Its press preview time at the Nuremberg Toy Fair, plenty of stuff we saw in London last week but a few bits these Europeans will likely be sneaking on eBay when they get their shipments ahead of us. So here are a few that caught our eye that are worthpaying the premium for come Spring so you can grab yours first and claim bragging rights in Blighty. From Silverlit a Hot Wheels, RC, construction multi combo that lets you build impressive tracks, race mini RC’s upon them (up to five at a time). These cars do scales speed of about 1000kmh and the controller has a steer button to help you overtake the competition, not so easy at this rate of knots. The Hong Kong toy makers have also let us peek at the HeliCube, it might only be 2 channel but it comes inside an RC box that slips in the top pocket, great gimmick, GYRO stablised too. From Sablon there is an epic new Star Wars range on the way, Science and Spyware stuff including a R2D2 microviewer, Darth Maul 3D show, Snakin 3D glasses and Mustafar volcano explosion experiment plus plenty more…..Oh, and a Millenium Falcon LEGO carrry case, ideal for netbook carrying to work or sarnies for sch. From Micro, the leaders in getting adults on scooters this past 12 months or so with their grown-up designs is one we saw iin prototype last year, The Pedal Flo, excercise, fun and inflatable tyres to tackle all terrain on your commute, early adopters beware of the points and stares! Images of all the above and a few random ones from this most marvelllous of mornings – Thanks to all at Spielwarenmesse, we’ll be back with more throughout the week.

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.

]]> http://toyology.co.uk/bandai-develop-perfact-packaging-almost/feed 0 http://toyology.co.uk/puzzle-tastic-3d-buildings http://toyology.co.uk/puzzle-tastic-3d-buildings#comments Tue, 24 Jan 2012 09:45:32 +0000 peter jenkinson http://toyology.co.uk/?p=5178

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.

Fans of the tear jerking blockbuster by Spielberg are in for a treat as the lead horse Joey has been unbridled at Toy Fair today.  Select from the Classic Series range at 1:12 scale for around £40 or the Traditional Series range at 1:9 scale (limited run of 3,500) for about £50. Each Breyer “Joey” model is hand-decorated and packed alongside a copy of the now famous book by Michael Morpurgo

To Tweet or not to Tweet that was once the question, well early last year it was largely being just mused over by many in the toy industry, gladly however today most toy firms are in the 140 character club with some even setting up accounts for individual products – Toy town is most certainly on the Twittersphere. We’ve been doing it for years, and today, we only went and got ourselves an award for doing it, yes, Toyshopuk, the finest toy based establishment on the interweb gave us the Best Industry Commentator award, we blushed at first but now we’re beaming. Join us in our quest to make toyland as interesting as we can in 140 chatracters or less HERE

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!

Exciting times ahead for Team Toyology, we’re off to the fine city of Nuremberg in a couple of weeks to make a documentary about the place and how it transforms during Toy Fair week. If you’re over there and fancy a catch-up with us or indeed any UK toy companies then check out this new website from UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) who are working closely with the Birmingham Chamber of Commerce at the show. This new initiative will help visitors organise your time at this incredible event and lets you make appointments with UKTI supported exhibitors. Check it out – www.spielwarenmesse.ukti.gov.uk.

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

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.