toys

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

Amazing Alex (99 cents) for iPhone or Android is a physics game where you're challenged to create chain reactions with objects to complete objectives. Our hero, Amazing Alex, is a kid who's stuck cleaning his room and tries to get creative with organizing his belongings by building Rube Goldburg-like devices.… Read more

Holiday shopping season is coming. Oh yes, it is. And the new Furby is waiting. Hasbro has redesigned the Furby and is releasing it this fall, complete with complementary iOS apps and a re-engineered body.

I don't choose to believe that the Furby is officially a retro toy. That ages me too much. The original Furby came out in 1998, which somehow adds up to 14 years ago. I missed Furbymania completely (I was in grad school), but for both newcomers and the Furby-nostalgic Hasbro is readying its first new Furby product since the days of Y2K. The name? It's still just Furby. And one has arrived at our CNET offices.… Read more

TOKYO--If you're in love with your iPhone, Bandai's Smartpet lets it really walk all over you.

Shown off at the 2012 International Tokyo Toy Show, which opened to the public yesterday, Smartpet turns your iPhone or iPod Touch into a robotic canine companion.

The pooch can walk around (top speed: three steps per second), sit up, and wag its tail. The app shows a variety of cartoon faces on the touch screen, or whatever face you want to give it. … Read more

Take a look at this eccentric array of action figure lamps by U.K. firm Evil Robot Designs. They feature painted pint-size superstars from geeky films, video games, and comic books.

Each of the six lamps in the collection has an ear-catching name like Alien Nation and Forbidden Planet. It would take paragraphs to list all the characters integrated into the 2-foot fixtures, but some notables (not mentioned in the photo captions) include Mysterio; Green Goblin; evil xenomorphs from the "Alien" movie series; He-Man; Bunnygirl "Suzumiya Haruhi"; and many more. … Read more

Do children still enthuse about cars? Toyota is hoping they'll become future buyers with the Camatte, an EV concept showing this week in Tokyo.

Named for the Japanese verb kamau (to care), the Camatte is designed to prompt tykes to care about car ownership. The seats and pedals can be adjusted so that kids can drive while an adult in the back seat helps with steering.

It won't be road-worthy, however, and is designed for use on go-kart tracks and other private facilities, with a top speed of 25 mph. Can that really rev kids up? … Read more

PayPal announced today it is partnering with 15 more U.S. retailers aiming to get shoppers to use PayPal's offline payment system.

"Consumers are relying on technology now more than ever to simplify their lives when it comes to shopping and paying, and retailers must adapt to this shift or risk becoming irrelevant," PayPal President David Marcus wrote in a blog post. "Innovative retailers everywhere are looking for ways to improve the shopping experience, extend loyalty programs and better engage with their customers."

The new retailers include, Abercrombie & Fitch, Advance Auto Parts, Aeropostale, American … Read more

It's the tallest Lego tower ever, soaring to the heavens at more than 104 feet and setting a geek world record last week.

The Lego World Tower brought joy to the hearts of Koreans last week when it went up in Seoul's Olympic Stadium.

At 104 feet and 7 inches, it edged out a similar tower erected in France last year at 103 feet. It took some 4,000 Korean kids five days and half a million bricks to put it together. … Read more