Hasbro’s FX whip, part of the flotilla of Indiana Jones merchandise that is sailing into port this year, should be hung on the wall of every office in the land. This is what makes corporal punishment in the workplace such a pleasure. The US$19.99 toy plays the theme tune —this is, sadly, the one crappy bit about it— as well as a thwack-a-lacka-boom-boom sound when you crack it. Hasbro could have come up with some more interesting sound effects, though. The FX whip will be available from May 1 from most toy shops. [Hasbro]
While Fisher-Price’s Kid-Tough digital camera was already built to withstand the Guantanamo-level torture your average four-year-old dishes out to their toys, the latest model will hold up to 30 minutes of waterboarding too, despite a rounder, slimmer body. The insides have gotten an upgrade as well, with a 1.3MP sensor (up from 640×480) and 64MB of storage that’ll hold 500 closeups of your kid’s boogers.
While we weren’t quite as blown away by D-REX as we were by Elmo Live—”jazz hands” killed our objective judgment—the level of interactivity is pretty impressive for what’s supposed to be a dumb child’s toy (the kid, not the ‘bot). About the size of a small puppy, it behaves semi-autonomously, though it’ll follow patterns you pick w/ the remote like guarding your room (if it detects a light change, it goes apeshit) and (cutely) responds to petting, calling and the like. I’m not quite sure it’s worth US$150 yet, but even in this beta stage, it’s damn close, and the fall launch date leaves plenty of polish time.
At some point in our lives, we were cramming for exams that we had no chance of passing. It is unfortunate then that we did not have the Leapfrog Crammer at our disposal, which would have permitted us to create customised digital flashcards for viewing whilst listening to our tunes.
I always wanted an RC car that didn’t eat batteries like Tom Cruise devours babies there’s no tomorrow. Corgi’s H2Go is fuel-cell powered RC car that just needs water and light—a solar panel powers its hydrogen station, which karate chops water into oxygen and hydrogen. The station tank takes about 2 minutes to refill, and a full charge (which takes seconds) nets you about 10 minutes of zoom zooming. And the design? By Luigi Colani, famous for his work with Ferrari and Alfa Romeo.
I think it actually looks more like something out of The Big O than Batman, though Big O borrows heavily from the former. Either way, it’s pure plastic art. More importantly, they work—some of the hand-built prototypes were a bit twitchy, but most of them were zipping around the track with no problems.
We just spotted these great, life-sized Lego models of Indiana Jones, C3PO and a Clone Wars Trooper at the annual Toy Fair. We asked how many Lego bricks it took to construct each one, but were told that it was “a big secret.” We couldn’t care less, they look amazing, and we desperately need some new office furnishings to brighten up the place. Unfortunately, these are just show pieces, and those hoping for a gigantic Indiana Jones Lego pack will have to make do with these (movie spoiler) kits instead. Clone Wars fans get some smaller Lego-loving, too, but we want them so bad, we’re going to try and smuggle the life-size models out. Stay tuned for news on the covert operation. Checkout the gallery for a ton of awesome images.
This US$140,000 Hot Wheels car is allegedly the most expensive toy car in the world, created to commemorate the 40th Anniversary of Mattel’s tiny cars and show why Humanity has way too much free time. Why is it so expensive? As you can see in the glittery images, it is all about the 23-carat bling-bling.
The new LEGO Clone Wars sets announced at Toy Fair 2008, to be released just in time for the new Clone Wars animated movie and TV series, look nice. “Nice” as opposed to awesome giant bombers, ingenious Steam Wars, funny Indiana Jones, good old classic Star Wars or some of the best sets ever. Still, nice. All of them, plus info, prices and the new Clone Wars trailer, after the jump.
I’ve wanted to be Batman since I was a little kid, but I’ve never had the billions required to hire Morgan Freeman to construct kickass para-military gear for me to wield an overwhelming advantage over ill-financed and poorly equipped common criminals. So, I’m going to have to settle for projecting my dreams onto my future offspring. Step one: Strap Mattel’s Wayne Tech Mega Cape on him from the day he can walk. The wings spring out with a single touch, instantly readying him to fly down a staircase and into the ER. US$40, June. Health insurance sold separately.
newVideoPlayer("dinoegg_giz.flv", 475, 376,"");I’m in awe with Kota The Triceratops Dinosaur, a US$300 fully articulated 40-inch-long robot in the shape of a real-sized baby triceratops that, according to Playskool, any kid can ride. Yes. Full size. Baby. Triceratops. Riding. Robot. Really, this thing looks so cool that makes the Pleo look like a bag of bricks.