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Boy holding a drone in one hand and a controller in the other

5 Top Tech Toys for Kids

The Best Toys are Interactive

It's harder than you think to find high-quality tech toys for kids as the market is full of overpriced junk that often breaks soon after purchase. The best tech toys are good quality, inspiring, education and fun all at the same time.

If you're starting to think about Christmas shopping or even want to get a jump on someone's birthday, take a look at this list of top tech toys for 2021.

Owleez

Owleez is an interactive flying pet toy that looks like a baby owl. It's responsive to touch and movement and can be petted, tickled and made to dance. She loves to sing and be rocked to sleep.

Your child can even teach Owleez to take off and fly. Every flight is different and your child can watch her soar, guide her with a hand or comfort her if she crashes. Owleez is safety tested and durable so she won’t break if she crashes.

Owleez has more than 100 sounds and movements and can change her eye color to show her mood. She loves to snack on berries and tells a child she’s hungry with her eye color. When fed berries she responds with happy eating sounds.

Place the owl in her nest to recharge her with a built-in USB cord and your child can keep playing while she charges. She needs to be fully charged to fly and will fly about four or five times before needing to be recharged.

Owleez is suitable for children aged 8 to 10.

View-Master Virtual Reality Starter Pack

This View-Master is a modern, digital take on the original View-Master, offering an immersive, imaginative learning experience like never before. It is suitable for children 6 to 8 years and up.

Designed to work with a smartphone as a screen, this kit can take your child on adventures all around the universe. Download the accompanying app available for both Android and iOS smartphones and slide in the phone. You can use Google cardboard with this device as well as any of your current VR apps.

When a child holds this device up to their eyes, a 3-D augmented reality menu appears —a reel of the available experiences with icons floating above. To select an experience, the child must look at the icon they want and click the View-Master lever.

Once in the experience, they can explore 360-degree environments by turning their head. Clicking on interactive hot spots pulls up images, fun facts, videos and mini-games.

Mattel includes a preview reel the provides demos of the other experience pack. You can buy different reel packs for $15, which cover various augmented reality experiences, including topics like wildlife and space.

KD Interactive Aura Drone with Glove Controller

Drones are immensely popular right now, but the best ones are very expensive and hard to pilot. The Aura Drone is a clever idea because it has a special glove controller that allows kids to fully control the drone using hand commands. This eliminates the frustration of a joystick and makes your child feel like a superhero.

The superhero-inspired glove is red and black and made of stretchable fabric to fit most hand sizes. Flashing LED lights on the glove respond to hand gestures.

With a simple wave of the hand, your child can fly the drone forward, backward, left, right and even change altitude. With a flick of the wrist, it is possible to perform a 360-degree flip. The drone takes off with the push of a button and also hovers and lands automatically.

The built-in height and distance parameters mean that your child can even fly it indoors. It also has safety features, such as a safety frame to protect the drone and prevent harm from the propellers. Imagine the fun kids can have building a drone obstacle course as a challenge for themselves or to race friends.

Wonder Workshop Dash Robot

Your child of 6 or older will enjoy learning and building with Dash, the code-teaching robot. This Wonder Workshop robot comes with five free programming apps. All you need is an Android or Apple smartphone to access the free apps.

Your child can develop critical thinking skills and prepare for middle and high school by learning coding skills while playing. Dash comes fully assembled and ready to go. The Go app teaches your child what Dash can do by exploring lights, sensors, sounds and movements. The Blocky app introduces more advanced concepts of coding with puzzles and playful projects.

Using their own LEGO bricks, children can transform Dash into a delivery truck, a catapult and an animal. Other attachments from Wonder Workshop provide even more fun. Active play lasts for up to five hours. A rechargeable lithium-ion battery gives up to 30 days of standby time. It recharges with an included power adaptor or via USB.

Hatching Toothless Interactive Baby Dragon

Give your child great enjoyment by providing the opportunity to hatch and train Toothless, the baby dragon. When Toothless is agitated, he becomes ready to hatch. He comes alive, even while inside the egg, as the child rocks the egg to make him growl, taps it to hear him tap back and more. As his shell begins to crack, the child can remove pieces that block his way and pull him out of the egg.

The child must establish a rider’s bond with Toothless by placing hands on his head. Now the child is able to teach him how to fly. Toothless roars, moves his ears and flaps his wings as the child helps him soar through the air.

The way to charge his plasma blast is to hold his belly and release it. His mouth starts to glow when he’s ready to blast. He will eat his fish accessory when he is hungry and loves to play games. He roars back if your child roars at him and will answer questions. The dragon is suitable for ages 5 and up. It requires two AA batteries (included) and the dragon goes back into the egg base for a dragon nap at the end of the day.