Wow Stuff calls it the “Greatest Toy in the Universe,” but that’s just a working title for now. The toy itself hasn’t actually been named yet but it’s already getting a lot of traction. So what is it? It’s a toy robot that can go into battle with a variety of different weapons. The little robots can shoot ping pong balls, flying discs, or darts. They can also be customized with removable armor.

It’s all remote-controlled, and the idea is to have two or more of them duke it out in a Real Steel-esque battle royale. Creator Jaimie Mantzel has become almost as popular as the toy itself. In the teaser video for the robotic toys, he says, “No one at the stores, or in marketing, care whether or not a toy is awesome. They don’t care if it’s cheap junk with wheels on it that shouldn’t be there,” he admits. But his creation is different. “There’s no reason anyone should ever have to take something home and be disappointed,” he says. Right now, users are able to submit their own ideas for what the toy robots should be called. They’re due out in time for the 2012 holiday season.

[via Cnet]

The gun is being manufactured by Japanese company called Neca and looks exactly like the weapon from the game. This weapon has always reminded me of a spider with a fat butt. The gun will glow blue or orange depending on which type of portal you’re creating. The replica will be up for pre-order this week.

I wonder if they’ll ship these to the US. The Portal gun sells for ¥16,000, which works out to about $208 in the US. I could certainly see fans of Portal shelling out $208 to on this replica weapon. I’m honestly surprised we’ll see more replica weapons such as these in the toy aisles at stores around the world.

[via RegHardware]

What we have here is a pair of Star Wars themed slot car sets. They don’t use small racecars at all. One of the sets is called Death Star Attack and has Vader’s Tie Fighter and Luke’s X-Wing as the vehicles. This set ever glows in the dark and races though what appears to be part of the box. The other set is the one I like best.

It is the Battle of Endor and has a couple white skeleton looking troopers racing around on the speeders. I guess the company didn’t want to license the real likeness for the vehicles. Exactly when these sets will launch is unknown. The Death Star set will cost around $109 and the Endor set will be around $156.

[via Technabob]

In Icons first announced the Jobs action figure early this month and was quickly and inevitably slapped with threats of legal action. The company explains that it had originally set out to create the doll as a way to commemorate Jobs and was in no way attempting to overstep copyright and trademark rights.

Besides the legal threats from lawyers, In Icons says that it is the “heartfelt sensitivity to the feelings of the Jobs family” that led to the decision to cancel the action figure. The company apologizes to Jobs fans and promises to refund pre-orders.

[via AppleInsider]

Thanks to wirelessgoodness we recently learned that this neat and fun toy had cleared the FCC, and we can now happily tell you that it’s available right now. This nerf gun might be dumb, but I still want one and will probably be buying one for the shear amusement it will surely bring me.

Essentially what we have here is a USB-powered nerf gun with full aim controls via the free iOS application. Everything is done inside of the app and you can take control and aim with on-screen controls that work over Bluetooth. That isn’t all either. iLauncher also gives you the option to fire darts by simply shaking your iOS device. Awesome right?

If those pictures don’t have a few of you excited I don’t know what will. It might not be the coolest toy around but I’m pretty sure I’ll be getting hours of joy from this little device. It is available today via the link below and will run you about $100. Who wants one?

[via Brando]

Of course, Griffin would advise aiming away from the delicate facial areas while staging dogfights, but since we’ve never liked the look of you anyway we’ll say go straight ahead. As before, the ‘copter is controlled by an infrared-toting Flight Deck module that plugs into the headphone socket of your iOS or Android device.

Install the app and then on-screen controls or accelerometer tilting navigate the chopper around. The now-common twin rotor design means stability is a whole lot greater than helicopters of old, and you can store up to three flight plans for repetition later; there’s also an automatic landing option, if you haven’t already crashed into a wall by that stage.

The Griffin HELO TC Assault will go on sale in Q2, priced at $59.99.

Sound can also be recorded alongside video on the Intruder. The helicopter doesn’t record sound – but it allows the taking of quick aerial snapshots. The actual controller is your iPhone or Android device, so once the Wi-Spi application is installed you’re good to go. They can both upload their captures instantly to Facebook, YoutTube, or E-Mail.

Both models will be available Fall 2012 at most major and electronic retailers. We couldn’t get a demo of the units, but from the photos they look pretty sleek. The helicopter will retail at $119.99 and Intruder at $99.99.

The company that makes the 12-inch action figure is called Inicons. The action figure is so realistic it’s a bit creepy with pores, the trademark beard, and round glasses just as Steve wore. The only catch in the face of the action figure you see in the photos is that the company that makes the figure warns the final appearance may vary.

I suspect they will sell a slew of these things, assuming along the way to production the action figure doesn’t turn into a fake and plastic version of a Ken doll in a turtleneck. Along with the action figure comes replicas of Jobs’ favorite shows, two pairs of glasses, an articulating body, three pairs of hands, and the trademark jeans and black turtleneck. I suspect Jobs’ family and legal team will kill this action figure very swiftly.

[via Forbes]

The track is covered with a replica body shell from a 1971 RCR 917 racecar. It appears that the car is full size even. The real car participated in the 1971 12 hours of Sebring race. The company that makes them has options that the buyer can choose. Presumably, different tracks for the slot cars and different car shells are among the options.

The car replica even has center lock wheels and tires that are worn from racing. The slot cars are 1/32 scale. If you are wondering how much the track costs, this is one of those if you have to ask things. You must email the company and they will tell you what it costs to commission the track.

[via Born Rich]

Mehlhase works at the Niels Bohr Institute. The LHC model built uses 9,500 Lego parts and cost the builder about 200 euros. The construction process was done on the weekends and is a 1:50 scale recreation. I wonder where the Lego Higgs boson particles are.

The build took about 30 hours. The limits of my Lego capability are helping my kids build things using the instructions. It’s always cool to me when people can Lego freestyle something that turns out this good. Have you ever built you own bit of Lego awesome?

[via PC World]

These things are like skates that you strap onto your shoes. They have two large front wheels and a small rear wheel. The drive wheels are battery powered and the motorized skates strap onto your normal shoes. All the electronics and controls for the drive is inside the frame made from reinforced nylon. Each skate has its own battery pack and motor inside. The skates have a single wireless remote that controls both spnKIX skates at one time. They have a variable speed control so you can go slowly or fast.

They also come with training wheels to keep you from wiping out until you learn how they work. Each skate is 9″ W x 10.5″ H x 9.5″ L and the max speed is up to 10 mph. Men’s shoes from size 6 to 14 will fit inside the skates. The cheapest pledge to get your own pair is $375 and you can get limited edition versions for $500 or $950. Normal retail price will be $649 when they launch in March, assuming the project gets funded. The project needs $25,000 and has $3,595 so far with 43 days to go.

Inside the 1:18 scale replica of the SLS is a 2.5-inch 500GB HDD. Generally, the cars that Flash Rods use start out as toys like Hot Wheels cars or other brands. This particular SLS version has a hood that opens and the gull wing doors actually work.

The USB port for connecting the thing to your computer is set into the back of the car. You can order one of these up in Black, Red, or Silver for $250. That’s not such a bad price if you are a big fan of cool storage devices. This would certainly look better sitting on your desk than a normal external storage device.

[via EverythingUSB]

You can hop over, see samples in black or white colors, and choose the color for your own ring from the list. You can get white, black, pink, blue, red, green, and halo green. A custom ring is $10 and the shipping to you is only a few more dollars.

Apparently, the rings are made from polymer clay and are hand sculpted. This store has some interesting stuff for sale. These would make nice gifts on the cheap for gaming fans of all sorts. I wonder where the PC gamer rings are. A cool gaming mouse with the cord that wraps around the finger would suffice.

[via Geekcrafts]

Of course the real Angry Birds store would never have smoking apparatuses, but that’s just what our pal SIMMS22 from the Android Community forums found this past week whilst bumming around New York City. And we’re SURE the Mighty Eagle would not approve of such debauchery.

These displays are becoming more and more common as Rovio ramps up production of their iconic birds made into toys, and now that there’s a shop, they’re only shooting straight up. Do you own an Angry Birds toy, apparel, or accessory of any kind? Why not?!

The first Angry Birds store on earth features a gigantic slingshot that unfortunately isn’t capable of launching birds, it does make for a nice seat to sit and get your picture taken in, kiddies. Inside the store you’ll also be able to pick up Angry Birds books, gigantic stuffed animal toys, and apparently some awesome skateboard action as the two fellows in the image below will show. Angry Birds ho!

[via Angry Birds Facebook]

It has more of the little dual wheel spinning gadgets that flick the cars around than I have ever seen in one place. The dude made the track in a two story home and it literally goes though every room in the house it seems. Then the car heads outside and around the block before going around the pool and back inside.

The entire trip takes over 4 minutes on the video and the video is actually cut choppily leaving room for some cheating with only making certain sections at one time. I would like to think this is real though, what’s the point of faking something like a Hot Wheels track? What I would like to see is one of the new Hot Wheels video cars make a round of the track. What do you think, real or fake?

[via Autoblog]

I asked one of the people on the team that was controlling the fling Sonic about the car and he told me it was made from specialized and very lightweight foam and was sealed to keep the helium inside the car from leaking out. The car held somewhere in the area of 5-6 cubic meters of helium according to the source.

The car appeared to be neutrally buoyant and the only thing that would make the car move other than the little electric engines on each side was the stiff breeze from the massive AC system inside the show hall. The propellers were placed on little electric motors that allows for full directional control for the flying car. Each of the electric motors were on carbon fiber booms hooked to the control system and battery pack under the car. Check out the video to see the car flying around the show hall and the photo gallery to get more detail.

There are different character cars that will react and talk with the voices from the movie when the toys are placed on the screen of the iPad. The idea is that the app and cars turns into a virtual play mat. The AppMATes allow the kids to explore and do all sorts of fun things. The child can turn the car in any direction and explore all they want.

The app has sound effects and puts effects on the screen like skid marks and explosions. Each character also has missions that are unique to it. You can also race with five different tracks available at launch. The AppMATes will launch on October 1 and will be available at stores across the country. Vehicle two packs will cost $19.99 each with four characters available to start including Lightning McQueen, Tow Mater, Finn McMissile, and Holley Shiftwell. In November two more will launch as Apple Store exclusives including Francesco Bernoulli and Shu Todoroki.

Naturally, the RC toy can be controlled by the iPhone. It can also be controlled by an Android device as well. That control from smartphones isn’t the big feature though. The big feature is that the little TankBot can navigate a maze without any assistance from the user. The toy also has a free-roam mode that lets it just run around your home or office exploring.

A single 40-minute charge allows the toy to operate for 15 minutes. It has headlights for eyes that flash when the toy is idle. It comes in four colors and each color operates on its own frequency so you can play with up to four at one time. The TankBot will hit Toys R’ Us and Radio shack for $24.99 and should be available to purchase right now.

The craft is being shown off at the Cannes Boat Show 2011 and will come in two models. Both of the models use electric engines and batteries to scoot the watercraft around the lakes. The difference between versions are the battery capacity and the material the toy is made from. The high-end version of the EXO is made from carbon fiber and has a more powerful 7kWh battery inside. The cheaper version is made from reinforced ABS material.

It can be had with engines in the 3.5 to 7 kWh range. Both of the versions of the watercraft will be available starting in 2012. Pricing is unknown, but you can bet this will not be cheap considering where it is being unveiled and the materials the toy is made from. I think if I were rich I would prefer to have the Jetlev.

[via BornRich]

Take these people for instance that have cooked up what might be the most intense Slip and Slide ever on what appears to be a pond somewhere. The extreme sliding is done with the rider on some sort of lake toy that is meant to be pulled behind a boat. They hooked a towrope to the back of a four-wheeler and routed it through a pulley on the back of a truck to pull/slingshot the rider off the end of the ramp.

When you go big on this thing, you go really big. Some of the riders were flying 120 feet through the air. It looked like some of the high-flying daredevils nearly hit the other bank of the pond. I would not try this at all. It looks like quadriplegia waiting to happen to me.

[via The High Definite]

The Nymph is a little submarine that looks more like an underwater airplane. The thing reminds me a lot of James Bond’s Lotus that turned into a submarine. You might not have the loot that Branson has, but if you have $2,500 you can rent the Necker Nymph for the day.

The Nymph can go up to 30-meters below the ocean and you and a passenger can explore. The only thing that might burst your bubble is that you can’t pilot the thing. You get a pilot with the day’s rental. You also have to be SCUBA equipped because the sub is open to the water. The dives can last 1-2 hours at a time.

[via Gadget Review]

It reminds me a lot of that scooter my son had when he was a toddler. It has only two wheels, but those wheels are very wide and allow the scooter to stand up on its own so the little one doesn’t need to balance. The Trek designer responsible for this epic scooter is Ryan Callahan. Sadly, the scooter is only a concept. This toy needs to be built; I know they would sell a bunch of them.

In fact, if they made a light cycle style bike for adults and bigger kids I bet they would sell too. Naturally, the thing would have to be Disney licensed and that would make it very expensive. What do you think; would you pay a premium for a kid’s toy this cool?

[via Dvice]

One of the things that the soldiers in Afghanistan have to watch out for are hidden roadside bombs designs to explode and destroy the vehicles driving by and to kill soldiers. The camera on the hacked RC truck shoots video back to a small gun mounted LCD. Sgt. Fessenden made use of the truck to keep him and his team safe when something on the road didn’t look right.

The Sergeant sent the little truck to check out something that was suspect on the side of the road. What the RC truck was checking out turned out to be a roadside bomb. The RC toy set the bomb off and none of the soldiers in the truck were harmed. Ernie is already working on a replacement truck to be sent to his brother to keep him safe in the future.

[via Hackaday]

When you combine LEGO-style building blocks with Transformers you really get my geek lust stoked and that is exactly what the first KRE-O building sets are offering. The construction sets are now in stores and the first series are Transformer sets that are tie-ins with the flick that hit theaters last week. There are a number of sets with prices running from $7.99 to $59.99 depending on the set.

Some are simple minifigs while others are larger and more complex Transformer bots. The sets are available in 16 different characters and styles and are for ages 6 and up. The transformation process from robot to vehicle requires the user to disassemble and reassemble.

[via Hasbro]

While it would be easy to slap some wheels onto a dock and call it a day, Hasbro has gone further than that. Each robot has feet rather than wheels, and they use object-recognition via the Nexus S’ front-facing camera, as well as other sensors in the phone, to react to their environment. Shots are sent to Google’s cloud servers where they’re processed in real-time; the robot then knows whether to get curious or to run (slowly) away.

Shake them and, thanks to the accelerometer, they get dizzy; rub the touchscreen and they’ll cheer up. Right now they’re just prototypes, but we’re guessing Hasbro is at least considering a commercial launch. More details in the video below.

[via Android Community]

Designer Jonathan Robson has designed something that is Lego, but is not made from Lego bricks, which is more than a bit strange sounding. I would bet anyone that played with Lego as a kid or an adult will recognize the helmet Robson made as being the same style that the little Lego minifigs in space and other environments would wear. Robson created this helmet complete with a gold flip down visor for kids to play pretend with, but the thing does more too.

The helmet has speakers inside that are use to read kids audio comics that are Lego themed. Once the helmet is purchased and the kid is subscribed to the audio comics, a new print issue will come in the mail with a code that allows the downloading of the audio file. The helmet has a USB port on the back that a Lego flash drive is plugged into and then the audio plays back inside the helmet. Controls on the side of the helmet operate the volume and allow the user to skip forward and backwards in the pages. This is so cool!

[via Jonathan Robson]

He takes old school watches with gears and other small parts that can be removed. He then uses those parts to build motorcycle models. This is really cool and if you look close, you can see the watch crystal, winging knob and stems, and lots more. The only thing I wonder about being an actual watch part is the exhaust.

It looks like the case from an old pocket watch is the rear wheel. And the forks are made from a gold watchband. I love the creativity and vision this sculpture required!

[via deviantART]

So when you go in to Toys “R” Us to pick out a bike for your kid, you can pick up an iPad 2 while you’re there.

[via The Mac Observer]

The jug she used was just the right size for a bottle of pirate rum and to hold the Lego boat. She made her own building tools out of what appear to be wooden sticks with small Lego bricks glued to the tip. She could put one stick in to hold the ship steady and another stick with the parts attached to build the model up.

She says that the entire build process took her about three days to construct. She also notes that it took a week of planning and a large number of expletives to pull off. Check out the video below to see the build and the finished project.

[via Brothers Brick]

I can only imagine that she would spend more time pulling her Zhu Zhu Pets around in a box than anything else if she had something like the Rolobox that puts wheels and a pull string on the box. Honestly, I would have played with something like this more than anything else when I was a kid too.

It appears that the stuff sticks to the cardboard box with simple pushpins. I would bet there is something on the inside of the box that will hold the parts on or they would fall off constantly. Your kids should be able to use this set up with boxes of all sizes. You can order the kit up right now for $14.

[via Wired]

This Zuckerburg bobble-headed-looking doll comes with a number of amusing odds and ends. The Like it button can be replaced with a Poke button if you’re feeling a little punchy, or pokey as the case may be. The kit also comes included with customizable speech bubbles that stick into the back of his big head. Make him say something Johnny!

[via M.I.C. Gadget]

The Noogler is designed by Jeff Yasick for Google. It is wearing a white t-shirt with the word “Noogler” scrawled across the front a la Google’s color scheme and font style. Its head looks like a kiddy propeller hat and the propeller does spin. The ratio or likelihood of opening a box containing the Noogler is 1/16.

The Iceberg is designed by Andrew Bell and is a clear blue figurine with a melting ice patterns on its body. It goes from translucent to opaque. The Iceberg design will have a 2/16 ratio.

Each box will come with a foldout checklist of all the design names and their respective artists. The guys over at Android Community will be having additional Series 02 giveaways soon, so stay tuned to our announcement for that.

[via DYZ Plastic]

The gun is called the DIY Pulse Laser Gun and was built by Patrick Priebe. The builder says that the gun has a small pulse laser head with a kW-pulse of infrared coherent light. A single shot can punch through a razor blade, plastic, and 5mm thick Styrofoam when focused.

The range of the gun is 3M for dark surfaces and the shot will make a stinging flame and leave a 5mm stain behind. I bet it would burn your skin pretty well too. I don’t even want to think about what it would do to your eye. The gun is about 320mm long and weighs two pounds.

[via Hacked Gadgets]

The RC Bald Eagle sells for $499.95. For the price, you get the massive bald eagle that looks a lot like a kite with a propeller driven electric motor on its back. The engine and propeller has a multi-directional vector movement to allow the pilot to make agile turns and dives like the real Eagle can.

The wireless remote control is good for 100-feet from the bird and it has trim controls so you can get level flight. The bird is capable of loops and hovers when flying against the wind once you get used to the controls. The electric motor uses a rechargeable battery that is good for eight minutes of flying per 20-minute charge.

The new accessories are the Nanopad and the MFV splitter. The Nanopad comes in 16-inch and 26-inch sizes with a full-size chessboard on one side and a blank play field on the other with a dot counting tool. The 26-inch unit has a 13×13-inch grid on top for playing games using the Nanodots. The Nanopad has IronWeave technology so the dots will stick to the surface of the pad though the pad is not magnetic.

The MFV splitter is a device that allows the user to split, shave, and sculpt creations using Nanodots. One side of the card is a green gel that displays the magnetic field pattern of the Nanodots and the other side is laminated and has a dot counter making counting easy. The Nanopads range in price from $19.99 to $29.99 and the splitter hasn’t launched yet.

The LeapPad Explorer is a cool little tablet hat has all sorts of activities that kids can play to help them learn letters and other basic educational stuff. The Explorer also has a lot of software that can be added to expand it including books, flash cards, and lots more. There will be over 100 games available for the tablet.

The tablet has a 5-inch screen that supports touch with a finger and with a stylus. The tablet is thin and very sleek, but is rugged enough to survive drops and other bumps that kids will put it through. The LeapPad Explorer will hit stores this summer and will sell for $99.99 with download apps for $7.50 and normal software titles on cartridges for $24.99.

VTech has a new kids tablet called the InnoPad. The little tablet is aimed at kids 4-9 years old and has a lot of software that can be loaded onto the tablet using game cartridges. The InnoPad has a 5-inch LCD that is touch sensitive and has a tilt sensor for controlling games.

The tablet also has USB and a SD card slot along with a headphone jack so they can play quietly. The tablet will play games that are educational and fun. It also has books that kids can read along with and are interactive. The tablet will sell for $79.99 and software titles are $24.99 each.

My favorite of the three new bots is called Racer. It’s in a racing green color with white stripes. On the chest of the toy is a printed window with a little Android bot driving. It’s like the Shelby version. A pink version called Rupture is offered too that looks like a black and white head has popped out of a pink suit.

Rupture is feminine looking with the pink and would make a good Valentine’s gift for a geeky woman in your life. The last of the three is called Bluebot and is just blue.

Via Android Community

It will shoot photos and can record audio files and video as well. Jakks Pacific is the company that makes the watch and it has announced that an updated version will be coming this fall. The updated version will add night vision to the current offering.

That will let the wearer of the watch shoot video and photos in total darkness. The new and current versions of the video watch can record up to 20 minutes of video, over three hours of audio, and can store up to 2000 photos. The price for the watch is $59.99.

Some potato trekkie fun does come at a price. The collectible sets will each cost $30 and will be available by August 2011. Preorders are now being accepted over at PPW Toys.

[Via PPW Toys]