Ah, Rubiks’ Cube, you just won’t die. Ever since your flash in the pan fad heyday in the early eighties, you still have a little glow left even today.

Perhaps this is why some designer made a Rubik’s Lamp. It is made of 26 smaller cube-like pieces that somehow fit together. The end result is some sort of multi-colored lighting experience that will only be un-trippy if you solve the puzzle.

The next Rubik’s Cube is tied into a franchise. I suppose that you could make a Rubik’s Cube out of anything with some stickers, and that is what was done with this special edition Transformers AllSpark.

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Looks like LEGO is the new gold standard – all you need to do to revive a video game or franchise would be to release it in the famous LEGO brick form, and you’re good to go. The Star Wars franchise isn’t new to the LEGO treatment, but this time round you can be a proud new owner of the LEGO Darth Vader TIE Fighter set that comes with a tiny minifig of the Dark Lord of the Sith himself, where he can plant his butt in the cockpit while attempting to get a lock on Luke Skywalker during an exciting reenactment of the Trench Run. $29.99 will net you 251 pieces, where even the Force won’t be able to help you put it together apart from your brains and a careful understanding of the chart.

I never had one of those slot car racers when I was a kid, and I don’t think I would buy one for my kids now.

These things always had track that would take up way too much real estate on the floor, and you’d have to take it apart to store it. Then pieces of track would get lost, and you’d have a shorter track, assuming you could get a complete track out of it.

However, the Race in a Case is a terrific alternative to traditional slot car racing, as it packs all the racetrack including the background into one case that folds up very neatly with a handle for carrying.

It also doesn’t require any electric power. Those controllers are hand-powered. This means the faster you crank, the faster the cars go.

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For those of you who are interested in that extra scare for this Halloween might want to invest in the i-Fly Vamp.

This is exactly what you think it is, a toy bat that can be remote-controlled. It is about 13 grams in weight and has a ten inch wingspan to fly like an ornithopter. The i-Fly Vamp comes with an extra pair of wings.

The Vamp has a lightweight rechargeable Lithium Polymer flight battery that is capable of ten minutes of flight time for every half hour’s worth of charging. The controller requires 6 AA batteries to operate.

It even has some eerie green LED eyes for a little extra shock value. Just imagine the trick or treaters coming to your house with this guy!

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I had a chance to try out the Leap Frog Leapster a while ago, and I finally got a chance to try out the Leapster2.

Those who might not be familiar with the Leapster should know it is a handheld gaming system with an educational focus, designed for kids ages 4-8. It would appear that very little has changed as far as the layout of the Leapster2 in comparison to the original Leapster.

What makes the Leapster2 different from the original is the ability to plug it in to the computer via USB. From there, a kid can download games, preview titles, and access the online rewards and bonus games that they have earned playing the cartridge games.

Another feature that is different that its predecessor is that it has space for an SD card. You can save programs like drawings or pictures to the cards, and thus print them out or view later, but the slot is in a very awkward place. The SD card slot is actually behind the battery pack, and removing the card after you are done is somewhat difficult.

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I’m sure most of you had the opportunity to play with Pop-Up books when you were a child, but if you haven’t, then the experience will be even more fresh with Electronic Popables.

Jie Qi, with assitance from Leah Buechley and Tshen Chew from the MIT Meida Lab have taken the pop-up book to a whole new level. Their Electronic Popables book features plug-in power motors, so not only can stuff move at the pull of a tab, but it also glows with electronic light.

And that’s not all, certain creations will often light up when the user pushes down on the page, and there is even one instance where pop-up Venus Fly Traps actually open and close. There is a video here after the jump if you want to see it for yourself, and I highly recommend that you do.

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For those of you trying to find new ways to keep old games interesting.  This Football Keepy Uppy Counter could be the way to do that.  It’s a beanbag with an electronic counter inside of it, so basically, it’s a hacky sack with a new name and a counter.  I suppose it’s forgivable that they’re trying to disguise a game of hacky sack as something else, just as long as they keep it entertaining.

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This is something your mom (or anyone else suffering from ophidiophobia for that matter) would definitely scream the moment they see it – the RC Snake which is a vast improvement over the traditional rubber snake toys that kids used to try to fool their parents with.

It moves like the real thing, has scaley skin like the real thing, a flickering tongue like the real thing and it even has a terrifying rattle like the real thing. Because it’s radio-controlled, you can look all innocent while unassuming colleagues get terrorised by this realistic faux-predator. Its design is based on the largest and most dangerous real-life rattlesnake, the Eastern Diamondback, so the likeness is pretty remarkable, and the body is made up of segments, making the movement convincingly slithery.

Not too sure what kind of hiding kids would get when they try to fool their parents with this £29.99 device, but it ought to generate a fair number of laughs from the office.