Gamertell

Archie McPhee, the company known for creating silly and unconventional amusements, has just created a new item for the holiday season - the inflatable fruitcake. Yes, for $9.50 you can send your family, friends or even yourself a life-size inflatable fruitcake. My favorite part is the Frequently Asked Questions sections of the site, which tells you why fruitcakes are so terrible and how you possibly lived before the inflatable fruitcake was invented.

Now, you may be wondering what exactly a fruitcake has to do with gaming. Good question! First - I’m sure there are some desperate gamers out there who, after receiving that game they’ve wanted for weeks for Christmas decided to pull an all-nighter playing it. After hour 23 of their gaming marathon, their sense of judgment have been impaired and they might have accidentally ingested some of the ornamental family fruitcake. Now, with the inflatable fruitcake, there is no more temptation to actually eat a real one.

Second, the act of giving a fruitcake is a bit of a game in and of itself. Its like playing hot-potato…

MORE »

Pokemon fanatics will want to borrow a kid and head to Burger King after the Fourth of July. Burger King will be running a special, worldwide kid’s meal Pokemon promotion from July 7 to August 3, 2008.

The official website (which isn’t open yet) will display the prizes that will come with the meal. Along with the obligatory toy, each meal will also come with one of 12 Pokemon Trading Card Game: Diamond & Pearl cards. The cards will likely be handed out at random, so visitors might have to eat quite a few meals to collect them all.

MORE »

Admit it, you want to rock it like a hurricane but you have taken exactly zero minutes of actual guitar lessons. On air guitar, however, you could sink a small island.

Announced at CES, Jada Toys is coming out with the Guitar Hero Air Guitar Rocker toy ($29.99) based on Activision’s Guitar Hero game franchise.

Set to be on shelves March 2008, the toy includes guitar pics and a big belt buckle that connected to a (wearable) mini-amplifier. To rock on, you simply swing a pick in front of the belt buckle to “play” 10 different guitar riffs: Black Sabbath’s “Iron Man,“ Deep Purple’s “Smoke on the Water,“ Motorhead’s “Ace of Spades,“ Van Halen’s “You Really Got Me,“ Boston’s “More Than a Feeling” and five original Air Guitar Rocker riffs.

The device also includes audio output ports so you can connect it to external speakers. Following the toy’s release, the company plans to release more belt buckles and “Air Cartridges” with additional riffs.

Check out the Air Guitar Rocker in action below being played by air guitar hero, Nitrous Roxide.

Site [Jada Toys]  Site [Activision] Read [Joystiq]

• Halo Trilogy 5-disc soundtrack set to be released tomorrow
• Slacker 2GB WiFi player just $49 today only
• MP3 becomes official king of music

The National Toy Hall of Fame held a ceremony yesterday morning (November 8, 2007) to induct the Atari 2600 into its list of 38 elite toys. The other toys inducted at the ceremony, held at the Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester, NY, were the kite and Raggedy Andy (Raggedy Ann had been previously inducted).

This is the first videogame system to be inducted into the Toy Hall of Fame, though certainly not the first game system. The Hall of Fame’s press release called it a “controversial choice” to induct the game system which beat out Hot Wheels, Yahtzee and the Game of Life .

Paul Dyson, the museum’s curator, said the 2600 was inducted due to its popularity which helped spawn the modern console by “mesmeriz[ing] a generation with games such as Space Invader, Pac Man, and Frogger.”

From the Toy Hall of Fame’s web site regarding the Atari 2600:

When people play today, chances are very good they’re playing a video game. No company did more to make that true than Atari.

Atari did not make the first home video game system—that honor belonged to the Magnavox Odyssey. But Atari was the company that truly popularized this play form. Atari first entered the home market with its 1975 electronic table-tennis game Pong. But its true game changer came out two years later: the Atari 2600 Video Computer System. The 2600 had better games, more colorful graphics, and sharper sound than the original systems. Most importantly, players could change games by inserting new cartridges. Kids battled friends in Combat, saved the earth in Space Invaders, outran ghosts in Pac Man, and had fun with Frogger. Americans soon were spending billions of dollars a year on Atari 2600 products.

Because computer technology advances so rapidly, video game systems often have short lives. The Atari 2600, however, proved surprisingly long-lived. Its widespread popularity, relative affordability, and abundance of software titles kept it in production for fifteen years. Eventually it succumbed to newer, faster, more powerful competitors, but not before it made video games a staple of everyday play.

Way to go Atari 2600. No wonder I’ve kept you in such good condition for so many years.

This is a particularly interesting inclusion considering the Toy Hall of Fame likes to keep the inductees rather basic including the teddy bear, rocking horse, roller skates and red wagon among its 38 honored toys.

Anyone can nominate a toy on the site as long at it meets the criteria of having a decent amount of key criteria including icon-status, longevity, fosters learning, creativity, or discovery through play and it profoundly changed play or toy design. The Atari 2600 certainly did all of those.

Read [WXXI] Site [National Toy Hall of Fame]

• Best Black Friday 2008 deals for Mac gamers
• Giving Thanks: Top ten things this gamer’s thankful for in 2008
• Apple and a gaming console?

Recently made available on the Japanese goodies site, You Buy Now, is one of the most glorious, beautiful trash cans I have ever seen. Yes, it is R2-D2 and yes, the lid flips back.

The can is produced by gentle Giant, makers of some of pretty fun and realistic toys including many based on Star Wars, Terminator and The Simpsons. The only bad part is that it costs $149.99.

From the site’s product description:

Imported from Japan, the R2-D2 Trash Can operates via a foot pedal that lifts the little droid’s “head” to reveal a removable waste receptacle. Compatible with any bathroom-sized trash bags, this 23 in. tall R2-D2 figure will hold your trash (or dirty diapers) until ready for disposal. A must for any diehard Star Wars fan’s household.  R2-D2 has to take a lot of garbage from C-3PO, and now he can take some from you as well!

This is an official Star Wars licensed product and is being sold only in Japan. Not sure I’d use it for dirty diapers at that price, though I might consider placing all my Jedi prayers and offerings in it.

Product Page [R2-D2 Trash Can] Site [Gentle Giant]

• Star Wars: Black Friday Offensive
• Dreamcast modded into a Windows PC
• Panasonic makes a move for 3D Blu-ray

From our favorite Japanese import site, J-List/J-Box, comes a Dig Dug dot art toy that’s a lot like a mini Lite Brite (without the lights).

For $9.50 plus shipping, you get a kit with 520 small colored pegs, two small peg boards and a stand to display your finished bit of pixelated goodness. You can also join the two pieces together to make a cute little scene for your desk, bookshelf or simply or tack on the wall.

MORE »