When we last reported on the first Millenium Falcon toy to come out since 1979, we were hopeful by the press pics that it would be more detailed than it’s forefather. Well now we have more pictures and can see much more detail … and for $160, it’s much better than we thought.
With Halloween right around the corner and coming like a bullet from a gun, Toys R Us and Disney have announced a new costume line which would not only place cool new Halloween costume in Jeffrey’s storefronts, but also raise about $50,000 for the charity Children Affected by AIDS Foundation (CAAF). The new costume launch will introduce of a line of 10 specially created Halloween costumes for boys, girls and babies based on popular Disney characters.
The US House has overwhelmingly voted to ban ead and some dangerous chemicals from toys and other items children may play with. The vote, 424-1 (who would vote against this) comes after nearly a year of recalls of toys mostly made in China, which possess alarming levels of lead and other dangerous chemicals in them and also represent the strictest ban of lead levels in the world.
Hasbro introduced tons of new Star Wars Toys at last weekend’s ComiCon convention in San Diego, most of which incorporate minor characters from the films and even characters from the expanded universe.
Included in the exclusives were:
Last week, at the 2008 ComiCon in San Diego, Mattel showed an amazing R/C model based on the Starship Enterprise as part of their new line of Tyco RC Flyer toys. Currently just prototype stages, Mattel is planning four different flying Enterprise toys for release in early 2009. Oh man, talk about when worlds collide! The local R/C park is about to become a Star Trek convention!
According to a recent survey, about 56% of Brits loved playing with those little colored plastic bricks when they were kids. The poll, conducted by the British catalog store Argos used a sample of more than 1,000 people aged 16 and upwards from around the country and asked them about their favorite toy. This may be due to it’s unisexual appeal which meant that both boys and girls could play with them and not feel pressured to adopt to a doll or action figure.
“The poll proves that Lego is a high quality toy that keeps being interesting to children and adults because of its creative possibilities, “stated a Lego representative, “It’s so simple but has so much potential.”
And it looks to have no end in sight as the Danish toy company has amped up production of movie themed Lego sets from blockbusters such as Warner Brothers “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” “Harry Potter” and “Batman,” and Paramount’s “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull,” series. But there’s also such popular sets as Legos’ Mindstorm, Mission to Mars, and Technic series which appeal to older kids and teaches them to build automated robotic devices. In fact, there are many serious engineers, including those designing a space elevator who use Lego’s Mindstorms to build proof of concepts for their designs.
So, clearly, the popularity of Lego’s doesn’t end when childhood does. It’s just getting started.
I’m not sure why kids in the U.S. can’t enjoy a good Whopper Jr. and a Batman Dark Knight toy, but in Deutchland, German Kids are all over it with a set of killer Batman Dark Knight Kids toys.
If you’re headed down to San Diego for the annual ComiCon comic book, toy, movie/TV lovefest, and you happen to be a Lego fan, get there early. Lego will have two ComiCon exclusive toy sets you can’t get anywhere else at the show one for Star Wars and one for the new Indiana Jones Lego collection.
For the second time this year, Hasbro has announced a price increase on popular toy lines citing “rising costs of production.” This is a rather lame excuse considering that at the same time they announced a 13% profit to the tune of over ¾ of a billion dollars. And eight fold increase over last year.
