Not sure how “useful” this is but it sure looks fun. The LighTalk II is a scanner and electronic LED wand combined.

To use you simply doodle on a piece of paper, scan it with you LighTalk, you then wave it and to the amazement of your friends an LED image of your doodle will appear in the air.

With version 2 of the LighTalk you can store up to 8 messages or doodles and use it’s IR feature to transmit message to your fellow wand wagglers. It’s available for under $40 from Think Geek, let the geeky doodling begin :).

This is a cool looking toy the “Shadow Magic Kit”, it actually pauses your shadow whilst you keep moving.

To use it you need to hang the supplied Phosphorescent screen on a door or wall, get an over energetic child to jump up and down in front of it whilst you take a snapshot with the supplied light gun thingie and voila a static image of the shadow is now on the screen. You also get a light pen which lets you doodle with the shadow.

This is the sort of gadget I can see keeping kids entertained for ages and it only costs $25 from Discovery Shopping a bargain IMO.

[Shadow Magic found via Red Ferret ]

Spring and summer have got to be one of my favorite times of year, woman wear less clothes and us blokes have to wear sunglasses to protect our eyes from those harmful UV rays It’s also the season for BBQs and water fights which brings me round to this post, reporting on the Aqua Master Krypton the mother of all water pistols.

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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.