My son Charlie loves himself some Lego Star Wars Wii, Beyblades, Kung ZhuZhu pets, Bakugans and Pokemon cards.

Notice a theme here? He loves futuristic toys that also provide a challenger-style game he can play with his sister or a buddy.

Which is why the new Mechatars toys are right up his alley. They are remote control robots who complete R/C-powered missions and “battle” each other, and then using the nifty USB port on the toy, you upload the toy’s activity to a parallel online world. The online gaming takes the toy up a notch from just another R/C toy languishing in the basement, gives a purpose to the R/C play and translates the offline activities it into an interactive online computer game, WebKinz style.

Charlie looooves it.  To give you a sense of how Mechatars work, here’s the 30 second TV spot (the camera work is much more clear than my home movie attempts).

Charlie likes how Mechatars take the in-person, interactive battle games he loves, combines them with cool R/C remote and offers the online game feature that connects the “work” his robot performed in real life with the robot’s avatar performance online. He likes how in both battle and mission modes, he can select from the remote the weapons his Mechatar will use, “just like in Lego Star Wars Wii.” (And that is high praise from Charlie.)

I like how the gaming online is age-appropriate and safe, while still feeling cool and mature to my son. I also like how the toy provides different ways for Charlie to play. He can play with a friend (we will be getting his sister a Mechatar too so the two can play together), he can take the toy on missions when playing solo, and he can also choose Mechatars.com for his limited computer play time.  I also like that at $39.99, this is a deluxe-feeling gift for my kids that is still less than fifty bucks.

I have an EXCLUSIVE  Clever Girls Collective coupon code for you guys:  MECHMOM gets you 10% off your Mechatar purchase at iloverobots.com, good until 11/30/11.

And one lucky reader will win a Mechatar for his or her child!

How to Win

• Go to www.Mechatars.com and leave a comment on this post below with which Mechatar your child would love and you would like to win! (Note: In order to see the Mechatar toys, visitors to the site need to click on “play now” then “register” but fortunately no information needs to be submitted.)
• The winner will be randomly-drawn from all comments in one week on Sunday 9/25 at midnight.

Disclosure: I was selected to participate in this #CleverRobot #spon sponsored post series by Clever Girls Collective.