Looking for the perfect gift for a special child in your life? Before you go breaking your budget, TODAY Moms toy expert Elizabeth Werner has a list of eight great toys under $20.

1. My Pal Scout and My Pal Violet by Leap Frog
Age: Six months and up
Suggested retail: $19.99

My Pal Scout and my Pal Violet are plush puppies that are cute and cuddly, but also help teach our little ones their first words, numbers and about their daily routines. Scout and Violet may easily be programmed to use our little one’s names, favorite animals, colors, foods and songs when interacting with our children. What a fun-loving way for our young children to learn the basics.

2. Transformer Movie Figures by Hasbro
Age: Five and up
Suggested retail: $12.99 and up

Transformer Movie Figures are fun to play with and are huge hits with collectors and lovers of Transformers. Kids love to act out their favorite Transformer movie scenes and create their own stories with the Transformer Movie Figures. The Transformer Movie Figures are not only affordable, but offer great value since they are priced well and we know our children will play with them time and time again. My son and his friends are on a quest to collect them all.

3. Elefun by Hasbro
Age: Three to six
Suggested retail: $19.99

Elefun is a motorized elephant that blows nylon butterflies out of his trunk swirling them through the air. The fun part is watching the children run around trying to catch the butterflies with their nets or pick them up off the ground. The laughter filled my house when all the kids were competing to see who could catch the most. This is great exercise and loads of EleFUN!

4. Girl Gourmet Sweets Candy Bead Studio by Jakks Pacific
Age: Eight and up
Suggested retail: $19.99

Our gals can now design, create, wear and then eat funky necklaces and bracelets made from candy beads, pendants and licorice rope. The edible “ink” is a cool way to make unique designs and write sayings or messages on the pretty edible jewelry. This Bead Studio makes 24 bracelets and necklaces. Also check out the Girl Gourmet Sweets Candy Ring Maker for $14.99.

5. Barbie Fashionista Doll Collection by Mattel
Age: Three and up
Suggested retail: $11.99

The Barbie Fashionista dolls come in the following fun themes: Glam, Cutie, Girly, Wild, Sassy and Artsy giving our girls loads of fun styles to choose from based on their own personalities.  The Fashionistas look like the Barbie we all know and love but now have 12 points of articulation, making it easy for our gals to create over 100 different poses whether Barbie is at school, home, the mall or on the runway!

6. TV Games by Jakks Pacific
Age: Five and up
Suggested retail: $19.99

These great TV games including Atari, Pac Man, Star Wars, The Price is Right, Sponge Bob Square Pants, Spider-man, Power Rangers and Disney Princess do not require a special gaming console but rather plug directly in the TV making this home gaming option quite affordable.  The game play in these games is fun and highly entertaining and the array of titles perfectly suits children ages five to 105. I don’t know about you, but I have Pac Man fever!

7. LIV Dolls by Spin Master
Age: Five and up
Suggested retail: $19.99

Daniela, Sophie, Katie and Alexis are the new LIV dolls.  Each LIV doll represents a teenage girl with fun, funky, yet age-appropriate clothes, stunning glass-like eyes and beautiful hair wigs.  The hair play on these dolls is a blast. The LIV dolls have an online universe where they keep diaries, have closets full of virtual clothes, have photo albums and star in webisodes. Check out the fun on www.livworld.com. Anyone can check out the web site, but the Liv dolls and accessories all come with access codes to unlock additional fun online.

8. Princess Tiana Doll from Mattel
Age: Three and up
Suggested retail: $10.99
Princess and the Frog Tiana Wedding Gown Doll from the Disney Store: $16.50

Each of these two Princess Tiana Dolls are gorgeously dressed in the green wedding dress form Disney’s highly-anticipated new movie, "The Princess and the Frog." "The Princess and the Frog Movie" comes to theaters December 11, 2009 and is introducing Princess Tiana, Disney’s first new princess in over 20 years. The Princess Tiana Dolls are already high in demand and when the movie opens they'll be flying off the shelves. I love that there are affordable versions of this stunning new Princess because little girls from around the world will be clamoring for her.

Copyright MSNBC

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