Tech Toys Dominate Toy Fair 2007 48
Edis Krad writes "An CNN Money article previews the Hot Toys for 2007 from this past week's Toy Fair. The article is a great place to start looking through the hundreds of new products that were on display at the annual industry event. Among those featured in the article, I was particularly impressed with the Video Journal (blogging for kids?), the virtual bicycle (apparently, riding a real bicycle isn't cool enough anymore), and last but not least, the robotic parrot, that oddly reminds me of the replicant owl in Blade Runner. For more details on tech toys at the event, IEEE Spectrum has a rundown on the nerdier toys available. Artificial snow and a pre-assembled Mentos/Coke kit were two of that journalist's favorites. For different perspectives Forbes has a look at the toy business as it stands since last week, and Wired's Luddite column crabs that kids have too many techie toys nowadays. Dagnabit."
To many tech toys? (Score:1, Insightful)
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Anyone wanna buy a BigTrak?
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I maybe be able to remember, if you tell me what level you got to?
Re:To many tech toys? (Score:4, Insightful)
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What advantage do you get from playing with a playstation? It seems many people here assume that if it's got a computer in it, it's educational.
Strong thumbs?
Raising three kids has shown me that while I appreciate the tech-iness of some of the toys out there, when they were small, the kids are quite happy playing with the basics - blocks, dolls, small Matchbox-type cars and even green plastic Army men. It wasn't until the two oldest hit their teen years did tech stuff become interesting to them. My soon-to-be 10 year old daughter has surprised me by being an avid player of "Nintendogs", and I understand some of her friends are intense users too.
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Forgive me if I don't cite sources (I'm in a hurry), but a quick Google search will probably do the job for you. The following benefits have all been proposed by psychologists as a result of playing video games.
* Improved reasoning, critical problem solving and rational decision making
* therapeutic effects (stress relief)
* improved hand-eye coordination
* improved spatial awareness
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Not many games are that deep. And chess, card games & boardgames can all do that too.
Maybe, but how is that educational?
You mean learning sets of keypresses till they become like a reflex? Jolly useful.
With a flat display, how? Even in the best simulations the physics isn't the same as real life. You'd get better results shooting hoops o
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So you're saying that because it's not true of every game, or because other things can also do the same, then this invalidates my argument? Man... they should pay you for genius insight like this. Presumably you think a bicycle isn't a viable method of transport for getting you to the end of the street, because some bikes have flat tires, or because cars travel faster?
I won't even bother with your other arguments s
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Where did I say every? Face it, the majority of games (especially weighted for popularity) are just flashy shoot 'em ups and scripted, one right way to do it adventures.
Should I ever move to flatland, I'll follow your advice -it'll be very useful there.
So which game company do you work f
Depends on what a "tech toy" is . . . (Score:2)
yeah, i know that was a rather Clinton-esque statement. what i mean is: toys that are made using new/interesting/cutting-edge tech don't give kids a big advantage. who cares if your teddy bear can say 30 different phrases? toys that introduce new/interesting/cutting-edge tech to kids do give them an advantage. i think it's definitely possible to have too many of the first kind: over-priced gimmicks that pass as "tech toys". i don't think it's possible to have too many of the second kind.
Re:Depends on what a "tech toy" is . . . (Score:5, Informative)
If you're swimming in toys you're unlikely to, especially as a young child, even manage to know what you actually posess, much less play with it or learn from it.
For example, I have a 3 year old son. Despite the fact that we basically never buy toys for him anymore he gets so many as gifts for christmas, birthday, whatever from family and friends that he's got tons more than he knows what to do with. I am positive he posesses 500 distinct toys. And we could throw away 75% of them tomorrow without him even *NOTICING* that they're gone.
Fewer higher-quality toys is, imho, always going to be the superior choice. 90% of the time you see him playing with 5% of the toys anyway, and most often those with best quality and those from which he'll learn the most.
90% of the stuff sold in toy-stores is complete and utter JUNK. One can definitely have too much of it. Even the JUNK that is nominally tech-toys.
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I'm sure you could, but as a father of two adult kids I gotta ask: have you tried it?
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Beter than tech (Score:5, Interesting)
My observation of not only my own kids, but also of my customers, is that kids really prefer to use toys they can learn something from, without feeling like they're being taught. In other words, they want to explore and discover things on their own.
Give them a toy that only seems exciting, and they'll play with it for five minutes and put it away forever. Give them something where they can learn a skill, and they'll keep playing with it. Case in point - The Hula Hoop, legos or a frisbee vs. 99% of the colorful cheap crap on toy shelves today.
Same with Tech toys. Tech toys that amuse adults are designed to capture your attention within a few seconds, and get you to buy it. Just like a Roger Corman film. Once you've bought the ticket, what's in the box doesn't really matter. Colors, shapes and cool noises won't make a toy a good one.
Here's another example- recently, I took my kids to Utah. The skiing wasn't so hot, so we went to a place called "The Treehouse." It's a playroom for kids, crammed with all sorts of toys and adventures. We spent the whole day there, and to my surprise the most popular thing was a block toy called Kapla.
Kapla is just wooden sticks, all the same. 1/4" x 1" x 4". There were about 4000 of them in a big wheelbarrow, and a few pictures of some amazing things that people have built with them. Kids loved to try and duplicate what they saw in the pictures with the blocks. Meanwhile, in another part of the exhibit, a very friendly looking robotic grandma waited to read stories to anyone who would sit in her lap. No one did. They were all playing with the Kapla blocks. I watched a three year old girl build a tower over several attempts, until she finally made it taller than she was.
The lesson I learned was that hi-tech or not, the best toys offer kids the opportunity for discovery and achievement. Any hi-tech toy that's just tech for tech's sake gets boring pretty quickly. Old tech can be pretty cool too. One of my most popular products is a catapult - http://www.catapultkits.com/ [catapultkits.com] - high tech from 800 years ago! The feedback I get from parents is that nothing has gotten their kids more excited about learning math than the catapult, and the equations for calculalting range and efficiency that come with it. "That egg only went 100 feet. How can we get it to clear the fence?!" Longer sling? More counterweight? Different release angle? -- opportunities to explore...
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May not be hyper-techno-cool or whatever, but building towers where popular with small kids a millenium ago, and it's gonna be popular a millenium from now too. You need balance. You need coordination. You need struct
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Certain toys are positive, but others just distract from more important things such as getting outside and playing sport with friends.
As a parent... (Score:3, Interesting)
An endless stream of toys just encourages unbounded consumerism and listlessness while stifling creativity.
Kids learn and creat more by playing with the box than they do from playing with most toys.
Robotic parrot (Score:2, Funny)
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The only reason 'es still on the perch is because he's been soldered there.
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I know of one parrot that was a visitor in a Doctor's office, and repeated (later) what one of the clients said about the Doctor.
It said, "Dr. (so-and-so) is a SOB!"
Not very flattering, I would say!
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It drives her crazy because she'll hear a FAX come in, look at the machine, not see any lights blinking or paper coming out and wonder what's going on...
wtf? (Score:4, Funny)
How lazy do you have to be to need the pre-assembled mentos & coke? honestly?
HONESTLY?
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How lazy do you have to be to need the pre-assembled mentos & coke? honestly?
Well, I'm sure the kit has a nozzle that reduces the size of the opening so the fountain can reach greater heights. It also has a release mechanism with a string atatched so you don't have to risk diet coke spraying all over you.
It's not laziness, it's just a better product than most people could put together themselves.
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The mentos/diet coke thing was only a prototype. He doesn't have it in production yet. What was unique about it was the 'safety mechanism' that allowed you to set things up without accidentally dropping the mentos in the diet coke prematurely.
I still have half my mentos roll from the swag he gave me.
Honestly, it was fun to watch, but is a one-trick pony. The toy has absolutely NO replay value once you have sprayed diet coke everywhere. It's a
Astrojax?? (Score:2)
Might be troublesome in some places (Score:4, Funny)
Article not available for Alabama readers.
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Ah my home state. We may be dead last when it comes to education, but damn if we aren't the number one home of useless laws.
Plug-n-play? (Score:3, Funny)
Now that's smart!
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More stuff... (Score:4, Interesting)
Where's Lego? (Score:2)
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I want to know about the optimus prime helmet (Score:3, Funny)
I would so love to carry that in my car, just to occasionally trip people up....
I'm underimpressed... (Score:1)
...what is wrong with
a plain old yoyo?
Erector robot (Score:2)
It's wifi, built-in skype protocol, cool treads, camera - completely controllable from a remote computer via web interface, and programmable.
It was cool, but you had to get past the Erector folks to see it, or have an appointment.