Among the other hits this year: a doctor kit, a Craftsman light-up drill, a Thomas VTech phone, an inflatable Fantastic Four spaceship/plug-and-play video game, and a Power Ranger suit...

We had to get the suit on almost immediately. Here's the final awesome:

Being a DC Fanboy, I was most excited about the My First Batmobile...

It's very very cool. It launches a net, has plenty of lights, and sort-of turns into a jet. When you use the deluxe DC figures with it, their special hands (magnets? sensors? magic?) make it so the figures themselves turn the car's lights and sounds on by themselves. The light-up rumbly engine is especially slick.

Can you believe they put that right on the box? "Helps promote social skills"?

Here's Batman and Green Lantern enjoying a spin...

Oh, and out of the three deluxe "Connect-n-Go" figures, the Green Lantern one is the hardest to find at retail. Short-packed, I'm sure. GL probably has the coolest feature too, he comes with a green scooter (a ring construct!) that motors along smooth floors when activated. Batman (in a variant black suit) comes with a sweet batwing helicopter. Superman comes with a crane, ostensibly for picking up kryptonite rocks, but the set comes with no such rock. Clark seems to actually like the crane best, for unfathomable non-continuity kid reasons.

Later, we had to make a garage big enough to hold the Batmobile (the damn thing is wider than Clark's entire torso).

This line of toys is so freakin' great. We had that Batmobile all over the house today. They really need to do a Wonder Woman, a Robin, a Martian Manhunter, Mr. Terrific, Guy Gardner, and a two-pack of Blue Beetle and Booster Gold. Also Jonah Hex.