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Barbie's smart home is a party house
Barbie's new connected Hello Dreamhouse may not have a Nest thermostat, but we still saw many other smart-home features at Toy Fair this week -- as many as an 11.5-inch plastic doll might need from a $299 plastic house, anyway.
Amazon inks deal with Mattel for American Girl TV specials
If your little one is a fan of Mattel's American Girl dolls, you may want to consider a Prime membership. Or at least make sure yours doesn't expire anytime soon. Amazon announced a deal today with the toy maker for production of four live-action specials based on the brand's characters. What's more, the online retailer has the option to produce "multiple seasons of episodic content," too. This means that in addition to the popular dolls making an appearance in the specials, the dolls could star a new kids series on the way as well.
Gallery: The Tokyo Game Show 2012 Square Enix/Play Arts Booth
So, I'm not a professional photographer or a professional action-figure critic or anything, but I am a professional Video Games Person, so I was duty bound by my strict code of VGP ethics to take a lot of pictures of some pretty awesome looking stuff at Square Enix's Play Arts booth during this year's Tokyo Game Show.Prototype figures from upcoming Halo, Batman and Mass Effect figure series can all be seen in the gallery below, as can my inadvertently-captured pasty reflection and a few bonus slimes that were thrown for good measure.%Gallery-166319%
Arkham Asylum action figures coming to Japan
Not to be confused with the upcoming line of DC figures based on the Caped Crusader's escapades through Gotham and its related institutions, these new figures from Square Enix recreate Batman: Arkham Asylum's Harley Quinn, who happens to come with her own little Scarface, as well as a new armored Batman variant.Each toy comes with interchangeable hands and accessories and will be available in Japan this May for ¥5,800, or about $76.%Gallery-146507%
Computer Engineer Barbie now available, and her phone has been upgraded since we last saw her
We were fairly impressed with Computer Engineer Barbie's Linux laptop and cellphone when we last saw her at the Toy Fair in New York City. Well, the doll is available now, and her gear has gotten an upgrade for the retail version. The pink laptop now boasts some kind of custom Barbie operating system, and yes, she seems to be sporting an iPhone these days. We assume this is a tie in with Mattel's Barbie 'I Can Be' iPhone app, but we also remember from our childhood that Barbie is an intense tech geek who always has to have the latest gear, so we can't say that we're surprised. Computer Engineer Barbie is available now for $12.99. A shot of the first Computer Engineer Barbie we met is after the break.
Batman: Arkham Asylum action figures available Jan. 2011
Didn't like the ending to Batman: Arkham Asylum? Well, grab a stop-motion camera and make a whole new one with the action figures when they release January 12, 2011. The "Series 1" figures include Batman, Joker with Scarface, Scarecrow and Harley Quinn. Each figure has "multiple points of articulation," comes with display base and stands between six and seven inches tall. There's currently no price on the dolls, but can one really put a price on creating a better Arkham Asylum finale in stop-motion? [Via BigDownload, ComicsContinuum]
Fan-made Draenei Barbie
Reader Amanda S sent us this picture of a Draenei Barbie (that is a Draenei, right? Not a Night Elf? Oh yeah -- check the hooves) she says she and a friend made when they were bored. It's not the most involved craft we've ever seen, but it looks pretty good and it's an interesting idea: make Warcraft characters out of existing dolls, rather than completely from scratch. GI Joe would probably be perfect for putting together a figure of the new King Wrynn. But we do like the dress and the shoulders -- nice job. Whenever Blizzard figures out how to do player housing, we can put her in a dream house as well.Got a WoW-related craft that you'd like to share? We'd love to see it -- send us a tip through the tipline and we'll check it out.
Custom WoW plushies look adorable
Debbie sent us a note about these plushies that she made, and as you can see, they look pretty awesome. The funny part, however, is that she doesn't know anything about World of Warcraft -- her mom's friend asked her to make a Troll Priestess, and since she makes these dolls on commission (prices start at $60 plus shipping and handling), people have asked her to do a Troll Shaman as well, and she's currently working on a Draenei Paladin. Very cool.You'd probably have to negotiate with her if you wanted something custom made, since these are definitely not coming off of a factory line. But even if you're willing to pay the money for a doll like this, they do look cool. We don't know what it is about Shamans and their little totems that seems to make them perfect for plushie form, but there must be something there. Somehow, we're not sure a plushie Warrior would cause the same fascination. But hey -- be sure to prove us wrong. If you catch any great WoW crafts around the net that we haven't seen yet, drop us a tip.
Comic Watch: Backward Compatible dolls up for CoH
On the previous Comic Watch, we gave some love to the incredible output of Aaron Williams. One of these, Backward Compatible, has stepped up with another MMO-based comic. This time, the light is shone on City of Heroes (and peripherally, World of Warcraft). It seems there's more of a link to your favorite MMO and playing with dolls than may have been suspected. See if you look at your character the same way after reading this strip! I see I'm going to have to keep an eye on this Williams guy; with no less than 4 comics going on at once, chances are he'll hit the massively multiplayer topic again.[Thanks, Jonathan!]
Gears of War dolls of masculinity available spring '08
It's time to play out your own Emergence Day with the first wave of Gears of War action figures featuring Marcus Fenix, Augustus Cole and the Locust Drone -- your old He-Man figures are going to have to substitute for the rest of the cast. The figures will be available "late spring of 2008" and the second wave of dolls will crawl out "late 2008." The figures will be available at Hot Topic, FYE, comic book shops and other specialty stores. There's no word yet currently on price or what the second batch of characters will be, but it seems kind of unfair for Marcus to be without his Dom for an extended period of time (guess Man-At-Arms will have to do for the meantime).%Gallery-14117%
Zelda Week: Do it yourself
One of the interesting things about fanaticism (we're definitely fanatics for all things Zelda) is how it invades every section of your life. From sketching pictures of green tunics in your notebook during class, right down to ensuring your children grow up with the same obsession as you (more on that in a bit). It's a wonderful, sometimes scary thing.Let's see what that fanaticism does when people decide to go DIY.
Gears of War gets all dolled up with action figures
They aren't dolls! They're action figures! And they aren't Gears of War munny dolls either, which makes us sad pandas. The National Entertainment Collectables Association (NECA) has announced they'll be making action figures based on Gears of War "and any potential sequels." Sadly, there isn't a single prototype to show off so we'll just have to keep staring at the cute munny doll."Only once in a while does a property come along that is so rich in content, with amazing character designs and groundbreaking achievements in art, music, and story. While having to turn down most properties made available to us, this was an offer we could not refuse," said Joel Weinshanker, president of NECA. He apparently didn't notice how many dolls action figures his company actually makes. Well, we gamers are suckers for anything with the word "collectible" on it, so collectible action figures probably fall into the same category. At least now some people will be able to fulfill their Marcus and Dom make-out scenes with their dolls action figures.
A Tom Nook plush toy at a Tom Nook price
NCSX is selling more adorable Animal Crossing toys, including a lil' plush K.K. Slider and Blathers the owl-- you can pretend to be annoyed about how long it takes to get your dang fossils appraised! But the real star of this update is the freaking huge Tom Nook seen here, gettin' his Potion on. He comes in at 15.74 inches tall, with an 11-inch-wide head. That's big enough to intimidate us about our house payments!Unfortunately, to get an armful of Nook, you need an armful of cash-- $49, plus shipping. Better get started selling cherries you find on the ground!
Note to bachelors: Sonic figures are a turn-off
No less an authority than the New York Times has weighed in on the sex appeal of video game collectibles. News flash: They tend to scare away potential mates.About halfway through a story on scary bachelor pads, the Times comes to the case of 46-year-old Bob Strauss, who finds that, among other things, his Sonic the Hedgehog figurine display tends to put off the "tough, smart, aggressive, challenging type people" he likes to date. Strauss, for his part, thinks the collection is "provocative" and says he doesn't want to "blandify my apartment to make myself generically acceptable."We know it can be hard to choose between finding romance and giving away your three-foot tall stuffed Mario doll, but we still recommend the collectibles go into storage for the first few in-home visits. It's best to ease the idea of your video game obsession into the relationship slowly, so by the time they see your candle-lit shrine to Lara Croft, it'll seem practically normal.
New Super Mario Brothers plush toys are new, super, and plush
We really weren't fans of Mario's blue shell ability in New Super Mario Bros., because it tended to steer us inexorably into a lava-filled grave. But we want to hug this plush Blue Shell Mario. And then maybe toss him into lava. Play-Asia is selling these adorable NSMB toys, produced by Banpresto, for about $11 each. You have your choice of the aforementioned Mario, a Mega Mushroom, Boo, Luigi (in casino minigame regalia) and Toad. Does anyone else find it odd that Luigi still wears his green hat, even when he's in formal attire? [Via Siliconera]
Amazing Allysen: animatronic dolls keep getting weirder
If you haven't already guessed by the unusual number of Hello Kitty, Tickle Me Elmo, and MystiKats posts that have graced these pages, we've got something of a Peter Pan complex going on around here; we're even more embarrassed to admit that whenever we come across a toy that's even remotely autonomous, well, there's no small amount of bickering about who gets to cover the story. The newest does-it-all doll to hit stores and Christmas lists this holiday season is Amazing Allysen by Playmates, followup and big sister to the company's last trip to the Uncanny Valley, Amazing Amanda. While Amanda was just a toddler meant to be "mommied," Allysen is a full-grown tween designed to replace your child's peer-pressuring real-life friends, and like most 10-year-old girls these days, loves smoothies, sporting the hottest new fashions, and gabbing on her cellphone. Allysen can perform all the same neat tricks that Amanda does -- responding to vocal stimuli, contorting her plastic face into "lifelike expressions," and recognizing her own accessories -- but steps up her game by actually remembering little details about her overlord BFF (birthday, hobbies, favorite smoothie flavor) and including those facts in future conversation. The $99 doll has already started trickling into stores along with several of her "sold separately" peripherals, and while you can pick up several expansion packs, it seems that her cellphone is limited to the pre-programmed ringtones -- which actually isn't a bad thing, because the day they start selling 'tones for dolls' non-working phones is the day we fall off "the grid" and move into a rustic little shack in Montana.
GoLive MystiKats complicates playing dolls
These days Engadget is a male-only operation (it wasn't always that way), so unfortunately we don't have a female perspective on 21st century dolls. That said, based on our thick-skulled testosterone-infused research, we've just come across a new concept doll that strikes us as a bit too involved for a toy that can be perfectly enjoyable even when simple. The new GoLive MystiKats Interactive Fashion System combines regular dolls, a dock, and a proprietary handheld media player that takes "themed cartridges." (According to the company's site, each of the four characters have particular powers, like telekinesis, which were bestowed upon them by a mysterious "kat" on their 18th birthdays.) Once you place a doll in the dock (or to use the company lingo, the "GoLive Share"), then connect the media player, the doll will "come to life," allowing you to play with the doll, um, on a TV screen. But there's one catch: the "interactive game play" only lasts for five hours. Now we're no experts, but we'd be willing to bet that we easily spent more than five hours interacting with our analog He-Man and G.I. Joe dolls action figures as kids. However, maybe that's the whole part of the shrewd plan: suckering parents into buying more cartridges. Either way, GoLive MystiKats are supposed to be available online and in stores for $100, but it's unclear how many accessories you'll get for that single Benjamin.[Via GizMag]
