The Best Toys of 2006 – School-aged

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

Manufacturer: Zizzle
Ages: 6 and up
Suggested Retail Price: $8 - $50

What it is
Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, was one of the summer's biggest box office hits and spawned an incredibly detailed and well-crafted line of action figures and play sets.

The first wave of figures and vehicles were launched with the film and included popular characters and ships such as Jack Sparrow and the Flying Dutchman. Wave 2 was released in September, and Wave 3 will introduce new figures to the line. All of them are available now.

The line is characterized by exceptional sculpting on the action figures, great detail and play value in the playsets and real creativity in bringing the movie to life.

Why it's fun
Pirates Of The Caribbean is the perfect movie for action figures. Kids have a blast recreating their favorite scenes from the movie and making up new adventures for these colorful characters.

Kids and collectors alike will appreciate the attention to detail and the accurate reproduction of key movie elements providing an authentic collection.

Who's going to love it
Younger fans will love opening the packages and playing pirates with these toys. Fans of the movie and pirate fans in general will love the figures.

Not all movie-based figure lines put as much detail into the toys as this pirates line. The highly detailed figures are also very collectible and may appeal to older fans who will want to display them.

What to be aware of
Zizzle plans to release figures based on the first Pirates film, Dead Man's Chest, in 2007. They will create a full line for the third film in this series when it is released.

Pirates has in a very short time become a franchise and a "brand" of pirate play. While the movie skews to all audiences, that won't diminish the fun that younger kids will get out of the toys. The Pirates movies really do have something for everyone in the entertainment realm.

Zizzle has also introduced an incredible pinball game using the movie as a theme. It has a lot of the features of an arcade machine and retails for about $300.