Review: Ultimate FX LightSaber by Hasbro
Written on Oct 18, 2011 by RuthJS and filed under Brands, Featured, Hasbro, News
“An elegant weapon for a more civilized age,” is how Ben Kenobi describes a lightsaber in “A New Hope.” The Ultimate FX Lightsaber, new from Hasbro, is hands down closer to that description than any other toy lightsaber we’ve played with. And, agreed with us, our testers did. Overview Hasbro’s Ultimate FX Lightsaber is well-designed [...]
Review: Star Wars Republic Squadron (TV Games)
Written on Oct 8, 2009 by Brian and filed under Jakks Pacific, Reviews
Jakks Pacific is known for their line of plug and play TV games. Star Wars Republic Squadron is their latest effort, this one conceptually based on the Clone Wars TV series. While a lot has stayed the same, just add batteries and connect two cables to get started, Jakks has freshened up the concept by adding motion controls. The only game buttons are for firing, all other movements are handled by tilting the controller in the proper direction.
Review: WowWee Alive Baby Animals (Leopard Cub)
Written on Oct 6, 2009 by RuthJS and filed under News, Reviews, WowWee
The Alive Leopard Cub by WowWee is part of a series of plush animals that aims to provide children with an interactive baby animal that is somewhat lifelike. When a child touches the cub, it responds by blinking it’s eyes, moving it’s mouth and making baby cub sounds.
Review: Matchbox Rocky The Robot Truck
Written on Oct 1, 2009 by Brian and filed under Matchbox, News, Reviews
When we saw Matchbox’s first interactive toy at Toy Fair this year, we knew they had a winner. Combining robotics with trucks is a no-brainer; but throw in dance moves, load dumping, cheeky commentary and voice activated responses and you have something even better. In this case, that’s Rocky the Robot Truck.
Hexbug Nano Coming this Week
Written on Sep 29, 2009 by Brian and filed under Hexbug, News
Hexbug is about to release another in their line of robotic bugs. The Hexbug Nano will be formally released October 1st. The Nano features 12 angular legs that are propelled rather quickly by a small motor (see the video below). Each Nano also comes with a unique identification number that can be added to an online account where kids can earn points, play games and learn about scientists.
Review: Hyper Blast
Written on Sep 29, 2009 by Brian and filed under Reviews, Wild Planet
Hyper Blast is part of Wild Planet’s Smart Step games series which are designed to be educational while getting kids active at the same time. Hyper Blast is a numbers based game, that times kids while they try to return five colored balls to the base station. Multiple levels make the game progressively harder by mixing in math and other new commands.
Review: WowWee Lightstar
Written on Sep 28, 2009 by Brian and filed under Reviews, WowWee
WowWee’s Lightstar is a hovering remote flight vehicle with a few twists, including light effects. Lightstar has an internal battery that gives it up to four minutes of flight time, and comes in three colors and channels so three Lightstar’s can be flown at the same time.
Review: Mickey’s Mouse-ke-TAG
Written on Sep 22, 2009 by Brian and filed under Reviews, Wild Planet
We first head about Mickey’s Mouse-ke-TAG from Wild Planet at the beginning of the year and caught an early mock-up at Toy Fair. Mickey’s Mouse-ke-TAG is ready for release now though, we’ve been playing with our review unit. The game gets kids up and moving with an engaging game that leverages RFID technology and a kid favorite brand, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.
Review: Hexbug Ant (video)
Written on Sep 15, 2009 by Brian and filed under Hexbug, Reviews
We’ve reviewed all of the latest creations from Hexbug – and were excited to see a demo of their latest creation, the Ant, at Toy Fair earlier this year. Hexbug recently sent us one of these little creatures with the promise of it being 10 times faster than any of their mini-bots to date. We’ll take their word for the 10 times faster, the thing flies – it’s also 10 times more schizophrenic too.
Project Zambi Celebrity Auction
Written on Sep 11, 2009 by Brian and filed under Hasbro
We saw Zambi the baby elephant at Toy Fair and loved the combination of tech and social awareness so much we named it one of our favorite toys from Toy Fair. Hasbro has expanded their mission of helping children who have lost loved ones to aids with a unique celebrity auction. The online auction starts October 5th and will feature custom-designed, one-of-a-kind elephant models signed by one of the participating celebrities. All money raised from the sale of each elephant will be donated to the organization of the celebrity’s choice that supports children orphaned by AIDS in Africa.
Mattel Announces Release Date of Dora Links
Written on Sep 6, 2009 by Brian and filed under Mattel, News
Mattel has officially announced a release date for the Dora links doll and online suite of tools – September 29th. Dora Links was first announced in February, then we got a secret first look at a prototypeof the Dora Links doll. As part of this announcement comes the ability to pre-order Dora Links at select retailers. Mattel is also showing a tiny piece of the online Dora Links world.