Disney AppMATes (my son's favorite Christmas gift)

This year's biggest hit seems to be the Disney Cars 2 AppMATes app & toy cars for the iPad. From what I saw in Toys R' Us, they sell sets with Lighting McQueen and Holley Shiftwell, Tow Mater and Finn McMissile, and Lightning McQueen individually. I got the set with Lightning and Holley right before Christmas for $19.99 and download the accompanying free app after my son opened up his gift. Let me just say that he absolutely LOVES it. He loves it so much that I can just threaten to give it back to Santa to get him to do what I want. (Just kidding! Well, sort of ...)

It's been over a week since Christmas and my son has gotten to try pretty much most of his presents. Thankfully, most have been hits with very few misses this year; it  sucks when you get them something and turns out they don't really care for it—what a waste of money, right?


In a nutshell, the child can use the toy cars to interact with the app. They place and move the toy cars on the surface of the iPad and "drive" around Radiator Springs, compete in races, and play various mini games. While the screen of my iPad is dirtier by the end of the day, I haven't noticed any damage caused by the toy cars. (Although I've had to occasionally warn my son to be more gentle, as he sometimes gets too excited and taps on the screen a tad too hard for my liking.)

So as a fairly tech-savvy adult, I find the whole idea fascinating—why didn't anyone think of this sooner?! But to a fairly tech-savvy four-year-old who loves all things Cars? It pretty much blew his mind and would probably spend all day playing if we let him.

You can download the app to try it out before buying the toy cars—it comes with built-in "paper" cars that the child can play around with. While my son did try these out, the experience of using a physical toy with the iPad is what he has really enjoyed.

Pros: Fun, innovative, has plenty of different mini games to play, free app.

Cons: The toy cars cost $15-$20, and they sometimes have trouble being recognized on the iPad.