You know that saying "they just don't make 'em like they used to?" The statement couldn't be more true as I continued my treasure hunt through my closet at home. An unmarked box high up on the shelf revealed one of my favorite toys of all time - TRANSFORMERS!

Talk about quality, these original Autobots and Decepticons were built to last - take a licking and keep on ticking. Okay, I'll stop with the cliches. But in all seriousness, these toys from the 80s were bad ass and expensive by standards in those days...the Megatron box below had a price tag of $27.99 on it and guess where it was purchased from? That's right, Ace Hardware. Ace Hardware!

My Optimus Prime was in fine shape with all parts in tact and I do recall playing with this thing a lot when I was younger. So I was impressed to find it in one piece, no yucky deteriorating rubber wheels, or rusted joints. The darn thing still works perfectly. As it turns out, these Transformers were really "more than meets the eyes" in all aspects of the slogan.

For a trip down memory lane, click this link for the Transformers history.

So what kind of cool childhood toys do you have tucked away in storage or in a closet? Do they still work or falling to pieces? And do you think the quality of toys today stack up with the toys we played with yesterday?

Here's a hint on my next toy post...may the force be with you. ;-)

-NGK

This is Google Chrome, developed in 2008 by Google.

The Maverick blaster features a six-dart rotating barrel with easy flip loading so you don't have to waste any time while blasting enemy targets. Rapid launching action increases your battle speed and accuracy. Other features include a pullback mechanism and auto-advancing barrel.

The Maverick is a part of the N-Strike team, so you can snap it onto the Unity Power System (sold separately) and ratchet the NERF action up another notch. This incredibly cool Maverick blaster has a six-dart barrel with flip-open action for easy loading that puts you right back in the game. Blaster comes with six darts and instructions.

Like the gun toted by the cowboy hero with whom it shares its name, the Maverick is a six shooter. Unlike the gun that other Maverick had, however, this weapon shoots only soft suction darts that can fly across a room and adhere to a window or other glass surface. The Maverick features a rotating barrel, which makes it easier to keep the firepower flying in the midst of heated battle and a futuristic look to better engender sci-fi fantasy play if you so choose. For a little extra power boost, the gun also has a pump mechanism. In our informal test, the darts flew surprisingly far and impressively straight. --Charlie Williams

Hasbro Nerf N-Strike Maverick is available at Amazon for $9.99. To Order click here
Amazon Product Pages contain a lot of other details on this product as Customer Reviews, Sales Ranking, Special Offers, Alternate products that customers are going for and much more.Want to read these details? click here

Want to get some other Format / Binding / Version? You can search for them from here

Other Products of Interest

• Hasbro Nerf Mega Micro Dart Pack
• Hasbro Nerf Dart Tag Refill Pack: 30 Tagger Micro Darts
• Hasbro Nerf N-Strike Longshot CS-6
• Hasbro Nerf N-Strike Firefly REV-8
• Hasbro Nerf Tech Target Game - Colors May Vary

With no major video game consoles on the horizon, the “Tickle Me Elmo” award for the illusive “hottest Christmas gift” appears could be up for grabs.

This year, Hasbro released what it hopes to be the hot new toy for the 2008 holiday season. Part of Hasbro’s Furreal Friends line, “Biscuit, My Lovin’ Pup” is a life-like toy pet dog that targets the kid who wants a puppy—but mom and dad want one that doesn’t require care. Similar to the popular electronic pet toys of the past, like Tamagotchi, Furby, and the Sony Aibo, “Biscuit” simulates the feeling of having a real pet without all the real life responsibility of owning one. Biscuit’s popularity reaffirms the animated toy boom we saw in 2008 with Elmo Live, Playskool's Kota the Triceratops, Tomy's ISobot.

Biscuit is built to be the next closest thing to a real live puppy with the capability of obeying several different voice commands, including sit, speak, lie down, beg, and give paw. Just like a real canine, Biscuit will move his head and ears, blink his eyes, wag his tail, bark and even respond to touch. The electronic pooch comes complete with a collar, brush, dog bone and adoption certificate. Biscuit is so lifelike he will even sniff his dog bone before chowing down.

With its expected release this fall, people are already buzzing about Hasbro’s new lifelike pet in the blogosphere. At the 2008 New York Toy Fair, Biscuit’s launch was one of the most buzzed about toys. While visiting NYC for the Toy Fair, Hasbro’s electronic pup stopped by the CBS Early Show, where it “stole the show” from other toys featured on the set.

Retailing at $179.99, it’s possible Hasbro’s high price tag may scare parents considering the gloomy US economy. “Anytime the economy gets rocky, which we’re certainly in that situation, you have to look at it and expect an impact,” said Anita Frazier, an analyst with NPD group, in a February MSNBC.com article. “How big? You don’t know.”

Has Hasbro made enough noise about Biscuit to become this Christmas’s Tickle Me Elmo? Will America’s economic woes trump the buzz created around this year’s most memorable toy? Can virtual pets supply the unconditional love of real pets? Only time will tell.

For more information, please contact: mflight@schneiderpr.com
schneiderpr.com
LaunchPR

Yesterday, I purchased CheezWaster the Hungry, Hungry Hippos game.  I don't know who was more excited, me or him.  This was my all time favorite childhood game.  My brothers used to hide it so they wouldn't have to play it with me anymore.  Anyway - I was disappointed (and that is being polite about it - ok I was ragingly pissed) to find out that in an effort to (what I assume is to) cut costs, Milton Bradley/Hasbro has decided that it would be easier to make a game that you need to take apart to play and AGAIN to store, than to just make a bigger box.  Do you believe this shit?  I have to put together AND take apart the game every time my son wants to play it?  He's 2 - do you think he (or I) has/have the patience to wait for this?  Now, I could just be a normal, relaxed mom about it (but who are we kidding?) and leave the thing together and chuck it somewhere, but where the hell am I going to store the (very NOT flat, put together) hippos game in my tiny house?  Milton Bradley - YOU SUCK!  Pony up the extra 5 cents it takes to mass produce a bigger box, so I don't have to take apart my damn Hippos Game!!!

Esta serie consta de los siguientes personajes:

[gallery]
Crossbones, Guardian, Vision, Heroes Reborn Iron Man, Kang, Ultimate War Machine, Ares, Ben Riley Spiderman, y the Human Torch.

Y sera distribuida exclusivamente por Wallmart (o sea Wallmart Exclusive... odio esa frase!) ahora en Septiembre presumiblemente, se ve dificil la llegada de esta serie a nuestro pais, aunque siempre se la ingenian xD.

* BAF : Built a Figure (Construye una figura), tecnica ocupada por las empresas jugueteras para que compres toda la serie y armes a una nueva figura.

Mantenganse Informados!!

Spectr0

Hay algunos vehiculos que tambien fueron mostrados con anterioridad (Firebat Jet y Sharc Tooth), los cuales no creo que sean la serie 2, ya que tambien aparecia el "A.W.E. Striker" dentro de la misma tirada. Esto fue lo que me hizo el click para investigar, ademas de que la serie 1 son 6 vehiculos y en la "serie 3" son solo 3 que aparecieron en la noticia en TNI.

Uno al pensar esto dice: "Vamos a recurrir a nuestra fuente mas confiable... Hasbro!", ERROR!, pues ni ellos tienen actualizadas las series venideras, ya que el coleccionista no parece ser de la importancia maxima para ellos. Por esto deberemos conformarnos con una informacion a medias hasta que confirmemos el conjunto final de figuras para esta proxima serie.

[gallery]

Mantenganse Informados!!

Spectr0

It is one ugly son of a bitch ain't it and it can be yours for $99.99!

- 70 points of articulation and incredible life-like detail
- Authentic sound
- 14” tall
- 10 parasites
- Two interchangeable heads
- Statue of Liberty head accessory

I haven't bought one yet but I'm already planning where its gonna go when I do. Click HERE to check it out on Hasbro's website.

Als ich in den Ankündigungen einiger Star Wars News Seiten lass das ein „riesiger“ Facon von Hasbro veröffentlicht werden sollte, wollte ich dieses zuerst nicht glauben.
Eher untypisch für den Konzern ein völlig neues Raumschiff aus der klassischen Trilogie mitten im Jahr herauszubringen.
Ich rechnete eher mit einer Art Figuren Sammelkoffer in größerer Dimension...

Nachdem ich die ersten Bilder gesehen hatte war ich sehr überrascht! Ob ich mir den von 50 cm auf knapp 80 cm gewachsener Falcon zulegen sollte, war ich mir aufgrund des Volumens und Aufstellplatz nicht ganz schlüssig.
Circa 200 Euro wollen Toys `R us und die Onlineshops für Solo’s Schiff inklusiver zweier Action Figuren haben. (Chewbacca Early Bird und Han Solo T30AC)

Amazon bot das Raumschiff überraschend für 165 Euro inklusive Porto an, da konnte der Durchde wirklich nicht Nein sagen! ;-)
Einen Tag später quälte sich unser DHL Fahrer mit dem 8 Kilogramm schweren „Gerät“ durch den Hausflur.
Sofort wurde das Teil ausgepackt, zusammengesteckt und mit Batterien bestückt.
Der neue Millenium Falcom ist Raumschiff Modell und Playset zugleich.
Das Cockpit kann mit bis zu 4 Figuren besetzt werden.
Der Body lässt sich zweiteilig öffnen und bietet ein akkurates Innenleben mit allen wichtigen Plätzen um die Filmszenen nachzuspielen. Das komplette Raumschiff ist mit Sound und Licht ausgestattet. Ob Antrieb oder Einstiegsrampe, geboten werden geile Effekte. Fast alle Sound und Dialoge aus dem Film sind auf dem Soundchip gespeichert, selbst die Startschwierigkeiten des Falcon lassen sich so simulieren.

Ist der neue Falcon ein Muss? Auf alle Fälle!

Durchde

Now, I could spend all day and night talking about Rainbow Brite, and how obsessed I am with the characters on that show. Twink. Skydancer. On-X, the black robot horse. I could talk about Strawberry Shortcake and question the sanity of whoever created the idea for a bunch kids living in houses made of desserts and a sun in the sky that spoke and acted as their god. Imagine if the two shows had made a cross-over episode. The description might have read: an opium infused walk through Willy Wonka's brain.

And then there was Jem. This was a truly inventive cartoon for its time. It was created by Hasbro, Marvel Comics and Sunbow Productions. It was different from the other girly cartoons because it wasn't teaching us to be subservient or rely on a handful of minions to mine for color. Main character, Jerrica, had a rock star alter-ego, "Jem." She was in a band called The Holograms, and they had a rival girl band, The Misfits. Now, bear with me, Jerrica is able to tap into this alter-ego through the help of a synthesizing, holographic computer that talks and has a name - Synergy. And she's awesome. Jem's bandmates are Kimber, Aja, and Shana - she plays the drums, the synth drums.

This show had an exuberant number of stories going on at the same time. For one, Jem, or Jerrica - whatever she wanted to be that day, was in charge of a foster home for girls called...get ready...the Starlight House. So, their concerts funded the home - and this was The Holograms' ultimate goal. Relatively positive. Then there was that whole superhero-esc, hidden identity, love thing with Jerrica/Jem and this guy Rio. As previously mentioned, their rival band, The Misfits, were made up of Pizzazz, Roxy, Stormer (a keytar player with a softer side) and eventually the addition of Jetta. Whenever The Holograms and The Misfits' had a battle of the bands, it was like Barbie had found the dark side. In the 3rd season, another band, The Stingers, came onto the scene, shook things up, and inevitably created peace between all three bands.

This show had simple sentiments. You can do whatever you put your mind to. You can be savvy, hip, and responsible with money. And if you want an alter-ego, an inverse identity, and an entourage of people who are named after cars, weather and attitude, then you should strive for that.

En esta ocacion tenemos los siguientes duetos:

- Beachhead/Dataframe (AKA Mainframe)
- Hard Master/Snake-Eyes
- Scrap Iron/Wild Bill

Asi que vamos a ver las imagenes de estas figuras:

[gallery]

Mantenganse Informados!!

Spectr0's Back

This set includes repacks of Uncle Owen, Aunt Beru, a Sandtrooper, a moisture vaporator, an all-new baby womp rat, and the Lars domicile! Anyone who thinks this set is inspired from the legendary fan-film Troops....you're not alone.

Apparently it's going to be a Toys-R-Us exclusive. You have to admire the marketing guys at Hasbro; they keep finding new ways to sell action figures on a 30-year-old movie, going from comic-book editions, where the characters look like they did in the early Marvel comics, to stuff like this, which happened---but not on-screen!

So, who's gonna be first to do a stop-motion remake of Troops using this playset? All you need is a tiny thermal detonator and a stormtrooper in white high-heels (No, really; click the still from Troops there and see for yourself).

Fans of the cult show Mad Men had been tuning in to in-character tweets from fans posing as Don Draper and colleagues from fictional 60's ad agency Sterling Cooper. Earlier this week the show's producers, AMC, issued a DMCA takedown notice requiring Twitter to cancel the user accounts of those concerned, leading to widespread condemnation from fans. AMC has now realised that - get this - having fans is actually a good thing, and have withdrawn their complaint. The Twitter accounts in question have now been restored. Hopefully this will serve as a lesson to copyright holders that sometimes it's better just to let the fans have their fun rather than jumping in and playing the bad guy.

Case in Point - Hasbro. At the insistence of the shortsighted North American rights-holder's considerable legal might, Facebook has blocked Scrabulous access for all users (with the possible exception of India?). Fans of the game are not exactly flocking to adopt the official version released by Mattel (the International rights-holder). It appears they have taken zero usability cues from Scrabulous (fear of a copyright infringement lawsuit? LOL), making the game a very poor substitute for what was a pretty addictive gaming experience.

Good news is, fans can still play Scrabulous outside of Facebook via the Scrabulous.com website. And they are. I don't know about you fine folks, but prior to the axing I'd say 60% of my facebook visits were Scrabulous-driven. Now I'm spending a hell of a lot of time at Scrabulous.com, and hitting Facebook maybe once every couple of days. Ironically (as opposed to Alanically), the only real losers in this one appear to be Hasbro, Mattel and Facebook. The big winners? Their lawyers, of course!*

*Yuh. We all know how smart lawyers are, right?

I was hoping to at least play Scrabulous when I travel outside the States, but no longer, because Facebook has preemptively blocked it across the globe. (Except in India, where creators Rajat and Jayant Agarwalla hail from and where a court case is still pending.) Worse still, I'm not particularly enthused by my alternatives.

The Argwalla brothers' Wordscraper is generally seen as an inferior (if lawsuit-proof) replacement. For that matter, however, so is Electronic Arts' Hasbro-sanctioned SCRABBLE Facebook app, which is hacker-prone, and from this player's perspective, markedly inferior to Scrabulous -- it's excessively flashy, the board layout is confusing, and moving tiles is a kludgy process at best. I invited Liz to a game earlier this afternoon, but it took her awhile to get started, because the invitation was counterintuitively sent not to her Invitations box, but her Notifications channel.

Ironically, the best features in SCRABBLE, like live chat and leaderboards, were originally innovated in Scrabulous. To make matters even more aggravating, non-North American Facebook users can't even play EA's SCRABBLE, but instead, have to play yet another licensed version. (So much for playing with the 30 percent or so non-Americans in my friends list.)

So in this tangle of competing IP claims and threatened lawsuits, no one really wins -- not consumers like me, but not even the companies most directly involved. Scrabulous was easily among Facebook's very best third-party apps, and the Argawallas are none too happy with how they were still thrown under the bus: "[It's] astonishing that Facebook, which claims to be a fair and neutral party, took this step," Jayant told The San Jose Mercury News. If I was a Facebook developer, I'd be worried about that too.

Image credit: EA.com. Fail embellishment by WJA.

Why, oh why, oh why, oh why do businesses see web stuff as a threat? Why do they think they have to 'own' something? Why do they think that all their old rules apply in internet-ville? Well? I'll tell you why. It's because they're small-minded idiots who are so wrapped up in their archaic definition of what their market is that they don't know an opportunity when it bites them in the arse.

The Scrabulous debacle is such an amazing example of corporate stupidity. The Scrabulous application reignited public passion for Scrabble (it resulted in Lea and I buying a board to play offline, anyway). But Hasbro and Mattel (the two owners of the game's rights) went on the attack against the creators of Scrabulous. They wanted to wipe it off the face of the planet so that Facebook users would play their own proprietary versions of the game instead. Why would anyone in their right mind do that? Scrabulous had an astonishing large userbase for a Facebook app. Surely the sensible thing would be to work with the Scrabulous dudes to help them grow their userbase further, turn it into an opportunity to increase sales and even create merchandising opportunities like personalised boards, T-shirts with slogans made up of Scrabble letters or a book with hints and tips for passionate Scrabulous users.

There are so many ways that these games manufacturers could have turned this disaster into an opportunity. But instead they followed the music business' approach and shot themselves in the foot.

Read more about it on The Guardian site.

I just read on TechCrunch that Facebook has removed access to the Scrabulous application from all countries except from India where the owners of the application live.

Hasbro and Electronic Arts have released their own version of the game and in the first few days, they were able to capture around 125k daily users (approximately 1/4 of the 500k users who logged into the Scrabulous app every day). Since the official Scrabble game launched in early August, usage seems to have leveled off and daily usage is stuck around 112k users.

One LA Times reader commented:

i am really bummed. i lost my ranking and all my games and will not play "official" EA scrabble on priciple. why wouldn't hasbro just pony up? it was such a great application, one of the best i've ever seen on anywhere on the web ever. makes me not want to even play the board game anymore.

This user's sentiments are echoed throughout forums, blog posts, and even on the official Scrabble Facebook App page.

I understand that there are legal and licensing issues that forced Facebook's hand in shutting down the popular app. The problem now is that the same licensing issues are crippling the official version of the application. It turns out that Hasbro and EA own distribution rights for Scrabble in the US, while Mattel owns international rights. What's happened is that there are two totally separate official versions of the game (one for the US and Canada and another for the rest of the world).

Could this have been handled better? Absolutely.

It was obvious that pursuing legal action would create negative PR for Facebook, Hasbro, EA, and Mattel. When was the last time the public opinion sided with the big corporation on an issue like this?

I'm hopeful that all parties involved understood the public relations implications, but multi-party negotiations like this can often get complicated and the results (or lack thereof) are often obvious.

Hier geht es zur vorigen Woche.

Zu der noch ein Nachtrag: Am Samstag ist, für mich unerwarteterweise, auf Magic Universe der zweite Teil von Phips' ÖM-Report online gegangen. (Unerwartet war natürlich nicht der Artikel selbst, sondern der Zeitpunkt, gerade wenn man sich ansieht, wie unglaublich dünn das MU-Angebot diese Woche ist!)

Dann ist da jene höchst aufschlussreiche Meldung! Tobi wollte es ja nicht wahr haben, aber Wizards versuchen offensichtlich zur Zeit, sich gesund zu schrumpfen (man kann allerdings wohl annehmen, dass solche Entscheidungen von Hasbro ausgehen). Natürlich wird es freundlicher formuliert, aber letztlich läuft es darauf hinaus, dass Dinge eingespart werden, die nicht wirklich Geld bringen: "focus on key growth strategies for core brands", genau. Ich sag's Euch: Irgendwo bei Hasbro hat jemand garantiert bereits einen Bericht von seiner Tochterfirma angefordert, in dem diese erläutern muss, warum die Pro Tour und das Organized Play überhaupt mehr Geld einbringen, als sie kosten! Was würde passieren, wenn WotC die DCI in unabhängige Hände legen würde? Sie könnten das Recht, Turniere für Magic zu veranstalten lizensieren, indem sie nur solchen Veranstaltern gestatteten, ihren Markennamen Magic zu verwenden, der sich an bestimmte Grundvoraussetzungen hält (im Wesentlichen, nur Originalkarten zu erlauben, denke ich). Dann können sie den ganzen Sums outsorcen. Sie behalten das Rules Team und ziehen sich aus der Veranstaltung komplett zurück. Die Frank Topels dieser Welt können frei nach Schnauze ihre eigenen Turnierserien in selbst entwickelten Formaten kreieren. Große Händler und Distributoren veranstalten Nationals in Eigenregie. Eine auf dem Buy-In-System basierende Pro Tour Szene (das haben manche Pros ja ernsthaft schon gefordert!) etabliert sich nach dem Vorbild Poker, hauptsächlich in Amerika. Warum sollte sich eine Spielzeugfirma mit der Organisation von Wettbewerben für ihr Spiel überhaupt selbst befassen, wenn doch genügend andere interessierte Parteien vorhanden sind, die eine Turnierszene am Leben erhalten wollen, und man mit den Casual-Spielern eh mehr Geld macht? Ob das den Hasbro-Aktionären überhaupt noch zu vermitteln ist? MTGO jedenfalls erlaubt es, Turniere VIEL kostengünstiger zu veranstalten. Die offizielle WM wird dann eben online ausgerichtet.

Am Wochenende fand dann der Grand Prix in Kopenhagen statt, zu dem es eine deutsche und eine englische Coverage gibt.

Montag & Dienstag:

PlanetMTG:

Genau zu diesem Grand Prix mache ich mir auch Gedanken, gekoppelt mit einem kleinen Ausblick auf meine rudimentären DM-Pläne. (Allerdings erst am Dienstag, womit ich nicht gerechnet hatte.)

Gerald Leitzinger liefert den zweiten Teil seines GP-Madrid-Berichtes nach. Moment mal - das ist aber nicht mehr allzu aktuell, oder? An Gerald scheint es nicht gelegen zu haben, denn verfasst hat er seinen Text offensichtlich zwei Wochen vor der ÖM! So lange sollte Tobi einen Turnierbericht wirklich nicht auf Lager halten. Interessant ist es natürlich, Geralds Draftpraxis mit Trashs Theorie zu vergleichen, aber der Grand Prix ist tasächlich schon so lange her, dass man vermuten könnte, dass dort noch veraltete Erkenntnisse umgesetzt wurden.

Ebenso hätte ich mir am Dienstag an Stelle von Kofis Block-Constructed-Artikel den Abschluss von Trashs Draftanalyse gewünscht, damit dieses Mammutwerk zumindest noch mit ein paar Tagen Luft vor der DM beendet worden wäre. Block Constructed hätte auch am Donnerstag oder so noch erscheinen können. Kofi jedenfalls ahnt es bereits selbst: "Insgesamt zeichnet das wohl ein Bild davon, dass ich das Format nicht verstanden habe." Wenn jemand einen Strategie-Artikel über dieses Format darauf aufbaut, dass er die absolut eindeutige Dominanz des Faerie-Decks zusammen mit den Kithkin verleugnet, dann kann das nichts werden! Dementsprechend haben Spieler, die sich in diesem Format besser auskennen als ich (okay, das schließt wohl kaum jemanden aus) Kofis Matchupanalysen auch angezweifelt. Dazu kommt noch, dass er bei der einzigen Deckliste, die wirklich relevanten Veränderungen unterworfen war (Toast) nicht aktuell ist.

magicthegathering.com:

Scott Johns kündigt die unmittelbar bevor stehende Umgestaltung der Seite an. Wenn dies ein Magic Online Announcement wäre, müsste man nun wohl mit einer monatelangen Downtime, unterbochen von mehreren kurzen, gescheiterten Versuchen die Seite online zu stellen rechnen, aber ihre Website kriegen die Jungs hoffentlich dann doch in ein oder zwei Tagen hin.

Ich veröffentliche diesen ersten Teil bereits am Dienstagabend, weil ich morgen Geburtstag feiere und dann bis einschließlich Sonntag in Hannover bin - bis Montag also!

Ach so: Schaut doch bitte einmal HIER noch herein!