VTech® Wins Nine Prestigious National Parenting Publications Awards

Gold Award Winners Include Highly Innovative New Flipsies™ and Go! Go! Smart Animals® Playsets

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Aug 14, 2015, 09:33 ET

CHICAGO, Aug. 14, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Today VTech® announced nine products received recognition from the celebrated National Parenting Publications Awards (NAPPA) for the most innovative and creative products of the year. Kicking off the holiday awards season, Flipsies™ Sandy's House & Ocean Cruiser and Go! Go! Smart Animals® Grow & Learn Farm™ led the honors with NAPPA Gold Awards.

Flipsies, a new line which combines traditional role play with collectible dolls and accessories with interactive MagicPoint™ technology, encourages girls to dream big and offers endless ways to play with unique features that capture a child's imagination. Go! Go! Smart Animals, a brand extension of the award-winning Go! Go! Smart line that included a 2015 Toy of the Year (TOTY) Award winner, offers more ways for kids to go wild with learning through kid-friendly playsets and critters.

NAPPA Silver Awards were given to the Kidizoom® Action Cam, which has received numerous accolades this year and the Kidizoom® Smartwatch DX, the newest generation of last year's runaway hit Kidizoom Smartwatch. Other Silver Award winners include the Go! Go! Smart Wheels® Ultimate RC Speedway™, Sit-to-Stand Ultimate Alphabet Train™, Lil' Critters Soothing Starlight Hippo™ and Lil' Critters Roll & Discover Ball™. VTech's addition to the baby doll aisle, Baby Amaze® Learn to Talk & Read Baby Doll™, earned a NAPPA Bronze Award.

"We are extremely honored to receive NAPPA Awards recognizing so many of our new products at the start of the holiday awards season," said William To, President, VTech Electronics North America. "The early reception to our new Flipsies and Baby Amaze introductions, as well as the ongoing success of our Kidizoom, Go! Go! Smart and Baby/Infant/Preschool lines, has been phenomenal. These awards further demonstrate why VTech is an industry leader in developmental learning products and a trusted brand for parents."

"The variety of VTech's products consistently receive high praise from our judging panel but this year they raised the bar with the introduction of Flipsies and other new innovations," said Julie Kertes, General Manager, National Parenting Publications Awards. "Our experts, parents and kid testers were enamored with the Flipsies Sandy's House & Ocean Cruiser and the new additions to the Go! Go! Smart and Kidizoom lines. They also enjoyed testing the new Baby, Infant and Preschool products and the Baby Amaze doll. All of VTech's offerings received high marks for excellence."

Additional details about VTech's award-winning products can be found at www.vtechkids.com and include:

Flipsies™ Sandy's House & Ocean Cruiser: Sandy's House & Ocean Cruiser is a 2-in-1 playset that transforms from a beautiful house where she can spend time with her friends to an ocean cruiser that she can use to explore ocean life! Press the charm on Sandy's necklace to see it light-up and to experience her friendly personality. Place Sandy on the eight MagicPoint™ locations on her playset or other MagicPoint locations on Flipsies playsets (each sold separately) and she'll respond with playful phrases unique to her own personality. Collect Sandy's friends (each sold separately), and they can switch clothes, wigs and accessories for more fun styles. When Sandy and one of her friends are on the MagicPoint locations at the dining table, they will activate the MagicChat™ feature and talk to each other. Connect the slide and zip line for even more fun! Let your dreams shine with Flipsies! (Ages 4 years and up, MSRP: $39.99)
Go! Go! Smart Animals® Grow & Learn Farm™: Get growing at the Go! Go! Smart Animals Grow & Learn Farm. This colorful farm has an electronic barn that introduces colors, numbers and vegetables. Roll Reggie the SmartPoint® rooster over any of the seven SmartPoint locations to hear different phrases, music or fun sound effects. Then push the watering can to watch the garden "grow." Kids can also connect the tracks to other Go! Go! Smart Animals and Go! Go! Smart Wheels® playsets (sold separately). (Ages 1-5 years, MSRP: $39.99)
Go! Go! Smart Wheels® Ultimate RC Speedway™: Zip around the Go! Go! Smart Wheels Ultimate RC Speedway and speed through four action zones and over nine SmartPoint® locations using the steering wheel-shaped remote control for an exciting interactive experience with the RC SmartPoint Racer! The speedway is 4.5 feet of interchangeable tracks and features a stunt ramp, elevator, movable gears, starting flags and track switches that are all triggered by the RC race car. Ralph and his race car entertain little ones with a light-up driver button that activates playful music and fun sounds. He also teaches the letter "R" and the vehicle's name. Get another RC SmartPoint Racer (sold separately) and race a friend! (Ages 1-5 years, MSRP: $59.99)
Kidizoom® Smartwatch DX: The Kidizoom Smartwatch DX is an even smarter watch for kids with more fun games and activities! Perfect for young photographers, this durable smartwatch has more memory so kids can take tons of pictures and videos. Kids will love using the new motion sensor to explore three action challenges. The Smartwatch DX also includes eight games kids can play using the touch screen as well as the ability to download more from the Learning Lodge®. The watch helps teach kids how to tell time by letting them choose between more than fifty 3D digital and analog displays. In addition to the alarm, timer and stopwatch, two new tools include a calendar feature and a calculator so children can work out simple addition, subtraction, multiplication and division problems. (Ages 4 years and up, MSRP: $64.99)
Kidizoom® Action Cam: The Kidizoom Action Cam is a great first video and photo camera for kids and is durable enough to handle drops and tumbles. It can go anywhere kids go, and do anything kids do with two included mounts so they can attach it to their bike, skateboard and more, making it perfect for interactive play and capturing life's adventures. It also comes with a waterproof case so they can take videos and pictures up to 6' underwater – perfect for budding snorkelers and splashing fun. The Action Cam features a 1.4" color LCD screen and can take stop-motion videos and time-lapse photos in addition to regular videos and photos. Children can also explore their creativity with fun effects, frames and photo filters. It's easy to upload their photos and videos to a computer using the included micro USB cable so parents can choose to share them with family and friends. For even more fun, they can also play three exciting games. Available in yellow/black and purple. (Ages 4 years and up, MSRP $59.99)
Sit-to-Stand Ultimate Alphabet Train™: Hop aboard the Sit-to-Stand Ultimate Alphabet Train and play ten activities while learning letters, numbers, colors and more. The train helps build motor skills with six manipulative features including a storybook, clock, gears and 13 double-sided letter blocks that little ones can plug into the side of the train to learn letters and build their vocabulary. The train also recognizes the blocks when they're dropped down the chute. For role-play fun, pick up the walkie-talkie and press the number buttons to pretend to talk to animal friends. The Ultimate Alphabet Train is designed to grow with children and can be used with floor play or as a ride on and transforms into a walker. When little conductors get older, the caboose converts into a wagon they can fill with toys and pull along to develop gross motor skills. (Ages 12-36 mos, MSRP: $49.99)
Lil' Critters Soothing Starlight Hippo™: Sweet dreams are ahead with the Lil' Critters Soothing Starlight Hippo. This adorable hippo projects a vibrant starry night sky onto the ceiling in four different colors to the sounds of peaceful tunes, seven nursery rhymes, nature sounds and lullabies. Colorful light effects enhance visual awareness, while the comforting sounds and songs help soothe babies to sleep. This helpful hippo also responds to babies' cries with calming music. (Ages Birth and up, MSRP: $24.99)
Lil' Critters Roll & Discover Ball™: It's a circus of fun with the Lil' Critters Roll & Discover Ball. Little ones can toss, shake, roll and crawl after this bright ball to hear more than 50 cheerful melodies, phrases and sounds while strengthening their motor skills. Six playful animal characters and a variety of soft textures will capture children's attention and encourage exploration, and pressing the big star button introduces numbers and animals. This soft ball has loads of entertainment for active babies, all rolled up into one toy. (Ages 6 mos and up, MSRP: $14.99)
Baby Amaze® Learn to Talk & Read Baby Doll™: Talk to the Baby Amaze Learn to Talk & Read Baby Doll and hear her repeat what is said, or read from the three included vocabulary books featuring more than 70 words. The more little ones talk to the baby doll, the more the baby doll will learn. The baby doll also encourages nurturing role play by asking children for her pacifier, bottle and more. Press the four buttons on the baby doll and put the bottle or pacifier in her mouth to explore all the fun interactive activities. (Ages 2-5 years, MSRP: $29.99)

About VTech
VTech^® is a world leader in age-appropriate and developmental stage-based electronic learning products for children. As a pioneer in the learning toy category, VTech develops high-quality, innovative educational products that enrich children's development and make learning fun. With a rich, almost 35 year history, VTech has not only established itself as a learning authority but also consistently remains at the forefront of innovation with multiple award-winning products such as the InnoTab^® MAX, VTech's first children's tablet with Android^™ learning content, Kidizoom^® Smartwatch, the first smartwatch for kids with a built-in camera, InnoTab^® 3S, MobiGo^®, V.Reader^® and V.Smile^®. The Learning Lodge^®, VTech's comprehensive app store, features a robust library of more than 800 educational and entertaining games, e-Books, music and videos with engaging age-appropriate content across the widest variety of curricula, with content expanding to offer even more titles. The company also has a broad range of award-winning infant and preschool products available in 25 different languages worldwide, with more than 100 new products introduced every year. VTech was awarded a prestigious 2015 Toy of The Year (TOTY) Award for its Go! Go! Smart Animals^® Zoo Explorers Playset™. In order to further strengthen VTech's position as a learning authority, the company's Expert Panel, with esteemed experts in reading, language arts, science, math, and child development, consult on new product introductions and Learning Lodge content.

VTech Electronics North America, LLC is based in Arlington Heights, Illinois. VTech Electronics Limited is headquartered in Hong Kong with distribution globally.

For more information on VTech's additional product lines, visit www.VTechKids.com, www.facebook.com/VTechtoys on Facebook or follow @VTechToys on Twitter.

About The National Parenting Publications Awards
The National Parenting Publications Awards (NAPPA) is one of the longest running and most respected awards programs in the country, and is considered the "go-to" source for quality products for families. NAPPA enlists a team of expert judges, parents and kid testers to evaluate hundreds of submissions and determine the most entertaining, appealing, safe, educational, age-appropriate and enduring products of the year.

Media Contact:
Nicole Centinaro
Coyne Public Relations
973-588-2000
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