• The Toy Fair isn't for kids. The show's held yearly at the Javits Center, Manhattan's main convention facility (a.k.a. massive gray box), and it's full of serious adults in business suits with corporate accounts. It's not supposed to be fun. We'll see about that!

• Toy Fair badges are only available for pros, so my boyfriend's mom generously registered me and my friend Tim as employees of her chia seed company. My badge says "CHIA POWER/Assistant Buyer." We'll avoid walking by chia products for fear of having to hold our own in a chia conversation.

The skinning and scalping of toys continues. Who will feel the blade next?

(Buenos Aires-born artist/toyhunter Agustina Woodgate now lives in Miami, where she also makes beautiful billboards.)

Dolls we couldn't find on Paper Doll Heaven:

Paul Rudd Drake Josh Groban Jason Momoa Ryan Gosling Tony Hawk Wiz Khalifa Jon Hamm

Stimulates without overstimulating.

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Click on a game or toy to see its context.

Mattel, the world's biggest toymaker, today will announce plans to wed the worlds of online and offline doll play by rolling out an extensive line of "Stardoll by Barbie" fashion dolls. The dolls are mini-fashionistas right down to their eyelashes, which aren't painted on but are rooted and protrude like those on more expensive dolls.

Rooting and protruding: Meet Barbie's trendy new friend the Stardoll, who until now existed exclusively online in her amazing kingdom of virtual paper doll-ery. As of this holiday season, however, Stardoll is available in the hard plastic flesh for $20 and in eight varieties — among them Fallen Angel, Bonjour Bizou, and Doll [...]

This isn't technically new, but it'll be the B-side for Bon Iver's second single (the A-side being "Holocene"), and hopefully you'll enjoy. Unrelated, but outside just now a little boy was playing with a paper towel roll on a string.

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Oh my goodness!

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"The child got into the machine as we walked past, and I said 'you have no chance of getting her out' so I started filming to see what was going on. I didn't see the child get out as I had to go back to work." —Kids climbing inside crane games is totally normal now. Did it ever occur to you when you were little?

When buying a gift for your niece or nephew, you need to follow a few important guidelines. Clothes (too useful), video games (too boring for you), and any living creature (no explanation needed) are out. Also, try to steer clear of anything that is collectable, such as Yu-Gi-Oh!, Webkinz, or — heaven forbid — anything to do with Magic the Gathering, as these kind of things are simply too cruel to all parties involved. To get the maximum enjoyment, and thus the greatest return on your investment, you will need to think strategically and identify something that walks that thin line between being totally fun for kids and completely aggravating [...]