POST-CHRISTMAS FOLLOWUP: The Digital Blue kids’ video camera that I mentioned earlier is a big hit. The Insta-Daughter has been making and editing videos with great pleasure, and it’s very user-friendly. Comes with a fair amount of stock footage and audio, too.

The quality is about like Super-8 — not great, but not terrible. I haven’t looked yet to see if there’s a way to export the files to a Video CD or DVD, but I imagine I can figure out a way. Right now she’s so busy playing with it that I haven’t had the chance. Definitely a hit.

She didn’t get this toy (and, apparently, neither did anyone else), but the big loser of the season seems to be Liam, of the Flavas line of dolls. Liam’s supposed to be a hip metrosexual, and carries what’s either a purse or — to be charitable, since there’s no associated DJ stuff — a record case. The Insta-Daughter and her friends all pronounced him a “girly-boy” and when we visited the toy store yesterday, the largely bare shelves still boasted a full complement of Liams. Here’s more evidence that Liam isn’t flying: “While Liam fancies himself the Flava equivalent of Eminem, his wussy man-purse and questionably ‘hip’ fashion choices reveal him to be more Vanilla Ice than Slim Shady.” Ouch.