Best Products' 2023 Toys of the Year: Recognizing Innovation and Creativity in the Toy Industry

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The innovation toy companies showed this year has been nothing short of incredible, making 2023 not only a blockbuster year for toys but also a great time to be a kid. Normally, major toy-of-the-year packages have a ton of overlapping toys, with influential brands like Amazon, Walmart, Toy Association, and Macy’s pretty much saying the same thing – but that doesn't ring true for 2023. In fact, very few toy lists resemble one another, which proves the point that there’s really that much quality to choose from in 2023. Finalizing the winners for Best Products’ Toys of the Year has been a tremendous challenge, but in the end, I can say with full confidence that we *really* found the best of the best toys new to the market this year.

The major 2023 toy themes were almost as unexpected as the amount and quality of the best toys. I think many of us assumed that the magical theme we’d seen in years past with toys like the Magical Mixies Crystal Ball and Little Tikes Magic Workshop might continue to dominate in new arenas, but that wasn’t the case. Instead, robots and dinosaurs ruled this year, along with food toys and artistic, creative toys right behind. And, of course, all things Barbie.

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How We Tested

Over the course of 2023, I received hundreds of toys. I categorized these toys by age and then brought several of these toys to groups of kids in the appropriate age ranges for the toys to see how real kids respond to the toys. Throughout the testing process, it quickly becomes apparent which toys the kids naturally gravitate towards, and those toys are then pitted against one another, similar to tournament brackets.

How We Selected

The last rounds of testing and competition this year felt impossible to determine at times because the candidates were just that good. In these cases, I brought the toys to a fresh group of kids for testing, and most of the time, that was enough to help pick the winner. For me, it felt a bit like I was choosing my fantasy football picks and getting surprised by the tight end I picked out of a hat — that's how unexpectedly blown away I was by some of these toys. Much like last year's STEAM toy of the year, Squaregles, there were a few toys that just came out of left field and delighted.

The Toy of The Year, however, was not one of these. After seeing it long before its release and then at a toy expo where real kids were interacting with it, I had a good feeling it would at least win a category, if not the whole shebang. Simply put, the kids just went wild for it. Even my own 12-year-old refuses to let her younger cousins play with it after getting it safely back from the hoard of children who tested it — call it her "one ring to rule them all," if you will.

The Toy of the Year

When they say that this dog is "one-in-a-million," they mean it. From the second you activate your Dog-E robot dog, it comes to life in a brilliant show of colors, in a combination unique to your pup — all controlled via a well-designed, easy-to-use app.

What exactly does a kid do with a robot dog? Well, it turns out they have a ton of interactive options. The Dog-E plays a variety of games, like tug-of-war, can learn new tricks, like fetch, and has over 200 sound and light options — all of which are as easy to control as a remote-controlled car. But by far, the favorite feature of Dog-E for our testers was the tail. Using innovative persistence of vision (POV) technology, you can transmit messages on the tail. If your kids can spell it, they can emblazon it across Dog-E's tail. (If you have tweens and teens, they will 100% spell out what you're thinking they will.)

The Dog-E isn't a one-and-done toy like other popular toys. This is an interactive delight that kids will get hours of play out of. Plus, its surprising under-$80 price point makes it a steal for the amount of play you get with it. I've never seen another toy quite like the Dog-E, and based on the transparent amazement I saw countless kids have from playing with it, I can guarantee your little one will be just as blown away by it as we are.

Best Playset

There were literally dozens of amazing playsets this year, ranging from Bluey toys to Spiderman to Gabby's Dollhouse. The My Smart House playset won a spot on our list as Best Playset of the Year in a game of inches, but it's incredibly deserving of its title.

If you're between the ages of 35 and 45, you can finish this ditty: "Weebles wobble, but they don't..." (Spoiler alert: Fall down!) I'm happy to report that these delightful little toys are not only are they back, but they're better than ever. The My Smart House playset brings a modernized version of the retro toy you remember, showcasing all the fun your kids can have with its brilliant reinvention. It has everything you'd hope for a Weeble set, like slides and swings, but it adds in the smart element with 30 sounds and songs, a "Facetime" mirror with grandparents, and a more sophisticated level of interactivity overall. Our testers especially loved the "seats shaped just right for their butts," and let's be real, who wouldn't want a seat shaped just right for their butt?

Game of the Year

From the outset, Search Party: Chaos at the Park is a visually arresting game. The pop-up style feels fresh and unique, and kids are naturally drawn to its bright and entertaining layout. Thankfully, our game of the year winner didn't sacrifice exciting gameplay for the sake of aesthetics. Search Party: Chaos at the Park sets players up on missions to find lost items and even people, making for a fast-paced game that's dramatic in all the right ways. (Help! A father lost his daughter, who is wearing a tutu! She disappeared into thin air — can we find her?)

It says that it's for kids 8 and up, but with a little assistance, kids as young as 5 had a great time looking for all of the search-and-find objects with the magnifying glass and helping their older siblings beat their parents.

Doll of the Year

Your future Project Runway winner will be over the moon for the Dream and Design Studio from Rainbow High. It's a wildly enjoyable no-sew extravaganza of a doll set that comes with a sewing machine, an iron, a fashion worktable, a water-reveal sketchbook that brings to life all of Skylar's designs, a functional mannequin, real colorful Rainbow High fabrics, and an exclusive Skyler Bradshaw doll.

If your child is even a tiny bit remotely interested in design or fashion, they will be absolutely gagged by this set. The worktable is adorable and functional, the water-reveal sketchbook gives it the feel of designing, and the draping mannequin? Oh, your kids will "make it work" alright.

Baby Toy of the Year

Even though we're living in a digital world here in 2023, it turns out that not everything needs a digital component. I personally always preferred analog toys for babies, and according to hours and hours of testing, so do they — a point that the Explore Together Blocks from Little Tikes overwhelmingly proves. They're easy-to-build blocks with additional sensory and minor motor manipulation aids on the sides, like rotary dials, doors to open, and a butterfly on a sliding track.

Babies loved these building blocks, whether they were trying to indeed build or just simply gnaw on them. They're part sensory toy and part building toy — a combination that really seems to satisfy both baby and parent. After all, it's nice having something so easy to clean without having to worry about mucking up buildup from a speaker.

Outdoor Toy of the Year

I've played a ton of outdoor games with kids, and I've rarely seen the level of competitiveness that this game created. It's as though your simple bean bag toss had a baby with cornhole, made it taller and a bit harder, and gave it a STEM element.

With the National Geographic Volcano Toss, your children (and you) will be tossing lava-colored bags into the stacked volcano toy, with each section having differing point levels. It's an undeniably simple game, but that's the transparent beauty of it. It looks so much easier than it is, and you can lower or raise the level of difficulty by changing the point from where the bags are thrown.

It's true that kids loved this game, and that's why it won. But I would be remiss if I didn't tell you how much fun adults had while playing it, too. I took it to a brewery, being the basic Brooklyn woman that I am, and I ended up playing with people I'd never even met before. Sure, I got worse after the second beer, but my confidence increased tenfold.

Preschool Toy of the Year

Full disclosure: Goaldozer was a sneaky little toy that I was not expecting to be so popular. Preschool toys were as competitive this year as the playset category, but something about the physical aspect of Goaldozer brought it ahead for the win. It's an indoor, interactive soccer toy that moves around on wheels and pushes the ball at your preschooler, and they return it to him.

When they successfully make a goal, in true soccer announcer fashion, Goaldozer yells out "Goooooooooal!" and has corresponding lights to go with it. It's a toy that tires them out, which I think we can all agree is only a good thing.

STEAM Toy of the Year

Gone are the days of poorly designed chemistry sets and electronic boards — today's STEAM toys get kids into the learning aspect of the toy without even knowing it. This year's winner, the LeapFrog Magic Adventures Telescope, takes the wonder of space and puts it right at your children's fingertips.

It's a real digital telescope with 110x viewing capability, and kids can capture everything they observe. There are also over 100 NASA videos pre-loaded, teaching your kids all about the constellations, the moon, the sun, and our wondrous galaxy at large. The adventure game that's included was also a major hit, according to our happy testers, who especially loved turning on the satellites and learning about all that happens in a spacecraft.

Car Toy of the Year

If you have any doubt about this, go look at how many reviews this toy already has on Amazon and know that it just came out in March. Needless to say, Monster Jam's ThunderROARus Drop is bananas popular already, and for a very good reason. It's a 6-foot-tall truck ramp that attaches to a wall via easy-to-remove Command strips (included) that terminates in the mouth of a dinosaur that launches the included, exclusive-to-the-set Monster Jam monster truck several feet in the air to land on the ramp, which sends the car soaring for a second time.

I can't wait for you to see the intense joy on your kids' faces when they get this car toy set up and running. The cars really fly off this track, and kids have the ability to manipulate where the trucks and cars land by maneuvering the head of the dinosaur. ThunderROARus Drop packs a room full of action in a slim but tall toy. Our testers were beyond thrilled that the sample of the toy I received got to stay in the playroom of their program, and so were the teachers.

Building Toy of the Year

I barely had this LEGO set unboxed before the LEGO fans descended upon me like a murder of hungry crows. LEGO sets are rarely a miss for this group, but the way they went after this particular set was a bit shocking, even for them.

Coming in at 1257 pieces, this is by no means a mega set. It's a great "afternoon build" for LEGO enthusiasts ages 10 and up or a set that can be built over a few days for the 8 and up LEGO newbies. The Fantastical Tree House is a funny, funky build with a ton of magical elements and hilarious minifigs. (Just take a look at Grandma!) The hanging pieces and swing are oddly not the trickiest parts of the build, but they do make the whole thing look like a master LEGO artist put it together, which was immediately noticed by our tween builders.

Interactive Toy of the Year

Moose Toys does it again by creating the ultimate "surprise" style toy of the year, a new category of toys we've been seeing take off in the past few years. The Beast Lab is on the same reveal vein as the Magical Mixies Crystal Ball and Cauldron but with an action figure angle. Pour in the contents of the magical, beast-building goo, and watch as it bubbles up, changing colors of the transformation space to reveal the beast within.

Just wait, though, your hammerhead shark or megashark beast is about to go into beast mode, and the only thing that will chill him out is being placed back where he needs to be. While the lava bubbles are only good for a couple of reveals, the color change and beast mode presentation can be done over and over again.

I tested this toy with a group of boys in an explorer group, and they could not believe their luck — a surprise toy that's also a magical toy that's also an action figure that interacts? What sorcery is this? The 80+ sounds and lights didn't hurt either.

Playhouse of the Year

Was there any doubt what toy would win the Playhouse of the Year for 2023? It is the year of Barbie, after all. Everyone has seen it, most adored it, and kids can't get enough of it. The DreamHouse for 2023 mimics that of the Barbie movie, which every little girl told me about immediately upon seeing it.

Not only is the Barbie DreamHouse stunning, but it's also enormous. It's three stories with the biggest slide and pool that any DreamHouse has ever had, with a whopping 75 pieces, a puppy elevator, and pet play areas. The designers thought of everything and even included cups to enjoy drinks by the pool. Because who knows? You may invite the Supreme Court over for bevvies after a long day of not repressing women!

Food Toy of the Year

Food toys were all the rage this year, even more so than in previous years. They're always popular pretend play toys, but this year, they were something special. The LeapFrog Build-a-Slice Pizza Cart combines everything kids love about play kitchens and play grocery stores and makes it better by incorporating pizza. It has a STEAM element with shapes and the oven, math with the currency, and overall fun with the slices.

Let your kids' imaginations run amuck with all of the toppings, the parmesan shaker, and the very cute and realistic pizza box. Who knows, maybe it will translate to your children wanting something other than a plain cheese pizza.

Pretend Play Toy of the Year

Admittedly, it is a bit disconcerting to see children ripping arms and legs off of dolls to attach to other dolls, but it's not surprising if you consider Weird Barbie. Thankfully, the Playmobil My Figures Pirate's Island is made specifically to be interchangeable, body parts and all. Kids can make their pirates look myriad different ways thanks to the detachable heads, bodies, arms, legs, and accessories.

It leans into children's desires to see the world how they want to, envisioning themselves and their friends in the place of the dolls. And sure, maybe they're seeing themselves as lawless pirates that have just hopped ashore and taken over a castle, but how different is that from what they did to your house, right, matey? (Though it's harder for them to escape you than it is to escape the castle, thanks to the included rowboat.)

Robot Toy of the Year

This toy definitely skews younger, but the 5-7-year-olds were big, big fans of this robot vending machine. It's a building toy, a robot toy, and, obviously, a vending machine. Here's where the kids loved it: they took out all of the alien parts that came with it and filled the balls with candy and prizes. Sure, it's not designed to be overwhelming, but it teaches children the basic mechanics of the structure and allows them to use their own imaginations to bring it to life in a way that's meaningful to them. It's a super easy build, and little ones feel a huge sense of accomplishment when they can complete it and make it work.

Swing Set of the Year

Backyard Discovery makes the kinds of jungle gyms and swing sets every kid longs for in the deepest dreams. The Sterling Point set is one beautiful example of this and was by far our favorite swing set in 2023. It has a 10-foot-long slide, a playhouse area, multiple swings, a ring swing, and an open play area beneath the playhouse that can be used for a sandbox or even a nice place to have a shady snack.

It's made of cedar, and yes, when the sun hits it, it smells like a dreamy cedar closet. That cedar also makes it a force to be reckoned with that will age beautifully, gaining a patina over the years that will only make it more beautiful. Our testers live on their Sterling Point swing set, no matter the weather. (I saw them on it in the rain, the cold, the scorching heat.) The assembly is as you would expect, but there are people all over the country who put these together regularly and do so for an affordable price.

The rug in the lead image is the Whimsy rug from Rugs.com

The table and chairs is the MySize table and chairs from Delta Children.

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