It’s that time of the year again.

Specialty toy retailer Toys “R” Us issued its take on what this holiday season’s hot toys will be, as it prepares to attract toy shoppers one year after what was the worst holiday sales season in nearly 40 years.

This year, retailers and toy makers alike have focused keenly on prices, understanding that consumers may not be prepared to shell out hundreds of dollars for toys since caution rules their spending.

The Toys “R” Us list this year includes a mind-control game by Mattel called Mindflex, Disney’s netbook Netpaland Hasbro’s Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen Constructicon Devastator action figures.

But who knows what parents will choose this year as prices remain on top of their minds.

Here’s Toys “R” Us’ “Fabulous 15″ in the group of 36 hot toys:

Bakugan Battle Brawlers New Vestroia Maxus Helios 7 in 1 from Spin Master
ChixOs Pink Design-A-Luxury Loft from Spin Master
Color Me a Song from Crayola Beginnings
Disney Netpal
Disney•Pixar Toy Story Interactive Buddies Talking Action Figures (Buzz and Woody) from Thinkway
Disney Princess: Just One Kiss Princess Tiana Doll from Mattel
Fast Lane JLX Over Drive Radio Control All Terrain Vehicle from Toys”R”Us
Laugh & Learn Learning Farm from Fisher-Price
Little Mommy Baby Ah-Choo from Fisher-Price
Mindflex from Mattel
NERF N-Strike Raider Rapid Fire CS-35 from Hasbro
Star Wars Fan’s Choice Anniversary Edition Home One Mon Calamari Star Cruiser from LEGO
Transformers;revenge of the Fallen Constructicon Devastator from Hasbro
Wii Sports Resort from Nintendo
Zhu Zhu Pets Hamster from Cepia

(Photo/Reuters)

On July 23, Shop Talk wrote about Wal-Mart teaming up with Disney to offer free wake-up calls from Hannah Montana, (a.k.a. Miley Cyrus), as part of its back-to-school marketing push.

Parents can use the service to send their child a wake-up call — as early as 5 am — to get them ready for the new school year.

While some readers wrote to Shop Talk to say the service was a great idea, others told us recently that they found an unusual way to use the service — to send prank wake-up calls to their friends or coworkers at 5 am.

Wal-Mart spokeswoman Shannon Frederick said the retailer was not hearing of any widespread issues with the service. She said Wal-Mart has sent more than 80,000 calls as part of the promotion — far more than the 25,000 it sent last year as part of a High School Musical promotion.

Disney spokesman Aaron Hunt also said Disney had not heard of anything about prank calls.

“We haven’t had any feedback and we’ve been watching it closely,”  he said.

Both Wal-Mart and Disney said the service is limited so only five phone calls can be sent from a phone number.

“If we need to make adjustments, we would,” Hunt said. ”If we need to change it to where the earliest call you could get would be 7 am, then maybe that’s something we’d have to take a look at.”

And the wake-up call service is only available through Sept. 15, so the pranksters cannot have their fun forever. 

(Photo: Reuters)