Brace yourself -- the moment you've been waiting all year for has finally arrived. Yes, rock star wannabes, the Guitar Hero Air Guitar Rocker is finally in major retailers. The Jada Toys' device, which was showcased at CES, consists of a miniature guitar amplifier, a sensor-laden belt buckle, an assortment of pics and an Air Cartridge, which packs "ten signature guitar riffs" ranging in skill from one to five. Once you rock the wind out of the $29.99 base unit, you can look forward to "encore packs" -- which will include themed belt buckles and new Air Cartridges -- arriving later this summer for $14.99 each. Oddly enough, we think a "gnarly" is order here.

Face it, nobody has time these days to learn a real instrument with "strings" and "sevenths" and these "quarternotes" we hear tell of. That's why all music recorded from 2002 on has been 100% sampled: it's just better that way. The next step in this natural evolution, of course, is instrument-less instruments. Silverlit provides just such a future with the VBeat Air Guitar and Air Drums. Building upon Tomy's groundbreaking Air Guitar Pro, the VBeat instruments include "free style" and "easy go" modes, the latter of which allows for playing you fakestrument to pre-programmed rhythms -- a synergy of layered samples and a metronome, simply stunning. There's also a step-by-step learning mode called Pop Academy, but only losers need apply. These should sell for about £29.99 ($60 US) a piece, no word on availability. Action video is after the break.

[Via Coolest Gadgets]

We've seen a few useful improvements to air guitar over the years, but Air Guitar Rocker actually managed to snag a license from Activision. Granted, it does take your nerd level to unbelievable heights, but then again, it is slated to cost just $29.95 when it lands in March. Be sure to click on through and catch a totally unprofessional air guitarist chatting it up with Mahalo Daily's Veronica Belmont after the jump.

If wildly gesticulating to your Pantera records didn't seem "realistic" enough, toymaker Takara Tomy should be able to help. Like the bastard child of Guitar Hero and those keychains you bought as a kid that make explosion noises, this handheld device works by allowing you to press chord buttons on its fretboard and then strum your fingers across IR sensors in the neck. If you're not sure of your soloing abilities, you can play along to preloaded tracks like Walk This Way or Smoke on the Water. Available on July 25th for around $27.

[Thanks, Veronica B.]

In the annual rankings of "inventions most likely to end civilization," there's going to be a new one in the standings this year, squeezing in right between nuclear weapons and reality television: the Wearable Instrument Shirt. Developed by the mad scientists over at the CSIRO's Textile and Fibre Technology in Geelong Australia, the t-shirt has textile motion sensors integrated into the shirt that track elbow movements. The upshot of this is that the shirt translates your legendary air guitar stylings into music (like that Project: Air Guitar we spotted a while back). The downside of this is that the music is epically crappy, and we were just kidding about "legendary stylings" anyways: you suck. So, with that in mind, please go ahead and check out the video of these nerds rocking out -- just don't come complaining to us of "eye bleeding" or "crushing depression" when you're done.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

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