Godzilla from Toy Tokyo and French Kitty from Alexander.   (Photo: Courtesy of the Alexander Toy Company (Kitty))

• Dolls

• The Alexander Doll Company

  615 W. 131st St., 212-283-5900

  �Though Alex didn’t know it at the time she was picked to head the new fashion magazine Élan, tongues wagged. She got the job because of her looks.� Only a doll made in New York would come with a gossipy backstory, a name like Alexandra Fairchild Ford, and socialites for friends ($99.95). Though not all of Alexander’s creations are so Wintour-esque, the chic, exquisitely dressed figurines from this 83-year-old Harlem doll factory make Barbie look positively suburban. Lower-priced options include the tween-friendly French Kitty ($24.95) and the Coquette line (a mini-version of the company’s classic �Cissy� collectible, starting at $85). While there, visit doll-hospital staffer �Doctor� Greta Schrader, who’s been healing the injured for 52 years. With dolls like Alex, catfights are to be expected.

(Photo: Courtesy of Village Robot)

• Robots

• Robot Village

  252 W. 81st St. , 212-799-7626

  R2-D2’s approving chirp as you descend the steps to Robot Village is the first sign you’re about to get in touch with what owner David Greenbaum calls your �inner android.� Neophytes might want to start with the store’s ready-made varieties, such as the fearsome Roboraptor ($119.95). Dozens of robot kits (starting at $12.95) allow children to build and program all kinds of contraptions themselves. The Snap Circuits line (starting at $29.95) lets you build your own doorbells, sirens, and laser sound effects. Advanced kids go for Mindstorms ($199.95), a 700-some piece Lego set that comes with software and a receiver to program your creation. Best of all, parents confounded by the whiz-bang of it all can purchase instruction time at the �bot-building stations� for their junior scientists.

• Collectible Toys

• Toy Tokyo

  121 Second Ave., No. 2F, 212-673-5424

  Walking into the somewhat dusty, overflowing second-floor Toy Tokyo is like walking into your grandmother’s attic, if, say, your grandmother were a futuristic Japanese science-fiction buff who also had a taste for outsider art, a wicked sense of humor, and a soft spot for American popular culture. Here, many of the toys are for grown-ups, including vinyl Godzillas in a full spectrum of colors and specially commissioned items like a corpulent and sinister take on Ronald McDonald, dubbed McSupersize. But there are dozens of kid-friendly collectibles, from Snoopy to Star Wars figures, along with the ever-popular Uglydolls. Snap-together Stikfas action figures (starting at $7.99) offer portable fun, and the Japanese �blind-box� toys (starting at $1.99)�collected like baseball cards�are highly addictive.

(Photo: Courtesy of Dinosaur Hill)

• Wooden Toys

• Dinosaur Hill

  306 E. 9th St., 212-473-5850

  This store peddles brightly colored wooden blocks and games you won’t mind seeing in your living room. Owner Pamela Pier, who opened shop in 1983, sells a dozen varieties of blocks, in languages including Hebrew and Braille. For preliterate little ones, there are Haba and Selecta wooden rattles ($7 to $21.50) and the Kouvalias Musical Toy ($58.25), a set of rainbow-hued wooden globes connected by springs to a revolving wooden base, to help stimulate those tactile skills. And for children on the move, Pier carries gear like Selecta’s delightful, waddling mouse push-toy on a stick ($35.50), the perfect companion for when the stroller set actually begins to stroll.

(Photo: Courtesy of Sons + Daughters)

• Politically Correct Toys

• Sons + Daughters

  35 Ave. A, 212-253-7797

  If disposable diapers, plastic toys, and baby superstores are turning your tot into another landfill-clogging, conscience-free capitalist, ease your tortured soul at this socially conscious shop. Each toy has a feel-good factor: Jamtown’s three-piece music kit ($45) contains instruments made in Peru and Indonesia and purchased under Fair Trade principles. Pastel Toys’ weathered-blue blocks ($34.50) were crafted by disabled people on an Israeli kibbutz. The Magic Castle Playhouse ($42.50) is made of recycled cardboard. Dutch-born owner Carin Van Der Donk, a former fashion model and a mom to a 6-year-old, opened the store in 2003 after reading about worker abuse in China, where many toys are made. �For that extra 50 cents or $10 you’re going to pay for a handcrafted or Fair Trade toy,� she argues, �you’re saving whole environments and cultures.�

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