toys

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

When the Curiosity rover landed on Mars earlier this month, the world couldn't get enough of the six-wheeled dynamo.

Mass adoration for the roving Martian also successfully propelled a pet project by mechanical engineer Stephen Pakbaz, who submitted a miniature version of the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover last November to Cuusoo, a site officially created by Lego that lets fans vote on brick-based concepts (similar to Kickstarter). If a proposition gets 10,000 votes, then "a Lego jury evaluates the idea's feasibility as a product and makes a decision." … Read more

Looking at Lego's most impressive creations -- its giant "Star Wars" sets, its Master Builder Academy initiative, its programmable Mindstorms system -- it's easy to forget that it was 80 years ago that the global behemoth had much more humble beginnings when Ole Kirk Christiansen started a little wooden toy company in Billund, Denmark.

Today, Lego is celebrating its 80th birthday, and touting its growth from a tiny outfit in a single building in Billund to the world's third-largest "producer of play materials," employing 10,000 people, many in its variety of production facilities in Europe and beyond.

As the company is fond of pointing out, "Lego" comes from the combination of two Danish words, "leg" and "godt," meaning "play well." And in the early years, when it was focusing its energies on wooden toys, it was by no means a world-changer. … Read more

Who knew action figures could be so expressive? The trailer for a fan-made Batman film called "Batman: Dark Knightfall" uses toys to create a dark battle between Gotham's forces of good and the Joker's evil minions.

Everything from the lighting to the music to the movement of the figures is full of moody, broody atmosphere. What makes this unusual stop-motion project work is the super-realistic action figures. The 12-inch figures made by Hot Toys turn the trailer into a creepy romp through the Uncanny Valley.… Read more