Back in 1998 the world went a little apeturd over the Furby. While Amazon was still just getting off the ground and didn’t much suffer from the craze, brick and mortar stores were crawling under the demand. The £24 ($40 USD in 1998 dollars and $56 today) could be resold for as much as three times its price. It’s now a collector’s item and the company that made it, Tiger Electronics, seems to be planning on releasing a new version for the Holidays 2012. There isn’t much information on it aside from the picture you see above.
Toy expert Peter Jenkinson of www.toyology.com said: ‘The image suggests that the moving facial parts have been entirely replaced by an LCD screen. ‘This will prompt lots of talk, not all of it intelligible, on Furby forums.’
Other “experts” are predicting Wifi connectivity and only Furby-to-Furby interaction. Truth is, no one really knows. And no one is sure if the little fur balls will be able to recapture the insanity of their first arrival.
Or wherever, really. Just don’t point it at people. It’s a tiny cannon that uses black powder and .177″ BBs, and is able to fire them up to 100 yards. That’s like, almost 100 meters. They are precision machined and at close range are able to inflict some pretty decent damage, like breaking glasses or piercing Coke cans. Oh, and they’re loud too. So, yeah, don’t be an idiot with them. You have to provide your own BBs and black powder, but the cannon itself is only $29 and comes in a variety of colours.
The SkyBall is a toy that consists of a 4 inch ball filled with Helium. The fact that it’s got a buoyant gas within means that it doesn’t behave like a regular bouncy ball, instead bouncing up to 75 feet just by being thrown on the ground. The gas is sealed within the plastic body of the ball and the balance between the weight of the plastic vs. the volume of gas inside means that it gets just enough lift to produce fantastic bounces, but not enough for it to wander off into the sunset. Reviews are raving, incidentally.
So it turns out that LEGO has this thing called LEGO Cuusoo, which is kind of a digital suggestion box. You can create your own designs of LEGO sets that you’d like to see, and if they get at least 10,000 votes, the company will seriously look at it and potentially make it. The above Back To The Future set has reached that milestone, so there’s a pretty decent chance it’ll become a real product. Not everything gets approved however. A Shaun Of The Dead design that had reached the threshold was vetoed by the company on the grounds that it was too violent a movie for its target market of young kids. But the BTTF concept you see above should not run into the same problem. The set
includes all the pieces to make three versions of the DeLorean, one for each movie, along with the required props and minifigs of Doc Brown and Marty McFly. It will require you to build your own Lego Hill Valley .
We can’t imagine anything derailing this project, other than not being able to secure the rights maybe. So it should only be a matter of time until we update you with availability information.
It’s kind of hard not to like this lamp. It combines so many of the things we like into one 7.5 inch tall object. LEGO, for one. And Star Wars, for two. And lightsabers for three. It’s powered through AAA batteries, or through USB. And it launches in May for $50.
That’s a fair price.
What’s not so nice is the fact that they used an annoying pre-pubescent boy to “narrate” the promotional video.
Depending on which side of the child love/hate fence you fall on, the above will either be seen as a brilliant idea or a nuisance to be avoided at all costs. The Chalktrail is a simple attachment for bicycles of all sizes (wheels from 12” up to 29”) that holds onto a street chalk at one end and the bike on the other, and lets kids draw on the street just by pedalling around. Its simple wishbone construction means that it can be fitted to pretty much any bike with no tools, so kids can use them without the help of parents.
It’s smart and simple, although we imagine the process of generating anything more than a bunch of illegible squibbles is a far more daunting task. Should you see this in your neighbourhood, there’s a decent likelihood your eyes will be sore a lot, unless you have yourself a little biking artist next door.
Which, let’s face it, is unlikely.
Anyway, it started out as a Kickstarter project, and got fully funded five days ago. Demand was high and it’s apparently sold out for now. But there are talks of distribution with a major toy chain, so you might see these in stores in time for the Holidays.
We’re not sure whether to be impressed by this product/service, or whether to be creeped out that there are people passionate enough about superheroes to actually want this. It’s pretty simple: you can oder a superhero figurine and have the company send you a 3D printed replacement head that is made to look just like you. You just have to send them two fairly high-res pics of your noggin along with your order, and you’ll get a standard figurine in the mail, along with your plastic head. You have to do the swap yourself for some reason. You can choose from Batgirl, Batman, Superman, The Joker, and Wonder Woman.
It’s $125, which isn’t cheap, but hey… you may not be the superhero Batman needs, but you are the one it deserves.
The SmartPet is being released by Bandai, the same company that made the Tamagotchi. So we know there’s likely going to be an element of long term care and nurturing to this little creation. It uses your iPhone as its brain (and face) and the (free) associated application allows for a variety of interactions. It can make over 100 faces, and uses the front facing camera to try and recognize gestures. As it gets more emotionally attached to you it’ll be able to learn more and more gestures. It can even interact, sing, and dance with other dogs through Bluetooth.
The application will be released March 31st, but you’ll have to wait until April 24th, in Japan, to be able to buy one for $78. In the meantime you can entertain yourself sans dog, but retain some of the dignity you will inevitably lose if you’re anywhere over the age of 12 and in possession of this somewhat creepy toy.
Nothing says “I’ve been shopping at Thinkgeek!” like showing up at the office with a desk catapult. Or trebuchet. We’re not sure. See, the rubber band says catapult, as does the fact that its mechanism relies on it. Also… the name. But that plastic “weight” at the bottom of the swing arm says trebuchet. We’re going to side on catapult though, since a little plastic nubbin would probably not contribute much weight to anything. So yeah… nerdy discussion aside, what you have here is a device capable of throwing spiky foam balls at up to 40ft. That should be far enough to keep you occupied for an afternoon, after which you might have to spend some time explaining to HR why you spent the best part of a day running around the office picking up little foam balls from the floor.
Related Tags: Toys
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