toys

Last month, Ford unveiled it's electric Focus. This month, we've had the pleasure of tooling around with an all electric Mustang and, well, it's small. Actually, it's 1/10th scale small, because the electric car in question is the HPI Racing E10 RTR remote control car.

Okay, so it's a toy, but it's a pretty serious one. The $250-299 cost of entry will be prohibitive to many casual users.

The E10 RTR kit is the preassembled version of HPI's E10 R/C car chassis and accessories--RTR standing for "ready to run"--but there are quite a few user servicable parts. The simplicity of on out-of-the-box kit makes it easy for novices to setup and use. However, the wide array of upgrades and swappable parts makes it a great next step for users who want to get dig into the world of custom R/C.

Power flows from the removable, rechargeable 7.2V 1500mAh NiCd battery pack. THe E10 kit ships with an AC charger that recharges the battery pack in about 6 hours. However, we were only able to get about 30-45 minutes of play from a full charge, so we'd recommend that your first upgrade be either a second battery pack (about $15-20 at online retailers) or a step up to the GT 7.2v 3300mAh NiMH battery ($40 direct from HPI) for double the play time per charge.… Read more

This year's Toy Fair in New York City was a little lacking in big-ticket excitement, but there were a few surprises for office geeks such as myself. Nanodots are high-powered mini magnetic balls, perfect for whiling away fidgety minutes at a desk. They come in packs of 216, cost around $30-$40 a set, and are tremendously addictive (just keep them away from small children--they're quite dangerous if swallowed). The problem with them generally tends to be finding a place to put them. They roll, they damage sensitive electronics, and they're easy to misplace.

The $20 Nanopad is a mat woven with iron, heavy and dense like one of those aprons you wear for dental X-rays. Nanodots stick to it like glue, and won't slide around and glom on to each other. On one side is a printed chessboard, perfect for building your own chess/checker/made-up board game set, if your inner geek dares. … Read more

This week: In celebration of Valentine's Day, we look at some of the timely press swag that has turned up in our office. Scott talks about his visit to Toy Fair, and we play some more tech trivia with the chat room.

Bonus: You can download the show's theme song as a free MP3 here for a limited time!

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We don't cover a whole lot of kids toys here at CNET, but every year we make the journey to Toy Fair, which is once again in town at the Javitz Center in New York. And like every other online gadget publication, we wanted to give you a little taste of what's there.

Granted, with somewhere around 1,500 manufacturers, distributors, importers, and sales agents from 30 countries making the rounds at the convention center, we're only highlighting a small fraction of all the products that are on display. But hopefully there's a little something for … Read more

Caroline McCarthy from CNET's The Social blog joins us on today's podcast to discuss this morning's Oscar nominations and eight nods for "The Social Network" including Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Director, Best Screenplay Adaptation, Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, Best Sound Mixing, and Best Original Score.

The film undoubtedly deserves the recognition, but it seems they left off Andrew Garfield for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of Eduardo Saverin, Facebook's co-founder and a 5 percent shareholder of the $2.5 billion company.

Despite this oversight, Garfield will likely have another chance with his upcoming role as the famous Webslinger in the upcoming reboot of the Spider-Man franchise. The rest of the cast includes Rhys Ifans as the Lizard, Martin Sheen as Uncle Ben, Emma Stone as Gwen Stacy, and Chris Zylka as Flash Thompson.

But there's no chance the movie will be quite as awful as "Turn off the Dark," Broadway's version of the Spider-Man genesis wrought with disaster even in the face of its new finale.

Wilson checked out an early preview of the show and has an equally negative review to share that makes this Onion headline sound right on the mark: "Nuclear Bomb Detonates During Rehearsal For 'Spider-Man' Musical." We blame Bono.

As usual, the Razzie nominations were announced today in conjunction with the Oscars, and it's no surprise that the "Twilight Saga: Eclipse" swept the Golden Raspberries for Worst Picture, Worst Actor (Robert Pattinson), Worst Screenplay, and...actually, the movie appears in all the categories except for Worst Supporting Actress and Worst Eye-Gouging Misuse of 3D, where they were ineligible to be nominated.

This is TankBot from DeskPets, a fairly inexpensive (sub-$20, they say), treaded, remote-controlled toy robot that you can control with an iPhone or an iPod Touch, or even an iPad.

While using iDevices as a remote is nothing new--indeed, Apple has an app simply called "Remote" for controlling the Apple TV--the TankBot is unique in that it doesn't use Bluetooth or Wi-Fi as an interface but rather a dongle that plugs into the headphone port of the iWhatever.

Once attached, an app is downloaded. The device then uses its built-in accelerometer as a steering mechanism, allowing … Read more

The 1990s produced so many of our favorite music, movies, toys, and TV shows that we're making this a tribute to the decade. We're talking Supersoakers, TGIF, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Green Day, Smashing Pumpkins, Dumb & Dumber, Seinfeld, Gushers, Street Sharks, Clueless, Nerf Guns, Discmans, Laserdiscs, and more!

Buckyballs aren't a traditional tech item, but they are magnetic, meaning there's science behind how they work. And because science and technology go hand in hand, voila: there's my justification for today's slightly unusual deal.

Today only, and while supplies last (which may not be very long), Sellout.woot has two sets of Buckyballs for $29.99, plus $5 for two-day shipping (which should get them in your hands just in time to stuff them into some stockings).

Update: Sorry, everyone, but the Buckyballs are sold out. Same goes for the monitor deal below. But the … Read more