toys

You know the holidays are getting close when Steve Jobs action figures start to appear.

We've seen a few toy tributes to Jobs from Chinese companies. There was a kerfuffle in January of this year when Hong Kong toymaker In Icons bowed to pressure from Jobs' family and Apple and withdrew a 12-inch doll from the market.

That hasn't stopped a Japanese startup from trying to cash in on Jobs' popularity. Tokyo-based Legend Toys is releasing its own strikingly detailed 12-inch figure of Jobs. It was sculpted by Takao Kato, whose work includes 1:16 scale and 1:4 scale figures for the otaku market. … Read more

This secret is out. Sometimes, girls like to play with He-Man action figures and boys like to nurture dolls. A Swedish toy catalog is getting a lot of attention for swapping out traditional gender roles by depicting a boy playing with a dollhouse and a girl blasting an imaginary foe with a Nerf gun.

Top Toy created the holiday catalog for toy chains BR and Toys"R"Us. The catalog was released in both Denmark and Sweden, but the Swedish version features some Photoshopped changes. Perhaps most notably, a boy wielding a toy gun in the Danish catalog was replaced by a girl, while a boy appears on another page playing with a very pink dollhouse.… Read more

Meet the nanoblock camera, one of the smallest shooters ever shown on Crave.

Japanese company Fuuvi yesterday debuted the tiny toy camera with a shell made of nanoblocks -- a smaller alternative to the traditional Lego brick. However, connoisseurs of quality might bite their lip as the ultrasimple controls and lack of viewfinder make this device a not-so-serious option for picture taking. The measly 2-megapixel resolution doesn't help matters much either. … Read more

I never thought I'd be writing about Toys "R" Us again but one of the country's best-known children's merchants is making some big moves online.

The company has launched a video service designed for children and offers more than 4,000 titles from some of Hollywood's biggest film studios. As one might expect, the selection at ToysrusMovies.com is family fare and the service will charge $2.99 for 24-hour rentals while download-to-own titles will start at $5.99.

Toys "R" Us is even in the cloud. Users can store their purchases … Read more

Few of our past Lego stories compare to this elaborate device, which sends hundreds of small toy balls through a series of 17 challenging Lego Mindstorm contraptions including zigzag stairs, spiral lifts, and even a basket shooter.

The mesmerizing machine took a 21-year-old Japanese brick artist nicknamed "akiyuky" more than 600 hours to build and stretches beyond imagination at 4.9 feet by 21.3 feet. While we could spend several paragraphs describing the many intricacies of this doodad, the embedded seven-minute video below shows in better detail than we could tell the full 101.7-foot path each ball travels through. … Read more

Stanford engineer Debbie Sterling has seen a boy bias in toys like Lego and Erector sets. Lego's recent attempts at appealing to girls seem to be a little off the mark. So how do you get girls interested in engineering toys?

Sterling's answer: a Kickstarter project called GoldieBlox. It's a construction toy paired with a storybook, "GoldieBlox and the Spinning Machine."

The main character is Goldie, a kid inventor. She is joined by a cat, a dolphin ballerina, a sloth, a bear, and her dog Nacho. The construction set has a pegboard, wheels, axles, blocks, a ribbon, a crank, and washers.… Read more

Toys "R" Us will sell a new Android tablet aimed at the younger crowd.

The 7-inch Tabeo tablet sounds like a lot of entry-level Android tablets. Powered by a 1GHz processor, the multitouch device comes with 4GB of built-in storage but can handle up to 32GB with a micro SDHC card.

Equipped with built-in Wi-Fi, the Tabeo lets kids browse the Internet, including Flash-enabled Web sites. A front-facing camera is included, as is an HDMI port so children can connect the tablet to a TV. The device comes with 50 preloaded games, books, and educational apps and offers … Read more

If I were a kid, I would probably have the date May 7, 2013 memorized like a video game cheat code. That's when the Legoland hotel in San Diego opens its brick-adorned doors, ushering in the first Lego-themed auberge on the continent.

Similar to the already-running Legoland hotel in Windsor, U.K., the entire façade and interior of the hotel features Lego elements from head to toe. Upon arriving, kids will surely gasp at a Lego dragon near the entrance that emits real smoke when irritated. Another example of Lego flair can be found in the lobby, where 6,000 Lego minifigures stand neatly lined up behind the concierge desk. … Read more