Shift over Stylophone we've found an all new way to play to compose a work of electronic genius. The Korg Kaossilator impressed us with its name right away and then the build quality of the brightly coloured box, even before we switched it on we were hooked. Using the touchpad and a flick of a few switches you are ready to access and tweak 100 synth or percussive sounds (guitar, bass, snare, crazy sound effects, etc), manipulate various drum sounds and play in any one of 31 scales in any key. Plug your earphones in and mix it up on the 8.15, when you've master the art plug it into a bigger speaker system set and let the public lap it up. £149.95 from FIREBOX
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.
Grab yourself an 1/18th scale version of the iconic time-travelling car complete with light and sound effect from the film, its Back to the Future for those still wondering. $34 at Bigbadtoys
Over at New York Toy Fair we've had a good rummage around, Mattel's Mindflex continues to impress but we told you about that over a month ago. Catching many an eye is the latest evolution in the seemingly unstoppable life of the Rubik’s Cube. The Rubik's TouchCube features touch sensor technology on all six sides, a motion-detecting accelerometer (akin to the iPhone) and colored lights in every square. It doesn't flash and beep annoyingly or offer quick fire games as many earlier efforts to expand the range may have done but mimics the movements of the original Cube. Swipe your digit over three squares in a line and marvel as the cube moves by shifting the colours around,asatisfying display. The accelerometer ensures that only moves made on the top are recognised and fingers fumbling about on the underside don't affect play. There's also a built-in solver, ask for a hint or select full solve, the internal memory lets you switch off and pick up where you let off and it's all accompanied by modern or classic sound effects. The cube is a second half of 2009 product, that's as close as we can get to a release date with a $150 price tag. Sign up HERE for updates.
This is a great spin on the mny interactive shoot-em-up games on the market right now. Using an infra-red catapult you need to restore some kind of order to the chaotic classroom as the figures pop up from behind their desks accompanied by off-putting sounds.Grab one for £19.95 from Prezzybox
The new Disney animation is fantastic, especially in 3D, which is how the Toyology team enjoyed it last night. The merchandise available to fans of the film has just arrived at the office and we're mighty impressed at whats on offer. First up is an utterly useless Hamster in a ball that just rolls around the floor, if you have any pets they'll love it and you'll become hypotised for longer than you should as it scoots abouit the floor, its £9.99 at Thetoyshop. Next we have two versions of the superhero canine himself, give Talking Bolt a squeeze and hear one of three Super Barks or grab a Super Hero Bolt with light-up laser eyes, sonic bark, super leap and wagging tail £14.99 and £24.99 over at thetoyshop.
The Acme company are famed for their quirky and stylish range of pens, (as well as being Coyotes favorite shop) their latest arrival is this stellar Ray Gun pen to the hands of we earthlings. This retractable rollerbal has a gun-sight clip and a stand about as good looking as the pen, a fine desktop decoration, good enough to grace the worksurfaces of business bigshots who have a sense of humour when "firing" folk. – Yours for $130 at Acme
Collect the crew of the Starship
Enterprise with these twelve detailed 3 ¾” Action Figures
(RRP £6.99) each have decent character features, well they look like mini versions of the actors, which is great, oh and they are fully articulated for posing them every which way – From Captain Kirk to
Spock grab your own private Starship Enterprise army. Better still,
for a bit of “Beam me up”! action get a Transporter Room Playset,
it has a ll the lights, sounds, working parts and accessories
complete with an action figure to re-create beaming scenes from your
favourite episodes – The figures disappear and reappear in front of
your very eyes using technology punching well aabove it's £30
price tag. Bringing up the rear is the Bridge playset, details are a little sketchy but we think it's going to be about £25 and also treat us to a light and sound show, now if we can plug our media players and watch films on that screen it would be pretty good. See Vivid Imaginations
Just plug your electronic Etch-A-Sketch in to the TV and select from one of four artistic modes – Cool Drawing Tools, Trace A Pic, Super Sketch or Connect The Dots – As well as an extra large image of your efforts surrounded on screen by and oversized fascia of the handheld you shake the controller to clear the screen. It's a US product priced at just $6.37 at Lighter Side
Via Redferret
Not content with bothering our brains with a cubed version Rubik's are launching this 360 version in the Summer, and we wager you can't pry this one apart to cheat your way to completion. The 360 consists of a
transparent plastic sphere with another couple of transparent
spheres inside which are both suspended on a rotating axis, and then there's the with six balls in the middle. All that you have to do is steer them through holes in the
spheres and into their coloured home slots on the outside. Sounds simple enough… we'll see.




