18 posts tagged “toys”

From Wowwee, the Flytech Bladestar is billed as an "indoor flying machine".  Not quite a helicopter, just the blades.  The infra red remote control uses 6 AA batteries, which can be connected to the blades for charging.  10 minutes of charging gives you 5 minutes of flight time.  It has an avoidance mode, so it can steer away from obstacles such as a wall.  Comes with 2 spare wings.  If you buy two, you can get a "dog fight adapter" so the two can duel with each other.

Propeller on a Stick
If you want a full helicopter, Dick has talked about the PicooZ Helicopter before (Episode 204), or you can get the Dragonfly that Leo mentions.  For something simpler, try looking for the retro toy propeller on a stick, or make one yourself - with full instructions on sci-toys.com.



Pitchmen

Dick and Leo have recently talked about infomercial-man Billy Mays (in Episode 820).  Discovery Channel has a documentary on Billy Mays and Anthony Sullivan, called Pitchmen.

Learning English on Audible
Paul Griswold, who's visited Dick at his office at MAD, has found another use for Audible.  Paul has a Japanese wife, who finds listening to Audible books, along with the book itself borrowed from the library, a great way of learning English.

Bat Boy The Musical
Bat Boy was a fictional creature (half-bat, half-boy) featured in the old tabloid Weekly World News, and made his way into an off-Broadway musical, in which he started learning English by watching Masterpiece Theatre (originally hosted by the late Alistair Cooke, now by Laura Linney).  There's even a recording on CD of the musical by the original cast.



Listen to Episode 833
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Leo has been having an embarrassment of riches recently for TTTT, and today he gives Dick 2 choices, a big ball or a small ball.  Dick goes for the small one.  From Zoomdoggle, BuckyBalls are "rare earth magnets" in the shape of tiny balls which can be shaped, molded, torn apart from one another and snapped together.  Each set contains 216 of these balls (made of neodymium iron borate according to the chatroom), and the challenge is to turn them into different shapes.  Leo is trying to make a necklace out of them for Jennifer as an anniversary present.  They're not replacements for iron pills, Dick adds, so do not swallow.

The Other BuckyBalls
Buckyballs is also the name given to spherical fullerenes - carbon molecules in the shape of hollow spheres - named after architect and inventor Richard Buckminster (Bucky) Fuller, because they resemble geodesic domes which are often associated with Buckminster Fuller who popularised the idea: photo below from Wikipedia Commons.

Fuller did not invent the idea and design of the geodesic domes.  A German, Walther Bauersfeld, working for Carl Zeiss, did that in about 1922, for the Planetarium at Jena, the world's first geodesic dome.  Photo from zeiss.de/planetariums.

The Littlest Giz Wiz Fan: It Makes Its Own Brandy !
Yesterday, Dick read the letter from David Sanders, whose children, aged 5, 8 and 10, sing the Monday Theme in the morning.  Today, Leo also has a letter from another fan whose young son sings another Daily Giz Wiz theme.  Sage from Olympia, Washington, has a son Brayden who was born 4 months after the launch of DGW (which was in February 2006).  3-year-old Brayden can now sing the Gravy Jingle, DGW's closing theme, even though it sounds like "It makes its own brandy!"  You can watch it on YouTube.


The Daily Giz Wiz Torment
Brayden is not the only toddler to be captured on video singing the Gravy Jingle.  Last year we had a 4-year-old singing it on YouTube.



A Show for the Incontinent
Dick thinks that the age for their show's audience is either 2-4 years old, or 50-90.  Yes, Leo says, if you can't hold it, we've got a show for you.


Listen to Episode 827
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Suzy Snapshot

Flash-Sensitive Doll

Link: Amazon

Galoob (acquired by Hasbro) made the Suzy Snapshot Doll in 1991.  The doll came with an imitation camera which did not take photos but would only flash.  The doll itself was light-sensitive and would change her pose upon detecting the flash.

eBay Rehabilitated

Leo had a bad experience trying to buy something on eBay, but was ready to give it another chance, and recently bought his new mixer on eBay.

In Episode 781, Dick talked about the snow in New York and how the subway might be affected.  Chris Pashoni works as a train operator at the Coney Island Subway Yard in New York, and has written in to tell Dick how snow does affect the New York Subway.  While other people may get a day off, they have to fight their way to work.  Trains where possible are moved to underground storage locations.  Trains exposed to the snow may cause the automatic brakes to activate; signals can freeze; and there are other potential problems.  They have to go to work 2 to 4 hours early to prepare the trains for service.  They also use special Sweeper Trains to clear the tracks of snow.

Dick is still very impressed by Leo's professionalism on the day they did Match Game Memories together (video available at odtv.me).  Leo had done hours of programming already, but as soon as the Match Game theme came up, Leo was ready.  Leo wished he were Gene Rayburn, doing a show like The Match Game.

More from the Toy Fair.  The Force Trainer from Uncle Milton consists of a wireless headset which reads your brain waves through dry sensor technology to detemine the level of focus or concentration.  The data is sent wirelessly to the main unit at the base of which is a fan.  The higher your concentration, the stronger "the Force", and the stronger the power of the fan, which will send the ball (or Training Sphere) higher up the cylinder.

Mattel's Mind Flex works in a similar way.  The setup is a little more complicated in that you are supposed to levitate the ball to different heights and sideways through an obstacle course (with the help of a control knob).  Both games use a form of EEG (electroencephalogram, as Leo explains).  The Force Trainer measures the alpha, beta, gamma and delta brian waves and uses an algorithm to interpret the data to arrive at your level of concentration, while the Mind Flex measures your theta brain waves to arrive at your degree of focus.

To see Dick trying out the Mind Flex at the Toy Fair, watch the ABC World New Now video: Toy Fair Extra.

Taking Failure To Heart
Dick and Leo are still smarting from the letter yesterday complaining about their singing (or at least Leo's).  As performers, they take any suggestion of failure to heart.  They're not singing today's jingle.

TWiT Dependants
Dick wonders if he can get 0.1% of the TWiT audience as dependants for tax deductions.

Customs Regulations
Ernest Bergstrom, 63, has been a MAD fan since forever and thanks Dick for all the laughs.  About Dick's parcel to Ludwik in Poland (see Episode 773), Ernest remarks that Dick and Ludwik have been lucky.  The Customs Regulations provide that you may not send printed matter of any kind.

The Ultimate Ludwik Package
Apart from taking failure to heart, Dick has also taken Leo's suggestion in Episode 773 to heart.  Dick has created "The Ultimate Ludwik Package", on sale at GizWizShopping.  The package contains the following GizWizBiz items: the LED Cap, the Ice Cube, the Lighted Folding Pen, the Cliphanger, the USB Smart Button, something new called the Mini-Strobe, and an autographed copy of MAD.  Since there are only 6 Ice Cubes left, only 6 of these packages are available, for just under $50 (with a saving of $24).

Byte
Leo has a "Leo Laporte Beanie Baby" - named Byte.




Listen to Episode 778
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Dick attended the Toy Fair in New York 2 weeks ago and one of the exhibits was the classic puzzle Rubik's Cube, now available in electronic form, called Rubik's TouchCube.  The original cube sold 350 million copies.  The new TouchCube, developed by TechnoSource, it features a touch technology to enable a swiping action to move the coloured lighted squares around.  An accelerometer detects the positioning of the cube so that teh swiping action is restricted only to the top-facing side.


You can pause the game at any time and the built-in memory will restore the state of the puzzle when you last played it.  It can also give you hints, or simply solve the puzzle for you.  Comes with sound effects to choose from, and a display stand which recharges the TouchCube.


Skype Issue
If Dick's voice sounds less than perfect today, it's because the Skype connection during the recording of the show was a bit rickety.

Dripping Shower Award
Irishman Luigi Benedicenti writes in to inform Dick and Leo that the Daily Giz Wiz has won the Best Shower Podcast at the Dripping Shower Awards, also called the Drippies.  Colleen, dressed in a fetching wet suit and wearing a golden neck chain, accepted the award (2-pound gold shower head with a single encrusted 30-carat diamond in the shape of a teardrop) on behalf of TWiT, who thanked Dane Golden for changing her life, since she walked away with a $50,000 gift basket.

The Speaking Spelling Bee from Franklin is a handheld game station with a qwerty keyboard, for playing spelling games.  You can compete against the machine itself, or against your friends (up to 6 players).  It also has a Merriam-Webster Dictionary, Thesaurus and Rhyming Dictionary.  For children ages 8 upwards.

Happy Birthday
... to Henry Laporte who turns 14 today.  Dick wonders what Henry is getting for his birthday, which explains his expressionless face resembling those depicted in Grant Wood's painting American Gothic.  Henry is getting, with the help of Colleen, a skateboard made of aircraft aluminium, and Corinthian leather, just like the Chrysler Cordova, as advertised by Ricardo Montalban.

A Family Affair
The Epistle of the Day is from Brian Drake again, of Gallatin, Tennessee.  Jennifer Laporte thinks the slogan "The worse your life is, the better we sound" terrible.  Since she is a mental health professional, she should start treating listeners of DGW.


Listen to Episode 645
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If you need a bit of reassurance and affirmation in your life, the Yes Man talking doll would be perfect for you.  Ask the Yes Man a question, and it would give you one of 8 affirmative, back-patting answers.  You could also record your own answers.  It also appeared on the Disney movie "My Favorite Martian".  The Yes Man was from about 15 years ago, and the company Rau Creations is still in business.

It certainly sounds better than Squawkers McCaw (Episode 413), but it can't beat Real Talkin' Bubba (Episode 246).


Multiplying Rabbits
Karl from Phoenix, Arizona wants to know if Dick has in the Gadget Warehouse the Rabbit Video Multiplier (made by Gemini Industries), which was a VCR receiver-transmitter, that allowed you to watch a video in any room in the house from one VCR .  Karl's version was a wired one.  Dick once had the wireless version.  A current version of the Rabbit seems to be available still, and there are other choices, including the Wavecom Junior, and Belkin's Pure AV Remote TV (Episode 57).

Calvin and Jobs
Mad's current issue has a spoof comic strip called Calvin and Jobs (being Steve Jobs), based on the much-loved Calvin and Hobbes.  Someone has scanned it and posted it on Flickr.  Dick was annoyed that no credit was given to the original artists, and he meant Mad writer Jacob Lambert and artist Gary Hallgren, not the original original artist Bill Watterson.


Listen to Episode 640
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Cable-It is Monster Cable's new cable management kit.  It's a coiled tube (with a slit down the length of the tube) which houses your cables, for your computer, electrical appliances or AV equipment.  Just put the ends of a group of cables into the hollow of the handle (also called a "Zipper"), attach the tubing to the handle, and pull the handle down the length of coiled tubing.  The tubing will then enclose the cables like a zip.

Cables can come out of the tubing easily via the slit to make their connections at different places along the tubing.  Available in 3 diameters to accommodate different numbers of cables.  Different lengths available too.  Come in black, white and grey.

If you missed Leo's live demonstration of Cable-It during the recording of the show on TWiTLive, you can watch a demonstration of how it works by Jeff MacArthur, Amber's brother, on Episode 130 of the CommandN podcast.


First Looks
Thanks to the amazing technology at the TWiTLive Studio, Dick can finally put a face to the name Dean, or Dave, or Dufus, aka Dane Golden.  Colleen too, but that's another face.  Dick is now scheduled to appear live on TWiTLive on 20 June 2008.

Leo-Branded Stability Ball
Leo is thinking of selling his own brand of the Gopher fitness ball (Episode 322), complete with his visage and autograph so everyone can sit on his face.  It will be called Leo's Butt Ball.

Mechanical Calculators
Girl Geek, whom Dick also calls Geek Girl and other names, who becomes who she is because she has a mother who would buy any crap that passes in front of her, writes in again.  One of the vintage gadgets her mother bought is the Addiator.  The picture below is from John Wolff's Web Museum.


This reminds Leo about the Comptometer, given to him by his father-in-law.  Leo promises to bring it in.  Variations of the Slide Rule.  John Wolff's Web Museum has it too.


Dick can't remember any of these old gadgts.  All he can remember is the old Punch Board, which Leo calls legalised gambling.

Listen to Episode 561
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Dick and Leo switched places today and Dick turned the tables on himself, or so it seems.  Today's gadget is the SpearHat which Dick saw at Toy Fair.  6 rings included.  The website says onion rings will also work, or as Dick and Leo suggest, try some fruit like apples, melons and bananas.

Dick on The Digital Home
Dick has also recorded a podcast today as Don Reiseinger's guest on CNet's The Digital Home Podcast, in which he talks about today's episode, Al Jaffee and Mad.  Listen to Episode 9 of The Digital Home Podcast here.

Dick has appeared before on Don's blog and podcast.  See the blog post on Episode 338.  Dick has also appeared on Episode 6 of The Digital Home Podcast.

eStarling
Anish, rhyming with quiche, a regular correspondent on DGW and an occasional correspondent on Buzz Out Loud and Security Now!, from Vestal/Manhattan, New York, responds to Leo's query in Episode 504 about a digital picture frame which he could control remotely.  He suggests one of eStarling's wifi-enabled photo frames which you can update via email or RSS feeds through integration with online services such as Flickr, Photobucket and even iPhoto.  No subscription necessary.  That's how he sends his photos at school to his parents (from Vestal to Manhattan?).  See also Episode 518 for another listener's suggestion.


Listen to Episode 537
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