Awesome Toys

Canon and Takara Tomy teamed up to create this special Nemesis Prime Transformer that turns from a Decepticon into a Canon EOS R5 camera. When in disguise, the 80% scale camera looks just like the real thing, though sadly, it doesn’t snap photos. Preorder by 4.6.2023 for 1.2024 shipping.

Muppets fans will recognize these Super7 action figures as the members of Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem. The Muppets ReAction Wave 1 set includes 3.75″ Kenner-style figures of the band’s leader, Janice, Floyd, Zoot, Animal, and road manager, Scooter. They’re also available individually, but why would you break up the band?

Apple fans, here’s a fun addition to your desktop. Classicbot’s Trashbot 2.0 Stationery Set includes a Macintosh Finder-inspired metal whiteboard, along with Trashbot and Errorbot figures, as well as folder, floppy disk, and mail icons with magnetic backs. It also includes 100 sticky notes that look like computer windows.

Playforever makes some of the coolest toy cars you can buy. Their latest creation is the Luft, a wonderful little drop-top inspired by a 1985 Porsche 911 Carrera 3.2 Targa. The 6.9″ long 2-seater features the iconic Targa band and a right-hand driver wearing a shiny helmet. It’s made from ABS plastic and suitable for ages 1+.

What’s the best design for a LEGO vehicle to conquer a difficult off-road obstacle course? LEGO Technic expert Dr. Engine created four very different vehicles and tested them on a tricky course with loose, uneven terrain and a steep slope to see which design was the most capable in challenging conditions.

NERF darts typically require a blaster if you want to shoot them across the room. Joel Creates and his brother engineered a NERF dart that can fire itself right from your hand. After playing with compressed air, explosives, and springs, the final design relies on an electric ignition and a magician’s gimmick.

One of the more entertaining LEGO bricks is the 1×4 spring shooter that fires tiny plastic projectiles. Brickstory Builds thought it might be fun to assemble a bunch of these bricks and make them fire together. After building a wonderfully satisfying train, he built a wall of 400 and attempted to trigger them all at once.

Whether you played with Slinkies, Silly Putty, or Sea Monkeys when you were a kid, you’ll find some wonderful nostalgia in Steven Heller and Jim Heimann’s catalog of American toy advertising. The 528-page book features hundreds of vintage ads that sold dreams to kids and often served as a reflection of their time.

We love watching videos of old things being made as good as new. In this clip, Old Things Never Die got their hands on a vintage mechanical soccer game, disassembled it, sandblasted off the paint and rust, fabricated custom replacement parts, and painstakingly repainted its playfield and players.

The Lord of the Rings fans will drool over this incredible LEGO model of the peaceful elven haven of Rivendell. The 6167-piece kit is one of LEGO’s 10 biggest sets ever and is packed with fantastic details. It includes 15 minifigures: Frodo, Bilbo, Boromir, Elrond, Arwen, Aragorn, Gimli, Merriadoc, Peregrin, Samwise, Legolas, and Gandalf.

This titanium fidget toy features a series of magnetic bars which tilt along a center beam and click into place like toggle switches. The interchangeable buttons let you choose between a mix of rectangular and square switches. Available in grey, purple, or blue anodized finishes.

Artifact Design Co. makes these cool, laser-cut wood racks for displaying collectible toy cars. Each tiny parking space has a cutout to keep the vehicle aligned and its wheels from rolling while allowing easy access for playtime. They come in 1:24-, 1:32- and 1:64-scale sizes and hold collections from 12 to 132 cars.

DanCreator is back with another cardboard NERF gun. This time, he created a Fortnite-inspired sniper rifle that can shoot foam darts. He built it almost entirely from cardboard and hot glue, with a handful of dowel rods and some stiffly bent wire for its springs. It uses a pair of small motors to accelerate and fire each dart.

Are you being pursued by space fascists? Did you just steal the movie’s MacGuffin? You need to make a quick escape. Concord Aerospace has you covered with their Hyperdrive Activation Panel. Just attach it to your clunky old spaceship and flip its switches for extreme speed. It’s blue LED backlight requires a 12V power source.

Artist Mimi Kirchner makes one-of-a-kind fabric toys that are way too nice to let your kids play with. Among her works is this jolly old-timey fellow with a handlebar mustache and chinoiserie tattoos. Dressed in striped pants with a red belt, the 22-1/2″ tall figure would look great standing watch in your living room.

The creators of PIXIO magnetic building blocks have invented another fun toy for building 3D art. VOXART uses lightweight panels which click together to create life-size voxel art. They fold flat, so you can store thousands without taking up much space. Sign up for a pre-launch discount, or get notified on Kickstarter.

Many of the concepts that turn up on LEGO Ideas are complicated builds with thousands of pieces. But this idea by Tall Guy Bricks looks like it’s about 30 parts. Inspired by the Swiss Army knife, the LEGO Multitool has a brick separator, corkscrew, screwdriver, belt punch, magnifying glass, and an axle for removing Technic parts.

Grandpa Amu has spent decades of his life crafting objects from wood. In this video, you’ll see him turn a block of safflower pear wood into a detailed fire truck. What makes this gift for his grandson even more remarkable is that all of the pieces connect using wood joints, requiring no glue or nails to hold them together.

Using large syringes, Tom Stanton shows us how the vacuum captured inside can be used to drive gears, a belt, and an axle. The result is a mini dragster that travels an impressive distance compared to the short distance that the syringe’s piston moves.

Most rubber band guns require manual reloading between shots. But Nagy Big designed a 3D-printed toy gun that can fire multiple rubber bands in sequence thanks to its spring-loaded mechanism and multi-band clip. If you want one for yourself, you can download the STL files on Printables.

Many of today’s popular toys are pretty different from those sold in the 1960s and 1970s. But in this video from Rhetty for History, you’ll see for as many things have changed, classics like NERF, Hot Wheels, and LEGO are still selling well today. And then there’s the Pet Rock.

This easy-to-use desktop 3D printer is designed for kids. The printer works with a mobile app filled with hundreds of toy designs and includes eight filament colors (aka “printer food”) for cranking out creations. Another great deal from The Awesomer Shop.

Inspired by the idea that Weebles wobble but they don’t fall down, mad inventor Colin Furze decided he wanted to become a Weeble himself. So he got to work on a semi-circular concrete base and a mounting plate that allows him to roll around his workshop without faceplanting.