Productopia | Toys

While expensive gadgets seem to get all the attention at Christmastime, there are plenty of kids' gifts that not only offer plenty of fun (for the whole family, in some cases), they won't break the bank. We took a look at five different (non-video) games to see whether they'd be hits or duds under the tree. Read on to find out which ones are worth grabbing, and which you should leave on the store shelf.

I remember when I first saw Air Swimmers in action. It was back in February at the Toy Fair in New York. Guys in scuba suits stood on the floor, wirelessly steering the oversized, majestic-looking flying shark and clownfish through the air, to the delight of everyone. Dazzled, I wrote that I wanted one, and because expense accounts are wonderful things, I (finally) bought one on the company dime last month.  Whether you should do so with your own hard-earned cash is another matter entirely.

Monopoly -- the board game that taught us the phrase, "Do not pass Go! Do not collect $200!" and made us love the concept of Free Parking, while hating the (unnecessary) $75 Luxury Tax -- has seen a variety of different editions created over the past 75 years. (Including, The Simpsons, Harley-Davidson, Disney-Pixar, and U.S. Army, to name a few.)

But, the classic Monopoly board game is modeled after Atlantic City, NJ, with most of the squares on the board representing a specific property that can be purchased and built upon. Making up the rest of the board are squares for Chance, Community Chest, Luxury Tax, Income Tax, and the four major corner squares (Go, Free Parking, Jail/Just Visiting, and Go to Jail). By purchasing properties and building houses and hotels on them, players charge opponents money when they land on them; the goal of the game is simple enough: be the last player remaining once all the other players have gone bankrupt. But with the multitude of ways players can both make and lose money, games of Monopoly have been known to last for hours before reaching a conclusion (or 70 days, in the case of the longest known game).

The Rubik's Cube is one of the most recognizable toys in the world. More than 300 million have been sold, and one-eighth of the world's population has given it a try. According to Forbes.com the Rubik's Cube is one of the most popular toys of the past century and the most popular toy of the 1970s; TIME also named it one of the All-Time 100 Greatest Toys. This surprisingly simple, yet addictive toy consists of a six-sided cube with nine colored squares (in a three-by-three grid) on each side. The cube starts with each side a solid color, but puzzlers scramble the squares up and then try to twist and turn the cube back to its original state--for those counting at home, that's one correct solution and more than 43 quintillion incorrect ones.