12 Hot Toys for the Holidays

With consumers dramatically cutting back on holiday spending, it will be easy to land even the hottest of holiday toys -- and at a discount, too, thanks to endless promotions from anxious retailers.

“There’s a lot of inventory out there, even though retailers have been playing it lean,” says Gerrick Johnson, an equity retail analyst with BMO Capital Markets. Unlike previous years, when finding the season’s must-have toy was akin to a Bigfoot sighting -- T.M.X. Elmo or Nintendo Wii, anyone? -- nearly everything is still available, he says.

One exception to the list: the Bakugan collectible trading card and action figures (see slideshow.) “[They] sell out within hours,” says Johnson.

But Bakugan is only one of a dozen games and toys that hold a coveted slot on Toy Wishes Hot Holiday Dozen. Each year, the toy magazine assesses current trends and reviews thousands of toys to select this year’s most popular picks.

View our slideshow
to see which ones made this year's list --