Rather like Holland in the Euro 2008 soccer tournament, Sega seems to be going all out on the ball front right now. Its latest addition to the Homestar family, those spooky-ooky balls that throw kaleidoscopic and galactic crazy shapes across the walls of your home, is the Homestar EX. Bigger, blacker brother to the Homestar Spa, this one looks like an interrogation droid in a sex harness, and has all sorts of added zing to it. You get much higher-quality images projected than the other models, as well as a random shooting-star function. The EX is remote-controlled, and it’s powerful enough to see the images when the lights are on. The price is not so funny, though: US$800. [Trends in Japan]
Sega’s HomeStar planetarium has been around for aeons and aeons, in a raft of different versions. Its latest incarnation is the HomeStar Spa, which basically means it’s ripe for the bathroom. As before, you sit the newly-waterproofed little globe in the corner of your (bath)room and throws crazy shapes onto the walls. New projections include “Flowers” and “Kaleidoscope.” The HomeStar Spa will be launched at the Tokyo Toy Fair, at the end of this month. [Trends In Japan]
