Browsing Posts in Toys and Games
Of course Batman won
NASA may have cancelled the Space Shuttle programme, but an enterprising German has demonstrated that there is a future in reusable space vehicles… in Lego.
Via The Register
Last week, a lot of the tech press was full of the news that a pair of enterprising Canadian students had managed to send a Lego minifig into space. Now Captain Barry Wiszniowski, chairman of the Air Canada Pilots Association’s safety division, has whined that launching Legonauts could represent a “concern to aviation”.
Wiszniowski said: “I think in the 25 years that I’ve been flying I’ve seen two weather balloons that passed on one side of the aircraft or the other.”
Not exactly a major threat to air traffic, then…
The students, Mathew Ho and Asad Muhammad, do appear to have been reasonably diligent in ensuring that they weren’t doing anything dangerous or illegal and University of Toronto astrophysics professor Michael Reid said of the achievement: “It shows a tremendous degree of resourcefulness. For two 17-year-olds to accomplish this on their own is pretty impressive.”
Maybe Captain Wiszniowski would be happier if the students had just made some bombs, like they do in Belgium.
Anyway, here’s a video of the Legonaut in action.
It’s not available until June, but this remote control inflatable R2-D2 has awesomeness stamped all over it.
This is the first in a series that will also include Darth Vader, a Stormtrooper and Yoda. I’m not so sure about the other characters, but R2-D2 is perfect.
I have often said that I don’t really see the point of the tablet form factor. Android tablets and iPads alike strike me as being devices that are a collection of compromises – less portable than a phone and less powerful that a laptop – and, as such, not particularly useful. However, here’s one that might make me change my mind.
According to El Reg, Inspiration Works are preparing to unleash a tablet specifically targeted towards kids.
The Kurio is an Android-based slate, spruced up with a kid-friendly UI and behind-the-scenes parental controls. While adults can still use the Kurio as a fully-fledged fondleslab, the tablet is clearly aimed at children and it’s the security measures that really matter here.
It’s due to hit shelves in July and there are three models on the way. I will be keeping an eye on this one.
This weekend was Sinterklaas weekend and one of Macsen’s aquisitions was Monza, a car racing borad game from Haba. To say I’m impressed would be an understatement – the game is superb.
The rules are pretty simple. The board is a three lane race track, each lane made up of coloured sections. Each player rolls six dice and then moves their car around the track by matching the colours on the dice to the colours on the board. According to the box, the game is for children aged five and up but Macsen – aged 4 – had no problem understanding the rules and getting into the excitement of the race.
There is a lot of excitement to be had from this game, mainly because it is superbly paced. The cars hurtle around the track and the design is such that, regardless of the roll, it is very rare that any player becomes completely stuck. This makes for a game that is fast, furious and one that never gets dull.
There isn’t a great deal of strategy involved in this game, but some thought is required to fully optimise your dice so that you can move as far around the track as possible. This is also just enough strategy for me to ensure that each game remains reasonably close.
Overall, Monza is a simple but very well designed game and one that I can see coming out for many weekends to come.
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