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’ve not too much info on it, well whats to talk about really, several shades of Silver cover the surfaces, completing this one should be a challenge after the brilliant bright colours of the original. For us, this one screams paper weight, sure its all silvery and perhaps even trying to shed its geek image and become, erm, sexy? Make your own minds up, Rubik’s Ikon is £12.99 from John Adams.
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.
About to be unleashed onto the UK market the Dioctipoid has our attention, a mildly eccentric designer behind the conce perhaps but where did the scrabble-tastic name appear from? So, we might as well do the obvious comparison here, Rubik’s Cube works by shifting segments with various twists and turns around any of three axis. The Dioctipoid design creates segments forming groups of fifteen that rotate around any of four axis. Not sure? No us neither, so here is a video (with some widely recognisable music) to tell you all about how the Dioctipoid works.
They’re a very visual lot those playthings aren’t they, but we thought we’d try out a media platform where toys weren’t getting an airing. We approached the UK’s leading parent and kid focused radio station to ask for a Toyology slot. The lovely people at Fun Kids radio said we could have tuesdays at 6:45pm and we said YEEEEEEEES. There are over 300,000 people across the UK tuning in every month on their DAB radios and also online and it infally confirms our status bestowed upon us by a few individuals of having “faces for radio” – FOr you 80′s kids check out this link to the Donna Summer classic tune that’s ben in our heads since securing our place on-air.
Are you an amateur author desperate to be published but not an idea what to put pen to paper about? Bring out the Rory’s Story Cubes and create the most fantastical short story ever, or a combination of your yarns tcould be sewn together for something more epic. This humble looking collection of 9 Dice feature a total of 54 images of things, all sorts of things, this translates to a possible 10,000,000 combination of pictures. Roll the dice, have a brief moment and then, launch in with your “Once upon a time” and see where the cubes take you. We’ve had them on test for the latter part of half-term and the age range appeal was remarkable, five year olds and upward really took to it, each telling their own stories and then co-operating with older children to tell one cube each and then of course the adults joined in. Fun, creative, plenty of learning opportunities, family play and a great one for gown-up only play too. All this for £9.99 over HERE
Don’t you love a good pun? But check this out! A Rubik’s Cube that is actually a brain – it’s like the Nemesis ride at Alton Towers for your pocket..with slightly less queueing, loops and general sickness. Still, aside from those minor factors, the likeness between the two is uncanny…
A great find by those clever chaps at www.pocket-lint.com, we bow to you.
Our favourite TV program by far is Horrible Histories, bringing to life aspects of history from across the ages in side splitting fashion whilst ingraining important (and banal) facts in the minds of adults and kids alike. This trio of jigsaws are each 300 pieces, we’ve completed the lot and can say with certainty you’ll enjoy pieceing yours together, and when done, they make fine wall decoration. At just £7.95 each from KidEstore we think this is plenty of present for not so many pieces from your wallet. Each one comes with an eight page booklet packed with facts too, history as it should be!
The Toy Retailers Association, representing about 75% of the UK toy shops unveiled it’s selection of the dozen toys it thinks will dominate this Christmas – Without further ado, here are where the anticipated empty shelf areas are to be found this Yule :
City Airport, Lego UK
Fireman Sam Deluxe Fire Station Playset, Character Options
FurReal Go Go Walking Pup, Hasbro
Jet Pack Buzz Lightyear, Mattel UK
Kidizoom VideoCam, VTech
Monopoly Revolution, Hasbro
Moon Dough Barn, Spinmaster Toys UK
Nerf N Strike Stampede ECS, Hasbro
Paper Jamz Guitar, Wow Wee Europe
‘Pumpaloons’ – action game, Drumond Park
Sylvanian Families Motorcycle and Sidecar, Flair Leisure
ZhuZhu Grooming Salon, Character Options
Gary Grant, chairman of the TRA’s Dream Toys Selection Panel, commented: “This year, the toy industry has combined innovation and creativity to respond to the ever-changing demands of children. The technological advancements used in many of the toys we reviewed this year were simply amazing, and demonstrate how forward thinking manufacturers are. Pete the Geek from Toyology.TV commented “fabulous line up here, not sure how Pumpaloons made the list though” adding “We’ve a video of the event going live later today at toyology.tv go take a look”
We mentioned our new arrival last week – but just to jog your memory…
We’re now the proud older sibling of our beautiful baby sister site Toyology.tv
Weighing in at a healthy 720 mega pixels (no idea!) with a lovely RSS News Feed and a Twitter account, she can’t read and write yet, but she has some brilliant videos…go say congratulations at www.toyology.tv
Subscribe to our newsletter
Use the form below to search the site:
Still not finding what you're looking for? Drop a comment on a post or contact us so we can take care of it!
A few highly recommended friends...
All entries, chronologically...
