control is shaped like a foot and you can make him do things like stomp around, do somersaults, takes naps, talks and throw tantrums. The great thing about it is that this is for ages 3 and up and that there are pictures on the remote control for kids who are too young to read.

These hot toys are sure to make a child in this age range very happy. Loopz (Mattel) is an electronic memory game similar to the Simon game that challenges players to interact with semi-circle rings and it's internal computer tracks a player's progress. 4 AA batteries are required, but are not included.

New to the Leapster family comes the Leapster Explorer (LeapFrog). Similar to the original and Leapster 2, the Explorer is a cartridge based learning system featuring a touchscreen and stylus control. It supports a large library of games and also has the ability to download activities from it's website. Both games and the 4 AA batteries that it needs to function are sold separately.

You ain't seen Radio Controlled cars until you've seen the huge Fast Lane Wild Fire RC (Toys R Us). This RC car measures at 1 foot wide and is 2 feet tall. It also features 4-wheel drive and has 9' tires. Combining the size and the realism of the engine noise makes it the one of the largest and realest RC's ever. One 9.6V battery and 1.9V battery is included.

For the girls, there's Disney Princess & Me dolls (JAKKS Pacific). Enjoy a fantasy world of tea parties, ballroom dancing and more with these beautiful crafter 18 inch dolls. Each doll has wearable replicas of Ariel, Aurora, Belle, Cinderella or Tiana doll, but are sold separately. No batteries are required for these dolls.

New from Mattel is Monster High Cleo DeNile and Deuce Gordon doll set. Cleo and Deuce are teenage children of monsters. This 2 pack doll set includes pets and accessories and does not need any batteries for them to work.

For the older children, there is the Nerf N-Strike Stampede ECS (Hasbro). It launches a continuous stream of foam darts up to 25 feet. It features 3 interchangeable 18 dart clips and a detachable blast shield to block an enemy's fire. For this huge piece of toy, you would need 6 D batteries which are sold separately.

Minotaurus (Lego) is a board game that was constructed entirely out of LEGO bricks. Players must navigate a maze and avoid a Minotaur. This features over hundreds of LEGO bricks and 12 microfigures. Also, no batteries are needed.

Finally we have Cuponk (Hasbro Games) which is a cup and a plastic ball, but with an exciting twist. It's a game where you have to shoot for the cup and master off the wall tricks by bouncing balls off the walls, chairs, stairs and more. Themed cups light up and make sounds everytime you make a shot. For this, 3 AAA batteries are needed for the sound to go off and is sold separately.