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Hot Wheels' GoPro toy car captures sweet shots of your lil' stunts
How much do you love Hot Wheels? So much that you spend your days wishing you could ride that loop-the-loop yourself? Probably not, but Mattel has your back regardless. It just trotted out a Hot Wheels Zoom In car with a slot designed to accommodate one of GoPro's Hero5 and Session action cameras -- yes, you too can document your plastic track racing with a camera that costs exponentially more than the $1.09 vehicle underneath. If you've ever wanted to combine the thrill of first-person stunts with the fear of trusting an expensive gadget to the whims of physics, your dream machine is here.
Intellivision plans a revival with a new game console
Add Intellivision to the list of vintage console brands hoping for another shot at glory. Intellivision Entertainment has revealed that it's in the early stages of creating a new video game system. Details are scarce (there isn't even a name), but the emphasis is on making a system that "all age groups and levels of gamers and non-gamers" can enjoy. There's familiar talent involved, too. Soundtrack impresario and Video Games Live host Tommy Tallarico has been named the President of the fledgling company, while numerous original Intellivision designers and executives are taking on leadership roles. Mattel is about the only absentee at this stage, but that's not surprising.
Mattel and Tynker will use Barbie to teach kids to code
A couple of years back, Mattel and Tynker partnered up to produce programming lessons based on Hot Wheels and Monster High. Now the two companies are expanding their partnership to launch seven new Barbie-themed coding lessons this coming summer. The curriculum, aimed at teaching girls about computer programming, will also expose them to them potential careers like becoming a veterinarian, astronaut or robotics engineer. The larger goal is to introduce coding to 10 million kids by 2020.
Mattel's 'Jurassic World' dino-bots are surprisingly realistic
Mattel's last Kamigami STEM robot was an adorable DIY lady bug. Now, the toy company is aiming for something bigger with its new Jurassic World bots. You'll still have to put them together first, but what you end up with is a complex robo-dino with realistic movement. And, just like before, they'll also help kids bone up on their STEM chops.
Rocket League Rivals brings absurd car-based soccer to the real world
This week Hot Wheels unveiled Augmoto, an AR-enhanced course that makes the brand's track races a lot more video game-like. However, in the other direction it's also introducing Rocket League Rivals, a remote control vehicle kit that brings the popular console game's madcap soccer-but-with-cars action into the real world. Based on the number of times our cars flipped over or ran off the track while playing at this week's Toy Fair, it seems to have captured the spirit of the game, at least.
How Mattel is using AR to let you preview Hot Wheels playsets
Taking a cue from Lego, Mattel is betting on augmented reality as a new way to entice shoppers. The company will introduce an AR app this fall, which will generate a virtual version of its Hot Wheels City playsets when you point your phone or tablet at their boxes in stores. The idea is to give kids and parents a better sense of how the set looks and functions without open anything up, and without retailers wasting precious floorspace on demo units.
Hot Wheels' new AR track turns toy racing into a warzone
Hot Wheels may be known for little die-cast cars, but celebrating its 50th birthday this year doesn't mean it's stuck in the past. The brand's already given us AI-controlled racers and cars on virtual courses, but the one thing that's gone largely untouched is its signature plastic track. This year, Hot Wheels mixes things up with Augmoto, which takes the classic racing set and throws augmented reality on top of it. Now, road hazards and collisions can now look as cool as they do in your head, and each race becomes a lot more strategic.
Play ‘Rocket League’ IRL with a Hot Wheels RC car kit
After arriving on the Nintendo Switch in November, there's few places Rocket League hasn't reached -- but soon it will hit the real world. No, not in actual rocket-boosted vehicles, which would be way cooler to watch than a show about its eSports competition. Instead, fans will soon be able to race around in Hot Wheels-brand RC car replicas of the in-game vehicles.
The stuff that launched at CES 2017 but never came out
CES is the busiest time of year for Engadget, with our team spending a week on the ground in Las Vegas looking for the latest and greatest products from companies of all sizes and persuasions. Last CES was no different, with our editors checking out a plethora of smart televisions, wireless earbuds and mesh routers. And there's always a few oddball things -- remember Razer's three-screened laptop? But while Project Valerie was just a prototype never really meant to see the light of day, most of the stuff we see does hit store shelves... eventually. Now that it's mid-December and CES 2018 is mere weeks away, we thought we'd check on a few of the products that haven't made it to market. Some were pushed back and will join the class of 2018, while others will only live on in Engadget's post archives.
Hasbro offers to buy Mattel as tech pressures the toy world
Toys 'R' Us may not be the only major casualty of technology's influence on the toy industry. Wall Street Journal sources claim that Hasbro recently made an offer to buy Mattel. It's not clear what terms Hasbro offered or how receptive Mattel was, but it would put two of the best-known kids' brands together -- My Little Pony and Hot Wheels would exist side-by-side. Neither side is commenting on the apparent leak.
Kamigami is a cute robot bug you build yourself
There are plenty of products out there that teach STEM skills, from robots you can code to kits for building musical instruments or games. But the "fun" is often short-lived. Most of the activity is rooted in the building process, and the final product is often too basic or simplified to be very interesting. By contrast, Dash Robotics and Mattel's new Kamigami robotic kits are very much focused on what kids do after they finish putting them together. They still get a sense of accomplishment and might pick up a few STEM skills in the process, but in the end it's really about having your very own cute bug bot to race, battle and customize.
Mattel cancels kid-friendly smart speaker amid privacy concerns
Mattel announced its digital assistant-powered smart speaker for kids, Aristotle, this past January. The Echo-style audio device was set to offer baby monitoring, games, facts and sounds to help soothe your children. Mattel promised it would be able to learn your children's voices, too, and grow with their speech development. We caught a glimpse of Aristotle at CES this year, where we learned that the toy company created a custom AI engine with "natural language processing" to learn how your child pronounces words. According to a report at The Washington Post, the toy company has now canceled the device amid concerns of privacy and the role of technology in child development and parenting.
Osmo 'Mindracers' puts real Hot Wheels on crazy virtual tracks
Hot Wheels will be celebrating its 50th anniversary soon, and even in an era when kids spend a lot of time on smartphones and tablets, they also still play with little die-cast metal vehicles on plastic orange track. But the venerable toy car brand can also be found on handheld devices, making its entry into AR earlier this year with Track Builder, which allowed users to build their own Hot Wheels setup in simulated space by moving their phone around. Last holiday season the company also brought video game mechanics into the real world with Hot Wheels AI, which put computer-controlled cars onto a real track with virtual pitfalls. With Mindracers, their newest product, Hot Wheels and Osmo have flipped that dynamic around. Now those metal cars can be dropped into virtual worlds, the kind of places kids used to only see in their imagination.
'Hot Wheels Track Builder' is an AR den for your creations
Hot Wheels is best known for its extensive line of die-cast model cars, as well as some racing video games for younger kids. However, at this year's Toy Fair the brand is aiming to combine the best of both in its new Tango augmented reality game. Track Builder gives you a virtual play area to construct custom tracks for your cars. The only limit is what you can imagine, and not the amount of physical space in your home.
Barbie Hello Hologram is a tiny virtual friend for girls
Smart home speakers like the Echo and Google Home can tell you the weather, play music and look up stuff for you. However, they stop short of attaching a face to those actions, and certainly don't have any sense of sartorial style. Mattel's latest creation, the Barbie Hello Hologram, rectifies that by placing the iconic doll into her own tiny holographic world and letting children talk to her directly. She can chat about the weather, crack corny jokes and even dance. Barbie can dab with the best of them.
Batmobile toy uses augmented reality to show the driver's view
Batman's got plenty of wonderful toys bearing his name, from his trusty Batarangs to his super Batcomputer. However, none are more famous than the Batmobile. And, while diehard fans might be a little down on the design of the latest version as seen in Batman v Superman and Justice League, they certainly won't be disappointed by the sheer amount of cool tricks packed into Mattel's new radio-controlled model. With its own built-in dash cam, augmented reality features and the ability to spew real exhaust, this new ride is exactly the kind of thing Bruce Wayne would have built if he went into toy design instead of crimefighting.
Mattel's Aristotle is a kid-focused Echo alternative
First there was Alexa, Siri, Cortana and the Google Assistant. Now you can prepare to add Aristotle to that growing list of voice-enabled assistants. Mattel's cheerful AI companion differs from the competition by focusing on children, first and foremost. It's been packaged inside a smart speaker (what else?) and promises to understand your little one's vocal ramblings, all the way from toddler to middle school. That's a bold promise, given most of the current offerings struggle with even the most eloquent adults. Mattel says it's solved the problem with a custom AI engine, which uses a mixture of "natural language processing" to learn your child's enunciation.
Mattel built a $300 Echo for kids
It's late, and you're tired. Before you can knock off for the night, however, there's one thing left to do: read your child a bedtime story. In Mattel's world, you might not have to pick up a book or even put on voices for their favorite characters. That's because it's working on an Echo-style speaker with an assistant called Aristotle. It's built specifically for kids, offering games, facts and soothing sounds on demand. Most importantly, it has the smarts to recognize your little one's less-than-perfect speech and adapt as she gets older and more curious about the wider world.
Mattel won't sell a 3D printer for toys this holiday after all
If you promised your teen a Mattel ThingMaker this Christmas, you may want to find something else that's just as cool ASAP. A spokesperson told Engadget that the company won't be releasing its toy printer this fall like it originally planned. Mattel has pushed back its debut to fall 2017 to give it enough time to further enhance both the $300 device and its companion app.
Websites settle with New York over online child tracking
Some of the biggest child-oriented websites are learning a hard lesson about the importance of respecting kids' privacy. New York state has reached settlements with Hasbro, JumpStart Games, Mattel and Viacom for violating the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act by collecting personal information from kids under 13. They'll all have to reform their sites (such as those for Hot Wheels, Neopets and Nickelodeon) to honor COPPA's safeguards and screen third-party trackers. JumpStart, Mattel and Viacom will also have to pay a collective $835,000 in penalties and provide regular reports on their scan results. Hasbro is dodging those bullets only because it's part of an FTC-sanctioned safe harbor program.
