Toy

In the past 12 months, HobbyTron has
sent me several RC helicopters to review, but today I’m going to tell you about
something a little different. HobbyTron has a new offering; the Silverlit Palm-Z
RC airplane. Silverlit is the same
company that created the tiny PicooZ helicopter.

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HobbyTron sells a lot of really cool RC flying and driving toys. They recently sent me the BladeRunner II. I was really surprised that they would trust me with another RC helicopter as I had totally destroyed the AH-64 Apache helicopter that they had sent me earlier in the year. After I had tried it, I was convinced that RC copters were just too hard to control. I’m happy to report that this is not the case with the Bladerunner II.

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If you’re a fan of tiny RC (remote controlled) race cars, you’ll have a blast with the Q-Steer from Takara Tomy. Brando sent me the Mazda RX-8 version. He carries several car types including a Hummer, Subaru, Nissan and Toyota.

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Did you ever want a drum kit when you were a kid, but your parents vetoed the idea because you didn’t have the space and they didn’t want to deal with all of the crash boom bangs? What about now, do you still fancy yourself as the next Larry Mullen Jr. of U2? If so, I have a nifty little electronic drum pad from Dream Cheeky that just might start you down the path of stardom. Or not…

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Are you a wannabe guitar god that can’t even play a C chord to save your life? Or do you have a child that keeps touching your shiny new Fender Strat with their little peanut butter and jelly encrusted fingers? Then I have an inexpensive ‘guitar’ for you or them to check out. It’s the mi Jam Guitar from B2.

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Ambient devices have been popping up all over the place these days. There is the Ambient Orb, Ambient Umbrella, Ambient Dashboard, and now we have the Nabaztag/Tag Wireless WiFi Rabbit. Yes, you read that correctly, a WiFi rabbit. And a cute one at that. My good friends at Think Geek were kind enough to send me a Nabaztag/Tag for review.

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I’m not a kid anymore, but I still enjoy playing with
construction toys on occasion. I guess it has something to do with the fact that
I always wanted a LEGO set when I was child,
but never was fortunate enough to receive any. The closest that I got to LEGO
was Tinkertoys,
Lincoln Logs and my
Dad’s old Erector set.
They were all fun to play with, but they weren’t LEGO. Today I’m going to tell
you about ENGINO construction toys. These
award winning toys are from Cyprus, and bear a resemblance to LEGO. Are they
better than the world famous toy, or just a knock off? Let’s see…

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Do you remember my review of the highly popular PicooZ RC Helicopter? The PicooZ is a really small radio controlled indoor flying toy with a price tag of less than $40. I had a lot of fun with that review, so I decided to go completely nuts and try out the $300 Carbon Butterfly indoor RC airplane from Plantraco.

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PicooZ RC Helicopter

by Julie on December 11, 2006 · 5 comments

in Geek Toys

Every year, there are a handful of toys that end up on the holiday gift wish lists of kids all over the country. I can remember 5 years ago when it was the Bit Char-G / Microsizer tiny remote controlled cars. Even my Dad stood in line at Radio Shack to get one (for himself!). This year one of the popular toys is again a remote controlled device. But this time it is not a car… it’s a tiny helicopter called the PicooZ.

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Sega Toys idog mini

by Julie on December 7, 2006 · 3 comments

in Geek Toys

Remember my iFish review? I’m amazed that the video in that particular review continues to be one of the most viewed videos on this site. If you are a fan of novelty toys like the iFish, you should enjoy this review of Sega Toys latest offering: the idog mini. My friends at AudioCubes.com recently sent me the Blue version of this plastic dog.

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A short time ago my wife Meredyth, a more sedate guest contributor, showed me these two devices from Brando USB, and asked me if I’d like to do a review on them. As a serious fan of non-serious office toys, I was delighted. “What do I have to do?” I asked. “Play with them a lot, then do some writing,” she replied. Never being one to turn down a chance to do something extremely silly, I accepted the offer, brought them into my lab, and got down to the important business of having fun.

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Cube World Series 2

by Julie on November 24, 2006 · 4 comments

in Geek Toys

One of my favorite computer games that I had on my Commodore 64 was called Little Computer People by Activision. Think of it as The SIMs, but just with one person and really really simple. Back in the day it was a lot of fun to just watch the little person walking around his house doing all sorts of activities. That game was on the market about 20 years ago. These days you don’t need a computer to have your own little computer person on your desk. You just need a cube.

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When I was a kid, I remember my Dad having this large Yellow Celestron telescope. He was very proud of that telescope and had a special foot locker that he kept it in. The thing was that I think he only actually used the scope maybe once or twice. It was difficult to find a place where lights from houses and street lamps would not ruin his star gazing attempts. One of the times that he did go out, it was in the middle of Winter. So he came back home late at night about half frozen. Hmmmm… fun. NOT! That’s why I had to think of him, when Brando asked if I was interested in reviewing the Sega Toys HomeStar planetarium.

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Potan Poton

by Julie on February 13, 2006 · 1 comment

in Geek Toys

Last week I reviewed the iFish and this week I’m taking a look at another silly, but fun little gadget from Brando’s toy shop. This time around it is the Potan Poton from Tomy. I was told that the name refers to the sound that water makes when it drips. While that reference won’t be [...]

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And now for a review of a product that is both wacky and different. The iFish from Sega Toys, the same people that brought us the iDog. I wasn’t too sure what I would have to say about this combination speaker and robot pet thingy when Brando asked if I would review it, but I [...]

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It’s not often that a product brings out the total Scrooge in me, but somehow or another this one certainly did. Perhaps it was the incessant noise produced when going to this product’s webpage, or perhaps it was because the noise actually produced by this USB driven toy was even worse in person…I don’t know. [...]

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I first saw one of these things on display at the local fair. They were asking $50 to $150 for sets like this, and I thought they were REALLY cool, but not $That$ cool. So I decided look them up on Ebay later that day and took some pics with my camera phone (I’d never [...]

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The Firewheel folks in the land down under asked Julie if she would like to review their 10 shot fully automatic rubber band machine gun. Since she is female and a grown up, she was not really interested. When Julie asked me if I would like to review this product, I asked my fifteen-year-old son [...]

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Product Requirements: Two 3V CR2032 Batteries Sometimes it pays to blend in with the crowd and not catch any unwanted attention. However, there are some times when getting others’ notice is exactly what is wanted, whether it be for safety or individual expression. For those that have the need of high visibility with a twist, [...]

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Okay, I know that this may be bordering on the "Too Much Information" threshold, but I’ll confess that when I was a kid, I loved magnets. Not many things would make me happier than coming across an old speaker that I could dismantle to remove its magnet disk. Ball bearings were the other thing that [...]

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