Continued: Tech toys / 14

Fri., Nov. 12, 2004

The Spokesman-Review

Look for good ideas: thinkgeek.com, discoverthis.com, bigfuntoys.com, gizmag.com

Nintendo DS

Price: $150

Its dual screens, wireless functionality, high-res graphics and sweet Nintendo game library make this the must-have handheld gaming device of the season. (That season ends next spring, by the way, when the Sony PSP comes out.) Parents, this is your children’s GameBoy on steroids, but if you want one for Christmas, you’d better order quick – some stores already are shutting down pre-orders because the DS hype is so huge.

Online: nintendo.com

Atari Paddle 13-in-1

Price: $25

Self-contained TV games are everywhere right now; with batteries and a TV, you’ve got everything you need to play a ton of the games that were sweet when you were 8. This one packs 13 titles into the classic Atari paddles, including Pong, Breakout and Night Driver .

Online: thinkgeek.com

Flybar 1200

Price: $300

The flybar is just a pogo stick – with 12 rubber thrusters inside, each storing up to 100 pounds of thrust. Which means it can send an average adult 5 feet into the air. The distributor probably should ship these with an envelope pre-addressed to one of those funniest home video shows.

Online: flybar.com

Lazer Tag Team Ops

Price: $45

Maybe it’s a little more realistic to ask first-person shooter fans to step into the real world with Lazer Tag. The Team Ops set comes with two guns and a goggles with a heads-up display to show target lock and track game stats (such as who just killed who) in real-time. Add in the Team Comm headsets ($25) to keep in touch with your teammates via radio.

Online: lazertag.com

Japanese Airsoft Firing Tank

Price: $160

This radio-controlled replica of a Japanese tank fires plastic BBs up to 75 feet. It also comes in the Mini BB tank size ($25), which is only 8 inches long. Again, the manufacturer won’t ship overseas, so look for these on eBay.

Online: gadgets.co.uk

Shocking Tanks

Price: $75

What’s the deal with England and cool remote-control stuff that they won’t sell directly to us Americans? Add these to the list: one part tank toy, one part that game James Bond has to play in “Never Say Never Again,” where the loser gets a nice fat electrical shock. Yep, when you nail your opponent in Shocking Tanks, you also deliver a jolt through his remote control.

Online: gadgetshop.com

AntWorks Space Age Ant Habitat

Price: $20

This ant farm is an offshoot of a NASA Space Shuttle experiment on animal life in space. It’s a block of clear-bluish gel that serves as nutrition and a tunneling habitat for the ants. And at 6 inches high and 5 inches wide, it’s small enough to sit on your office desk – as long as it doesn’t freak out your co-workers too much. If it does, leave it up and add the $20 Sea Monkeys Executive Set. (Eric Cartman not included.)

Online: thinkgeek.co

Scream Machine

Price: $80

One for the kids: This is what you’d get if you built a Big Wheel out of high-tensile steel, then chromed it out. You did have a Big Wheel, didn’t you?

Online: razorama.com

FunSlides

Price: $18

Strap these on over your shoes and you can surf around on carpet like you were wearing socks on hardwood. Potentially lame at home, though, so consider sneaking into your church’s sanctuary.

Online: funslides.com

More ideas at spokane7.com: Star Wars Force FX Lightsabers, Desktop Rover with Wireless Color MiniCam, FlyZone Swift Flyer radio-controlled airplane

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