This is a sweet little gadget that will no doubt thrill children of all ages – myself included!

Let me introduce you to Gupi the intelligent robotic guinea pig. I remember we had a real pet guinea pig when I was a child. It never came out of its box and only moved around when we poked the poor little creature, usually trying to bite us.

I remember the childhood thrill have having such as sweet, cuddly rodent in the home, but these days I could never bring myself to keep a caged pet. But as you’ll see, with a robotic guinea pig you can have something a lot better than the real thing, and be animal-friendly too!

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This has got to be on every spoilt youngsters birthday list, the Power Paddler Lagoon Water Park for the kid who has everything.

For your thousand dollars you get an inflatable 225 square foot lagoon which holds 1,015 gallons of water, on top of which your child can sail their very own unsinkable paddle boat, though knowing kids (and a famous movie) I don’t think a boat should ever be called unsinkable. If you can afford to have 2 children (which if you’re seriously considering this you must be) then you can buy an extra *unsinkable* boat for a paltry $259.

So for $1,259 you can start developing you children’s competitive streak. Lagoon and boats available from here.

If you enjoy remote control toys you’ll like this monster speed demon of a boat. The 54 Inch Gas-Powered Remote Controlled Speedboat is capable of speed up to 35 mph which means you’ll be able wreak absolute havoc on your local pond.

The model uses design and technology that wouldn’t be out of place on a regular speed boat, like minimizing the surface area that is in contact with the water in order to minimize friction and maximize speed.

The V24 One-Design speed boat is available from Hammacher and it does have one downside, the price; costing $1,499.95 *ouch*.

If you enjoy a bit of warfare in the office this little remote control gadget may be right up your street. The R/C Missile Launcher is a fully remote controllable armoured vehicle and shoots foam missiles up to 15 feet, guaranteed to make you feared in any office :).

Comes with either a desert or green camouflage paint job, so get the one that’s most like your office’s drab color scheme. Available from Think Geek for $59.99, let office warfare begin.

Fancy being a forensic scientist? Well now you can have a try at building realistic 3D face models. I think this kit is meant to be more of a game/puzzle for CSI fans but messing arounf with modelling clay is fun for everybody. Available online from Gobaz and probably lots of other places too.

I’ve never fancied swimming with sharks and after watching “Open Water” I’m even more convinced it’s a really bad idea. However this remote controlled robotic shark looks kind of neat, especially if you can sneak it into a public pool :).

The robotic shark is 2 foot long and looks like it is actually swimming through the water (bends in all the right places). You can maneuver it up, down, left, right and it even has reverse (though that will just look silly). Unfortunately it doesn’t have a remote controlled jaw with razor sharp teeth. The remote is fully submersible so you and your pet jaws can swim together (probably alone).

[Available from Hammacher Schlemmer found on i4u]

Seems we have 2 totally different cardboard home builds to report on today which is strange as normally we don’t have any. The latest thing to make is a 1:48 scale model of the Apollo V rocket, which may not be as functional as the cardboard box speaker but it looks a load cooler.

This model is the sort of weekend family project, which will likely mean Dad taking over when the kids get bored. As well as the model looking cool, the other great thing about it is that it is totally free. You can download full instructions and templates in PDF format (though you’ll have to supply card and glue). The web site it’s on is pretty ropey and hard to read (Arrrg Comic Sans font) but the PDF’s look very professional and easy to follow.

[ Saturn V Rocket. version 2.0 found via Boing Boing

This must be the ultimate weapon in the office rubber band flicking war, the fully automatic rubber band machine gun.

Each machine gun is beautifully hand crafted and not only resembles an old western Gatling Gun but actually fires like one. Ammunition for the gun is obviously elastic bands, of which it can hold 144 at a time (12 bands on each of the 12 barrels). Read the rest of this entry »