Raise your hands if you used to build using Lego, Tinker Toys, Lincoln Logs, or the very cool Lego Mindstorms. The Nanodots are for you.
A new set of strongly magnetic building materials resembling beads, each of these little spheres are magnetized. Just line up the spheres and they will stick together in any shape you arrange them in.
Each set comes with 216 balls, of which 211 are pre-assembled into a diamond shape. There is also a carry pouch and an instruction manual with building tips and product care information. Considering the geek factor, the folks over at Nano Magnetics should have upped the count to 256 balls in a set.
You will need multiple sets for elaborate designs. Some of the designs in the building kit require over a thousand Nanodots.
The beads come in four different colors: original nickel, black, silver, and gold.
Pricing varies, ranging from $29.99 per set for the original colored beads to $39.99 per set for the gold Nanodots and are available online.
While discussing the art for last week’s OKCupid post on the preferences of different races, guest artist, Chris “Powerpig” McVeigh dropped an astonishing fact: “Almost all non-white faces in Lego are scowling.” Easy now: It’s not Lego’s fault. More »
Details are still pretty light on this one, but it looks like Disney is doing its part to add a bit of order to the wild technology frontier that is web-connected toys — the company’s consumer products division will reportedly detail a proposal to establish a set of technology standards at the Engage Conference and Expo later this month. That plan will be laid out by the head of Disney’s “Toymorrow” team, Armen Mkrtchyan, who will apparently discuss what sort of standards Disney is currently looking at, and how such standards could lead to things like cost-savings and “increased playability.” Unfortunately, that’s about as specific as things get at the moment — head on past the break for the complete press release.
I was pretty sure that it wasn’t possible for me to love the Colorado-based Elephant 6 pop-psych group The Apples in Stereo any more than I already do. And then lead singer Robert Schneider has to come along and create something like this–a mind-controlled Moog synthesizer.
Not just a mind-controlled Moog synthesizer–a homemade mind-controlled Moog synthesizer (not that there are any other kind, I suppose). Schneider pulled apart Mattel’s awesome MindFlex brainwave-controlled board game and hooked it up to an analog synth to form the “Teletron.” Of course it’s named that. What else would it be named?
Judging by Schneider’s video demonstration, the Teletron doesn’t have a lot going for it musically, at the moment–the demo mostly involves the musician adjusting pitch up and down by thinking. Knowing Schneider, however, the instrument will no doubt be mastered in time to feature it on the next Apples in Stereo record.
We thought that our homemade Theremin was difficult to control, but this one is in a different league altogether! The, ahem, brainchild of Apples In Stereo’s Robert Schneider, the Teletron takes a Mattel Mindflex game and uses it as a control voltage source for… well, any piece of musical equipment that has a CV input. In the video below, the musician / producer plugs it into a Moog analog synth and increases / decreases the pitch solely with his mind. At least the thing doesn’t give you an electric shock when you hit the wrong note! But enough jabberjaw out of us — see / hear it in action (and get some instructions, if you’d like to build your own) after the break.
A kid version of Fujifilm’s FinePix Real 3D W3 camera, the 3D Shot Cam camera is very a basic 0.3 megapixel camera with two separate lenses.
To get the 3D magic, you will need to print out the two pictures that are shot side-by-side, and view them through a special viewer to get the 3D effect. The 3D Shot Cam is bundled with two 3D viewers in the box.
The camera has a slot for a microSD card, but it supports only up to 8GB. That’s still a whole lot of 3D images.
Designed for kids 12 years and under, it is expected to sell for $70 when it launches next spring. While there’s no international release announced at this time, if it turns out to be popular in Japan, a US release may not be far behind.
Fridays before long weekends are the worst. It’s not even 10 AM on the East Coast, and I already feel like I’ve put in a full day’s work. Thankfully, this video is exactly what I need to make it, well, to noon, at least.
It’s the result of an “informal Rube Goldberg summer camp for kids ages 3-8,” which, frankly, sounds a lot more exciting than the Jewish and Boy Scout camps that I went to, growing up.
This video has all the makings of a viral hit for the sleepy long summer weekend: an involved Rube Goldberg-esque machine and a lot of really, really excited children (not to mention, perhaps most importantly of all, a plug on Boing Boing). The goal was to put a rubber ball in a pail, and the device succeeds with flying colors.
There’s not a lot of information about this “informal summer camp,” which, honestly, seems to be a bunch of kids hanging out at house building neat stuff, but hopefully they’ll extend the age range by a couple of decades next summer.
At long last even us plebeian supercar lovers can afford to say we own a Lambo. And we wouldn’t even be lying if we claimed it had an internal combustion engine (3cc, vroom vroom!), hydraulic shock absorbers, disc brakes, or permanent all-wheel drive. Such must have been the stringent requirements handed down from Lamborghini HQ to DeAgostini, which has scored the license to produce a limited run of 65 1:10 scale models of the Reventon. The radio-controlled mini-supercars haven’t been priced yet, but we suspect they’ll fall quite a few zeroes short of the real deal’s $1.2 million sticker.
Update: As it turns out, these come in parts and can be built up if you keep buying a collection of 65 “booklets.” Each one costs €8 and the remote control is priced at €60, leading you to a total around €580 ($737) [Thanks, wii_willie!]
ROCR — the Oscillating Climbing Robot — was developed at the University of Utah by William Provancher. Its main talent is the ability to climb carpeted walls by using its hook-like claws and is powered by a motor and a pendulum tail that wings like a grandfather clock. Designed to move efficiently and in the vein of a human rock climber, ROCR is able to climb an 8-foot carpeted wall in just about 15 seconds. The team’s findings will be published in Transactions on Mechatronics this month, and while future applications include possible uses as an inspection or maintenance tool, Provancher says that in the short term, ROCR will likely be used for education or as a “really cool toy.” Video is below.
Yesterday we brought you a host of videos and photos straight from Tokyo Big Sight, reporting on the best new toys at this year’s Toy Show. More generally now we’re going to give you a round-up of the trends and highlights.
We’ve had our eyes on green innovation in Japan for a long time, as witnessed by our major eco report earlier this year. Even the Toy Show had its share of eco, with Takara Tomy particularly devoting a whole booth to concept products that celebrated being energy efficient.
For example, their ene POCKET box generators allow you to connect with and power a range of other toys. Just turn the arm a few times and then join it up with another toy to supply it with charge.
Jolly moving toys that sit on your desk were first made popular by the likes of the Pekoppa. Now Takara Tomy has produced the Kinopuyo dancing mushroom and the solar-powered Flip Flap plant, which gently bobs up and down (presumably to make you feel relaxed).
Japan is certainly in Ryo Ishikawa fever at the moment; the golfer seemingly can do no wrong and his face was all over the convention center. On top of the Digital Grade Master 1/6 scale figure — complete with his trademark lookalike mascot driver cover — there was also the Excite Golf video game, endorsed by the young sportsman.
We’ve seen a lot of robotic creature toys over the last couple of years, especially dog and cat-themed money boxes. This year this trend continued, with the Peeing Dog being a slightly impractical version, while the Choenbako monkey bank being clearly the standout here.
As the Sky Tree continues to soar, Sega Toys have even produced one of their home planetarium products, the Homestar Aqua, themed around Tokyo’s new tower attraction.
Takara Tomy did some funky things with a Disney character: they re-imagined Mickey Mouse as a robot!
They also created the Mickey Mouse Projector lamp in the familiar shape of Mickey’s face and showing animations of the character. Sadly these products are still in development and there are no details on release dates yet.
Fans of famous characters would have like the Mario Kart Wii ChoroQ Hybridcars and funky racing track, along with the pinball Mario Kart Wii Grand Prix Race game!
Micro musicians will enjoy playing the drums on the Taiko no Tensai from Epoch, a mini instrument that likely won’t disturb your neighbors…
From the sublime (the very realistic ChouChou butterfly) to the ridiculous (the Popcorn no Te grabber), there’s always plenty for everyone at the Toy Show.
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