Here are some items - a dollhouse, a play mat, an unusual building set, three feeding lines, and a plastic package - we noticed at the 2009 ABC Kids' Expo, the annual baby/kids' product exhibition we attended last week in Las Vegas. We'll be reviewing the feeding items below when they're available, but the other items here won't be reviewed on Z Recommends simply because of their price-to-testability ratio. Events like ABC can allow us the in-person viewing and limited hands-on use necessary to favorably promote some high-priced items we'd otherwise feel obligated to request a sample of before recommending.

Hape's Bamboo Sunshine Dollhouse got our attention with its novelty iPod Touch dock - look, a solar-powered video player so your kids' dolls can be couch potatoes! - but kept it with the bamboo construction and furniture design. This dollhouse has been available in a non-iPod version for almost a year and the solar panel typically powers lights throughout the house. Here's a slideshow that shows off some of this dollhouse's nice lines and thoughtful furniture:



The $500 price tag makes us sad, but in this case, it's hard to argue with.

We loved these shapeshifting, tesselated play mats made of EVA foam. One made of flowers can be used to make a table that can be inset into the mat, and another transforms from an animal-themed play mat into a rocking horse, with bonus chicken and turtle figures for head-scratching variety. Here's a slideshow of some photos we took:



The mats have been garnering blog mentions over the past year, but this show appears to mark their introduction to U.S. markets. Depending on how successful this importer was in getting orders at the show, you may see them showing up at your local brick-and-mortar toy retailer soon - or online - for about $130 a set.

Here's a short video we shot that shows how the pieces work:


We saw several new feeding items we will be reviewing soon. This slideshow shows just a sampling of them.



Items pictured in the slide show above are, in order of appearance:

• Dr. Brown's new sippy cup that is so different from its Big-Gulp-like Training Cup it retains the name only because the former model has been summarily retired. Look for it in the next few months. (The Dr. Brown's rep also told us they had now officially retired their polycarbonate bottles.)


• Kid Basix's new stainless steel bottles, which feature a silicone sleeve and a nice solution to the problem of an opaque feeding bottle: Formula-mixing measurements on the cap.


• A new-to-the-U.S. feeding line from Beaba (maker of the Babycook baby food maker) that includes utensils, plates, bowls, cups, and a feeding set we're especially interested in. We're looking forward to reviewing that stuff as soon as it comes in, for reasons we'll explain when we get a chance to use and evaluate it.


• Environmentally-friendlier packaging: The My Plate-Mate now sports PET bagging (rather than PVC) and minimal cardboard compared to the box-and-window style of most feeding gear. We saw a lot of greened-up packaging at this year's expo, and more companies than we could count making explicit note of it in their product pitches, which means consumer demands are being heard. We like how My Plate-Mate managed to improve their packaging footprint while still offering an eye-catching and attractive design to help sell their product.


• New stainless steel baby bottles from Klean Kanteen, as well as a very long awaited one-piece sippy lid (they've been using Avent lids for years now). Can't wait to try these out - although they won't be available for a few months.

Last but not least, Sprig Toys had several new items we'll be reviewing and talking soon, including this interesting building set that combines cardboard and Sprigwood (recycled plastic and sawdust) for a lean, lightweight building set.


The teasers above are just a fraction of the great products we discovered at the ABC Kids' Expo this year. There are far more we're saving as surprises for readers after we receive samples and test products in our home. If you like the service we're providing, please make sure to subscribe to our blog feed via email or RSS and consider doing some of your Amazon shopping through ZRecs links!