toyfair2008

Balsa wood airplanes

Balsa wood airplanes

From the the NYC Toy fair 2008 — Guillow has been making balsa wood planes since 1926, just about everyone I know has made one of these at some point in their life or have bought them for their kids. The blue rubber bands, the red propellers, these bring back a lot of memories – […]

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ScienceWiz – Science kits and learning for kids

ScienceWiz – Science kits and learning for kids

@The NYC Toy fair 2008 I met the folks from ScienceWiz (including Pegg Norman, PHD, the writer!) – ScienceWiz “kits” are age specific science learning for kids. The original development of the ScienceWiz line was funded through grants from the National Science Foundation and the Franklin Foundation. There were a few science-learning companies (and we’ve […]

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Prank kits!

Prank kits!

@The NYC Toy fair 2008 there weren’t that many “prank” companies, I saw some super-cheap rubber chickens and a gag or two, but the only company that had a dedicated prank line and some fun packaging was “Reeve and Jones” – they make familiar favorites like: Whoopie cushions, hand buzzers, dirty hand soap, dollar snatchers, […]

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Mechanical marvels made from wood

Mechanical marvels made from wood

@The NYC Toy fair 2008 I found a fantastic line of “Timberkits” these are wood automatons you build yourself: Dragons, pigs, drummers, piano players – you can also build a motor if you don’t want to use the crank. I think these were one of my favorite things from the entire event. Here’s a video […]

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Khet – laser strategy game

Khet – laser strategy game

Fun tech-strategy game spotted @ the NYC Toy fair 2008 – Khet combines lasers with strategy, it’s sorta like chess/checkers but set in an Egyptian-themed board with pieces having two, one or no mirrored surfaces. There are two small class II lasers, you try and destroy the other pieces by bouncing the beam on to […]

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Metal detectors

Metal detectors

@The NYC Toy fair 2008 there was only one metal detector maker and that was Bounty Metal detectors – they have an entire line from simple ones (inexpensive) up to beefier ones that include LCD read-outs, iron level detection and ground balancing. The “Gold digger” in only $99 and seems like a good midrange one […]

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Model space capsules and mini-learn how-to frame a house kits

Model space capsules and mini-learn how-to frame a house kits

@The NYC Toy fair 2008 you tend to see companies with a variety of products, Precision Modelworks has stunning and unique models of various space capsules – Saturn vehicles, Gemini capsules and others from the Mercury missions – if you’re a space buff these might be the only (and best) replicas in existence. In addition […]

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