Toyology

Stylophone updated once more

This latest reincarnation of the Rolf Harris electronic squealing machine has been brought bang up to date with three different sound sets from which to choose. Select Drum kit, Beatbox or Bass Stylophone and irritate all around you with your so called tunes, add to their annoyance by using the scratch function button – When you're work is done winding everyone up just plug in your headphones and be selfish. Out May for £20 

New Robotics kid on the Block

 

Bossa Nova is the new robotics brand being brought to these shores this summer by Character, the company behind much of the success of the Wowwee range over the past few years. This is the PRIME-8, a yellow gorilla-a-like model that runs at speed on his hands and apes from side to side whilst doing this at speed. He has eight games built-in,our favourite is chucking the soft balls at his sensors, withthe killer htif you hit him in between his theoretical groin... Out this summer for about £80 - Character Online

New Wii peripheral - Only for the fit

 

Recreation today announced they are dipping into the peripheral pool with this Wii add-on by the name of Jog. Connect it into your existing controllers as ilustrated and clip the pedometer-a-like gadget holster fashion to your side. To move your characters on screen you'll have to move your legs at a fair rate to get your on screen character to conduct the simplest of tasks. We had fun playing Indiana LEGO and broke into a sweat after a brief baddie encounter and attempting to jump a ravine..Much more effort than the balance board and compatible across a range of Wii titles. Out next months for £19.99 - Recreation

NERF lines up its latest weapon

 

Foam dart firing sessions are about to become a bit more serious as this new weapons arrives from NERF. The Havoc Fire is a fully automatic shooting system and uses a battle field type belt to unleash its bendy bullets. Its an impressive looking machine just launched at the UK's Toy Fair and is set or a Summer launch for about £50

Meccanno Spykee range expands further

This is the new sibling joining the Spykee family, a shrunken version of the popular VOX voice activated robot. Mini Vox has eight voice activated orders (dance, move, attack) performing them with sound and light effects as well as altering the expressions on his pixelated face. Standing at 16.8cm in height this is our first preview of yet more family members to be unveiled at the Toy Fair this week. £44.95 at PLAY

LEGO display box shows your potential purchase in 3D

If you've ever found yourself loitering around the LEGO aisle box in hand, but unsure whether to take it to the counter as the picture on the front isn't enough to help make your choice assistance is at hand! Just launched in  Germany (for now we hope) is the digital box, just wave the barcode on the box in front of the screen and you'll see a full 3D model appear on screen of the contents fully constructed. Via DVICE

ExtraTerrestrial Shoot-em-up

Place your little green men around the room and grab your pistol, when you press play each Alien will randomly make a sound before rasing his guns to blast you affording you moments to infra-red him first, at which point they let out a satisfying cry. The leader of the trio has three lights on his belt, each time you're hit one will extinguish until they annihilate you and take over your lounge. £17.99 at Play

Mensa alarm may make you mental in the morning

                                                                   The latest addition to the crazy alarm clock line-up is this one from Hawkins Bazaar by the name of Mensa. We're not sur if that is thegroupof IQ testing fame or just a Far Eastern rip-off.  So,in an attempt to get those who hit the snooze button one time too many in the morning this clock shreiks at you and then requires you to copy the random sequence of lights that flas on the front in order to turn it off. Get it wrong and the alarm gets louder, you can of course chose to submit to the clocks superiority but your penance is 30 seconds of ear shattering shrillness. Perhaps a gift for another rather than one for your bedside. £9.95 at Hawkin's

Vtech console is a Wii-lation

Jumping on the massive success of the Wii console Vtech are looking for a slice of that pie with their new V.Smile motion console aimed at the3-7 year old market. All the titles offered will promote the console as an edutainment rather than pure fun plaything but the games we played seemed to strike a decent balance. The controllers work wirelessly and movement is controlled by moving around the oversized handheld unit and the central dial can be turned 180 degrees to accommodate left or right handers to have the jump button at their best hand. The console is priced at £59.99 and comes with a controller and starter game including bobsled, racing and tennis. Plenty of titles are planned with eight on offer now including Kung-Fu Panda and Wall-E with more due by the end of 2008. Ours arrives next week and we'll show you how the tots fair against the grown-ups.

Office warfare - The next level

USB based foam missile firing systems have been around for a while now, they were decent enough but their firing range was limited by the amount of cable between the launchpad and your PC. The engineers have been hard at work and now we have a free-roaming firing system in the shape of the USB Tank. Control your maker of mahyem machine from the desktop interface via a USB wireless transmitter that works at distances of up to 25 feet, making it easy to send missions into uncharted territory..Watch out accounts, your time is up. £40.00 from Red5