Electronic toys…

I received a remote control helicoptor for christmas, it’s a tiny one for flying indoors. I’ve been asking Nikki for one for ages but I think she thought I was joking. She finally took the hint and bought me one and I love it.

 It’s got all the things this gadget lover likes, it’s difficult to control and takes a level of mastery, it’s easily knocked off course by ‘trade winds’ coming from the kids banging about the room and it’s very addictive. My 16 month old daughter Hannah loves it and laughs when I start flying it around. By the way it’s blades are all hidden inside a band so can’t harm anyone and it’s only 6 inches long and made of polystyrene so it’s kid friendly.

This aside the other pressie I got which I like is Mario versus Sonic at the Olympics for the Wii. It’s great for exploring the new interface in new ways. It’s very hard work though especially the running races and swimming, my arms ache for ages afterwards. I think they need to bring out Wii trainers so that you can do the running sports whilst actually running, have I just invented something useful here? – I like the skill based sports especially archery, I did archery for real and was Irish U18 school archery champion back in my youth so I thought that the game would not appeal to me since the virtual is unlikely to match up with real life play but actually it’s just as enjoyable and the skill required is similar in many ways (i.e. judging wind etc.) it would be good if you could adjust the power of the shot by the amount you pull back on the controller but maybe that’s in version 2 or in a level I haven’t opened up yet. I’ll let you know as I explore it further.

The kids got the usually amount of gadgetry including Pixel Chics and Tamagotchi. We have two Tamagotchis that talk to each other and can play games together. They can also download stuff from the computer. Jordan got an electronic guitar that interacts with a stereo (if you wish) or can be used independantly to teach you to play. It’s also good fun and makes learning the guitar much easier for kids. It comes with it’s own CD tutorial too.

Christmas toys..

I was talking with a colleague about Christmas toys. In particular electronic ones such as Tamagotchi, Robosapien and Ferby. Each year the kids ask for such novel items and Santa duly delivers them on Christmas day. The kids go wild and for the next 48 hours there are squeaks and trills from all over the place (and the toys are noisy too!). Then there comes a period where the kids lose interest in their little electronic pets and poor old mum and dad end up feeding Ferby’s, clearing out Tanagotchi poo and doing all kinds of other tasks to keep the darn things quiet. I said to my colleague that I hate to hear them dying and so I keep feeding them to try and keep them alive. This last several weeks and then Both Nikki and I get annoyed with them and tell the kids to take them away and look after them. They then end up down the side of their beds for the following eleven months.

I had great fun a couple of Christmases ago when we got a Ferby for Chloe. We had got one for Bethany the year before and I had much fun trying to get them to communicate with each other. Yes I am one of those dads who loves playing with their kids toys!