Toyology

Little Legends

Attractive enough to stick together any gaming geeks bundle of keys, a tad pricey perhaps for the rest of us, but thats because each of the shrunken joysticks and paddles contains an almost tear inducing surprise. Seven of the most iconic Atari games from uarter of a centruy past to whileaway your time upon, forget graphic rish and story deep affairs just a quick fix of PONG, Centipede or Asteroids is exceptionally satisfying (there is also Millipede, Breakout, Warlords and Yars Revenge). Each keyring comes complete with a seperate reel containing six feet of cable and jacks for your TV plugging in pleasure - So, £14.99 for the stocking filler thats guaranteed to get you an ear-to-ear smile from the recipient = Bargain.

Top Gear Powerslider = Classy RC Machine

This scaled down battery powered GTR punches well above its price tag, impressive top speed, robust enough to take a few knocks and responds as well as much costlier cars. Add to this the fact it uses a motion controlled steering system for even more fun sttering it about your layed out track, jerking your arms from one side to another, perhaps even attempting to slam on the brakes with your feet...This will sadly not work. Only £26.95 at Gizoo so you'd better get shifting.

Gift from Gizoo

Just in time to lighten your wallets this Yule the folk at gizoo.co.uk have had a makeover. The new site is easier to wander around and look at al the wares on offer with a brand new eco-friendly section for for tree hugging types. To celebrate the launch of this new site Gizoo are giving away a free Award Winning Fridge Monkey (worth £4.95) to the first 2,000 customers who place an order AND for Toyology £10 off when you spend £40 or more with free delivery - Just enter XMASGIFT10 at the checkout.

Bikini Bottom plastic pals

The soaraway success that is Spongebob Squarepants has given us an array of licenced items, from DVD players and LEGO sets to Guitars and bedding. If you want to celebrate your fan status in a slightly more low key fashion then let us lead you toward one of these mini figures. In addition to the pictured Patrick and Spongobob you can grab a Squidward, Mr Krab or Gary the Snail to adorn your desk. Want one? "We can't heeeeear you"? From £2.99 at PLAY

Snap up a Star Wars Fighter

This snap together X-Wing from Revell comes in 39 parts that are ready painted so you'll get the satisfaction of a build but it'll not take too long to complete, in fact it'll likely be done at lightspeed build. Grab yourself a mini replica of Lukes favourite ride and relive one of the big screens defining moments when the young Jedi destroyed the Death Star in his. £10.99 at PLAY

James Bond fans find 007 Heaven

If you can't quite stretch the budget to buy a flamethrowing toothbrush for the 007 fan in your life then perhaps this rather splendid set should satisfy their urges until your finances are in better shape. A collecection of the eiht most iconic vehicles from the films are all packed away inside this film reel tin. The price, £39.99 over at Corgi ,and it should be in by Xmas

No Numbers Dominoes

So what do you call a donimoes type game that uses words instead of numbers? Yes, Wordinoes, and its out now. Players pull out their tiles and try and match their Wordinoes by making new words or phrases, word association, pairing opposites and by using rhyme. AS the game starts with ten tiles each its pretty straight forward but toward the end of play fewer tiles mean  more tension. If you don't agree with a players play and the majority of players agree they ave to remove the Wordino and take another one from the bag. There are other variations on play too making it worth the £19.99 price tag, a kind of scrabble/domino hybrid. Grab one HERE

Top Chopper for Indoor Flight

Over the weekend we spotted a chap out in the park with his very noisy and extremely agile petrol powered helicopter, when asked about its price he reckoned about THREE GRAND in total as his inexperience in the early days meant a couple of rebuilds. So kids, before you start messing about with one of those crowd pleasers you'll need some practice, and here's the most splendid starter chopper we've had flying around the office this year. Th Salvation 3 has twin rotors inside a safety blade, this will both stop it knocking too much stuff over on your shelves and protects digits too. The responsiveness of the three channel remote is very decent, certainly better than some twice the price of this one. Get yourself over to RcMods and bag yourself a Salvation 3 for just £24.99

Pink in the Dock

Great story in the Telegraph today about the "Pinkification" of Toys and how two parents have set up a campaign to boycott ELC for their over concentration of pink stuff for girls, finding pink cash tills, washing machines and globes particularly offensive.. Do girls not like pink? Do these girls not like pink? Are they right to be making such a fuss? Should we put aput a blanket ban on the colour pink? Do let us know your thoughts.

LEGO sorting box is up there with sliced bread...why didn't we think of that?

cheers gizmodo.com

Robots that didn't rise

At just over 3cm the Robo-Q is the worlds smallest Robot, don't think for one moment that his trick list match his Lilliputian dimensions, you'd be very wrong. These tiny chaps are packed with technology, first off there's the two autonomous modes so you can set your Robo-Q off around an obstacle course where he'll avoid objects or takes himself off to seek out something solid so you can stick a ball in front of him and enjoy some mechanised dribbling. The handheld RC unit, which also doubles as the charging station, lets you take them for a walk choosing from three walking speeds at the flick of your finger - Futuristic thimble sized fun at £19.95 HERE

Speaking Stig anyone?

Pull out the ripcord on this bendy limbed STIG doll and he'l let out one of five sayings, well it'll be Clarksons dulcet tones but Top Gear fans know what we mean. There is a sixth phrase disguised as morse code,so that'll be fun for you to look up on Xmas day. £13.99 at PLAY.com

The best rendition of Bohemian Rhapsody by far

The Science of Play

Linking up with a leading psychologist Worlds Apart have created an online calculator to assist in the purchase of presents this Yule. It's all based upon the toys overall play value with the formula based on factors including cost, the amount of time a child is expected to spend with it and whether it encourages skills such as creativity and social interaction. Of 5,000 parents surveyed 65% said thir kids received a toy they never played with, head over to Toybuyornot and give it a go.

Competition Time

 
Here's one way to cut the cost of Xmas, enter one of our comps and bag yourself some Xams booty for free. We have two mind-bending prize packages to giveaway, each one contains three great Rubik’s products. There's the original finger-twisting favourite Rubik’s Cube, there's a light-flashing, button-bashing REVO Cube and we're even throwing in a Rubik’s 360 – a sensational toy.

To be in with a chance of winning one of these two Rubik's goodies bags just tell us where Professor Erno Rubik, the inventor of the infuriating cube, comes from?

A) Hungary

B) Hertfordshire

C) Honduras

email us on comps(AT)toyology.co.uk by noon on the 5^th December and we'll let two lucky winners have their gifts well ahead of Xmas – Good Luck.

Indoor Fireworks with added BANG!

Everything except the smell of gunpowder is set to be unleashed in your living room, the electronic display that'll have visitors oohing and ahhing with almost the same levels of childish delight as they would outdoors braving the elements and dodgy half cooked sausages. A far cry, thankfully, from those limp indoor "barely giving off a flicker"  fireworks we've been fobbed off with for years, this box of tricks will give a New Years eve celebratory level effect each time it's switched on, if Guy Fawkes were around this is the ambient light him and his posse would Xbox with. The SEGA  has six lenses, speakers inside and has nine interchangeable discs for you to select your whow from, hook up extra speakers and you've a display that Broris can only have wet dream about for his 2012 opening ceremony. £129.95 for yours at FIREBOX

LEGO on the lookout for a Builder

Open auditions will be taking place in Manchester to find a LEGO fanatic who can turn their hobby into hard cash. The job will involve developing new features at the centre as well as maintaining existing ones, upon arrival at the open audtiions there'll be millions of bricks and applicants will first have to make an animal in 15 minutes. Get past stage one then you're next challenge is creating a famous face from the collection of bricks, if reckon you're up to to the challenge email register@legolanddiscoverycentre.com

Toy Fair fun with Top Gear fella

Not content with an hour a week of James May and his Toy based shennanigans then perhaps you'd like to purchasetickets and meet the man himself as he hosts his very own Toy Fair. On offer, for the moderate sum of £20 (which includes a signed copy of his book) is a show of some fabulous LEGO models, the chance to ask the man a few questions, race against him on a Scalextric track, enter a Meccano building comp, make your own Airfix model and even mould a Morph. We wanted more feature based stuff on toys on TV and have a "careful what you wish for"  feeling now that the prospect of a James May action figure becomes closer to reality. Still, £20, not bad for a day out - HERE

BEANO fans

This seasonal scene from Gibsons jigsaws packs in pretty much every BEano character you could imagine, a the centre is the pie munching giant that is Desperate Dan, switching on the Xmas lights in this 1000 piece scene. £10.99 for at least a few hours fun on a soggy Sunday, grab one HERE

Supercars are within your reach

Fans of Lamborghini and Porsche will be delighted when they open up your overly generous gift of a supercar, ownership of these marvellous machines has never been so afordable. Each its has the added benefit over the real thing as you are required to put the major components together, your reqards is a fine looking Die-cast metal body with opening doors, a pull back and go motor and some pretty decent detail. You bill for each one? Just a shade under £8, enough for the fuel to get you to the shops and back in one of the real models. Head over to Gettingpersonal.co.uk or this pair of stocking fillers for petrolheads.