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Hot Wheels AI is the love child of slot cars and Roomba
Model cars and track racing are the bread and butter of Hot Wheels, but they might look a little long in the tooth compared with flashy console games like Gran Turismo and Need for Speed. With the new Hot Wheels AI set, toy autos get a bit of a boost -- not just in speed, but in intelligence. Now you can race against a computer in the real world, right there on your living room rug.
View-Master VR keeps one foot planted in the real world
Last year View-Master made the leap to virtual reality, packing a Google Cardboard experience into an affordable, kid-friendly headset. With the introduction of the View-Master Viewer DLX at this week's Toy Fair, the brand remains fully committed to VR, while still finding ways to incorporate its analog roots.
Build your own action figures with the new ThingMaker 3D printer
The original ThingMaker was all about making little rubbery monsters. However, the new ThingMaker unveiled at Toy Fair this week can make whatever you can imagine in its app -- no metal molds necessary.
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.
Mattel's new ThingMaker is a $300 3D printer for toys
We've been waiting years for 3D printing to finally be simple enough for mainstream consumers -- and now, it looks like Mattel might be the first company to make that happen. At NYC's Toy Fair this weekend, Mattel unveiled ThingMaker, a revival of its 60's era toy maker using modern 3D printing technology. It'll also do much more than the original model: Instead of just spitting out fairly simple Creepy Crawlers, you can design complex objects like figurines, jewelry and accessories using the ThingMaker Design app, which Mattel developed together with Autodesk. ThingMaker will start shipping this fall for $300, and Mattel also started taking pre-orders today.
Mattel will launch a redesigned VR View-Master this fall
Mattel refreshed the View-Master for virtual reality last year with a version based on Google Cardboard, and this weekend it showed off an updated design at the New York Toy Fair. The View-Master Viewer DLX has better optical lenses, focal adjustment and, most importantly, a headphone connector. Gizmodo got some hands-on time with the device during the show, and also noticed a redesigned smartphone bracket that's ready to deal with more phones no matter what size or shape they are. It will also apparently see a price bump from $30 to $40, but the changes seem worth an extra $10 -- hopefully we'll be able to give its VR / AR capabilities another look before it goes on sale later this year.
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.
View-Master introduces kids to VR with space and wild animals
Mattel wants to make virtual reality kid-friendly. The company's been trying to bring its toys into the digital age for the last year or so. Barbie received a speech-recognition makeover; a plush Smart Toy learned how to talk; and earlier this year, the toymaker announced it would leverage Google's Cardboard technology to revamp its iconic View-Master. The new iteration of the viewer was expected to offer an introductory virtual reality experience at an affordable price. Now as the viewer makes its way to shelves this month, the company has unveiled the 360-degree experiences that are designed to be a child's first brush with virtual reality.
Hello Barbie has some career advice for your child
There's a new Barbie on the block. She's chatty and she comes with a charging station. She's dressed in a cropped, metallic leather jacket, dark skinny jeans and a white sweater vest with the word "HELLO" printed thrice on the front. Within seconds of switching her on, her chunky necklace lights up as it searches for a WiFi connection. When the LED goes from red to green, you know she's ready to play. A shiny, round belt buckle doubles as a button. You press it down to activate speech-recognition for your child's first two-way conversation with the iconic, inanimate doll.
Mattel hopes you'll design 3D-printed toys
Admit it: when you were a kid, you wished that you could design the toys that the stuffy manufacturers refused to build. Well, you're about to get that chance. Mattel and Autodesk are teaming up to let you design and customize 3D-printed toys through a "dedicated online hub" in the second half of the year. It's not clear just what freedom you'll have, although it wouldn't be shocking if you could craft your own Hot Wheels cars or Barbie accessories. They're likely to carry a premium over off-the-shelf toys, but they could be worth it if they encourage kids to create toys, not just play with them -- and hopefully, prevent the disappointment you probably felt when you were growing up. [Image credit: Timm Schamberger/Getty Images]
Digital disintegration, connected sex toys for every Valentine and other stories you might've missed this week!
In this Weekends with Engadget, we explain how photos can fade in the internet age, help you select the perfect connected sex toy for your Valentine and contemplate the best way to buy sneakers. All this and more -- just read on past the break.
Daily Roundup: NASA engineer Annie Easley, a new View-Master and more!
Get caught up on today's news in the latest edition of the Daily Roundup. Learn about Annie Easley, an African-American woman who helped make early spaceflight possible, go hands-on with us as we take Mattel's View-Master for a spin and find out how the UK plans to test autonomous vehicles. All that and more can be found past the break.
A visual history of Mattel's View-Master
With a little help from Google, Mattel took its iconic View-Master into the 21st century. That said, this isn't the first time the stereoscopic sightseer has welcomed change. In fact, since being born in 1939, there have been many iterations of the View-Master and its popular content reels. This includes models that weren't designed to be toys, like a model that was used during World War II as a training tool.
Kids will love the 21st century View-Master (but it made me dizzy)
I may not be the best candidate for a virtual reality demo. My glasses always get in the way, and even straight 3D tends to make me dizzy. None-the-less, I had to try the new View-Master. Well, the new View-Master app, at least. Sadly, the plastic viewer itself is still very early in the production cycle, so there wasn't a version ready to accept a phone and do a proper demo. But I was able to slot a Nexus into a Google Cardboard set up (stamped with a red View-Master logo) and get an idea of the experience Mattel is planning for October.
Google and Mattel update View-Master for the VR generation
Remember View-Master? That hunk of plastic you held up to your face, stuck cardboard reels into and advanced through 3D images of landscapes, animals and cartoons with the satisfying pull on a lever. Well it's back and Mattel has Google to thank for helping drag the classic toy into the 21st century. The main piece is an update to the iconic red-bodied View-Master that looks a little bit like a Fisher-Price take on the Oculus Rift. The orange lever is still there, albeit in a more compact form, and the front is dominated by a black, branded piece of plastic. But rather than stationary slide, you insert a smartphone into the plastic body which, when paired with the View-Master app and a View-Master "experience reel," lets you experience 360-degree worlds, photosphere and educational "field trips." There will even be bonus content such as historical footage, photos and behind the scenes video that you can access by clicking on icons hovering around objects, people and landmarks in the virtual world.
What are Mattel and Google doing with View-Master?
With a View-Master topped teaser (which you can see after the break), Google and Mattel invoked one of our favorite childhood memories -- and frequent inspiration for low-budget virtual reality shenanigans. The two are planning an "exclusive announcement and product debut" ahead of the New York Toy Fair next week, but other than the View-Master theme there's little to go on. Mattel's Fisher-Price division tried a View-Master comeback for the digital age in 2012, although all trace of it is gone now. We'll have to wait until next Friday to see for ourselves what they're planning, but we invite your wildest speculation until then. So what are you thinking -- a plastic pair of branded Mattel VR goggles based on the Cardboard project, or maybe a Hot Wheel based on something else Google has been working on? ... href='https://www.wedgies.com/question/54d50a247978490e00000193'>What will Mattel & Google announce next week?
The NES' Power Glove now doubles as a stop-motion video controller
Mattel's legendary-but-finicky Power Glove has been used for seemingly everything but playing Nintendo Entertainment System games as of late, and that trend isn't about to slow down in the wearable tech era. Witness animator Dillon Markey: he's using a heavily modified version of the glove to produce stop-motion TV shows like Robot Chicken. The newly Bluetooth-equipped controller lets him navigate his production software without having to carry a tethered remote or walk over to a PC, which is a big time-saver when it already takes minutes to perfect just a single frame of video. The augmented gauntlet also has retractable tweezers to manipulate tiny stop-motion figures, and there's even an Easter egg (we won't spoil it) that Markey can use to say how well his work is going. This isn't the best use of the Power Glove we've seen in showbiz (that honor will always go to Lucas in The Wizard, of course) but it's proof that there's still some life left in Nintendo's original motion control system.
Google puts Mattel and Disney designer Ivy Ross in charge of Glass
Google has just made a creative choice for its new head of Glass, picking one-time Mattel design lead and noted jewelery artist Ivy Ross. That signals a big shift away from Glass' geeky developer base while it transitions to a full-fledged consumer product. She would fill the position previously held by Babak Parviz as Google's Glass lead and work under Google X for Astro Teller and co-founder Sergei Brin. On the Google Glass G+ page, Ross said that she's spent her career "at the intersection of design and marketing" and that she'll be looking to answer some of the "audacious questions" around Glass. Though she didn't say so, some of those will no doubt revolve around privacy and other contentious issues with the upcoming product.
Zynga wins in copyright suit against Mattel over Scramble with Friends
Zynga has emerged victorious from a round of battle in the High Court after Mattel claimed Zynga's Scramble With Friends app infringed on the toy maker's trademark for Scrabble. Mattel argued that the app's name was too similar to their classic boardgame, Scrabble, which is known as one of the best ways to turn the action of forming of words into a passive-aggressive, violent affair. Although the judge ruled in favor of Zynga concerning the name dispute, he did side with Mattel concerning the app's logo, stating that it "gives the impression that the word is Scrabble when one looks at it quickly." Mattel spokesperson Alan Hilowitz said the company is "disappointed that the court did not rule that Zynga should cease using the Scramble name, which Mattel intends to appeal." The ruling follows the departure of several Zynga executives, including co-founder Justin Waldron. The company also recently shut down four of its games and the website for Draw Something creator OMGPOP.
'The Power of Glove' is a feature-length Power Glove documentary
Filmmakers Adam Ward, Andrew Austin and Paula Kosowski have taken it upon themselves to chronicle the creation and impact of one of the most infamous video game peripherals of all time, the Power Glove. Their film, The Power of Glove, is a feature-length documentary built upon interviews with Mattel hardware and software engineers involved in the glove's design, as well as accounts of people whose lives have been impacted by the device, such as musical artist Yeuda "Side Brain" Ben-Atar. The film is still under production according to its Facebook page, and as such no release date/method has been announced. We're hoping that release comes sooner rather than later, as we desperately need to know how much skrilla it takes to get one of the custom "Beat It" gloves seen in the trailer. We've got "big bank," as it were – let's talk about this.
