What you’re looking at is a very special R2 unit. This little R2-D2 actually contains one of SEGA Toys’ awesome HomeStar planetarium projectors in it.

Instead of projecting a hologram of Princess Leia, this R2 projects over 10,000 tiny stars onto your ceiling. Unfortunately, it only projects our little old galaxy, The Milky Way, and doesn’t include Tatooine, Hoth, Coruscant or Alderaan. Oh yeah, there is no Alderaan anymore. Still, if you quint real hard, they were kind enough to throw in a tiny Death Star in the projection, so at least it’s got that going for it.

The HomeStar R2-D2 is expected to hit stores in Japan this September for ¥6825 (~$85 USD), after which point you’ll probably be able to order one from an importer, such as Rinkya, Japan Trend Shop or Gizmine.

[via Hobby Media]

I suppose the Yumepet Dream Squirrel is actually pretty cute. As a matter of fact, he’s so syrupy sweet that I think I’m gonna puke. Just stroke the little guy between the ears, and he’ll start wriggling around – sorta like the gopher in Caddyshack – but not really. According to Google’s Japanese translation: 1) MOZOMOZO move and press the stomach; 2) Press the tummy and the other stops; 3) The motion is soothing and pleasant person holds in his hand. Understood?

You can start building your very own Dream Squirrel army by heading over to AudioCubes and plunking down $29.95 (USD). They’re available in yellow or brown furtypes, and small enough to fit in your hand. You can check out the entire series of robotic Anipals over at SegaToys Japan.

The Happy Savon (savon = French for soap) looks like a little white whale, and fills sits on the edge of your bathtub blowing bubbles as you take a soak. Just fill the miniature cetacian with any liquid soap or shampoo and flip on the power. For smelly bubbles, just add a tiny bit of aromatherapy oil to the mix.

Despite the water mammal shape and the bathroom theme, the battery-operated whale isn’t submersible, so don’t try and float it in the water unless you want a dead whale in your tub. You’ll also want to be careful to aim the bubbles towards your tub, unless you want a slippery mess all over your bathroom tile floor – the last thing you need when you step out of the tub.

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Regardless of the hazards, the Engrish marketing materials say it’s Relax Romantic Fantasy – so how could you go wrong? You can find the Happy Savon whale bubble blower over at the Japan Trend Shop for $63 (USD).

While it’s far from the only Karaoke system out there, what sets Segatoys’ new Hitokara Home Karaoke system apart from the crowd is the mirrored disco ball that spins and shines as you screech along to your favorite bubble gum pop tunes.

It’s also unique in the way it gets its songs. Instead of playing from a CD or DVD, the Hitokara interfaces with a handful of special Karaoke capable mobile phones so you can download songs from the Hitokara online collection which currently has a whopping 43,000 free tracks. But unless they have Rock You like a Hurricane on there, I’m not buying one. Lyrics appear on your phone as the sound streams out of the Hitokara’s stereo speakers, and the LED-illuminated disco ball spins.

The Hitokara will ship this December for ¥7140 (appx. $75 USD). I doubt you’ll see these anywhere outside of Japan for a while.

A.M.P. stands for “Automated Musical Personality”. That’s because the wheeled robot can follow you around and play your tunes wherever you go. When set to tracking mode, the robot will even keep tabs on your location and keep the speakers facing you at all times. The self-balancing 29-inch tall robot rolls along courtesy of a piezoelectronic gyroscope which keeps it from tipping over on its narrow 2-wheel base. There’s also an obstacle avoidance system to keep A.M.P. from bumping into walls or tumbling down the stairs.

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As the ‘bot moves around the room, it’ll “dance” (more like wobble) to the tunes on your connected MP3 player, keeping with the beat – with a bunch of synchronized LEDs blinking all the while. A built in 12-watt amp and a set of three speakers pump out the music. You’ll be able to control the audio mix and a variety of sound effects by interacting with A.M.P.bot’s touch-sensitive mixing pad “hands”.

The A.M.P.Bot will be coming to the States courtesy of Hasbro’s Tiger Electronics this October (it’s available from SegaToys in Japan). Expect it to retail for about $500.

[A.M.P.Bot via SlashGear and Toyology]

Inud the robo-dog (aka the Dream DX robot dog) responds to touch, voice commands, and can even track you as you move around it. The dog can move its eyes, mouth and head, wag its tail, shake with it paw, and can respond to voice commands like “good boy” about as reliably as you real dog does.

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Just think, with one of these, you’ll never have to go out for another walk when it’s -10 degrees outside, and shedding all over your furniture and clothes will be a thing of the past. At a likely retail price of about $270, Inud isn’t cheap, but he is arguably much less expensive than a real dog.

I only have one question: Is he housebroken or is he going to leave batteries all over the floor? (thanks, Woody Allen)

[via The Presurfer and NewLaunches]

From what I can tell, the Brain Checker is a standalone mental acuity game, offering up a battery of mental fitness tests including math, pattern matching games and other puzzles to help figure out if your grey matter is in proper working order.

The portable gadget features a small LCD touch screen and stylus for controlling the games. It may be hard to find one of these outside of Japan, but from what I can tell, all of the games use pictures and numbers, so it should be playable regardless of your native tongue. Priced at ¥5,775 (appx. $51 USD), it’s about the same price as buying both of the Brain Age games for the Nintendo DS.

Now if my brain could only figure out where to buy one…

SegaToys’ Dream Chicks are lifelike baby birds that respond to real world stimuli. Petting and interacting with the tiny chick makes the diminutive avian chirp and flap its little wings once in a while. From the looks of this video clip, he’d need to flap his wings a whole heck of a lot faster than that if he doesn’t want the be dinner for the neighborhood hawk.

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Available in Japan for a few months, they’re now available in North America from importer NCSX for $25 each.