Hasta La Gadget!

Desk Pets International, which makes a variety of geeky micro-robotic toys, has just announced the Trekbot, a hubless micro-robotic racer. It comes with a five-function USB remote that lets it perform sharp turns, headstands, and full flips while moving at top speed. With a built-in USB charger, Trekbot never needs batteries.

Trekbots come with a four-color, four-frequency system, which means that multiple owners can race their ‘bots without causing interference. Each ‘bot features an angled wheel design that makes it easy for racers to perform flips and spins at the touch of a button. When it’s time to recharge, plug the USB remote into any Windows or Mac system. Thirty minutes of charging provides fifteen minutes of play. You can pick up a Trekbot at Toys R Us for $19.99. For more info, see the video here.

There are two things we really love here at Gearlog: Star Wars, and ThinkGeek. The two have come together to release two new products for the 30th anniversary of Star Wars: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back. As of today, you can be the proud owner of the Wampa Rug, or the shiny C-3PO Bespin Backpack.

The Star Wars Wampa Rug is made of high-quality synthetic fur, has a plush pillow head, vinyl claws and measures 62-inches long by 30-inches wide. It sells for $99.99. Here’s the ThinkGeek’s description:

As you may recall from Empire, before Luke was preserved inside a dead tauntaun he had a fight with a hideous Wampa snow beast in the mountain caves of Hoth. Now you can catch your own Wampa and take him home to decorate your swank bachelor pad. The Star Wars fangirls will love the high-quality synthetic fur, plush pillow head and fearsome claws.

If you already bought a new backpack for this school year, it’s time to throw that one in the closet and grab the C-3PO Bespin Backpack. The pack is based on the classic scene from Empire Strikes Back when C-3PO was blown apart by stormtroopers. He’s carried around on the wookie’s back before Chewy is able to put him back together. The backpack features light-up flickering eyes, and is made from golden leatherette material. 

But, it’s not just a backpack — it comes with all the appendages to easily assemble a complete 3-foot-tall droid. Luckily, it’s not that large in backpack form; it measures 22-inches high, by 13-inches wide, by 8 inches deep. It sells for $59.99.

If you’re in the market for another space-related product, ThinkGeek recently released the Star Trek pizza cutter.

Did you ever look at a boombox and ask yourself “how can I make this look more like a suitcase?” You and what surely must be millions of others have asked this very question. That’s why designer and self-proclaimed audio-nut Mr. Simo created his line of BoomCase speakers made from actual refurbished cases and luggage.

The cases and are self-powered (will hold 7-plus hours of party time) and will hook into any iPod, iPhone or other media device. BoomCases are fully-customizable and can be made from any suitcase, but Simo claims to “shy away” from plastic cases and to work with wood and leather due to the superior audio qualities of the materials.

Prices start at $250.

When Nokia partnered with Paramount for the 2009 Star Trek movie, they got a little product placement in the movie and in Europe released a Star Trek themed version of the Nokia 5800 with a couple of special wallpapers, screen savers, and some alert sounds. What’s just come to light however is that Nokia actually built a prototype Star Trek communicator flip-phone that looks a lot like the communicators from the movie and the original Star Trek television series.

The communicator phone was based on Nokia’s N76 flip phone, and featured a brass screen on top with lights underneath to make it look like the old television props, a black body with a large screen on the inside and soft black buttons, and a Starfleet logo on the back. Best of all, it’s a fully functional phone, not just a prop for a movie set or a toy. Unfortunately for Star Trek fans, only 14 of these prototypes were ever made, but at least it shows that while it’s often been said Star Trek communicators inspired flip-model cell phones, it’s easily possible to make cell phones inspired by Star Trek communicators.

[via TrekMovie]

The Lego brick is one of the most iconic products in the toy industry–not iconic enough, however, for the company to score the trademark rights to the design. Not in the European Union, at least. A Luxembourg-based judge upheld a 2008 ruling, which struck down Lego’s trademark claims.

Lego argued that, without the trademark, the door is wide open for copycat products. “It is naturally a matter of concern to us that use of the brick by others can dilute the trademark,” Lego intellectual property executive Peter Kjaer said of the ruling. “But the worst aspect is that consumers will be misled.”

Lawyers on the other side of the argument, meanwhile, argued that the shape could not be trademark as it “precluded people from using the same technical function,” meaning that owning the trademark to the snapping pegs would prohibit other from creating a product that had the same feature.

“The court effectively took the view that all the essential characteristics of the Lego brick did perform a technical function–to enable bricks to be connected and stacked–even if other minor features did not, and this precluded registration,” the lawyer, Shireen Peermohamed, explained.

The court agreed, stating that such a trademark over the “technical solution” would essentially constitute a monopoly.