Update on

Every spring, hundreds of toy inventors meet at Toy Fair in New York City to show off their latest inventions. Some are pretty amazing! Here are some links and videos.

1. To make a sculpture out of magnets, which of these would you use?
a) Buckyballs (http://www.getbuckyballs.com)
b) Zen Magnets (http://zenmagnets.com/)
c) Neocube (http://www.theneocube.com/)

The answer is all three. Each consists of a set of small, strong, round
magnets made out of a special metal called Neodymium. Learn more
about the story of Buckyballs in the video below.

2. T/F Can a balloon swim like a fish, with no strings attached?

Visit http://www.x-zylo.com to learn about Air Swimmers, a new kind of radio controlled helium-filled fish that can be flown around a room, completely untethered. Propelled by a large tail that flaps slowly from side to side, the pillow-sized fish blimps come uninflated, and require a trip to your local party store. They were invented by Blake English, a Standford graduate student.

3. Help! I need some ideas to build with my LEGOs.

Don’t worry. Inspiration can be found at Make Magazine (http://blog.makezine.com/archive/category/lego), where people share photos of projects like this SpongeBob Terminator robot. At http://www.brickartist.com you can learn about an artist, Nathan Sawaya, who makes giant sculptures out of LEGO bricks. Finally check to see if there’s a First LEGO League in your area, at www.firstlegoleague.org. Perhaps you can join a club to create with other inventors.

4. Fill in the blank. Can you name the smallest tech toy ever invented?
a) What is the world’s smallest flying helicopter? _______
b) Smallest toy robot? _______
c) Smallest rolling video camera? _______

Answers: (a) see the airhogs Air Hogs R/C Pocket Coptor (video 2 below) for a great way to torture your cat. (b) The Hexbug Nano (http://www.hexbug.com/nano) moves like a bug, and is powered by a button cell battery. Finally (c) see the Hot Wheels Video Racer, a tiny car with a tiny camera, for first person views of the track (video 1 below).

5. TO LEARN MORE.

We spotted other reviewers besides us looking at the latest toys. The Parents’ Choice Foundation is the world’s oldest non-profit review organization, and posts toy reviews at http://www.parents-choice.org. We also spotted the Oppenheim Toy Portfolio crew at Toy Fair. They post videos at http://www.youtube.com/user/toyportfolio. Time to Play Magazine (http://www.youtube.com/user/TimeToPlayMag) features reviews by Chris Byrne (the Toy Guy) who is famous for his zany toy reviews. Finally Scott Traylor, President of 360KID, has an eye for technology toys, and posts his videos at http://www.youtube.com/user/straylor.

6. Want more?

Visit Children’s Technology Review’s playlist (below), to view select YouTube videos based on topics in this month’s column.