Toys

I’m not actually playing Duck Hunt with darts on an OLED screen, of course, but this blaster did shoot that suction tip dart! The free files are designed by Gemeneye, and I’m really digging the inline clip mod that gives it three short dart shots.

It’s now on my wall next to the telescoping Master Sword.

Sorry for messing with your wallet, and possibly your next Tuesday morning — the 1:64 die-cast model’s going on sale at 9AM PT / 12PM ET on the 21st. It’s got a Spectraflame paint job, so it might actually look as wonderfully shiny as it does in these photos.

Aibo — Sony’s “Four-Legged Entertainment Robot” — hit the shelves in 1999, to the utter horror of parents (like my own) who had barely recovered from Furbies launching the year prior.

Happy 25th birthday you old dog! My inner child is heartbroken to have never owned you, but my now 30-year-old self will happily skip the current model’s near $3,000 price tag.

They got the 10,000 votes to join these amazing Lego Ideas candidates. Outer Wilds and Interstellar builds come from fan designers I profiled here!

Many will enter, few will win: on Thursday, Lego greenlit a steamboat and a prize gumball machine but disqualified dozens, including the working mini bicycle I coveted and five Taylor Swift sets.

I swear, I did not dress my daughter in Mario duds just so she could do real-life Mario Kart! It’s too perfect, I know, but she picked them out herself hours before she ever saw the toy.

(If you’re looking for the product, it’s here: note that if you buy something from that link, Vox Media might get affiliate revenue.)

looks like a beaut. JB Spielwaren is listing it at a suggested retail price of €220, and Lego’s likely to charge the same in US dollars. (via Jay’s Brick Blog). There’s also a handful of new Lego Mario, Sonic the Hedgehog and Marvel sets coming, including a fantastic Milano ship from Guardians of the Galaxy with room for every Guardian in the cockpit.

I'm a big kid. I play with amazing toys. Recently, I discovered the joy of sharing minute-long videos of them with you.

Now, I've started a Threads account where you can freely subscribe to my vids, get alerts for new vids, and ask me anything. (It's best viewed in the mobile app.)

This self-transforming Megatron? There's a lot more where that came from.

The epic Saturn V and Space Shuttle Discovery didn’t come with a gantry, but Lego’s making up for it with the 3,091-piece NASA Artemis Space Launch System, coming May 28th for $259.99.

How much better is it? Here it is alongside all the other official Lego launchpad examples I could think of:

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Post-Barbie, Mattel has been making a lot of noise about its plans to keep the toy-to-movie ball rolling with projects based on IP like Hot Wheels and Magic 8 Ball. But the company also wants to channel that energy into series meant for the small screen, and it has just hired Sidney Clifton, Cory Bennett Lewis, and Amy Suh to spearhead those efforts.

Spyra recently sent me its new $54 SpyraGo electric water blaster, so I decided to bring back a literal blast from the past: a 1998 Super Soaker CPS 2500, one of the most effective hosers ever made.

Below, see how they perform against the flagship $179 SpyraThree and the $15 X-Shot Epic Fast Fill, one of the best budget soakers you can buy!

The Tie is definitely the star, but I admit nostalgia for the rolling destroyer droid too. There’s also this kid-friendly version of Maul’s Sith Infiltrator with a slightly less-than-kid-friendly $70 pricetag, and an $80 Mos Espa Podrace diorama. I heard “Now THIS is podracing!” the instant I saw it, which I guess is a compliment!

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Where can you battle a toaster with a waffle iron? Wield a barcode scanner for fun? Navigate a digital character through a real-life paper pop-up book?

The Game Developers Conference Alt.Ctrl showcase, that’s where. It’s my happy place at GDC, and this year I wanted to share some of the zany magic with ya’ll.

I’m still pretty proud of my big story on how Lego builds a new Lego set — but why not hear about the Lego Polaroid directly from its Lego designer? James May, who also recently worked on the BTS Dynamite and Hocus Pocus witches’ cottage sets, has now left the company to start a YouTube channel, design toys for UK schools, and also write for Brickset.

I kinda love this not-Lego-brick model gaming rig, complete with build-it-yourself components including motherboard, RAM, “GeForce RTX” graphics card, power supply, and two SSDs. And RGB lighting, obviously.

There’s also a 90’s beige box PC kit with a tiny brick floppy drive and CD-ROM drive, as well as a little keyboard and mouse.

The highly anticipated Dungeons and Dragons set — inspired by this “Dragon’s Keep: Journey’s End” fan design — will be revealed at 1PM EST / 10AM PT next Tuesday. The actual release date hasn’t been announced yet.

The new minifig teaser below Lego’s countdown timer looks like a balanced adventuring party, and will probably work well as actual D&D character miniatures.

Maybe that’s just wishful thinking after the Mario Kart tease for 2025 tacked onto the end of this Lego Mario Day video. I’m sure it’s just new sets, but that doesn’t stop my mind from racing with possibilities.

In the meantime, the video also has details on other, more immediate products, like a Luigi’s Mansion-themed set.

Here’s a short version of the Mario Kart clip.

Lego has revealed its $299 Batman: The Animated Series Gotham City set (#76271), which features 4,210 pieces making up landmarks like the Gotham City Court and Arkham Asylum.

It also includes four minifigures of Batman, Catwoman, Harley Quinn, and the Joker. The set comes out on April 4th, and you can check out even more pictures of it from Lego’s website.

The Nacelle Company got the official license to make these figs — while most are at the “digital render on Kickstarter” stage, one of the physical paint masters already made it onto the cover of ToyCollectr Magazine.

Avasarala, as always, looks dressed to kill political opponents, Bobby’s in her power armor, and Miller can go hat or hatless. It’s $320 for the whole 8-figure set, $39 each, or $75 for the two-packs.

The Lego Group’s running an online survey (via Jay’s Brick Blog) that starts out a tad boring, but soon reveals fun merch ideas!

Do note:

The designs showcased in this survey are purely conceptual. They represent imaginative ideas and creative exploration, but they do not guarantee or imply that LEGO® will produce them as actual products.