“The toys your kids'll soon beg you for” plus 1 more |
| The toys your kids'll soon beg you for Posted: 16 Feb 2011 07:33 AM PST From a 3-D mask kids can wear to watch "The Transformers" in 3-D, to a Leap Pad tablet — yes, a tablet for children — there were all kinds of tech goodies at this year's Toy Fair in New York. Cine-Mask 3D Transformers Masks If you have a little Transformer running around your home, he's bound to love the Cine-Mask Optimus Prime and Bumblebee 3D role-play masks that are coming out by July 1, 2011 for the opening of the first 3-D Transformers movie, "Transformers: Dark of the Moon." Instead of the usual eye holes, these masks have polarized lenses, so they can be worn instead of the theater's 3-D glasses. Price: $9.99. Available June 2011. Kid-Tough See Yourself Camera The latest in Fisher Price's ruggedized kids' camera line, the Kid-Tough See Yourself Camera has two interesting new features that set it apart. First, it has a 180-degree rotating lens, so young photographers can be in their own pictures. Second, the camera will take video as well as stills. Price: $69.99. Available July 2011. Meon Picture Makers Remember lace-up cards? Meon has taken the same concept and applied it to neon signs. Kids ages 5 and up can clip between one and six strands of neon wire to Cars, Toy Story or Disney Fairies templates or create their own design. Kits start at $9.99 for a 7-inch frame and a single 3-foot strand of wire, and go up to $35.99 for a 15-inch frame, several strands of wire in different colors, sound effects and games, among other features. Available for holiday 2011. Star Wars Ultimate FX Light Sabers The best light saber technology, a progressive light-up LED blade previously only available in adult collector's items, has finally been made tough enough to withstand countless battles in the hands of small children ages 4 and up. Choose from Anakin Skywalker (blue) or Darth Vader (red). Price: $35.99. Available in August 2011. Hot Wheels Video Racer Vehicle Capture the fast action of a Hot Wheels race car from the driver's seat. The Video Racer has a built-in camera that captures video at a full-motion 30 frames per second for up to 12 minutes. Then turn the car over for playback on the integrated display. You can also download the footage to your computer. The Video Racer comes with a protective case that you can mount to almost anything using the included Velcro straps, clips, brackets and adhesive strips. Price: $59.99. Available Fall 2011. LeapFrog LeapPad With a 5-inch touch display, built-in camera that can take video, a tilt sensor for gaming and a ruggedized housing, the LeapFrog LeapPad hits the ground running as a kids' tablet. There will be LeapPad specific titles, but the tablet will also play the whole library of Leapster Explorer titles and there will be downloadable games as well. Price: $99.99, with games costing $24.99. Available Summer 2011. GeoPalz Kids Pedometers Kids can be rewarded for each step they take when they wear a GeoPalz pedometer. Steps turn into points when they're logged online, and the points can be redeemed for prizes like a jump rope, a water bottle or a gift card. The current GeoPalz can only be worn on the hip, but this summer there will be a new style that can be clipped to a sneaker or worn in a slap-style bracelet. Price: $24.99 for the pedometer, $9.99 for the bracelet. Battleship Live and Monopoly Live Hasbro has taken a couple of my favorite classic games — Monopoly and Battleship — and given them an electronic game "director." Using infrared sensors, a tower in the middle of the game board can sense hand movements and the position of the game pieces on the board, and provides audio feedback to guide game play. When the pace lags, the "director" will add unexpected events like a typhoon-damaging ships in Battleship or a putting properties up for bid in Monopoly. Available for holiday 2011. More stories from Techlicious This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
| Games galore at Hastings Museum Posted: 16 Feb 2011 04:25 AM PST HASTINGS -- For weeks, it has been snowy and cold outside, so the Hastings Museum invited kids to come inside and play games on Friday. Russanne Ericksen, curator of education, said the Out and About sessions at the museum try to concentrate on learning, being active and having fun. "We thought games, what's more fun than games?" she said Friday. The Out and About sessions are for kindergartners through sixth-graders when public schools have breaks. "We wanted it to be active because they have been cooped up inside with the crummy weather we've had," Ericksen said.Not only did the 16 kids, ages four to 11, learn about existing games, but they also got a chance to make up their own game. Provided with a bucket, bean bags, stick horses, a large die, three rings, three discs, three hats and plastic Easter eggs, each group of four kids came up with a game, complete with rules and a way to score. Hope Kohmetscher and Kaitlyn Hamburger, both 9, teamed up with Evah Thomas, 7, and Dacey Sealey, 8, to create their game. They went through several ideas including hopscotching through the hoops and racing back to the start with the stick horses before settling on a series of events. It started with hopping through the hoops, added a bean bag toss into the bucket that deducted 10 points for every one you missed and adding points for finding the right color of egg under the hats. Another group with Isaiah Sherman, 9, Karlee Sherman, 4, Brooke Aspen, 8, and Blake Aspen, 10, added a little scoring mathematics to their game. The hats were set upside down on the bean bags to keep them facing up. The player got 10 plastic Easter eggs to throw into the hats, placed at various distances and worth varying points. Then the player rolled the die to determine the number by which to multiply the egg toss score. "I like that you put some math into it," Ericksen told the young game makers. "You are all very creative." Other games included an obstacle course where the players lost points if they touched the ground and a game where the player tried to get a hoop over the head of a stick horse. The kids also learned about games throughout history, from some of the oldest such as marbles, which have been found in Egyptian pyramids dating to 2,000 years before Christ, to recent video games. Lynn Zeleski, volunteer coordinator and education coordinator, said the oldest toys were probably dolls, which were made of anything from animal fur to cornhusks. She said in some Native American cultures a cornhusk doll was made for a young girl about 3 or 4 and it lasted her until she was in her teens. Kids have been jumping rope for at least 5,000 years and chess was invented about 4,000 years ago in China. "Stick horses have been around as long as there have been sticks and as long as there have been horses," Zeleski said, adding that some of the oldest games involve racing or guessing games. The kids learned that bingo was originally called beano for the beans used as markers. It became popular in the late 1920s at county fairs and then became a popular fundraiser for churches. By 1939, Americans were playing 10,000 games of bingo each week. Charles Darrow became the nation's first millionaire when he sold the rights to Monopoly to Parker Brothers in 1934. "It's fun with a little bit of education thrown in," Ericksen said. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
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