As Christmas 2010 quickly approaches, the search for the hottest kids toys begins. You may already know what toys your child wants, but in many cases people are still researching the best toys for 2010.

Each year the Toy Of The Year (TOTY) Awards are held and awards are given to the top toys in a range of categories. The main categories include best overall toy, infant, preschool, innovative, girls, boys, games, outdoor, educational, activity, speciality, electronic and property of the year.

Best Kids Toy 2010 – Zhu Zhu Pets

A wide range of categories are included, with the winning entrant and nominations for each category. The highlight of this event is the best toy award, which was awarded to Zhu Zhu Pets from Cepia.

There is a wide range of Zhu Zhu Pet characters, with an increasing number of addons available, making these pet toy hamsters a huge hit with kids all over the world. Zhu Zhu Pet’s were a huge hit in 2009, and the range of these toys has increased for xmas 2010.

The Best Toy of The Year is just one category with many other popular toys featuring in specific toy categories. The main toy categories, winners and nominations for 2010 include:

Infant Toys of the Year

Infant Toys are suitable for children aged 0 to 2 years old. This years best infant toy was Beginnings Color Me A Song from Crayola. Other nominations in the infant toys category included Gentle Giraffe by Cloud B, My Pal Scout and My Pal Violet by LeapFrog, Yookidoo Crawl N’ Go Snail by International Playthings Fisher Price Laugh & Learn™ Learning Farm, Twilight Turtle from Cloud B and The Goldberger Company’s Seedlings™ Ivy

Preschool Toys of the Year

These are toys suitable for preschool children between the ages of 3 and 5 years old. Tonka Chuck and Friends Chuck My Talking Truck from Playskool was the Winner of the Preschool Toy of the year. Other contenders for this award were Disney and Fisher Price’s Handy Manny’s Repair Shop, Bilibo from Active People, Mattel’sMatchbox® Rocky the Robot Truck™, Cozy Coupe (30th Anniversary Edition) from Little Tikes and Imaginext Dragon World Fortress by Fisher-Price

Innovative Toys of the Year

This years winner of the most innovative toy of the year 2010 was Zhu Zhu Pets from Cepia, which also won the overall toy of the year. Other notable innovative toys nominated included EyeClops Mini Projector by JAKKS Pacific,  Mindflex™ from Mattel, Techno Sources Printies™ Design Studio, Air Hogs Switchblade and Laser Zero Gravity, both from Spin Master.

Girls Toys of the Year

Best Girl toys awards are always competitive and this years winner was Harumika from Bandai America. The other contenders included Zhu Zhu Pets by Cepia,  LIV™ Dolls from Spin Master Moxie Girlz™ Art-titude Doll and BFC, Ink 18-inch doll both from MGA and Barbie Fashionistas™
and Disney Princess Tiana from Mattel

Boys Toys of the Year

Top Toys for boys is another competitive category with Spin Master’s Bakugan 7-in-1 Maxus Dragonoid recieving this award. Competition for this award included Matchbox® Rocky the Robot Truck™ by Mattel, Laser Zero Gravity from Spin Master, Transformers – Revenge of the Fallen Constructicon Devastator (Hasbro) and EyeClops Night Vision 2.0 from JAKKS Pacific.

Games of the Year

TOTY’s Games of the Year category includes card games, board games and electronic games with early childhood rating. Sort it Out!™ by University Games was this years top game followed by Hasbro Games BOP-IT! and Scrabble Slam Card Game, Bakugan Trap from Spin Master and Mindflex™ and UNO® Moo!™ both from Mattel.

Outdoor Toys of the Year

My 1st Scooter from Radio Flyer was the Winner of Outdoor toy of the year 2010. The other popular outdoor toys were Swinxs, EA Sports Voice Command Pitching Machine, Smart Trike Deluxe from Smart Trike, Spin Master’s Air Hogs Switchblade and Razor® Spark™ Kick scooter and Razor® RipRider™ 360 from Razor®

Educational and Learning Toys of the Year

Educational and learning toys are one of the most important categories of toys and this years winner was LEGO Systems Mindstorms NXT 2.0. The other top contenders were Desert Biodome by DuneCraft, SmartGlobe 3 by Oregon Scientific, Leapfrog Tag Junior Book Pal and Zippity, Super Why Touch n’ Learn Super Duper Computer from Learning Curve Brands and Elmer’s Products Mythbusters Weird Water World.

Activity Toys of the Year

The activity toy of the year award, awards those toys that help develop childrens creativity and imagination. Crayon products have always been one of the most popular range of creative toys, and Crayon Town was announced as Winner of Activity toy of the year 2010. Others to feature included TRIO™ by Fisher-Price, JAKKS Pacific Girl Gourmet Sweets Candy Jewel Factory, Harumika, Spin Masters ChixOs Design-A Luxury Loft and Musicolor from Delta Creative.

Electronic Toys of the Year

This is another very competitive category, and includes toys from many of the worlds top toy suppliers. Rubik’s® TouchCube™ from Techno Source is this years winner followed by Swinxs, BOP-IT from Hasbro, Mindflex™ from Mattel and JAKKS Pacific EyeClops Mini Projector.

Specialty Toys of the Year

Sprig Toys Sprig Adventure Series Captain Owens Dolphin Explorer Boat was 2010′s Winner of the Speciality toy of the year. The other nominations for this category were HexBug Micro Robotic Creatures from Innovation First International, Dangerous Book for Boys Classic Chemistry from Thames and Kosmos, Shopping Cart from Melissa and Doug, EcoAquarium from Wild Creations, Cloud B Twilight Turtle and Pentago.

Property of the Year

This category awards the top brand available and Bakugan became the 2010 Winner. The other contenders are all household names and include Transformers, Lego, Barbie from Mattel, iCarly from Nickelodeon and Viacom Consumer Products, The Princess and The Frog from Walt Disney Company and Star Wars from LucasFilm.