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LeapFrog Tag Reading System is All-Time Favorite Educational Toy

Written on Nov 11, 2008 by Brian and filed under LeapFrog, News

According to a survey released today by eBay, LeapFrog’s Tag Reading System is the best educational toy ever. Don’t get us wrong, we really like the Tag Reader, it earned an Editor’s Choice award from our site, but best educational toy ever? We’d have to maintain historical perspective and give the nod to number two on the list, Texas Instrument’s Speak & Spell.

The Tag reader is great, it scans pages to help kids read and plays games with them to get kids excited about reading. But it’s 2008 now and while the Tag is a very nice piece of hardware, go back in your memory 30 years to 1978 when Speak & Spell hit the market. 

Speak & Spell was full of new and emerging technology, like the voice synthesizer chip and the vacuum florescent display, an expensive precursor to LCD displays. And who can forget the Hollywood performance that made Speak & Spell famous? E.T. was great not only for Reese’s Pieces, but for Texas Instruments as well. Speak & Spell is historic, in 30 years I doubt we’ll look back and say the same thing about Tag. Again, we love Tag, but when talking about the best educational toy ever, it’s important to have perspective.

Here are the other best-ever toys from the survey:

Video Game Systems: Although the Wii is tiny, it packs a lot of punch. The console is tied with PlayStation. Other popular systems were Nintendo NES and Atari.
Action Figures: Even without super powers G.I. Joe tramples his competition. Superman’s super powers only launched him into second place.
Fictional Toy Character: Christopher Robin is not the only one who treasures Winnie the Pooh — Pooh Bear was the front runner in the fictional character category. Curious George, the mischievous monkey, was the next most popular protagonist.
Classic Games: Even though there’s a king on board in a game of chess, checkers reigned supreme beating out chess as the cherished classic game.
Board Games: Monopoly’s Park Place was a favorite place to play, but more female respondents preferred to take their chance on Scrabble. These popular games that always attract new generations of players are available on eBay.
Educational Toys: Love to learn? LeapFrog Tag Reading System is the top educational toy, followed by Speak & Spell.
Dolls: Note to self, steer clear of life-like dolls when purchasing gifts this year. Our survey respondents ranked Betsy Wetsy as one of their least favorite dolls only giving her two percent of their votes.
Classic Toys: Fifty years after the toy was invented, Etch A Sketch is still going strong. Do people love playing with Etch A Sketch? You betcha!
Building Blocks: Half the respondents chose Legos as their favorite building blocks; clearly, they are still a favorite of today’s kids.
Stuffed Animal: Everyone loves to cozy up with something soft — and with whom do we most like to snuggle? Beanie Babies and Care Bears are the favorite creatures to cuddle.

Related News:

LeapFrog Tag Reading System Review



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