Dave's Cool Toys Blog

Archive for the ‘Weird Toys’ Category

A few weeks ago I posted about “Poop Up Pool” and wondered in the post whether it was a real photo or a photoshop fake.

Yesterday I got a message from a Krissi in Sweden that she’d seen this product, live and in-person in her local store. She took a photo with her cell phone and it’s posted below.

Here is what she said about it:

“This is from a Coop store, one of the major grocery chains in Sweden. It looks like the source from the first photo in your blog post was also at a Swedish Coop, since the price tag is the same. This isn’t the first time that poorly proofread Chinese import products have been on the shelves here…definitely the biggest howler though.

I tried to find this product on Amazon again and the only product that came up was “Dirty Jobs Season 4“. This says a lot about the show.

	Poop Up Pool Confirmed!

Just ran across this terribly disturbing video. After a little research I discovered the little creepy thing is called the Magic Monster. If you find that you really need more information on this strange contraption, check out this website for lots more information on it than I’m prepared to post here (lots of pictures).

I must have one!

Jet Service Vehicle from Playmobil

Out of curiosity, and a comment from a friend, I went looking on Amazon for the highest priced toys. What I found stunned me.

The highest priced toy I was able to find on Amazon was the Playmobil Jet Service Vehicle, priced at $100,000,000.00. That’s One Hundred Million Dollars (if I’m reading it right)!

Oh. Plus $5.99 shipping.

So what is the deal with this toy? Is it really selling for this much? I don’t know. I would have to guess it’s a typo or a publicity ploy or something. Or maybe they used the wrong photo and it’s an actual Jet Service Vehicle.

I found the same item on eBay for $13.00, so it doesn’t seem like it’s worth that much. I also found it new for $18.19.

	Stephensons Brothers Rocking Horse

The next lowest toy price on Amazon was the 123 Soft Activity Book by Kaloo priced at $39,099.00. I suspect this was supposed to be $39.99.

The first legitimate item I found with a high price on Amazon was an outdoor modular play set for $21,295.00. It’s a lot of money, but it seems at least appropriate for the item.

The first item with the highest price, that’s an indoor toy, and seems legitimate, was the Stevenson Brothers’ Limited Edition Rocking Horse for $7,600.00. Each horse if custom built to customers’ specifications. This limited edition horse is made to celebrate Her Majesty the Queen of England’s Golden Jubilee.

I came across this unfortunate typo on a wading pool this morning on the web. It’s made even funnier by the body language of the girl in the pool. At least they got the pricing signage right.

	Poop Up Pool

	Another version

Then, I found this one as well. Although in this picture, it doesn’t look like a three-dimensional box.

	Another version

Hmmm. maybe some field research is needed.

Via failblog.org

Useless Lego Machine

In January I wrote a blog post about the world’s most useless machine (I want that).

Today we have a follow-up with a very similar toy made of Lego. I stumbled on a YouTube video of the World’s Most Useless Lego Machine. It’s basically the same machine I posted about before, but this time made of Lego.

The creator made about 10 prototypes before completing the final version shown here. He used a clockwork motor for the action rather than electric, so it has a small hole to wind it.

When I see videos like this I wonder what kind of Lego collection these folks have. A search on Amazon for “Lego” came up with 4,868 items! That’s quite a variety of Lego to build things with.

This type of machine is sometimes called “Shannon’s ultimate machine”. It is named for Claude Shannon, an American mathematician and engineer who had many interests and kept a machine like this on his desk that switched itself off. Interestingly, he also build a machine that could solve a Rubik’s Cube, which we just posted about a Lego version the other day.

Humunga Stache mustache for dogs

This is one of the greatest dog toys I’ve seen. If it really works as it’s supposed to.

It’s the Humunga Stache Dog Toy. The idea is that your dog holds the ball in his mouth and it creates the very funny illusion that he has a comical cartoon handlebar mustache.

Yes, your dog can look like Snidely Whiplash.

The manufacturer warns that it is not a chew toy and is only a fetch toy (I assume because dogs could chew off the curly-cues on the ends). They also come in different sizes to accommodate most dogs.

Humunga Tongue chew toy

And, if the Humunga Stache isn’t funny enough for you, you can get the equally comical Humunga Tongue Rubber Dog Toy It operates on the same basic principle, with a ball that dogs pick up in their mouth, giving the illusion that they have a cartoon tongue hanging out of their mouth.

This is just too funny.

	Rear Gear

Not weird enough for you? Then maybe you need Rear Gear butt covers for your cat or dog. Yes, you heard that right. It’s a little cover that clips onto your pets tail, hanging down and covering up their butt so you don’t need to see it when they are running around. I swear I am not making this up.

TV Hat being worn by one of the girls in their booth at Toy Fair

We made our annual trek to New York City this past Sunday to attend Toy Fair. We saw lots of very cool things, many toys that are not a good fit for Dave’s Cool Toys, some toys that I don’t quite get, and some that never should have seen the light of day. I also saw some "must have’s", which we’ll be carrying in the near future.

One item we saw that I think fits into the "really?" category is the "TV Hat". Also, apparently, called the "As Seen On TV Hat". This is a visor that you wear. You put your iPod Touch, or iPhone into the far end of the huge visor, turn it on, put the TV Hat on your head, and watch movies through the Magnification Lens positioned in front of the iPod.

OK. As I see it, there are several problems with this device. The first and most obvious is you look like a dork wearing it. The second, is it doesn’t seem to stay on your head right. Third, the magnifying lens didn’t seem to work very well. Fourth, why do you need it? It’s not like watching an iPod is that much work. And the visor covers your field of view, so you can’t really do anything while you’re watching it. As you can see in the picture of the girl selling them at Toy Fair, she is supporting it while simultaneously holding the part around her head taut, indicating that it really doesn’t even fit right. It also seems a little too difficult to get set up and get your iPod or iPhone back out to use it.

	The inside workings of the TV Hat showing the Magnifying Lens.

The instruction sheet for the TV Had says "Do not use this viewing device if you are subject to claustrophobia, panic in tight spaces, have spinal or neck injuries, or with heavy phones". It also warns "Do no use while driving, bicycling, running, or in motion". "…discontinue use if you experience neck fatigue, blurry vision, or any discomfort". "Prolonged use may cause fatigue".

The TV Hat retails for $19.95, so at least you won’t go broke buying one.

The TV Hat did have one suggested use that might be worth it. It might be useful for video producers for use with a video camera monitor in bright sunlight when you can’t see the camera viewer. I’m not sure how you would use your iPod for that, but if you can get it to work, it might be useful for that.

World’s Most Useless Machine

I came across this today and thought it was very cool. It is the World’s Most Useless Machine. The guy (I think it’s a guy) who created it built it from scratch. It does only one thing… turns itself off. Check out the video below and if you’d like to have your own, complete instructions are available at www.instructables.com.

If this machine ever gets commercially produced, we will carry it!

Incidentally, I absolutely love the Instructables site. Unfortunately, they recently went to a "pay" system so that you must become a Pro Member in order to see all images, view all steps on one page, or save a pdf of the instructions. Fortunately, the Pro Membership is fairly inexpensive. They also have very intrusive ads on their site. You know the ones…they enlarge over top of what you are reading until you find the "close" button. Hate that.

Anyway, check out the video below of the World’s Most Useless Machine Ever.

President Obama as depicted by the creator of Ren and Stimpy.

This Halloween, I’m sure there will be lots of Obamas coming to our door for Trick-or-Treat. There will be good Obama masks and, I’m sure, very bad ones. I even saw a "Zombama" mask. Obama Zombie mask. Yes, "Zombama". It’s really called that. And yes, it’s as bad as it sounds.

But Obama action figures? Yes. There are a bunch of action figures out there of both President Obama and the first lady. Some are more flattering than others. One example is the Barack Obama Political Toy designed by John K., creator of Ren and Stimpy (shown here).

	Sasha and Malia? I’d say so.

For a brief period there were even Sasha and Malia plush dolls from Beanie Baby maker Ty. That is until the First Lady understandably objected and Ty pulled them from their line (officially they were retired). Ty insisted that they did not depict the President’s daughters, but I don’t believe anyone bought that. The TY Girlz Sweet SASHA and Marvelous MALIA Obama Dolls are now available as collector’s items for as much as $1,500.00 on Amazon. I’m sure that doesn’t hurt Ty’s bottom line.

The White House’s official objection to the Ty dolls was that they were using a depiction of private citizens for profit. Certainly true.

	Michelle Obama with eight points of articulation and three different dresses.

The president, on the other hand, can’t really do much about depictions of him because he choose to be a public figure. That doesn’t make them acceptable, however. I will not show some I’ve seen on my blog because they are not in good taste. Either that or they are just very poorly crafted.

Obama not doing much

But, the very best Obama action figure I’ve seen comes from Gamu Toys. Their website is in Japanese and the best I can get from the poor translation I was able to get is that he comes with three sets of hands, two different heads, a microphone, two ties, a watch, an American flag (with stand), and a wooden stool. His clothes are fully removable as well. I was not able to determine either the size of the action figure or the price. I also haven’t been able to find anywhere that you can actually purchase it. He’s also shown with other accessories that aren’t listed on their website, so I don’t believe he comes with guns or a light sabre. The Obama action figure is actually quite well made and certainly flatters the President. That having been said, it appears a bit like they simply used a generic body that they already manufacture and added the features and accessories (warning, doll nudity on their generic body page). If Obama’s action figure is based on this one, and if I’m understanding their website, it is 1/6 scale, so Obama would be about a foot tall.

If I find any ordering information, I will update this post. In the meantime, scroll down for some pictures of President Obama in action.

Obama pulling his gun			G.I. Obama
Samurai President
	As the Gamu Toys website says (translated) "President, enjoy the winter in Japan."
		All the accessories a president could want
	"If you strike me down, I will become more powerfull than you could ever imagine."

Kent Rogowski has created one of the most unusual books I’ve ever seen. Simply called, "Bears" He opens up Teddy Bears, turns them inside-out, re-stuffs them, then takes their portrait.

The absurd creatures that result from this make for the most interesting photos. Many of them seem a bit sad, some seem to be on life-support due to what I believe are noise making devices, now on their outsides.

The description from his website states "They are at once hideous yet cuddly, disturbing yet endearing, absurd yet adorable, while offering a metaphor for us all to consider. These bears, which have lived and loved and lost as much as their owners, have suffered and endured through it all. It is by virtue of revealing their inner core might we better understand our own." OK. I think that might be going a bit far. But I was fascinated with them.

Check out some of his inside-out teddy bear photos here.

So you’ve got about ten Mr. Potato Head’s sitting around your house. You’ve used all the eyes (even the “angry eyes”), ears, mouths, even the pipe (if you have one). Maybe you even have Darth Tater.

But now you’re bored with the accessories you can purchase. What to do? I know! Bacon!

That’s about all I can figure this guy was thinking when he created this excellent Mr. Bacon Head.

Incidentally, I think I’m linking to the original photo of this guy, but I couldn’t be sure.

And… while I was bopping around on the web, looking for other Mr. Potato Head items, I found this cool little article and pictures of Walt Disney Imagineers working on a giant Potato Head Animatronic.

I also came across the most amazing story (I couldn’t link to it because this is a G-Rated blog and some of the comments were not).

The photo you see here is not an octopus hat for a Mr. Potato Head. It is a picture of Louis the octopus at the Blue Reef Aquarium, in Cornwall. He was given a Mr. Potato Head for Christmas and he loves it so much he will become agressive and attack the net when workers attempt to remove it from the tank. He’s even learned to get food out of the secret compartment in the back.