Now to be accurate, the report comes from D’Vice, which we reference a lot and the reporter seems convinced it’s a fake. He points to a lot of mispellings in Japanese, and the fact that the e “Japan Institute of Technology,” doesn’t exist. He also says that the video was actually produced by SONY Entertainment, which will be releasing a video game next month called WipeOut.

OK fair enough. But if it’s a fake, it’s a damn good one (check the video below for yourself). I mean, who wouldn’t want levitating race cars that can zoom around a track getting faster as it’s pushed by some electromagnets. Toss in that liquid nitrogren “fuel” additive, and you’ve got Bill Nye or Beakman written all over it. It won’t change the world, but it would sure be a blast to play with! So come one, BanDai … get to work on this, will ya?!

The Marines have been collecting Toys for Tots since 1947. Semper Fi!

And it’s grown far beyond and extra curricular activity for off duty Marines. In 1995, the Secretary of Defense approved making the annual Toys for Tots drive an official mission of the Marine Corps Reserve. Over the last 62 years, the US Marine Corps Reserve have distributed over 400 million toys to more than 188 million needy children and the Marine Corps Toys for Tots Foundation has added to the toy collections by purchasing nearly a half billion dollars in toys to insure that no child gets left behind at Christmas.

And this year, as with any year, the campaign needs your help. You know the mission – pick up an unwrapped toy for a boy or girl and look for one of those dashing jarheads sitting next to a collection box near the entrance to the store. Or, you can Swing by http://www.toysfortots.org/ to make a cash donation to the Marine Corps Toys for Tots Foundation. While at the site, you can find more information on a toy collecting center in your area.

Semper Fi and Merry Christmas!

This is essentially a shoulder-mounted sling shot that shoots large homemade Nerf-type darts. – Seamster

This Bungie Bazooka fires home made NERF darts and is made with 4 inch PVC, wood, bungie cords, some medical grade resistance tubing, a pair of pullies, and some miscellaneous parts like screws and keyrings. The home made large scale NERF darts were made with foam insulation tubes (why didn’t I think of that?) or small diameter pool noodles, some craft foam, stiff wire and tennis balls.

Seamster then used guidelines to cut out sections of the PVC pipe, including small holes which were made with a hole saw. Then he turned his attention to the wood which he sketched out a pair of pistol grips to cut out and then sand smooth. From there he used liberal amounts of gorilla glue to mount the tension release hardware and trigger mechanism for setting and firing the dart. Extra wood and pullies were then added outside the perimeter of the PVC to mount what is similar to a slingshot configuration for the bungie tubing. Then he added finishing touches.

There’s more to it than that, but you can find the steps on the link above. The result is a pretty good range of fire as is seen on this video -

Man does that look fun! Are you listening, Hasbro? Give this guy a job!

ps – while you’re on Instructables, check out this nifty one on how to string Vulcan ammo belts together for a longer rate of fire!

Although they can’t fly brooms, players do have you use them and pretend they are flying (although personally I think that bicycles would be more practical … but that’s just the muggle in me). Carrying the brooms between their legs in a very Pythonesque fashion, players chase after the quaffle and try to score points in one of three goals just like in Harry Potter. OK, thy pretend to fly around. We get that. But what about the Golden Snitch? How does that work?

Again the Muggle in me thinks a radio controlled kind of vehicle would be ideal, but in this muggle adapted version, a student dressed in yellow runs around the field with a tennis ball wrapped in a sock and tied to his waist. Catch the tennis ball/Snitch, you win the game. And Bludgers are done dodgeball style with two balls that opposing teams just fling at one another.

Check out this video:

The game has been played for about six years now and it’s so popular that the NCAA has recognized it as a bonified sport! (yeah, I’ll believe it when I see it reported on ESPN). Quidditch, the Muggle version, was adapted at Middlebury College in Vermont where students were looking for a new sport for their intramural league. Soon after, the International Quidditch Association was formed and now, an annual Quidditch World Cup is held with over 100 team participants from over a dozen countries. And this year, the World Cup will take place in November at Randall’s Island in New York City.

You know, it makes sense. Kids who grew up reading Harry Potter are entering college and it only stands to reason that they’d use their passion for all things Potter to get exercise with some healthy competition!

Hat Tip – USA Today

Lego/Halo fan Ben Caulkins (aka Benny Brickster) has created a life size Halo Master Chief custom completely out of gray Lego Bricks. The costume is completely wearable and took six months to build.

“Some of you may have noticed by now that over the past six months, I have constructed a full size Lego costume of the Master Chief from the Halo series,” said Caulkins. “It was by no means easy, and I had to put a lot of time and effort into completing it. It required more thought and patience than any of my previous LEGO projects …”

Caulkins got the idea after seeing a similar Bobba Fett costume built by Lego Brickmaster Simon MacDonald. But it wasn’t until Caulkins attended his first Brickfest that he decided to take the plunge and create it. He decided to start with the helmet, figuring if he could make it look convincing, then he could make the rest of the costume. But it took a lot of planning, measuring, and collecting enough bricks to get it done. He posted images of the helmet and got a lot of great coverage including by the Wall Streeet Journal and Gizmodo.

After which, he moved on to the torso armor, which took the most time. That was followed by the forearms, thighs, gloves, calves and boots. Once completed, he showed it at the Lego Fun festival in Lyndhurst, NJ. And he found it not only wearable, but durable. In fact, he put the helmet on over 100 kids and didn’t lose a brick. What an interesting and fun build! Check out Ben’s Flickr Page for more details.

Hat Tip – Brothers Brick

Comic Book and Lego fan Jonathan Robson has created a nifty minifgure inspired helmet which will read comic books to kids who are wearing it. The helmet offers volume controls and page skipping buttons and also a rear mounted USB port to placing story wav files to be read.

It’s only a prototype, but it’s also a pretty cool design. And with the popularity of other helmet toys from Iron Man, Transformers, and Star Wars, there’s no reason that it wouldn’t find a market for kids who love Lego. The real challenge would be to convince comic book publishers to provide story files. But hey, in today’s gadget obsessed toy culture, anything could happen!

Hat Tip – Engadget

Sure takes me back!

What a hystrerically awesome idea! A Playmobile Apple Store complete with iPads, Macbooks, and of course, the Genius Bar! This two story toy set even includes a Steve Jobs Minifigure! And to keep the joke going, there’s even an optional “line package” which lets kids relive that product launch experience with long lines out the door! What genius!

Other ThinkGeek April Fool’s toys this year include the Darth Vader Light Sabre popsicle sticks and a bag of Angry Birds Pork Rinds. And fans can vote for the their favorites and the winning entry may just make it into the Think Geek Catalog for real!

Hat Tip – PC World

It’s called the Marshmallow Fun Company Classic Twin Stryker and it fires two mini marshmallow rounds at a time, then pump to load two more. The result is a near machine gun like fusillade of sugary and pillowy doom which are just soft enough not to cause any harm, but hit just hard enough to make the victim want to fire back.

Check out the video from Gizmodo of some poor soul being pelted here.

Available soon for about $32.

The new Angry Birds game

In many ways, it’s like Chinga with homicidal birds included. The object is simple. Constuct a barrier that houses the evil green pigs, then use the catapult to launch the Angry Birds to destroy it. Players can create any designs that come to their imagination and kids learn about physics, contruction techniques, and of course, mayhem with a poultry-esque flair. There’s also game cards which throw specific challenges into the mix. Now, unfortunately, the yellowbirds won’t get a boost, nor will the blue birds split in threes for extra damage, and the bomb bird can’t lay his egg of doom, but it still looks like a great game.

Photo Credit: KidsTechReview.com

Just hide mom’s china, or anything breakable in the room, before you let the feather’s fly. Available in May for $14.99.

Say what?

Hat Tip – Kids Tech Review