BUBBA'S IN, POWER RANGERS ARE OUT: HOT TOYS PROMISE PLENTY OF CHRISTMAS CHEER

Debbie Reddick of Scott City Christmas shopped for her daughter Denae, 6 and Mallory, 3, at Toys R' Us.

The 1996 Holiday Barbie special edition is one of the hottest-selling Barbie Dolls this Christmas.

The Real Talkin' Bubba doll says over 200 things and is one of the top sellers this year.

The Cabbage Patch Kids Snacktime Kid, left, eats food that ends up in her backpack. At right is the styling hair Cabbage Patch Kid.

An ape with an attitude, with just a touch of Southern hospitality, he's Bubba, the Real Talkin' ape, and he's also one of the most sought after toys this Christmas.

He talks to you and talks back, too: "Pick me up. I hope I'm not asking too much," he says sardonically.

The Christmas season is upon us. With just a month until Dec. 25, parents are already scrambling for just the right toy to keep their children elated instead of sulking Christmas morning.

Strong sales are expected this year for toys on kids' wish lists, including Star Wars action figures, Goosebumps and anything tied to the new movies "101 Dalmatians" and "Space Jam." A barrage of classics from Monopoly to Mr. Potato Head are also expected to be big sellers.

Mattel Inc.'s Barbie still reigns as the top-selling doll, with a few new looks this year, including pet doctor and scuba diver outfits. Holiday Barbie is having another big year, with inventories already low in some part of the country.

Kenner's Juice'n Cookies Baby Alive, which sips, chews and dirties her diaper, is a strong contender in the doll segment, as are Mattel's Cabbage Patch Kids, especially the new SnackTime Kid that looks like it's really eating.

Demand for action figures is strong again this year, with Batman, Star Wars and GI Joe among the hot picks.

And, as usual, toys with movie and television tie-ins are expected to be on many shopping lists. Store shelves are filled with toys from Michael Jordan's new animated film "Space Jam" and Disney's "101 Dalmatians" and "The Hunchback of Notre Dame."

In addition, the video release of "Toy Story," the box-office hit from last Christmas, has awakened interest in classic toys like Mr. Potato Head and Slinky Dog, which are featured in the film.

Kids also want anything that's tied to Goosebumps, the children's books written by R.L. Stine. Glow-in-the-dark flashlights, scary-faced figures and board games are a few of the Goosebumps-themed toys.

Parents also are turning to creative and educational toys, especially with children becoming more computer-savvy and more families owning PCs.

Tiger Electronics' My First Laptop teaches pre-schoolers counting and matching on a battery-run system, which also can be hooked into a home computer for more advanced applications. V-Tech's Smart Start Speak & Listen Computer is geared for elementary school students learning spelling and math.

Tyco's $100 VideoCam, which connects to a VCR to allow kids to shoot their own black-and-white videos, also is a popular pick, as are the computer drawing system kidDraw, made by kidBoard, and Tiger Electronics' Brain Warp, a fast-paced hand-held game.

Also going high-tech are classic board games, with titles like Monopoly, Clue and Battleship available on CD-ROM. Barbie has a new CD-ROM that lets kids create their own fashion designs, print them and then make the outfits.

Running on Nintendo's new home video game player, Super Mario 64 is also new and hot this Christmas, along with Pilot Wings and Mortal Kombat Trilogy, two other games for the just-released Nintendo 64 system.

After several years of soft sales, video games are coming back, led by the launch of Nintendo 64, which uses advances in computer chip and software design to create three-dimensional game play. The system costs about $200 in stores, with each game tacking on an additional $70 on average.

Sony's PlayStation and Sega's Saturn, while on the market for a year, are also quite popular and are helping to revive interest in video games. Both game players retail for about $200, with games costing an average of about $50 each.

While most of the popular items are expensive, parents are already searching to find them in time for the holidays and retailers are struggling to meet customer demand.

"This is my second trip Christmas shopping already," said Debbie Reddick of Scott City. She buys her two daughters Holiday Happening Barbies every year to put away and other less-expensive Barbies to play with. "But they want everything they see on TV," she said.

Lots of parents hit the stores early at Christmas-time. That's a good sign for the toy industry, which depends on the fourth quarter for about 65 percent of all its sales. Sales hit $20 billion last year and analysts predict that amount will grow by 4 percent to 6 percent in 1996.

Toys are trendy, said Barry Finley, store manager of Toys R Us in Cape Girardeau. Some toys that were extremely hot last year may sit idly on the shelf this year, he said.

"It's a very cyclical business," Finley said. "And children can be fickle."

He said that toys that were popular a couple of years ago, like the Power Rangers, have suffered slower sales this year.

Those looking for toys that may be a bit more personal and longlasting should check out Montgomery School House Toys at Kids Wear Again, a Cape Girardeau children's used clothing store.

There are wooden planes, ducks, trains, cars with prices ranging from $3.99 to $30.

"Shoppers of multiple children who want something that will last seem to be interested in them," said Claire Ellinghouse, who owns Kids Wear again.

Grandparents looking for an heirloom like them because they last forever, Ellinghouse said. In fact, the Vermont-based company guarantees the toys forever.

"They're the very first toys," Ellinghouse said. "They are the essence of Christmas. What was the first toy? I'm sure it was a car, carved out of wood."