The obsession that is Tamagotchi has reached a whole new level. The latest edition to the world’s most famous virtual pet is the Familitchi – the
most radical Tamagotchi ever! You still have all the fun features
from previous versions; But now it has a new look with a house shaped antennae and you must raise and nurture your Tama-family with
up to 3 family members appearing on the screen at once! Depending on how you raise your
Tamagotchi you can become 7 different fun families. So it’s basically the same as before but like most successers of any product this one is much better. Get yours for £12.99 from Bandai.
keeping one amused
We're unlikely to see the veritable amount of tat that surrounded the Royal wedding last year, we're hoping that celebratory and commemorative kit will all attempt to be as classy as this chess set (over optimistic perhaps). Each piece is handpainted, it truly is a glorious piece of kit that's certain to find favour with those who refer to parts of their abodes with terms such as East and West wing. It'll set you back almost £300 HERE for those interested parties.
Star Wars slot sets – At last
We've been treated to a fair few Scalextric licences over the years, James bond ones were pretty good, Toy Story didn;t float our slot-car racing boat, this pair of beauties has us grinning from ear to ear. Why we've had to wait for so long to get Star Wars and Scalexctric to tema up Darth only knows, and frankly we don;t give a Yoda because it's finally happening - Exactly when we're no sure. So, we have the Micro 1:64 scale Death Star Attack set with a Lord Vader Tie Fighter battling a Luke Skywalker X-Wing, the spaceships have working ...
Cherry picker is a sweet build
It took us a while getting around to building our LEGO Technic Bucket Truck, that’s cherry picker to most of us or elevated platform to those perhaps allergic to cherries or very posh indeed. It’s the machine used to rig up local Christmas lights or fix street lights, very clever vehicles they are too. Just like its real life ride this Bucket Truck has a set of gears to raise and rotate the platform on the back, two more gears let you deploy the outriggers at the side of the vehicle to keep it stable when the platform is fully ...
Off-screen action with Mario
In our scramble to put as many crossover category toys to the test this year (think Skylanders, Wappydog, Angry Bird plush etc) we'd somehow almost missed this plumber based box of racing good ness. The Mario Kart Battle pack features a Mario and Yoshi sat in their rides and an assortment of track accessories for you to establish where your hairpins and chicances should be placed. whilst you race the lights on the nift RC unit have lights which each represent an action you'd find on the console version, Mushroom: Gives a speed boost Green Shell: Sends your opponent hurtling backwards Lightning: Sends ...
Remember the posh Fox?
The upper class fox was at his very best in the eighties, close to the cuff humour for kids TV, often ridiculing his guests and co-hosts, quality Telly. Now you can own your own Basil Brush handpuppet, give him a squeeze and he'll let out his grin inducing laugh topped off with a legendary "Boom Boom" at the end. At just £12.99 seems like a no-brainer.
On January 31, 2008, In Collectables, Edutainment, Electronics, Get Involved, Girls Allowed, Playground Crazes, Pocket Money, Toy Fair, by peter jenkinson
On January 31, 2008, In Adults in mind, Electronics, Family fun, Get Involved, Music Makers, Toy Fair, by peter jenkinson
Here’s another i-pod gadget to add to the ever growing list of i-Pod gadgetry.
The i-No is a fun, fast and frenzied game of music trivia that turns listening to music into a social interactive activity. Players must buzz their wireless remote control when guessing the name of the artist, the song or album. You make the game as interesting as you want as it will be your music you’re playing against. This means the game can be enjoyed by quite literally everyone -from a bit of Elvis and Led Zeppelin to Beyonce and Gwen Stefani. Demonstrate your love of music with the i-No which also doubles up as speaker docs. This is the only iPod gaming system officially licensed by Apple®. Available in July/August for around £50.
On January 31, 2008, In Adults in mind, Boys Toys, Electronics, Get Involved, RC's and Robots, Toy Fair, by Lucy Hedges
Feast your eyes on this beauty – it’s the new i-Sobot from Tomy. Prepare to get excited. This is not your ordinary robot and will appeal to tech loving kids and adults alike. This feature packed robot has all the signs of a GREAT toy. They say good things come in small packages and the i-Sobot is no exception. Not only can it dance, do push ups, sommersaults, hula, play air guitar (genius) AND respond to applause, it also has a repertoire of 200+ action patterns and it can say 200+ words and phrases. It can do much more than this folks but this is only a taste of what’s to come – you’ll have to discover its superior greatness for yourself. It’s not available at the moment so you can’t get your techy mitts on it just yet but it’s out July 2008 for around £200. That’s pretty decsent for a fully functional robot with realistic moves – we should know we’ve seen it in action.
On January 31, 2008, In Adults in mind, by peter jenkinson
New from Recreation is the executive PC gaming chair lining you wirelessly to your console machine for your video gaming delight and a fine place to plug in your MP3 player. Built-in speakers and a rumbling base will ensure that you might well look forward to getting to the office. Coming this summer for about £150
On January 31, 2008, In Adults in mind, Boys Toys, Figures and Dolls, Pit Stop, RC's and Robots, by peter jenkinson
Slot car fanatics take a seat, this
latest Scalextric set is going to stun. Take on Top Gears Stig and
screech round Gambon corner in a super car from the comfort of your
front room and therefore certain you’ll not have to face that horses
head that is Jeremy Clarkson. The Powerlaps set is due in March and
comes complete with Ford GT and Porsche 911 GT3R and special edition
Stig hand throttles. Create your own leader board and have friends
bring over their own motors to take on Hammerhead and Bentley…… www.scalextric.com
has more info.
On January 30, 2008, In Electronics, by peter jenkinson
Our grey matter overfloweth with toy goodness here at London’s Excel, blistered feet and grins as wide as the channel we’ve some marvellous material to share over the next few days. Feast your eyes on Tomy’s Guitar Rockstar, it’s pre-loaded with eight rock tracks to strum along to and whilst you hold the neck in your hand the movement of your other will release the riffs. Play in freestyle mode and release your inner rock god, plug in a pair of headphones and play people will cross the road to avoid you! Due out March for about £15
On January 29, 2008, In Toy Fair, by peter jenkinson
We’re more excited than a kid at Xmas, our annual jaunt to Londons Excel to see the hottest toys for 2008 is upon us. We’re seeing "The Stig" at the Scalextric stand, Tomy’s air guitar and iSobot, Wowwee’s wonderful line-up of Robotic creations, the Rubik robot (35 seconds to solve any multi-colured block) the Indiana Jones whip and loads, and we mean LOADS of other great kit for your spending pleasure in the year ahead. Get back here tomorrow for news, opinions and some video coverage of the greatest show on earth!
On January 29, 2008, In Uncategorized, by peter jenkinson
The all new Hand Command has just made these pages ahead of the forthcoming Toy Fair franticity! This smart RC hovers just above the ground in
normal flight but when you put your hand underneath he’ll follow your
lead so you can control his flight with hand gestures.Its a bit like taking your own pet astronaut out for a walk! You can ‘throw’ him a
short distance before he goes back to level flight and the little chap has auto-stabilising
rotor technology making him eaasy to fly and staying upright almost all the time. Yours for about £25 at www.gadgets.co.uk
How could we have been so tardy in our reporting of LEGO’s half century celebrations and not told you about their limited edition anniversary set. It has a decent selection of coloured bricks plus a golden nugget in the shape of a 2×4 metallic golden brick. It isn’t due out until August, giving you builders time to create a masterpiece for which the golden block can be the final piece.
Lego’s company motto – ‘Only the best is good enough’ – will never ring as true as it will on Monday 28th January. Lego has been entertaining generations of kids and adults worldwide for 50 years – that’s 18,262.1099 days, 438,290.639 hours and 26,297,438.3 minutes – in case you were wondering. The famous building blocks have remained a firm favourite in Britain for yeeeaaars and have brought entertainment to over 400 million brick building adults and children, inspiring some great and some not so great creations. There is more to Lego than just child’s play – there are actually architects and artists who dedicate their lives to building life-size sculptures made out of the tiny bricks which can sell for up to and even more than £10,000 each. If you want to get in on the action you will need at least 1.5 million bricks – so good luck with that! The simple toy has come a long way since it was first launched in 1961 and despite all the technological advances of half a century, the classic brick still retains its original 2×4 studs. In fact, all Lego pieces are compatible, so a brick from 1958 will interlock with one made today – unlike the majority of long-running toys that most adults wouldn’t be able to recognize from their childhood because they’ve undergone a huge technological transformation!! Whether the creators were being lazy we’ll never know, but it looks like it’s paid off.
