Apr 22

New Razor Scooters Make Your Kid Evel Knievel

Posted in: Today's Chili, Toys and Games, Transportation

The Graffiti, left, and eSpark, right, ensure you leave a scene with flair. Photo: Oh Gizmo

What better way to get kids interested in your waning product line than by setting it on fire?

Razor has debuted two of its new scooter products that sport surprises to boot: An electric model called the eSpark ($180), and for the urban artist on the go, the Graffiti ($60).

The Graffiti leaves a trail of three parallel lines of sidewalk chalk with its “chalk scribbler”, while the eSpark features a “spark bar” that sends tiny flames flying as you scoot by. The eSpark can reach speeds up to 10 mph with a 40-minute battery life.

I can’t remember the last time I saw kids zipping down the street on a Razor scooter. I think the iconic, slender two-wheeler has been relegated to bike-shunning, eco-conscious San Francisco nerderati who use it on their daily commute through the city.

But that’s about to change.

If your child gets the Graffiti, at least you’ll always know where they’ve been. As for the eSpark, that just seems like pure trouble: If a couple stray sparks hit a couple dry fall leaves on the ground, they could end up leaving a Ghost Rider-style path of fiery destruction in their wake.

Razor [via Oh Gizmo]


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Apr 21

ThinkGeek’s iCade Turns iPad into Retro Arcade Cabinet

Posted in: Games, Retro, Today's Chili, Toys and Games

The iCade cabinet will make you feel like a giant living in the 1970s

Remember the iCade? Sure you do. It was ThinkGeek’s 2010 April Fool gag, a tiny tabletop arcade machine which used the iPad as its screen. Now, just over a year later, the iCade is real, and can be pre-ordered for $100 at ThinkGeek’s store.

Along with the price drop (the joke unit was $150) there have been some changes to the imaginary specs. Now the iCade connects to the iPad by Bluetooth, not through the dock connector. It also has more buttons — eight instead of just two — but it keeps a coin slot so you can feed it with quarters.

But best of all is that ThinkGeek has teamed up with Atari. The legendary game company recently released Atari’s Greatest Hits, which brings 100 classic titles to the iPhone and iPad. These games have built-in support for the iCade’s joystick and buttons. ThinkGeek has also released an API so any developer can bake support into their own games. This rather practical addition raises the iCade from mere novelty to actually pretty awesome.

So popular is the iCade that, despite only being available for pre-order, it is already back ordered. Thus, you’ll have to wait for the second batch. International buyers will have an even longer wait, as worldwide shipping will only start once the iCade is in stock. My $100 is ready.

iCade product page [ThinkGeek]

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Apr 20

PSP Gone: Sony Kills Off Two-Year Old Console

Posted in: playstation, sony, Today's Chili, Toys and Games

Cute, but doomed: The PSPgo will no longer be made by Sony. Photo Jim Merithew / Wired.com

Sony has announced that it will no longer make the little PSPgo portable games console. Speaking to Japanese site Impress, Sony confirmed rumors that the console, just over two years old, will be euthanized, and production will cease. Any units still in warehouses around the world will remain on sale until they’re gone.

The PSPgo is a cut-down version of the PSP. It launched in 2009 and managed to slim down to around half the size of the PSP by ejecting the UMD disk drive and hiding the controls on a slide-out panel.

Why has Sony killed the console so soon? We may never know, but we suspect that the PSPgo never really sold very well — the unit saw a hefty price cut in Japan last October, bringing it from ¥26,800 ($323) to ¥16,800 ($203). Add in competition from the cheaper Nintendo DS Lite and the do-anything iPod Touch and you can see that things may have been difficult.

Then again, the PSPgo may just have been axed to make way for the Sony Ericsson PSP phone, the Xperia Play, which is remarkably similar to the PSPgo, and includes a competent Android cellphone, too.

Either way, the little fella probably won’t be missed, and Sony has committed to continue soldiering on with the bigger PSP-3000. Good luck, Sony! Now, where’s my iPod? I feel like a game of Angry Birds.

SCE, PSP go to complete the shipment [AV Watch / Impress]

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Apr 14

Zaaf’s Concept Bike As Fragile As the Granny That Would Ride it

Posted in: Today's Chili, Toys and Games

Zaff’s concept Globike looks like it would smash at the first pothole

Zaaf Design’s Globike “is inspired by ergonomic principles enjoying comfort with style.” It’s a shame that while the Italian design house was enjoying this inspiration, and studying the “energy needed to produce movement,” it didn’t stop to make a bike that could actually last five minutes on a real road.

Aesthetically, it is indeed inspired, a gorgeous take on the classic Dutch bike. It also looks comfy, with a laid-back geometry position and high handlebars for an upright riding position. And the combination of carbon fiber frame and titanium seat post should keep it light enough to ride up hills and carry up stairs.

But take a proper look. Let’s start at the front. The head tube curls around into the down tube in a joint that looks as if it would snap like a chicken’s wishbone, and would flex distractingly right up until it did so. Let’s move down that down tube until we reach the shame that is the seat tube and bottom bracket. The seat tube goes straight through the main frame in another flex-friendly joint, and continues down to the crank, which appears to be dangling down there at the bottom.

As someone who broke two steel frames in this exact spot, in the space of one month, I’m pretty sure this is a high-stress area. There appears to be a cable strung down from above, but lord knows how it would help.

As for the “specs” of this concept design, Zaaf has decided on hub gears, a disk brake and a nice sprung saddle. These off-the-shelf pieces seem to be the only practical part of the entire concept.

To finish, one more quote from the blurb:

All these elements permit flexibility and control of the main frame and forks to achieve a distinguished lightness and comfort.

Flexibility? Oops.

Globike [Zaaf via Bicycle Design]

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Apr 12

Kids Build Bikes and Cars With Life-Sized ‘Construction Toy’

Posted in: Cars, lego, Today's Chili, Toys and Games

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Wouter Scheublin’s Construction Toy is a vehicle construction kit for kids. It is also — if the concept design ever becomes a real product — a lawsuit waiting to happen.

The kit is a lot like Lego Technic, featuring modular splined tubes, bolts, cogs and wheels that can be put together in almost limitless ways. The difference is that Scheublin’s kit results in life-sized toys that can be driven and ridden by kids. Bikes, karts, trikes and (shudder) recumbents can all be put together with some imagination and a little hard work.

I think it’s fantastic — but you knew that, as I’m a bike nut and a DIY fan. I would have loved this thing so hard when I was a kid, and I’d be still be pretty happy to play with one today.

But without parental supervision, little Danny will likely put something together, take it to the top of the steepest, twistiest hill in town and launch himself down it. The amazing machine will lose a wheel at the first corner and poor Danny will be thrown to his doom, ending up broken at the foot of the slope surrounded by Scheublin’s tubes and connections.

But lawyer-bait aside, this oversized construction kit could — with the right parental help — be every nerdy kid’s dream. Note to Mr. Scheublin: If you ever get this into stores, sell it in Europe, or anywhere but the U.S. Over here people like to take responsibility for their own actions.

Construction Toy [Wouter Scheublin]

Pictures: Wouter Scheublin

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Apr 11

It’s a Wind Up: Gorgeous Spring-Powered Toy Car Not for Kids

Posted in: Cars, Today's Chili, Toys and Games

The Toy Car exposes the mechanical innards of the pullback motor

This gorgeous, stainless steel and bronze toy car is simply named Toy Car, which seems an appropriately stripped-down name for such a minimalist vehicle. Without a body, or even a cover over the engine, you can see exactly how the car works.

It’s essentially a fancy version of the pull-back-and-go cars found in cereal boxes and kids’ fast-food “meals” everywhere. Pull the car backwards while pushing down and the motion of the turning wheels is stored as energy in a coiled spring inside the big central toothed wheel. Let go and it unwinds, propelling the machine forward. When the spring has fully sprung, a clutch disengages and lets the car roll free.

I guess I like this especially because I always used to wonder as a kid what goes on inside these cars. Of course I opened a few up to see, but the cogs and springs were always too small and complex to fathom. That and the fact that the things had a habit of exploding on my, sending sprigs and cogs everywhere, somewhat limited my education.

The Toy Car, by contrast, is wonderfully simple and easy to grok. It also looks like the inside of a giant watch, which adds to its appeal. You probably won’t be buying one for your kids, though. The Toy Car, by Wouter Scheublin, is sold as a limited edition art piece through the Priveekollektie gallery, and is priced in the “if you have to ask” category. It does come with a little walnut garage, though.

Toy Car [Wouter Scheublin via Oh Gizmo]

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Apr 07

Cheap, Hexapod Robot Kit Skitters Into Action

Posted in: Today's Chili, Toys and Games

The KMR-M6 is a cheap robot bug for the hobbyist

Say hello to KMR-M6, a little hexapod robot from Japanese robot maker Kondo. KMR-M6 is a six-legged bug designed for the hobbyist market, and in the configuration seen here, costs just ¥76,000, or $890.

With six legs, the robot needs just 12 servo motors to move, one on each leg drives vertical movement, and the other controls horizontal twist, which lets it dance, skitter and spin as you can see in the video.

The robobug is available in kit form, so you can build it up how you like, mounting cameras and microphones and other tools on the chassis. You can even buy individual legs, which is great news for me, as it will allow me to finally put my Doctor Octopus suit plans into action.

The hexapod will ship in early May.

Hexapod Robot Ready to Conquer Extreme Obstacles [Robot Dreams]

Kondo robots [Kondo]

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Apr 01

Fake Lightsaber Popsicle Kit Should Be Made Real Already

Posted in: Today's Chili, Toys and Games

This year, ThinkGeek’s April Fool gag is another product we’d totally buy

Today is April 1st aka April Fool’s Day aka All Fools’ Day. It is also the worst day to be a gadget blogger, as every product announcement could be a fake. Keep in mind that it is our job to dig up the weird and wonderful and you see the extent of the problem.

Luckily, ThinkGeek has a tradition of fake products, so at least we know where we stand. This year it’s the awesome Star Wars Lightsaber Popsicle kit. This fake product consists of four Lightsaber hilts which — when frozen in juice — become four short-bladed Lightsabers. Two hilts are Luke’s, two Darth Vader’s. There is even an imaginary LED inside each handle which beams its light into the popsicle and makes it glow.

It is, even by ThinkGeek’s standards (Taun Taun sleeping bag, anyone?) quite awesome. It’s a shame it will never be made.

Or will it? The curious thing about ThinkGeek’s April Fool gags is that they create such a demand that the company has to go ahead and make them anyway, making them less pranks and more a kind of clever market research. Fingers crossed that ThinkGeek can get these things licensed and ready in time for Summer, and keeps the price to the currently hypothetical $35.

Star Wars Lightsaber Popsicle [ThinkGeek]

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Mar 29

Squizits Are Like Crack for Your Fidgeting Fingers

Posted in: Today's Chili, Toys and Games

Squizits — a toy for ADHD kids — is also great for stressed adults

Squizits are completely pointless. And that’s the whole point. Billed as a kit to give kids with ADHD something to do with their constantly fidgeting hands, the Squizits is equally suited to calming stressed-out adults.

If you have ever picked up an object from your desk and spent the next half hour twiddling it between your fingers, then you’ll love Squizits. The box contains nine wooden tiles, each with their own finger-friendly fiddling games. There’s a wheel with a handle, a silent zipper, a braid with a spring cord-grip, strings knotted and twisted through each other, a hinge with a satisfying cut-out, a tray of solitaire-like beads, a bulldog clip and some squidgy plugs that can be stuffed into holes.

It is, in short, a collection of the most fidget-able items in the world. My fingers are itching just looking at the pictures.

The idea is that Squizits are like pacifiers for the hands. If the child can work off mental energy by playing with these quiet, discreet toys, then his mind will be free to concentrate. But that doesn’t mean that Lavinia Chu’s concept design should be limited to kids. Put this thing in the “adult toy” section of any department store and it should sell a ton to people like us. Make it in black and chrome and you could tap the “executive” market, too.

For more information, check Chu’s page at the Emily Carr website (as of this writing, the site is down). In the meantime, tell us about your favorite stress-relieving toys. I really like to play with my Alupen stylus, which has no moving parts but does have a squashy rubber tip, a satisfying heft and lovely, precise corners on its pencil-like shaft. You?

Squizit – an assistive kit for children with ADHD [Lavinia Chu/Emily Carr University via Yanko]

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Mar 15

Rolobox Puts Toy Wheels On Cardboard Boxes

Posted in: Today's Chili, Toys and Games

Remember Makedo, the kids’ play-kit with tools and fixings to connect together old cardboard boxes and other junk? Well, its perfect companion is the Rolobox, a set of four brightly-colored plastic wheels which attach to the corners of any cardboard box using plastic nuts and bolts. Joining the wheels is a bolt-on tail which can be used to pull the box around the house or the neighborhood.

It matches up to the Makedo kit amazingly well (they even come from the same country: Australia): The Rolobox puts wheels on a cardboard car, and the Makedo lets you put hinges on the doors, attach a steering wheel and anything else you could imagine.

If you have kids over three (or under three, I guess, if you don’t mind them choking) then you should probably buy this cheap $14 toy for them. Do it now, and then go read my post about Makedo. Your kids will thank you for it. Or at least they’ll stop whining for a while as they play, which is as about as good as it gets.

Rolobox product page [Rolobox]

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