Noodad Product Review: Digital Reader Book from Sony

Review of the Digital Reader Book from Sony

Blast from Your Past: They Still Make Balsa Wood Flyers

Remember balsa wood airplanes?  They were flimsy but tons of fun if you could get them built without breaking them!  My brother and I used to buy these at a penny candy store at the beach where we spent our Summers and fly them on the beach (softer landing zone!) in the early evening.  They were like a $1.99 back then and they’re not much more now.  The ones I grew up flying - made by Gillow’s are still made in Wakefield, Mass and are exactly the same as the ones you played with.  I found the one pictured here at a local toy store by the register.

With Summer just around the corner and the promise of more daylight playtime in the backyard before and after dinner, consider picking up a few…dozen.  That way, you don’t need to share with the kiddies (they’re hard to put down)!

Noodad Product Review: The Robopanda by Wowwee Robotics

For me, when I think about a robot I think about things like Optimus Prime, Short Circuit and of course, R2-D2 and C3-PO. But for kids these days, they think robots are just ordinary playmates. Technology is so prevalent in toys these days, who cares if the head moves or the lips move?

For the last few months, every time I walked down the toy aisles with my kids, one of the most frequent stops was the section of robots. I always wondered if the appeal of these things was they looked deep into the eyes of these artificial beings and found a connection, or if they just knew it was expensive because of the flashy packaging and its placement well above the reach of tiny hands.

So I was excited to get the opportunity to review the popular Robopanda by WowWee Robotics. The Robopanda is a high priced feat of robotic engineering packaged in a hard plastic shell that is rugged to the touch and cute to look at. After all, when thinking of a character to animate robotically, you would be hard-pressed to find something cuter than a panda. At a price tag between $99-$170, I was skeptical about its appeal. No doubt, for the amount of moving parts and exterior moldings, delivering this under 2 bills is a feat in itself. But despite its worth in parts and manufacturing, a big fear for parents is they will fork over that type of cash only to see it at the bottom of the toy pile in a few weeks. Read the rest of this entry »

Leader in Human Lifelike Simulation

Boston Dynamics is a cool company who calls themselves the “leader in human lifelike simulation”. The Big Dog however is neither human nor a dog. It’s the conjoined Human Fly twins! I am definitely having nightmares tonight. Civilization is doomed.

Noodad Product Review: The Tengu

A couple of years ago, I wrote an article here on Noodad.com called, “How to Check Email With a Kid on Your Lap“. I offered up a way to keep your entertained while getting through your stuffed Inbox. That solution was admittedly low-tech. It did utilize a metal clothes hanger hanger after all. Well, now there is a high tech way to keep your kids entertained while you get through your email.

It is called Tengu and it is a USB powered toy that lip syncs to your music and to voices in the room. “Tengu”, which comes from a character in Japaenese Folklore, is an invention of Crispin Jones for Solid Alliance and is aimed at “design-savvy people who spend too much of their time working on the computer”. Read the rest of this entry »

Leap Frog: Great Products, Liars and Cheap Bastards

Leap Frog makes some pretty cool and educational products. My wife and I actually attribute the Fridge Phonics toy as the reason our daughter is advanced in speech. Now my 2 oldest kids have Leapster LMAX units and to see how much they are learning form these things amazes me daily.

But as much as I love the products, I can tell you that Leap Frog is a bunch of liars and cheap bastards trying to take advantage of the uneducated and uninitiated. Here’s why:

We gave our daughter a Leapster LMAX for her birthday last October. The unit came with a flexible plastic cover that hinges from the top of the unit and snaps into the frame round the LCD screen to protect it. This is important as, even with careful hands, things get dropped and a scratched up screen will pretty much render this $89 toy useless. Read the rest of this entry »

Kids and Ads: Pancake Puffs

My kids are part of a generation that is far less exposed to advertising than I was. At some point when I was not paying particular attention to kids shows it became taboo to put ads in little kids shows. So instead they put sponsorships at the beginning or they will put an ad or mini infomercial at the end of the show. When I was just a foolad, there were 2 ways that we knew all the kick ass, must-have toys: we would look at those awesome catalogs from companies like Best, JC Penney or Service Merchandise or we would also see about 1,000 TV ads per day during shows.

I am not even going to try and hide the fact that I watched WAY too much TV as a kid. As a result, I have themes and ads in my head that I cannot get rid of. Who needs to be able to sing the Facts of Life theme song or the Jacko Energizer ad? If I could hook my brain up to my computer via USB, I would trash all sorts of useless junk that is floating around in there to make room for more useful stuff. Plus I would be filthy rich because I figured out how to jack into my noodle and read it like it was a Linux box and a MySQL database.

Read the rest of this entry »

Beds: Which Do You Choose, Which Do You Use?

So your kid is growing out of the crib. What next? The options are vast and the decision making process may drive you crazy. If you are like me, it wasn’t like my kids were telling me they wanted a bigger bed. This decision was self-imposed. This is mostly because my kids are spaced roughly 2 years apart from each other and I was too cheap to own 2 cribs.

So…my wife and I slowly transitioned our kids out of cribs and into beds. But the dilemma of what type of bed stressed me out more than the night after night of screaming while transitioning them.

Here are a few of the most popular bed solutions and the pros and cons for each. Read the rest of this entry »

Barbie Island Princess: A Dad Cheat Sheet

I get it guys, it is sometimes tough to fully catch yourself up to the stories, tv shows, and movies that your kids love. You don’t want to have to sit through 90 minute animated movies to be “in the know”. Kids conversations are like cocktail parties. You need just enough info on a subject to be able to start up a conversation.

This is the first installment of a series I like to call Noodad Notes. If you read these short plot descriptions you can score big with your little Robert Ebert. You will see I am also including proper names. Kids latch on to these and they will know the difference between a knowledgeable dad and a poseur. Finally, I am dictating all of these from memory. I have done the homework and have done the time watching these movies and chatting it up with my 5 year old daughter. I figure, if it is important enough for me to remember it, you should too.

Today, I am going to talk to you about the movie: Barbie as The Island Princess Read the rest of this entry »

Noodad Product Review: Thomas Take Along Roundhouse Playset

The Thomas the Tank Engine brand, love him or loathe him, is known for quality construction, durability, and somewhat pricey compared to counterparts like Brio. But for this piece of the Thomas toy line, it falls short in every way.

First, a few things to note: My son got this for his 3rd birthday and he absolutely loves it. But like most toys, it’s the ones that drive parents nuts that your kid seems to love the most. He can’t stop playing with it and that is probably why I know it sucks so much.

The concept is a good one: make a Thomas train set with snap together tracks and put it in a compact and portable case complete with a nifty carrying handle fit for little kids hands. Unfortunately, this Thomas Take Along Roundhouse Playset from RC2 Brands does not get much better than a “good idea on paper”. Read the rest of this entry »