With the holiday season approaching, retailers are rushing to put the latest toys on shelves and roll out extra services, all to woo parents who may be spending a bit more on Junior this year.

Among the items ready to go are Lego Friends construction play sets, Monster High dolls, Batman Dark Knight action figures and collectible Squinkie Zinkies, all expected to be big sellers this year. A ghost of Christmas past — the Furby toy that resembles an owl — is reappearing this year, decked out with extra features.

It’s too early for lists for Santa Claus, but high-tech toys that fly, talk and even get fed using smartphones are already getting attention from retailers and parents. Merchants say they are scurrying to cater to children’s increasingly tech-savvy tastes with products including tablet computers such as the Leapfrog LeapPad 2 and Kurio, analysts said. Toys R Us recently stepped into this burgeoning market for the school-age set with its own $150 Tabeo tablet for children.

“We’re so tech-oriented that kids naturally pick up on that because we’re always on it,” said Charlene Shin, 32, a Glendale, Calif., homemaker who expects to buy more digital toys for her two children this Christmas. “There is a direct correlation between how much time parents spend online and how much kids are aware of technology.”

Technology has crept into even classic toys such as a Barbie with a built-in video camera and battery-operated cars and helicopters that are controlled by smartphone applications instead of separate remotes.

Hasbro’s Furby — an electronic furry toy that made a huge splash in the late 1990s — is relaunching this holiday. With an accompanying app, for example, tablets and smartphones can be used to “feed” the toy by choosing food from a menu and flicking it from the screen into its mouth.

“This season will just be another link in this chain in a massive shift toward technology” in the toy industry, said Jason Moser, a research analyst at Motley Fool.

Aside from digital gadgets, children are sure to ask for more traditional construction sets, dolls and toys linked to hit movies or TV shows, analysts said.

The economy will continue to play a key role in how much and when parents spend on their children, with analysts predicting the toy industry will see sales grow slightly or stay flat compared with last year’s holiday season.

With U.S. retail sales totaling $21.2 billion last year, toys are big business — especially during the final months of the year, when toy merchants can rake in as much as 40 percent of their annual sales. Shoppers this year will drop an estimated $586.1 billion during that time, according to the National Retail Federation, with a healthy chunk of that holiday budget going to toys.