Hasta La Gadget!

Growing up I built more than my fair share of paper airplanes. I’m sure a lot of you guys built plenty of them yourselves, and we still build quite a few paper flying machines around my house. I’ll let you in on a little secret – being able to fly paper airplanes off of the landing is the main reason why I purchased a two-story home.

But if your paper airplanes don’t stay in the air long enough for you, you’ll want to get one with a propeller to help things along. TailorToys has announced their updated PowerUp 3.0 electric paper airplane conversion kit that allows your paper planes to actually fly under their own power.

These kits have been around for a while, but version 3.0 now allows you to control your airplane using a smartphone. This version of the paper airplane kit works with any smartphone supporting Bluetooth 4.0. While there’s no video footage yet of the PowerUp 3.0 in action, here’s a clip of the previous generation flying high in the sky:

The kit is scheduled to ship in August 2013. The company also unveiled a similar PowerUp Boat kit that converts your paper boats into electric powerboats. The Boat Kit will be available in July 2013. Pricing for both kits is undisclosed at this time.

Fans of the Justice League, here’s another bunch of fun collectibles to put on your shelf. I’m pretty sure you’ve never seen your favorite DC superheroes look quite like this.

These collectible Justice League figures were made by Japan’s Kotobukiya in collaboration with DC Comics and Zarigani Works[JP]. Each of these little superheroes features an stylized off-kilter, blocky look which I really dig.

You can’t see it in the pics, but they actually have wheels in their backs and turn into vehicles when you set them on a smooth surface too. They’re available in a set including Flash, Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman and Green Lantern – in both a plain or metallic finish. The full set of 10 sells for $55.99(USD) over at Entertainment Earth.

Many scientists have theorized that the reason the Hindenburg went down in flames was because of the combination of flammable hydrogen gas and paints on the surface of the blimp’s skin. Well you won’t have to worry about either of those with this little R/C toy that’s designed to look like an airship.

Created by China’s AMAX Toys, the Airship is a remote-controlled flyer that uses a pair of horizontal propellers to lift it into the air. Of course, the only reason this design works is that the Airship itself has no skin. Instead, you see the skeleton of the dirigible – and that’s pretty cool.

The Airship measures about 11-inches-long, and can fly for about 5 to 6 minutes on a 60 minute charge. I comes with a 3-channel infrared remote – which limits running distance to about 30 feet, and has gyroscopes to help keep it balanced while flying.

The Airship is available in wholesale quantities from AMAX Toys, but they’re not selling them retail at this point.

At the 2013 Tokyo Gift Show, Takara Tomy unveiled a toy that’s at the cusp of being practical. The company calls it the Automee S, a tiny disk-shaped robot designed to clean the touchscreens on mobile devices. iRobot has nothing to worry about for now.

While the Roomba has brushes and a vacuum motor, the AutoMee S does its job using tiny cleaning pads. It also has sensors that detect edges and help it clean a screen evenly. According to Newlaunches, the Automee S can clean a tablet’s screen in about 8 minutes, which is depressingly long for a cleaning robot, but is just an endearing affectation for a toy. Here’s a short video about the Automee S uploaded by Robots Dreams:

The Automee S will go on sale in Japan on March for ¥1,575 (~$17 USD). It’s so stupid. I want one.

[via Newlaunches via The Verge]

If you spent the rest of your day putting your skull back together after seeing Gyuta K.’s LEGO Eva Gundam, brace yourself. Because as it turns out, he has an earlier project so awesome it will beam saber your brain to bits. It’s a LEGO action figure of the White Devil, the RX-78-2 Gundam.

Like many action figures, this LEGO Gundam has several points of articulation, making it quite poseable. And like many LEGO creations, the Gundam has swappable parts, including two different chests. One chest has a cockpit for a minifig Amuro Ray while the other transforms into the FF-X7 Core Fighter. I think I just saw parts of your cerebellum drip out of your nose.

Unfortunately, I’m going to have to de-blow your minds. You see, Gyuta K. uploaded the pictures and details of his masterpiece on MOCPages way back in 2010. I know what you’re thinking – LEGO Cuusoo! Gyuta K. did submit a proposal to LEGO’s website, but it was rejected “for not following the Guidelines.” I guess it was just too badass to be mass-produced. Activate your Newtype powers and fly to Gyuta K.’s MOCPages page to see more of the action figure.

[via MOCPages & Gundam Guy via Nerd Approved]