If you’ve ever been to Disney World and have kids, you no doubt know about Pal Mickey. A cuddly, interactive plushie of the Mouse, which has an RSS chip in its nose, Pal Mickey lets its owner in on insider park tips, gives parade and showtime reminders, tell when favorite characters are nearby, and about short waits at favorite attractions. And Pal Mickey works at every park at the Walt Disney World resort. It’s like having Mickey Mouse as your personal tour guide and an ingenious souvenir that’s well worth the sixty dollar price tag. Building on that comes a new, more higher tech, application which Disney is testing at Walt Disney World, and it’s based on the Nintendo DS Platform.

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We’ve seen remote controlled Daleks in the past - but here’s a new novelty. Voice-controlled Daleks FTW!

The Voice Controlled Dalek is a new generation of galactic evil. Standing a mighty foot and a half high, he’s able to track moving objects, and as well as you being able to direct him by radio control, he responds to over 30 voice commands. Complete with sound, movement and heat sensors, he’s festooned with sound and light effects, and his memory banks store over 50 Dalek phrases (helpfully translated into gargled English). His ‘Eye’ and ‘Exterminator’ arm light up, and his head can rotate through 270 degrees - which steals the thunder from owls somewhat. He has a bevy of special operational modes, such as ‘Seek Locate’, ‘Follow Me’ and ‘Guard Room’, making him a handy sentinel to have round the house.

This little bugger can be yours for £99.99.

Now here’s another R/C flying toy to keep you occupied. It would be a great purchase to consider especially when you want to prepare for spring when it is fun to go out and frolic in a park once again.

Ultra eerie, ridiculously clever and frighteningly entertaining, the rechargeable iFly Vamp is unlike other motorised flying thingies because it is an ornithopter. Which, as everyone with access to Google knows, means it flaps its wings in order to flit about the skies. It really is a sight to behold. And at only 12″x10″ Vamp is the smallest R/C ornithopter in the world.

Pick up the iFly Vamp for £29.95 - it will begin to ship in February, but Firebox is accepting pre-orders today.

We reported on Spykee last year at CES, well this year he is not alone, he now has his own little family.

First off is Spykee Cell who you control via your mobile phone using Bluetooth, he does such fun things as moving his head and has various lights and sounds. It also incorporates a camera so he can take pictures and transfer them to your phone. Next up is Miss Spykee, the female robot with 2 moods, friendly or mean, interaction with Miss is via voice recognition. Miss Spykee offers advice and can also be used as a universal IR remote control to operate your other appliances. Along similar lines to Miss is Spykee Vox but instead of giving advice he fights with sounds and lasers

All of the Spykee products work as docks for your iPod and as with the original Spykee they come in kit form that you’ll need to build your self. Prices start at $149 and are due for release October 2008.

After the official day one of CES 2008 I think this has to be my coolest gadget of CES so far, Guitar Hero Air Guitar Rocker, practice playing any place, any time.

Air Guitar Rocker is officially licensed with Guitar Hero but you don’t need to own Guitar Hero to play. Simply wear the supplied ‘heavy metal’ belt buckle, attach it to the included processor thingie and you’re good to go. Play your air guitar by strumming the plectrum in front of your groin the belt buckle and play such classics as Motorhead, Black Sabbath, Van Halen, etc. blast out and your adoring fans will stare at your groin in wonder.

Air Guitar Rocker will available from March 2008 for ~$30, you will also be able to buy exchangeable air cartridges for when you’ve bored everybody with Smoke on the Water for the billionth time.

WoW Wee are continuing to impress me with their cool toys and robots, one of this years offerings is Wrex the robotic dog and he does everything you’d expect from a pet dog, he looks cute, barks and even cocks his leg and has a virtual pee, cool!

Wrex has three different moods (happy, angry and crazy) and 3 desires (exercise, call of nature and hunger), he expresses this via his zany rotating eyes. He can roam around on his own, avoids obstacles, plays games and generally acts like a real dog, albeit on wheels. Check out the video of him in action Read the rest of this entry »

If you love puzzles, why not pick up the Eternity II and give yourself a chance to become a millionaire two times over should you be the first person to solve it.

Well for starters this infuriating geometric head-scratcher took yonks to design. Secondly - and more importantly - the first person to solve it wins $2 million. You heard, $2 million! If you’re a complete puzzle-dunce, don’t despair. According to its creator, Christopher Monckton, Eternity II is just as likely to be solved by a 5-year-old as a mathematical genius. Apparently age and academic ability don’t come into it. Then again Mr Monckton is a former policy advisor to Margaret Thatcher. But there are loads of reasons why you shouldn’t hold that against him. In fact we can think of two million rather good ones!

It makes me wonder, who comes up with the $2 million prize money in the first place? Can they actually sell enough to offset the amount in the first place? With more and more kids these days preferring to spend their time on video games, I doubt this $49.95 will pick up the pace at retail stores.

I love the Indiana Jones movies and I’m very anxiously awaiting the release of the next movie in the franchise. I’m even excited to get the new LEGO Indiana Jones game for the XBox 360 later in the year. But in the meantime, I can satiate my desire for the perfect combination of Indiana Jones and LEGO by picking up one of these awesome Indiana Jones LEGO sets over at the LEGO Shop.

Recreating classic Indiana Jones scenes from Raiders of the Lost Ark and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, you can pick from 5 different sets to fulfill your inner LEGO nerd. Read the rest of this entry »