She will be beside herself when she sees what builder Mark Stafford has come up with using these little pink blocks and LEGO Friends characters.

Peter’s creation has little lipstick fingers, a gun, and it’s in the requisite pink that any seven-year-old girl requires. I suspect I will spend the night rebuilding this thing each time the monster Ken Barbie tramples it to pieces.

It reminds me more than a little of the recon Mechs from my favorite videogame growing up called MechWarrior. Check out the photos in the gallery and see for yourself.

[Flickr via The Brothers Brick]

However, if you’re way better than I was (and most of you probably are) and shoot hoops by yourself regularly, then you might want to get one of these SKLZ Shoot-Arounds. They’re basically chutes that fit standard hoop rims that guide the ball back towards your direction after you make your shots. The cool thing is that you don’t have to keep running back and forth to retrieve the ball so you can work on improving a single shot at a time.

The entire set includes the four-piece Shoot-Around ball return chute, attachment nuts and bolts, and rotating insert ring with four rim straps and hooks. If you’re interested, you can purchase one online from Amazon for about $39(USD).

[via The Green Head]

First released a few years back as the Nabaztag, and now reincarnated as Karotz, the little gadget has integrated microphone and you can speak to the rabbit, and then it will post what you say to Facebook for you. The wascally wabbit also has a camera inside and can take a picture of you to share on Facebook with your friends. In addition, an app is in the works that will also allow your friends on Facebook to take control of the rabbit and communicate with you by sending audio messages or even sending you a poke via the rabbit.

The thing will also read statuses or comments aloud to you from your Facebook profile. Karotz has voice recognition software inside and can play music for you, check e-mails, read weather reports, RSS feeds, and lots more. The device can also be made to notify you via e-mail when someone is in your home such as a child or a roommate – should they enter the room with the appropriate RFID tag on their keychain or backpack. There are also a few other apps, like one which lets you use Karotz as a remote spycam, since it has a webcam built in.

The rabbit sells for $129.99(USD) over at the Karotz website and from other retailers.

The figurine is about 1.5″ tall and is made of polyurethane resin, cast from a handmade mold. Isaac’s adorable black eyes and anguished mouth are hand-painted and the whole thing is sealed with a glossy finish.

Escape to Etsy and pre-order the Isaac figurine for $20 (USD). Each figurine comes with a sticker of pixelated Isaac. Who is also crying.

[via Edmund McMillen]

LEGO said that they’re “developing a concept that celebrates the best aspects of building with the LEGO system and in Minecraft” and have not yet mentioned a release date or media of the actual products.

The images above are not from any official LEGO sets though – they’re just mock-ups made for Minecraft‘s CUUSOO page. But they look pretty Minecraft-ish enough. What’s next? Indiana Jones in Uncharted 4? Space Ghost in Ace Attorney 6? Ash Williams in Dead Rising 3? Gobots in Transformers 4? I can do this all day.

[via LEGO CUUSOO Blog via Brothers Brick]

Apparently, a guy from the LEGO site Brickset was at the 2012 UK Toy Fair and while he couldn’t get pics inside the booth to share, he was able to shoot a pic of a photo on the side of the booth showing off the new LOTR minifigs. The photo clearly shows that the entire fellowship of the rings is coming in Minifig form.

We also have a few hi-res LOTR movie-inspired posters here which LEGO was kind enough to share with us recently, featuring Frodo, Legolas and Aragorn in minifig form:

Brickset also reports there are a number of LOTR LEGO playsets coming too, and not just the minifigs. The early pics look really cool, and I bet LEGO fans that also love the films and the books will be salivating when they arrive. I’d keep an eye peeled during the New York Toy Fair in early February for more details to emerge, or bookmark LEGO’s LOTR web page, which indicates that something is coming in Summer 2012.

[via BrothersBrick]

The first set onto the scene is called the tiny 1:64 scale Death Star Attack set, and it comes with both X-Wing and TIE Fighters, pimped out with wheels on the bottom so they can speed around the slot track, which measures in at approximately 149 inches in total length. The ships are both lighted and the track even glows in the dark. I can only imagine that Luke could have skipped using The Force to find his way to the chewy middle of the Death Star had his path been guided by a slot track.

The second set is of the slightly more appropriate Battle of Endor, which comes in a 1:32 scale kit. It comes with a pair of speed bikes – one with Luke Skywalker, the other with a Scout Trooper – zipping along through the forests of Endor (or is that the California redwoods?) Sadly, the kit doesn’t come with any Ewoks you can run over, but there are a few standing by the side of the track trying to knock down some AT-ST walkers. Total track length for the Endor scene about 169 inches, which means that when you take the larger scale into account, you actually more bang for your buck with the Death Star scene.

All of the flying craft are held to the track with Scalextric’s “Magnatraction,” tiny neodymium magnets – but I imagine they still have to have wheels to get around. I don’t think they’ve quite worked out the quantum levitation thing on slot car sets yet.

There’s no word on a release date for either set, but Scalextric has them both listed on their website now. The Micro Scalextric Death Star set will retail for £69.99 (~$109 USD), while the larger Battle of Endor set is listed at £99.99 (~$156 USD). Be sure to stop by their site to be notified when they’re in stock.

You don’t have to feed the electronic goldfish, but you’ll need to install three AA batteries to power the mechanism that makes it zip around like real fish don’t.

Wow. That is one distractingly lively fish. Swim to ThinkGeek and pay $20(USD) to order your own Electronic Goldfish in a Bowl.

Zdz… made the mod for the PC version of the game and all the scary dragons have now been replaced with a cute, yellow My Little Pony that flies around burning stuff. The mod is called the “Pony Dragon Mod” and can be downloaded right now.

My Little Pony aficionados will recognize the pony here as Fluttershy.

[via Eurogamer]

These papercraft toys are just like the real things, only if you aren’t careful, you will get tons of paper cuts. Also, they don’t actually work. Both of these little toys are anthropomorphic of course, making them extra cute.

They were created by Marshall Alexander, a “paper engineer” in the Netherlands, in tribute to his favorite childhood toys. I would say that he did an excellent job.

If you want to download these and make them yourself, just go here. Then once they are assembled, display them proudly.

[via Superpunch]

He took a bunch of LEGO and built himself a nice replica of the taxi that is very realistic and looks a whole lot like the one from the movie. You can see from the photos that the car has every detail that I can recall – from the license plate to the doors that are hinged to open from the top.

The only thing missing from the model are minifig versions of Korben Dallas and LeeLoo. What do you think of this model? Is it missing anything you can recall?

It never ceases to impress when geeks can build things so accurate with LEGO and their imagination.

[Flickr via Brothers Brick]

The i-Fly Micro Lightning helicopter comes with an IR remote adapter that you can plug into your iOS device to control the copter using the iFly iOS app. It has eight minutes of flight per charge and can be controlled with up/down, left/right, and front/back movements. It can also be controlled using an included infrared remote. The i-Fly copter sells for $69.99 (USD).

The Sky Eye and the Black Swann both use 27MHz RF tech and are good for 110-feet of range. They have integrated cameras that can shoot video and still shots with a button press as well. The Black Swann has a microSD card slot for expanded storage and the Sky Eye has 512MB of internal storage. Each camera copter sells for $99.99, and should be available in stores soon.

[Press Release]

The scene is Max with his yellow, red and blue Ford Falcon XB Interceptor parked waiting to make his first chase in the flick. This chase set up pivotal events for later in the movie. The car the guy created even has the colors and stripes that are accurate to the movie car.

Sadly, there are no build photos or parts lists for those of you who want to try and recreate this yourselves. I would love to know how he put the car together.

If you aren’t a Mad Max fan, what was your favorite car flick? What’s the coolest thing you have ever made with LEGO?

[flickr via Brothers-Brick]

That’s exactly the idea being put forward by Michael Inglis. The pictures show some of Inglis’ designs for a theoretical LEGO Zelda set.

Inglis already makes 3D printed Zelda swords that can be used with official LEGO toys, but he’s well aware that with their resources, LEGO – and Nintendo – can do so much more for fans, not to mention their bank account.

It’s not a dangerous idea, but Inglis can’t do it alone. Build a browser out of bricks and head to Lego Cuusoo to support his concept. Cuusoo is similar to Kickstarter, except it’s LEGO’s way of crowdsourcing ideas and gauging consumer interest in said ideas. Also, you don’t have to spend or pledge any amount of money to support a concept, so go ahead and vote. Just tell LEGO not to bother with a Navi minifig.

[via Gamma Squad]

The set looks pretty cool and features those animated lenticular images which move when you tilt the pieces up and down. The set has 32 detailed characters from the series. One side is the Doctor Who heroes and the others are the villains. The bad king is the Supreme Dalek and the good king is The 11th Doctor. The bad queen is the Weeping Angel and the good queen is Amy Pond.

The chess set sells for $40 (USD) over at ThinkGeek or Amazon, and you might still be able to get one in time for the holidays if you spring for expedited shipping – or if you happen to have a TARDIS.

The shirt has a real working drum machine and a looper. It has 9 different drum kit sounds with 7 sounds each. The sounds include rock drums, “discotek,” jazz, punk, and more. You can record loops of your beats and play them back. The loops can be up to 3 minutes long.

There are seven pads on the drum machine shirt that can app be pressed at once time. The electronics are powered by 4-AA batteries, and are removable to allow the shirt to be washed in the machine.

The shirt is out of stock for the moment, but should be back in stock shortly if you want one. You can order one for $29.99(USD) over at ThinkGeek.

All you have to do is provide MineToys with the username of the avatar to be printed. They’ll then render it in HD and 3D and possibly other Dees, then send it to Shapeways to be printed.

Build a cart and ride it to MineToys’s website to order. If you think your avatar looks ugly, you can also order 3D prints of the Minecraft avatars of other users. I wonder if there’s a program that does the reverse – take your appearance and render it in Minecraft.

[via Shapeways via NotCot]

What a beautiful commercial district. It’s begging to be hit with a 3D printed tornado.

Isn’t it funny how the rise of 3D printing could take things from the virtual back to the real world? Years from now instead of playing MMOs we could be playing board games, pen-and-paper RPGs or LARPing with high quality trinkets that we print right from our homes. Speaking of which, aspiring tabletop mayors should build a subway line and head to Thingiverse to download the templates for Skimbal’s play set.

[via Architizer via Notcot]

In case you’re not familiar with the game, Skylanders is a hack-and-slash game with a Pókemon twist – to play the game, you need at least one figurine. Aside from looking great, a figurine stores the data for its virtual counterpart. Each copy of Skylanders comes with a complementary “portal” accessory that connects to consoles via USB. Place a figurine on the portal to make the character appear in the game. Did I mention there are 32 figurines to collect? I can hear your wallet weeping, Mom and Dad.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

Kids can exercise their imagination even further by playing with the figurines themselves. The thing is, the vanilla figurines are statues – highly detailed but static. But by adding parts from other action figures, master toy modder Jin Saotome was able to make three Skylander figures moveable. Their neck, shoulders, waist, elbows, hips, and knees are fully articulated, plus they can be taken out of their base.

Jin already put the modded Chop-Chop figurine up for sale on eBay; Prism Brake and Drobot will probably be there soon as well. As of this writing the highest bid for Chop-Chop is $32.60 (USD); that’s four times the price of the stock figurine, but I think it’s worth it. I’m not sure if Jin will mod more Skylanders figurines, but you can drop him a message for more info or custom orders.

[Jin's Dangerous Toys via Destructoid]

It’s called the Crossbow Snow Launcher, and it can shoot a snowball up to 60 feet away. It comes with a snowball press to make up to three snow spheres just the right size for firing. It appears to use some sort of rubber or elastic straps to hurl the snowball towards your victim.

The photo here is actually only a rendering. I would love to see a video of this in action. The Crossbow Snow Launcher is offered by The Sharper Image and sells for $39.99 (USD).

[via OhGizmo! via Dvice]