toys

Don't you love when innocent playground activities meld with extreme sports?

The same crazy folks at Hammacher Schlemmer that brought us the Mountain Scooter, Gravity-Defying Boots and Push-Free Skateboard, are now pushing The Pneumatic Drive Highest-Jumping Pogo Stick.

This is not the pogo stick of our childhoods. No, no, this one's inner compression spring generates more than 1,500 pounds of thrust capable of hurtling you seven feet in the air, which incidentally is the world record for pogoing set by--you guessed it--The Pneumatic Drive Highest-Jumping Pogo Stick. Air can be added by bike pump or air compressor … Read more

Was there anything cooler than an Erector Set when you were ten? Twenty?

Billed by Thames and Kosmos as a "computer systems engineering kit," the Microcontroller appeals to those same instincts for constructive adventure. It comes with circuits and prewritten programs that will allow you to turn ordinary objects into "smart objects."

Actually, this $150 toy for kids is also a cool way for adults to mess around and learn how to assemble circuits and write computer programs.

The microcontroller contains a computer processor, storage for memory, timers and ports. The kit comes with 100 programs … Read more

That irritating mosquito copter we wrote about earlier had better not run out of batteries around this thing, or it'll be squashed like the RC bug that it is.

Hammacher Schlemmer has come out with this all-terrain "screw-propelled remote control car" that would gleefully crush anything in its path. Why "screw-propelled," you ask? As any schoolboy knows, that refers to the technology used by the "Snowbird 6 vehicle that crossed the Bering Strait during the Ice Challenger British exploration expedition of 2002," according to the product literature. When constructed wisely, a pair of … Read more

It's that time of year, when every manufacturer in the world hopes to strike it rich with the "It" toy. And every year we're flooded with e-mails touting remote-controlled mini-somethings.

This season, it's the miniature helicopter, all of 6 inches long and about a third of an ounce. You can see one in action in this cheesy video, complete with a score reminiscent of Magnum P.I. (A competing version that looks identical can be seen here too.) The demos are a far cry from this amazing RC plane footage, but the mosquito-like copters are … Read more

Boy, November is most certainly a hot month for gadget and gizmo birthdays. In addition to welcoming the Nintendo Wii, the PS3, the Zune, the Archos 604-WiFi, and the Samsung BlackJack, among many others to this rough and tumble consumer world, I'd like to welcome De-botz (the name given to the Lego Mindstorms NXT-based robot I recently built).

The $250 robotics kit (for ages 10 and up) gives you the tools necessary to build and program a variety of brick-based robots. I decided to go with the humanoid, patiently assembling what seemed like a thousand pieces, and that … Read more

We have nothing against the Ferrari laptop and certainly nothing against the Dino. But of all the latest Ferrari-related announcements, this one just doesn't seem to live up to the legendary name above its face, at least in its appearance.

Granted, the Traffic Assist Pro (couldn't they come up with a better name?) is packed with features, including a state-of-the-art GPS system, 400-MHz processor, MP3-grade speakers and a touch-sensitive screen that Newlaunches says can support 65,536 colors. Perhaps most impressive of all to us, it can keep a list of speed radars in its internal database.

Still, … Read more

How quickly the tables can turn. Just the other day, we were relishing the thought of sneaking up on friends and loved ones with a Webcam-toting robot spy. Now we find out that another kind of surveillance tool is on the market, and it's for kids.

It looks like an innocent remote-controlled car, but the $100 toy vehicle is mounted with a video camera that sends live feeds back to its operator--which, by Target's definition, is anyone aged 8 and up. To top it off, this thing can even work in the dark with a night-vision feature, and … Read more

Don't you f***ing love cute stuffed animals?

They're the s***. But Entertainment Earth has taken huggable plush toys to an entirely new level with the Swear Bear.

Here are the f***ing basics: you hug the innocent-looking Swear Bear, and in turn, it swears profusely. We're talking classic phrases such as "Hey d***head, what're you--some kind of pervert, gotta touch teddy bears?" and "Eat s*** and die!" Awww, that's so f***ing adorable.

In addition to making Tickle-Me Elmo look like a complete a******, the Swear Bear costs only … Read more

This polished silver digital piggy bank records the cash you feed it and displays the total on an LED screen. It aims to teach kids the value of a dollar, according to the manufacturer, and costs $24.95 at the Science eStore.

But oddly enough, the seemingly modern Pig E Bank Electronic Bank doesn't take dollars. It only recognizes pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters. As RedFerret noticed, that's a lot of coinage needed to save for a new PlayStation 3.

Considering the U.S. dollar coin has big plans starting in 2007, what kind of hogwash is that?… Read more