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.
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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.
We have seen a few 3D puzzlesover the past months, these new ones from Wrebbit (we’ll get to the bottom of that name creation soon) are these landmark builds, each one a 750 piece plus affair, not easy by any means but deeply satisfying when finished. From the Taj Mahal to Big Ben there’s a few to choose from and are about the biggest in their class, and priced between £20-£40 when launched in June over at Amazon.
The smash Apple iOS and Android Fruit ninjas comes to life with this fab bit of fruit lopping fun. The real life version of the game see’s you take hold of one mini ninja sword and attack the 20 pieces of plastic fruit. Pick up a mission card and select your target fruit then get chopping. This is definitely the year of the “appcessorie” and this is definitely the place to discover the latest on release. London Toy Fair press releases so far have us a list of almost 20 to share with you next week. If you’re a fan of the app, but not so much this game then perhaps a real life Fruitg Ninja plush is for you, complete with squelchy sound FX. BUY!
One of the new Playmobil lines this year is that of Stone Age, and you know that their always going to deliver a cracking set, this lot though has exeeded even our lofty expectations. The Stoneage “Big Cave with Mammoth” set features the fantastic cave with a hiding place for the family of four in case the Mammoth should get a bit brave or the wolf decide to pay a visit. We’re really keen on this prehistoric stuff from Playmobil as it doesn’t realy on the tried and tested, and almost guaranteed success that the inclusion of dinosaurs would bring. Overall what excites us most is watching kids try to roleplay with these Stoneage sets, tere’s no real precedent for them to follow from TV, unless you’ve tried them on something very retro, and unbearable to watch from the 60′s. Check out the Playmobil range HERE
Marshmallow fun was once limited to the game of stuffing them into one’s mouth and trying to make others in your team comprehend the words you uttered – Or was that just us? Well, no longer is it the only non-eating based fun to be had with the king off confectionary, the Marshmallow blaster lets you load one of the (full sized)mtreats inside, pump up the gun and sent yours soaring to a grateful recipient up to 40 ye FORTY feet away. The evolution of marshmallow based projectile technology continues apace, we’ve discovered the Bow and Mallow, this one with a magazine style storage unit that feeds up to 25 mini-marshmallows into the firing chamber for launches of up to 30 feet, and, in more medieval marshmallow news, here’s the marshmallow crossbow, it also fires mini marshmallows, again at up to 30 feet but the double magazine lets you fire off 25 from each magazine – marauding marshmallow enemies do not stand a chance. Have a butchers at Maps Toys they’ve some other interesting lines too
You’ll be hearing and seeing plenty more about the LEGO(R) DC Universe Super Heroes range over the coming weeks as it hits the shelves, we’ve uncovered it on the virtual aisles on pre-order at Firebox and thought a heads-up was only fair so you could try and save some cash. Our favourite by far is the Batcave set, complete with Bane and his drilling machine trying to rescue Poison Ivy whilst Batman and Robin try and stop him – you decide who prevails. The set lets you transform Bruce into Batman as he travels down in the lift, it has a Batcycle included, the Drill Tank has flick missiles and there are a raft of other accessories to justoifyb the £70 price tag, but wait, what’s that, Holy Bargain Basement Batman, the range starts at about £10 with a Catwoman on a motorcycle….Can you resist her lure? We’re also keen to get our mitts on a Superman minifig, looks the business….
Launched in Vegas this week into what is likely to be the biggest toy genre for 2012 the AppGear range is an evolution from the iOS “appcessories” we saw last year from AppToyz with the unputdownable AppBlaster. These Augmented Reality toys herald the beginning of a raft of toy launches in this area over the coming weeks but Wowwee are first out of the blocks with theirs, and mighty impressive they look too. A range of six is set to be unleashed in the next month, each game requires a physical purchase and then a download of the free app, and happily they all support iOS and Android.
The titles are Alien Jailbreak, Zombie Burb, Elite Commander, Foam Fighter, Akodomon and Mysterious Ray Gun – Look through your smart device and virtual worlds appear in your room, there is little doubt these will, at between £10 and £20, be a sensation. Beware people walking around with toys attached to their mobiles, an increase in lamp post related incidenets is certain to ensue the release of these games. A question to Wowwee if we may though, is the Mysterious Ray Gun so named as it is a mystery to what this particular product is actually about? More Videos of the range in action this way please….
Whether you are or are not fans of Mattels Hot Wheels range we would challenge you not to have a desire for this racer after we tell you a little. It has been around for a few weeks and we admit being slow off the mark getting our opinions online but, after seeing it on BBC Friday Download last week gave us the powerful nudge needed to offer our opinion. On-board, up at the front is a VGA camera, underneath a LCD diplay for playback and USB connection for PC, it’s able to hold onto 12 minutes of footage and has USB connection for easy PC transfer. The car can also be attached about your person or to a skatboard helmet to record non-track based action, so even though the £60 price tag appears a tad steep at first you are getting an action cam too. It was a shame on Fridays show as they managed to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the Video Racer, as it is longer than other cars in the range, struggles a bit on some track sets but no matter, we’re on the hunt for a definitive list of where it performs perfectly.
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 lights and the track has a glow-in-the-dark print for late night missions. Then, well this is the one that’ll have pre-order buttons ablaze when we find out when/where/how much, the 1:32 scale Battle of Endor, a 4.3 metre track with woodland features and accessories and Luke Skywalker and Scout Trooper aboard a pair of Speed Bike There is also the promise of more sets and solo vehicles to add to your Star Wars track, Like this all very much we do.
Our memories of Airfix are of getting our fingers stuck together and using as much paint on ourselves as on the models, the most enduring recollection however was the utter satisfaction of placing our completed creation in its pride of place. This year Airfix are releasing over 60 new models, we struggled to select a favourite but decided the Cutty Sark tall ship would be our re-introduction to model construction. Check out the line up HERE
The annual stocktake is underway at London Zoo today, we’d not mind being in charge of elephants/giraffes or sloths – easy enough but what about those poor folk who have to do the reptile house? Anyroad, here’s a mini display of Zoo life that’d make a great toy for the kids or even a boardroom homage to all of Noahs friends….If we hear of an undercount in the lion/tiger enclosure we’ll let you know.
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