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Razor's e-skates are equal parts Heelys and hoverboard
As a cranky, childless adult in her late thirties I've largely missed the boat on personal transportation trends like Razor scooters, Heelys and hoverboards. This year Razor manages to combine all of those things into its new Turbo Jetts e-skates: It's the sort of thing that your inner child will love, even as your adult self screams, "Get off my lawn!"
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.
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.
Hasbro's new AR helmet puts you inside Iron Man's armor
Children love to role play, whether it's pretending to cook in a toy kitchen or swinging plastic swords at each other in the backyard. But lately, more than just about anything else, kids want to be superheroes. To help, toy companies like Hasbro sell costumes, weapons and other props so kids can live out their Captain America and Iron Man fantasies. But a plastic shield will only take you so far: It can't give you super strength or speed, and you certainly can't throw it at bad guys and have it return to your hands afterward. But Iron Man's a little different, since so much of his power is tied up in the suit. His armor enables him to fly, blast enemies and view the world through its informative heads-up display. The latter element is what Hasbro's new Hero Vision Iron Man AR helmet aims to imitate, using a phone to display its own custom HUD so kids can feel like they're really wearing the armored Avenger's suit.
Blipblox could be 'my first synth' for kids big and small
This is hardly the first synthesizer for kids that we've seen, but the Blipblox device debuting at NAMM 2018 adds a familiar toy-like design and plastic casing. According to its maker, it combines "professional features" like a MIDI input, audio out, unique oscillator modulation schemes and LED lights that sync to the music. It's intended to let kids as young as three take a turn as music producers, and will "target" a price of $159.
Sphero cuts jobs and refocuses on education
Sphero was supposed to have a banner holiday with a slew of toys themed around Star Wars, Cars 3 and Spider-Man on top of its own self-branded creations. However, things turned out very differently. The company has confirmed to TechCrunch that it recently laid off 45 workers and is restructuring around education. Holiday sales weren't terrible, Sphero said, but they weren't "exactly what we had expected" -- the education space is one of those areas that "continues to shine." Most of the layoffs affected Sphero's home in Colorado, although people in Hong Kong and the UK were also affected.
NASA lends a hand to new American Girl doll with Mars aspirations
While the American Girl brand is well-known for teaching the past through dolls with fictional ties to important events, its latest aims to inspire youths to make history themselves. On the first day of 2018, the next American Girl will hit stores: 11-year-old Luciana Vega, who aspires to be the first person to reach Mars.
Of course there are Street Fighter-meets-Transformers toys
Listen, I'm sure some of you grew up watching the Transformers cartoon and played Street Fighter years later with a wish in your heart that these two worlds would meet. For those happy few, there are now mash-up toys that let Ryu, villain M. Bison, Ken and Chun Li morph into cars and planes.
Germany bans children’s smartwatches over privacy concerns
Germany's telecommunications regulator, the Federal Network Agency, announced a ban today on the sale of kids' smartwatches, the BBC reports, and encouraged parents to destroy the ones they already own. The agency appears to be taking particular issue with the devices' abilities to transmit audio from its surroundings. Jochen Homann, the agency's president, said today, "Via an app, parents can use such children's watches to listen unnoticed to the child's environment and they are to be regarded as an unauthorised transmitting system."
MekaMon is an anime-styled battle bot you pilot with your phone
Between the success of shows like BattleBots and the amount of interest in last month's MegaBots debacle, it's pretty obvious that people really want to watch robots fight. But while watching two mechanical titans grapple can be satisfying, few things have captured the feel of the robot battles in video games and anime. Reach Robotics' $300 MekaMon, which launches today in the Apple Store, might be the closest we've seen to capturing that cyber-future ambience. Its bots can run and climb around the physical world while also using AR to add virtual weaponry for the full Japanese mech experience.
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.
The 20th anniversary Tamagotchi is smaller but still easy to kill
It's been 20 years since the iconic virtual pet Tamagotchi hit US shores, becoming a must-have item for kids and teenagers and proving enough of a distraction that it was banned from many classrooms. Many of those youngsters now have offspring of their own, and Bandai is hoping to entice both generations by reintroducing the classic 1997 model with a special anniversary edition. But most adults and many children now carry a phone capable of doing so much more than that little plastic egg could. Why would they, or anyone, invest in a Tamagotchi? I spent the weekend with my own little simulated creature in my bag and spoiler alert: It died of neglect.
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.
Sometimes, all you need in life is a cat tail cushion
You may not instantly recognize the name "Yukai Engineering," but you may have already come across its earlier products like the Necomimi brainwave cat ears or the Bocco "family robot" at some point. At CEATEC, the Japanese company unveiled its latest wacky product, the Qoobo "tail therapy" robot. This is essentially a cushion with a realistic cat tail that reacts to stroking and patting, such that it's able to comfort its "owner" like a real pet would simply through tail wagging. To make it more lifelike, Qoobo also wags its tail randomly when it is left alone for too long.
Augmented reality teddy bear teaches kids about being a doctor
Kids frequently don't need much more than their imagination to bring a teddy bear to life, but what if they had a little boost? That's what Seedling hopes to do with Parker. The teddy by itself is the same sort of fluffy companion you likely had as a child, but an augmented reality app for iOS turns the bear into something much more. If you want to play doctor, you can look at Parker's insides to cure a stomach bug or ease a sore throat. You can create magic forests and sea gardens using the AR camera. And importantly you're rewarded for being kind: the more you take care of Parker, the more the bear uses AR to 'transform' the world around you.
Stormtrooper bot with facial recognition guards against intruders
We know what Star Wars fans will be wishing for this Christmas -- aside from Sphero's R2-D2 and BB-9E toys. Ubtech, the company behind the dancing Lynx robot, is releasing a Stormtrooper bot. Although it can't teach you yoga, you can use voice commands to instruct it to ward off intruders (hopefully not with an actual blaster). Its facial recognition tech also allows it to store up to three faces in its memory bank. That way, it can shout at any uninvited guests that keep barging into your room. And, its accompanying mobile app packs an augmented reality game that lets you fight off the Resistance and launch First Order attacks. The robot is available for pre-order from Ubtech right now, and will ship in November. It will set you back $300.
Sphero's Mini app-powered robot is its smallest one yet
Over the past year, Sphero has been busy teaming up with Disney on connected toys for film franchises like Star Wars, Spider-Man and Cars. But today the company is launching a product that takes it back to its roots: a mini version of its original app-controlled robot. The new rolling ball, aptly named Sphero Mini, is about the same size as a golf ball and comes with a removable shell, which you can get in white, blue, green, orange or pink colors. As is to be expected given the different frame, it does come with a few tradeoffs compared to models like the SPRK+. Mini isn't waterproof and connection range is limited to 10 meters, as opposed to 30 on its higher-end sibling.
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.
Toys ‘R’ Us has declared bankruptcy
Toys 'R' Us might file for bankruptcy as soon as today, according to Bloomberg. That should help the toy giant restructure the $400 million in debt that comes due for it next year, which it was saddled with after getting bought out a decade ago. While the retail chain has been suffering declining sales for five years, Amazon has continued to grow its own toy sales, taking a bigger share of the industry.
