Cats chasing a spot of laser light all across your carpet can be a good 5 minutes of fun. Owning a cat when you’re male and single, however, is a sure path to ‘forever alone’ status. Don’t believe us? Ask an eligible bachelorette. Cats’ emasculating abilities aside, it turns out that there’s a cool toy that can give you the same sort of kicks without fear of eternal rejection. Straight out of last summer and brought to your attention today, the Lazer Stunt Chasers are battery powered “RC” cars that follow a beam of light you project on the ground. They work upside down or down side up and are meant to be tossed around in stunts, which you accomplish through ramps and loops. Check out the video below: they’re awesome! And they cost $40.
Of course a ladyfriend might object to a grown man playing around with children’s toys. Should this happen, we suggest you find one who’s a little more geek friendly. Remember kids, geek is good, lone man with a cat… not so much.
When we say dangerous, we mean for your iPad 2 of course. Not for the kids or anything, but quite frankly, our iPad 2 being in danger seems almost as unnerving. See, the Crayola Trace and Draw is a toy that would encourage your kids to play with the Jesus tablet. Encourage them, as opposed to instilling mortal fear of ever getting close to it lest they break it. It’s a kid-resistant polycarbonate shell (we’re certain it’ll resist the inevitable fall down a flight of stairs… right?), a peel-off plastic screen and an app. Slide in some tracing paper and the app will show your little’un things they can trace, or color or whatever it is kids do with colored pencils. There’s storage space in the shell for their crayons. And you’ll be getting plenty of “art” which you can proudly display around the house and even at work.
An extra benefit of the $40 toy is that it’ll help chip away whatever is left of your manhood with the mighty cleaver of domestication.
Almost exactly two years ago we talked about the BuckyBalls. They were a set of 216 tiny rare earth magnets that could be arranged in any number of entertaining ways. Fast forward two years and the innovation is that the spheres are now cubes and there are 125 of them. If you’ve already played with BuckyBalls, maybe this isn’t a big deal. But if you’re new to the “Bucky” scene, you should check out the above video. The flat sides allow you to slide and stack them in new ways, not to mention make you feel nostalgic for the Tetris days of yore.
In all fairness and having played with several sets of Buckyballs myself, I must say this: they are entertaining, but don’t go thinking they are easy to play with at first. Anything you see in the video took a good deal of preparation, not to mention ingenuity that (let’s face it) you likely don’t have. I know I didn’t. Still, for $25, it’s a fun and different way of passing some time. And even better, if you ingest a few, a geeky way to land yourself in the ER.
I’ve been watching the evolution of gadgets and gizmos since I was a kid growing up in the ’80s. And as impressed as I am with modern marvels like smartphones, GPS navigation devices, electronic paper, and even laptops as thin as a razor. I’m equally impressed that I can now walk into any toy store and buy an RC helicopter that can be flown around my living room. Particularly since I can remember thumbing through hobby magazines back in the day, gazing in awe at the complicated, large and expensive remote controlled choppers that appeared to be more difficult to fly than the real thing.
That was many moons ago, though. And while you can still buy incredibly expensive RC helicopters that can perform amazing feats of aerial prowess, I’m content to stick with the cheaper, electric variety that have become commonplace in toy stores today. Recently I had the opportunity to check out Interactive Toy Concepts’ (the company behind the flying Duck Hunter game) Wi-Fli RC helicopter, which, as the name implies, is controlled by a smartphone via a wifi connection. I’ve never been a big fan of using virtual controls for gaming on a touchscreen device, so I was skeptical as to how easy it would be to control an actual helicopter in flight. Dying in a game is one thing. Crashing a helicopter into your flat screen TV is another. So check out my full review after the jump to see if using your smartphone as a whirlybird wireless controller is a good idea or not.
And you thought the fine art of DJ’ing was only something that could be mastered by under-manicured cats. Following up on the surprisingly popular Cat Scratch Turntable is a version designed for the other creature that’s prone to destroying your home. Kids. Instead of being made from just cardboard, though, this one’s got actual electronic-y bits inside that lets your hooligans live out their DJ fantasies without tearing up your prized vinyl collection.
The roll out mat’s got a central faux turntable that makes scratching-like sound effects, so you can forget any notion you had of importing your own samples. It is just a toy after all. The touch sensitive mat also features drum pads that trigger tom-tom, snare and cymbal sound effects, “nearly two octaves of piano keys” across the bottom with different musical styles, and rhythm buttons that provide the background beats needed to really drive parents crazy. Kids can even connect an MP3 player for music to accompany their creations, while a headset mic lets them really get the crowd pumped at your next family gathering. $49.95 available from Hammacher Schlemmer.
It’s been a while since we brought you a good piece of spygear. And that’s probably because 99% of the spygear consumers can get their hands on is complete rubbish. Case in point, this Rover Spy Tank. Effective spying requires cunning, stealth and speed. And I’m sure this thing possesses none of those attributes. Like most RC toys, its collection of plastic gears and components probably makes it easy to hear coming from a mile away. And there’s a reason bears that live outside of a polar region don’t rely on white fur for camouflage.
I’m also fairly certain the Rover’s built-in video camera suffers from Strabismus, or lazy eye. Because while the live video feed clearly shows that dog in the center of the iPad’s display, the tank is actually looking off to the side. I’m afraid to say it, but if James Bond had a similar condition, he’d be yanked out of service in no time. As a novel way to harass co-workers, siblings or even the family dog, the Rover does have some merit. It creates its own wifi network which allows you to connect and control it with your iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad. While both audio and video are beamed back in real-time, allowing you to control it from afar. It can also be steered via on-screen controls, or by tilting and rotating your iOS device and letting the gyros translate your movements. $149.99 from Brookstone, while the accompanying app is free.
As a kid I loved construction toys like LEGO, K’nex, Ramagon, Construx, Lincoln Logs, Zaks and even Pipeworks. With a little imagination they could become whatever I wanted them to be. But once again, today’s kids have it way easier. The Origo is billed as a 3D printer designed for ten years old. So it can literally create whatever they can imagine, out of plastic. The finished product might not look as polished as something they bought at the toy store, but it would have the unique advantage of being something they created. Like a 3D low-poly bunny wearing Optimus Prime’s helmet, as seen in the product shot above. And I’m particularly keen on the fact that models can be designed in 3DTin, an easy to use 3D modeling app that runs in your browser.
Of course it still can’t compete with toys like LEGO for the simple fact that they’re real, and this is still just a concept that Joris Peels and Artur Tchoukanov really hope to make a reality some day. They’ve documented their progress on the Origo website, and while the most recent prototype certainly looks like something designed for kids, they’ve got a long way to go. There’s no doubt that one day kid-friendly 3D printers will be as ubiquitous and easy to use as say, Easy Bake Ovens. But will the Origo be the first?
I had an amazing childhood, but once again, I feel it could have been even better had my parents been aware of Hammacher Schlemmer. For example. Cleaning my room was never the most enjoyable chore. But picking up laundry and putting away toys with a working, miniature, pedal-powered forklift? I’m pretty sure I’d sleep in the thing! It wouldn’t have only been great for cleaning my room, though. Other chores like clearing the table, taking out the garbage, walking the dog and dealing with his ‘indiscretions’ and even raking leaves would have been made about 1,000X more entertaining with this at my disposal.
The chassis is made from durable ABS plastic so it could easily endure a couple years of kid life, and the hand-crank powered forks are capable of lifting up to 6 1/2 lbs. Sadly it’s limited to kids up to 55-inches in height, a mark I passed many years ago. And a maximum riding weight of up to 110 lbs. It’s also $319.95, making it a hard sell to your parents that your bedroom will most certainly be kept slightly cleaner, at the expense of plastic tire tracks all over their home. The Fresh Prince was right, parents just don’t understand…
We still think it’s one of the best things we saw at CES earlier this year, and today Orbotix officially unveiled what the final prototype of their Sphero remote control ball will look like. And it’s not that far off from what we got to play with at the show. The polycarbonate shell hasn’t changed much, it’s still stark white and slightly opaque, letting the RGB LEDs inside glow through. Though it now sports the Sphero logo on the side. The company also revealed the ball’s charger, which uses induction so you just have to plop it in to top off the battery.
But if you’re still not convinced that a remote control ball could have lots of replay value, I encourage you to check out this video of Orbotix’s developers playing the Sphero Golf game. Like the original personal computer, the real appeal of Sphero will be the accompanying smartphone applications people create for it. And unlike VisiCalc which made the PC a must-have device, so far the apps for the Sphero look far more entertaining.
The Sphero is still on track for a late 2011 release, and will sell for $129.99, including a collection of free downloadable apps. And they’re still taking reservations if, like us, you think it’s a must-have smartphone accessory.
Related Tags: Remote Control, Toys
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