Childsplay

Exhibited during Toy Fair 2011 in New York, TankBot has joined the likes of the HELO TC, Sphere and AR Drone in the growing ranks of smartphone-controlled gizmos. In addition to smartphone control, the US$25 bot has individually powered tiny tank-tracks and infrared sensors for free-roaming and maze solving modes. Read More

Ah, the ant farm. It's somehow nice to know that in the age of apps and iPods, kids still like to watch colonies of ants fastidiously going about their daily business. The humble ant farm hasn't remained unchanged by technology, however. For some time now, instead of dirt or sand, commercially-available kits have instead come with a clear green gel. The ants are not only able to tunnel through this goop, but it also serves as their source of food and water. Educational toy company Uncle Milton is now taking the concept a step farther, with its Ant Farm Revolution. It's a cylindrical gel ant farm, with a built-in LED lamp that casts giant silhouettes of its ants on the user's ceiling ... or presumably onto the outside wall of a neighbor's house. Read More

It seems like only yesterday, but Lego Technic has been with us now since 1977, and in that third of a century, the technical building blocks have no doubt stimulated the young minds of hundreds of thousands of would-be engineers. Off-road trucking manufacturer Unimog (Universal Motor Gerät) celebrates its 60th anniversary this year, so the two companies got together and produced a functioning (with pneumatic crane with working gripper arm) 1:12-scale model. You can buy the 2,048 piece kit for GBP155 (US$255). Great detailed images inside. Read More

iDevices seem to be the control interface of choice for increasing numbers of remote controlled devices - just look at Parrot's AR.Drone and the iPhly app. Now Griffin, a company well known for its range of iPhone, iPod and iPad accessories, has joined the growing number of iPhone controlled flying gizmos with its HELO TC Helicopter. The pint-sized, twin-rotored helicopter works in conjunction with the accompanying HELO TC app that transforms the multi-touch display of an iOS device into a remote control. Read More

Should someone tell you “Last night, I saw a great white shark swimming through my living room,” don’t assume that they’re crazy. It could be that what they saw was an Air Swimmer. The remote-control toys (which are available as a shark or a clown fish) are able to swim through the air, turning, diving and climbing on command. Now all we need is an RC model penguin, that flies underwater. Read More

Feeling reluctant to hand that shiny new iPad over to junior? The VINCI Tab might be the answer - it's an Android 2.3-based 7-inch tablet with a tempered-glass display and soft edges that's been designed specifically for children of up to four years. The device is relatively well spec'd with a 1GHz ARM Cortex A8 CPU and 512MB of RAM, offers a range of built-in apps and games for kids and is fully wireless-disabled, with no 3G and WiFi on-board ... which will help keep kids safe from inappropriate content and your wallet safe from unexpected data charges. Read More

Although they’ve been around for ages, for some reason paper airplanes have never been adopted for commercial use. It could be because they get soggy when wet, they lack any kind of flight controls, or because you would need an incredibly huge piece of paper in order to make one big enough to carry a human passenger. In any case, practical paper airplanes have now perhaps come a baby step closer to reality, with Tailor Toys’ Power Up electric power module for paper airplanes – it allows you to mount an electric propeller on your paper airplanes, so they can fly under their own power. Read More

Rocking out with an imaginary guitar has gone from appreciative concert mimicry to a very serious business. Next month, finalists from around the world will head to Finland in the hope of being crowned Air Guitar World Champion. For those who aspire to get to the winner's podium in later years or just want to rock out to classic tunes wherever they happen to be, the newly released Air Pick could prove just the ticket. Rhythmically strumming the chunky guitar pick produces one of three included tunes from the built-in speaker. Read More

The Parrot AR.Drone quadricopter was one of the first smartphone-controlled RC toys ... and it won't be the last. This example called BlueDrone (which isn't from Parrot) is an RC car in the form of Nissan GT-R 1:20 scale model, controlled by an Android-based device via Bluetooth connectivity. Read More