I’ll freely admit that a tablet-movie tie-in seems like a bad deal on its face. Tie-ins are usually considered to be short-term products like games, intending to remain popular only as long as the related movie. Fortunately, the Archos 7” Child Pad “Alvin and the Chipmunks 3″ Edition tablet isn’t too bad of a long-term buy, packing in quality specs and apps to make it worth the asking price.

The Child Pad is designed for kids to enjoy the world of tablets safely, but without a terribly watered down experience. This is a 7” tablet running Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and powered by a 1 GHz processor. There are plenty of preloaded apps, including educational selections and games like Angry Birds. The user interface has been retooled to suit kids, using bright colors and easy-to-use shortcuts to apps kids will likely most frequently use.

Of course, they aren’t calling it the “Alvin and the Chipmunks 3″ edition for nothing. The tablet also comes with behind-the-scenes looks at the movie, as well as pictures from the movie, wallpapers, and an online game.

The Archos Child Pad “Alvin and the Chipmunks 3″ Edition is on sale now for about $130.

Dragon Brush is a wonderfully illustrated new app from John Solimine, Andy Hullinger, and Small Planet. The app is a storybook set in ancient China, and follows a rabbit boy named Bing-Wen, who comes into the possession of a magical brush that brings his paintings to life. The story follows Bing-Wen as he confronts a greedy emperor (in the guise of a pig, naturally).

Dragon Brush features narration from Matt Beringer and original music produced by members of the band The National. Of course, kids won’t totally be on the sidelines – they can use their fingers to reveal pictures and help Bing-Wen bring his creations to life throughout the story, and the Dragon Paint section allows kids to make their own original creations using palettes of different colors and patterns.

Dragon Brush is available for all iOS devices, and is on sale from the iTunes App Store now for $2.99.

Kids can get up to their own Doctor Who adventures with this new watch for sale on Entertainment Earth. It manages to pack in plenty of kid-friendly gadgets, like a magnifying glass and a compass. The face can be LED backlit with the press of a button, and a few extra buttons produce a few famous lines from the series, including the Daleks’ droning “Exterminate!”

The Doctor Who Magnifying Compass Watch isn’t available just yet – kids will have to wait until this July to hit the great outdoors with one of these. Once they become available, they will sell for about $22.

There are plenty of educational apps and games for kids out on the market today, but few display the attention to detail that Slippery Seal, from Rock Out Apps, does.

Slippery Seal follows a harbor seal named Slippery as he ventures from the San Francisco Bay all the way up to Alaska, along the Northern Pacific coast. The impressive part is how true the app remains to real-life locations, and the ecological diversity found in each area. As he moves from place to place, Slippery will encounter marine life accurate to the various locations in the game – some friendly, others not so much.

The game manages to pack in 10 levels and a host of memorable characters while providing kids with a little educational introduction to the world of oceanography. Throughout the course of the game, kids will need to guide Slippery as he hunts for food and avoids predators like sharks, much as a real harbor seal making that same journey would.

Slippery Seal is available now for all iOS devices. The regular price of the app is $1.99, but it is currently available at a discounted price of $0.99.

Press Release

Pip and Posy is a series of books from independent publisher Nosy Crow and illustrated by Axel Scheffler. The books and app storybooks are about Pip and Posy going up against the trials and tribulations of toddler life. The newest app from Nosy Crow, Pip and Posy: Fun and Games, is a departure from Nosy Crow’s typical stable of storybooks, opting for a collection of mini-games and activities based around the Pip and Posy universe, instead.

There are matching games, spot-the-difference pictures, and jigsaw puzzles, along with coloring pictures from the Pip and Posy world. The developers think the mirror activity will be a hit with kids. It uses the front-facing camera on mobile devices to encourage toddlers to mimic the facial expressions Pip and Posy are making on screen.

Pip and Posy: Fun and Games is available for all iOS devices, and is selling on the iTunes App Store for $2.99.

Everyone has to learn sometime – might as well make the process a little easier with Elmo on your side. Potty Time With Elmo is a new app for iOS that is adapted from the eponymous book, teaching toddlers about the virtues of using the toilet.

It’s an app made for both toddlers and their parents. Toddlers will get to learn about potty training from Elmo with songs, stickers, and a reward chart that tracks progress. Parents will have access to tips on how to go about potty training, while providing multiple modes for reading the story, so parents can choose whichever one works best for them and their kids. Those modes include Read and Play, Listen and Play, and Just Watch.

Potty Time With Elmo is regularly priced at $2.99, but it’s selling on the iTunes App Store for $0.99 from now until May 29th.

Big style is just as much for the little guys as it is for the adults. Lucky kids can start hauling around their gadgets with the Gucci Zoo Bag, part of Gucci’s kids’ collection. The bag is in the shape of a little pig, with the zipper cleverly doubling as the tail. The bag is dominated by the classic Gucci pattern, with pink leather making up the pig’s face.

Get ready for squeals of delight if you manage to land one of these for your kid – they must have done something pretty awesome to deserve one, so credit to them. The Gucci Zoo Bag is selling on Gucci for $515, and comes in pink, blue, and white.

There’s no shortage of storybooks out there giving facelifts to old stories, so it’s nice to see Brainy Fables, a collection of brand new fables to get the kids of today thinking critically, while still managing to remain timeless in their content.

The apps feature terrific illustrations and optional narration. Kids can interact with different characters and objects in the background to discover hidden sounds that round out the experience. Rather than being sold as one collection app, each story is sold separately, with one story, Mirta  - The Super Fly, available for free.

Currently, there are four Brainy Fables available on the iTunes App Store, for iPod Touch, iPhone, and iPad. The other three (aside from Mirta) are Marcelo the Fox, Horacio the Piglet, and Uxmal and the Great Pyramid Challenge. Each of those are $1.99, and available in both English and Spanish.

One of the latest Barbie dolls features Barbie wearing dozens of shoes at once, but don’t worry – she didn’t take an unfortunate trip into a nuclear waste repository.

Shoe Obsession Barbie sees Barbie clad in a white tulle bubble dress filled at the bottom with Barbie-sized stilettos, while wearing a necklace also adorned with high heels. The shoes come in yellow, black, pink, and purple, but they’re sewn in, so Shoe Obsession Barbie is going to be stuck in the shoes she’s boxed in with.

Shoe Obsession Barbie is selling now from Barbie Collector for a little under $35.

Summer’s a little over a month away, and hey, electricity costs are getting high. Kids are going to need to rediscover the old ways of cooling off – namely, getting each other soaking wet.

The KAOS Cyclops does that to a range of 100 feet. It’s a water balloon launcher that basically amounts to a souped up slingshot, guaranteeing impact for maximum soaking. Also included is a plastic scoop that can hold ammunition on the go. The box comes with 50 biodegradable water balloons, which will make clean-up a little more eco-friendly.

The KAOS Cyclops is selling on the Imperial Toy Shop for a little under $1o.