Archive for the 'For Kids' Category

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Ball of Whacks from What on Earth

Published on October 12, 2007 in Corporate, For Anybody, For Kids and Office Toys. 0 Comments

A ball of whacks, get it? Not only is this a neat red ball shaped thing, it comes with a 90 page guide book. So what exactly is it? It’s a 30-sided rhombic triacontahedron. What can you do with a 30-sided rhombic triacontahedron? Just about anything!

Well, it probably won’t make you lunch or tie your shoes, but it can shape shift with the best of them. Now, the reason this is in the corporate gift category is because this ball of whacks stimulated the creative right side of the brain. Pretty good excuse for playing around with something in the office huh? Not unlike some other things I’ve blogged about on here, the individual pieces are magnetic, which is always a bonus.

Just think of the magnetic origami that could be created with these. And if you also got the Magz Construction Set, you could make quite the magnetic wonderland.

Be creative with a rhombic triacontahedron here.

Light-Up Whirly UFO by HearthSong

Published on October 12, 2007 in For Anybody, For Kids and Inexpensive. 0 Comments

Ah, another simple, lit up, squishy thing. Love the squishy stuff! Here we have the squishy UFO that lights up when it’s squeezed, then it will look glorious when you throw it.

They’re a fun, cheap little gift idea that could make any camping trip more fun. Being soft and gooey and squishy, I figure they’re pretty much safe for any age, even really old folks! I love it on the site, it mentions that it comes in assorted colors, and that they’ll kindly take the decision off of your hands for you. In that case, you’d better order a few to make sure you get the right color! Okay, just kidding there, but the more the merrier.

I think the kid in that picture is just a very mature new born baby, because those are only 5½” in diameter. He makes that one look like it’s a couple feet across.

Light up the squish here.

Magz Construction Sets

Published on October 12, 2007 in Christmas, For Him, For Kids and Unusual. 0 Comments

Now these things really caught my eye. Is there anybody out there who doesn’t love a good magnetic toy? For some reason, magnets are one of the most intriguing things for me to fidget with.

Now the write up on the site is somewhat confusing, but as I read through it, I kept wanting more and more! It starts out with a 56 piece set that has 36 rods and 20 balls. You may think that would be plenty, but no. Next is the 130 piece set for only a few bucks more, which is a killer deal. But wait, it gets better.

Next they throw the faceted Cuballs at you. What are those you ask? They are balls with six flat sides, so kind of a cube-ball combo, hence the clever name. Those allow you to build the cube shaped structures that are shown in the picture. So obviously, you have to get those. But hold on. Next comes the introduction of the Super Magz. They are bigger, stronger, and have even stronger magnetism, which they say allows you to build even better structures. Well that’s a no brainer, bigger and stronger is always better, right? Next is the sweet spot as I see it. The 247 piece set. It has 112 rods, 75 balls, and 60 cuballs. I think that’s the ticket right there. But wait, that doesn’t come with those cool X-shaped pieces. Blast it all!

So next is the Magz-X collection that comes with those pieces, but only 25 of them with 28 rods and 53 balls. So finally, there is the 280 piece set. It has the 70 X pieces, 70 bars, and 140 balls. I’m not sure if those come with the cuballs though. If you’re confused like me, they also provide an option to get all the packages in one order. With the Magz Super Special, you get the 247 piece set and the 280 piece set plus a wooden storage box! Well that one seems to be the easiest option, but it’s also the most expensive.

Don’t worry about all this. The website has a phone number and a contact email address to use to find out just what you’re ordering. All I do know is that whoever gets these for a gift will have a lot of magnetic fun times.

Magnetize a gift here.

Inside Out Ball and Spiky Glove

Published on October 12, 2007 in For Anybody, For Kids, Humorous and Unusual. 2 Comments

I usually just have one picture per post, I kind of think it looks good that way. This particular item deserves three full sized pictures. It’s just so awesome. It’s actually a line of squishy spiked things. They are balls that can be turned inside out. One way has the spikes on the inside, the other way has them on the outside. There are also some big squishy eyeball things as well as spiky gloves. It’s almost too much fun.

Here we have one that looks like I may look here in a few years, I love it!

A boy kindly demonstrates the stretchy quality of the spiky ball.

And finally, here you can see a wide assortment of all available squishy things. There are varieties of colors and styles to choose from. I love how that one kid has the thing stretched out over his entire bike helmet!

These are just so awesome. I love the squishy things and so do most kids.

Squish the spikes here.

Pumpkin Decorating Kit by HearthSong

Published on October 11, 2007 in For Kids, Halloween, Holidays and Thanksgiving. 0 Comments

It’s almost time to get those pumpkins and carve them up. However, little kids with big old knives trying to cut through thick pumpkin shells may not be the best idea. So why make them just watch and play with the goo (although playing with the goo is always my favorite part)?

This pumpkin decorating kit is made just for kids to safely decorate pumpkins. Each piece attaches to the pumpkin with a varnished wooden dowel. There are enough parts in the kit to decorate five pumpkins. That is, unless you decide one pumpkin ought to have two or three faces. So let’s say there’s enough to make five normal pumpkin faces.

Once you click over to the site, you may notice there is also a kit for making a couple of pumpkins look like turkeys. Yep, pumpkin turkeys. Perhaps it would be a great gift to bring to Thanksgiving to keep the kids occupied for a bit.

Shove a face on a pumpkin here.

Elmo Treat Basket

Published on October 10, 2007 in For Kids, Halloween and Holidays. 2 Comments

Trick or Treat! It’s pretty impressive that Elmo is still rockin it after all these years. This time you can give some lucky kids what may just be the second coolest candy bag around. First place of course goes to the kid who found the biggest pillow case.

There’s really not a whole lot to this one. It’s a plush Elmo Halloween candy bag. Of course, it could be used for just about anything. I’ll throw some suggestions out there. For the upcoming holidays, it could hold leftover turkey, double as a stocking, or use it to hold snowballs. More day to day uses would be pretty obvious I suppose. Sand bucket, water pail, rubbish bin, cotton ball container, the possibilities are endless. Not that any of those would work at all, but ya know, they’re ideas.

Haul candy with the Accessory Elmo Treat Basket.

Webkinz

Published on October 10, 2007 in Christmas, For Her and For Kids. 1 Comment

I first heard about these little plush stuffed animals a few months ago from a girl who is in her mid 20s. She got one recently and can’t get enough of it. Now, they are catered to children, but apparently any age can have fun with them.

Remember those Tamagotchi things around 10 years back? Yeah, I had one of those. It was pretty awesome. It was a bird of some sort, a chicken or a duck I think. Anyway, these are kind of like that, only different. I think this is how it works. You buy the plush pet, which is a normal stuffed animal. Each animal comes with its own ID code of some sort. With that code, you can become a member of the Webkinz World. That is where the pet comes alive.

There’s a short little tour on the site to catch you up to speed about the Webkinz World. It looks like a fully interactive community focused on these little furry things. So you can treat the stuffed pet like any other one you may have, but then go on the computer and see it walking around in a virtual world. Pretty wild stuff. It’s not all fun and games either. There looks to be some educational activities in there too.

Check out the Webkinz here.