No two ways about it, Mad Catz has a winner on its hand with this one. The Rock Band Portable Drum Kit for Xbox 360 is a complete skins kit designed to be shoved into most any backpack and played on nearly any solid surface. The rubber pads are designed to handle over a million strikes, though that antique coffee table you lay these on may, in fact, not be designed to withstand such abuse. For those not exactly kosher with a full-fledged kit consuming the den, this seems to be the perfect compromise. And hey, it's only $59.99 to boot. Ships "soon," but not "soon enough."

[Via OhGizmo]

Previously, the ship dates for Rock Band 2 instruments ranged from "sometime within the next few months" to "sometime." Now, however, we're hearing that the standalone wireless drums ($90) and guitar ($70) will begin to ship out next week (at least for the Xbox 360). Additionally, Mad Catz's Fender P-Bass wireless guitar controller ($70) and the wired ION Drum Rocker set ($300) should clutter up floor space around the same time. RB2 party to celebrate the Q3 close? Sign us up.

We promise this is the last Rock Band 2 post of the day (okay, maybe hour), but we were just pulled aside at E3 to peep some less-than over-the-radar product sheets for some upcoming Mad Catz accessories. First off, the Premium M.I.C. ($50) is said to have "studio quality" sound all the while including control buttons -- something we didn't realize was missing from the original Rock Band mic until we thought about it. Then we spotted the Portable Drums ($60), which is great news for those of you who excel at drums but like to play Rock Band on the road. They can be used on any surface and even come with foldable drum sticks. Next up, the Official Cymbals ($30 for a pack of 3 or $15 each) for the new Rock Band 2 drum kit are coming from Mad Catz. Remember those three 1/8-inch plugs on the back of the drum kit head? Yeah, these plug into those. Finally, the Kick Drum Screen doesn't really do much, but it certainly will make you look like a pseudo-real drummer (depending on the angle). Mad Catz says all of these random accessories will hit store shelves this fall. Oh, and apologies for the image quality -- these were literally taken in the corner of a crowded room with maybe two seconds of view time per page.

While we love Rock Band 2 as much as the next guy, playing that miniaturized plastic controller will forever look a little dorky (or just make us look like giant men, which is kind of cool). Nothing wrong with looking dorky -- heck, we make a living of it -- but Mad Catz's new full-size Stratocaster and Precision Bass controllers for Rock Band 2 are bringing the cool back. They're exactly what you think they are: actual Fender Squire axes turned into Rock Band 2 controllers, with the size, heft, and weight you'd expect from dad's electric guitar. Of special note was the Precision Bass controller, which has a dual flipper and thumb rest to allow fast pickers to do their thing Entwistle-style. They are also wireless, will come with a foot pedal for overdrive, and the guitar controller will have a whammy bar, of course. Unfortunately, Mad Katz didn't add the optical sensor for display calibration, but we'll forgive them for now. Look for these for $199 in Q1 2009 for both Xbox 360 and PS3. We caught them live at E3, and they look as impressive as they sound. Peep the gallery below if you dare.

Whoa, wait a minute -- Mad Catz signed on to produce Rock Band instruments? Sure enough, the deal was announced shortly before CES 2008 consumed our lives, and now we're hearing whispers that the first products from said agreement could hit stores as early as next week. We're talking a Fender bass ($69.99), Telecaster ($79.99), microphone ($59.99), portable drum kit ($49.99) and a premium drum set ($149.99). From what we can glean, everything listed above will be tethered, but we aren't writing off wireless versions just yet. Oh, and be sure you consult with the SO before you up and purchase a second kit for the den -- you can't afford for that first one to get defenestrated.

No, it won't get you "true" HDMI, but older 360 owners looking to get rid of those clunky component cables might want to take note: that MadCatz HDMI Conversion Kit is now official. The $90 adapter comes with cables and supports HDMI 1.3, 1080p, Dolby Digital and DTS -- but there's no telling what the VGA-to-HDMI signal conversion will do to your image quality, so you're probably better off doing the eBay shuffle and getting a new 360 with HDMI built-in.

While Activision and Harmonix bicker over the real reason there's still some lingering incompatibility between the two, Mad Catz has inked a multi-year licensing agreement with MTV Networks to "produce and distribute game peripherals and other products" for Rock Band. Reportedly, the third-party peripheral maker has secured the rights to "manufacture, market and sell game accessories, including both wired and wireless bass guitars, a drum percussion set bundled with professional quality wooden drum sticks, and a wired microphone." All in all, we're stoked to see another player entering the Rock Band hardware game, so here's to hoping Mad Catz won't ship out any faulty axes and frail drum pedals during "the first half of 2008."

Well, what have we here? No, seriously, what is this thing? Considering the absolute dearth of information given on GameStop's pre-order page, we're left to surmise that the Xbox 360 HDMI Conversion Kit exists (er, will exist) simply to allow those who purchased their Xbox 360 before the days of built-in HDMI to utilize one of the dusty HDMI sockets on their TV / receiver. Granted, we're sure hoping there's more to this thing than that, or else we're left wondering who's desperate enough to drop $89.99 to free up a single component input.

Update: Turns out this thing does indeed support 1080p, and it'll come with "free" HDMI and optical audio cables, too. Check out the PDF here. Thanks, PerfectVirus!

[Thanks, David]

Third-party gaming controllers are always a mixed bag, ranging from terrific, like the popular Logitech Cordless Action PS2 controllers, to decidedly weird, like the SplitFish EdgeFX, to head-scratchingly awful, like this Pelican / Nerf abomination. Mad Catz has never been afraid to spew out products all over the bottom half of this spectrum, and the recently-released PS3 Wireless Thumbpad is no exception. Looking for all the world like it was designed by someone who has never attempted to actually hold a SIXAXIS, the QWERTY thumbpad clips on to your controller ... at the top. While we're not sure how you're supposed to use this thing, we are almost 100% confident that no one at Mad Catz looked at a picture of the Xbox 360 QWERTY thumb keyboard before sketching this one out.

[Via PS3 Fanboy]

Sadly, no new pictures of the two Mad Catz controllers, that as far as we know will be the first such 3rd party controllers for the Wii, but at least we finally have an idea when these things might start hitting store shelves. As promised by Amazon UK, the "Wand Remote Controller" will retail for £24.99 ($49 US) and be released on September 28th, with Amazon selling it for a "bargain" price of £19.99 ($39 US). Mac Catz will be hitting with the "Funchuk Controller" on June 29th for a more palatable £9.99 ($20 US), and Amazon UK is promising a discounted price of £8.99 ($18 US). A pretty long wait, to be sure, and given the generally shoddy construction of nearly all 3rd party controllers in the history of man, we're not really on edge here, but we're sure Mad Catz will still find its way into plenty a home with this pair.

[Thanks, Afzilla]

Read - Wand Remote Controller
Read - Funchuk Controller

Mad Catz's PlayStation 3 accessories have been pretty sparse since the console's release -- consisting only of some cables, controller skins, a vertical stand, and a "horizontal system stacker" -- but the company's now stepping things up a bit, rolling out a new line of PS3 controllers competing for your thumbs' attention. Available in both wired and wireless versions, the controllers eschew Sony's trademark SIXAXIS technology in favor Mad Catz's entirely different "SixSense" motion sensing mojo, and come in your choice of red, blue, black, or silver. They're also, of course, priced lower than Sony's SIXAXIS, coming in at $30 for the wired controller and $40 for the wireless model.

If you've managed to secure yourself a Nintendo Wii, and have managed to stay relatively safe while playing, you still might be leading a fruitless search to find yourself a few extra Wiimotes. Oddly enough, some parts of the country are still facing Wiimote shortages, while locales like the Nintendo World store in NYC has just under a gazillion or so. Nevertheless, it looks like Mad Catz just might readying a rescue effort, as a cameraphone-packin' Wal-Mart employee happened to snap a few pics of what appears (fairly clearly) to be a third-party Wiimote / nunchuck combo. Of course, we've no way of verifying Mad Catz's plans, nor any way to tell if these shots foretell the future, but this definitely wouldn't mark the first time a Mad Catz peripheral got leaked way before its supposed release date. Be sure to hit the read link for the full rundown of sneak peeks.

[Via Joystiq]

Ok, Wii fans who are still stuck without component cables, your prayers have been answered. Mad Catz is now offering a nearly 10-foot model -- which will support resolutions up to 480p -- for the low price of a Jackson. So assuming everyone doesn't slam Mad Catz all at once, this should solve the fact that getting proper Nintendo-sanctioned cables has been pretty tough, leaving folks to resort to other measures. Heck, buy two just in case there's a shortage again.

[Thanks, Mike]

Update: We've just gotten word from Mad Catz that the pic we posted previously was in error. The new version does not, sadly, come with composite video plugs. We've replaced the older pic with the new one.