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Classic toys are becoming much less classic because of upgrades meant to entertain technology-obsessed children. Where they once tried, unsuccessfully, to compete with digital devices, toy makers are co-opting them.

Monopoly money can now be counted by a tablet computer. Hot Wheels cars can zoom across iPad screens. And Barbie? She's become a digital camera.

"We know that kids are going to play with technology, with iPhones and iPads and Android devices," said Chuck Scothon, senior vice president for marketing for Mattel's North America division. "Our job is to not necessarily avoid that, but if you can't fix it, feature it."

The updated classics reflect the growing reality that children, like their parents, are loath to spend time without their devices. More than a third of children 8 years old and younger use mobile devices like iPads or smartphones, a recent study from Common Sense Media, a nonprofit group based in San Francisco, found.

Toy makers have tried to modernize their products for years, but this is the industry's most aggressive technology integration.

The upgrades are a response to the toy industry's lagging sales. But the main item American retailers could not seem to keep in stock last year was a tablet computer for children, the LeapFrog LeapPad Explorer.

Mr. Scothon said Mattel has studied how children spend time on various activities, including digital devices, and found that a lot of playtime was revolving around the gadgets.

Mattel's new $50 Barbie has a lens in her back; children point the doll at an image, and press a button on Barbie to take a photo. The image appears on the front of her T-shirt. The photos can be downloaded to a computer.

The makeovers have extended to tech versions of board games, too. In the Game of Life, the plastic spinner has been replaced by a tablet, which shows a picture of the spinner and makes the spinner's sound.

In Monopoly, a tablet or smartphone counts everyone's money and, when a player lands on Chance or Community Chest, it starts a short digital game, replacing the cards that told people to go directly to jail.

Toys like spy glasses and laser tag sets have also been transformed. Now, because of the addition of technology that records daytime and night vision video, the spy glasses made by Jakks Pacific, called Spy Net Multi Vision Goggles, could actually perform serious surveillance.

"The future of play is trending towards a seamless integration between a physical toy and digital add-ons," said Laura Phillips, senior vice president for toys and seasonal merchandise at Walmart, in an e-mail. "This innovation is extremely important to keeping kids engaged and keeping toys more relevant."

The New York Times

(China Daily 03/18/2012 page10)