Tomy Hi-Kara Karaoke Cube is so Japanese

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Takara Tomy knows what Japanese want - a tiny portable Karaoke cube is just the thing. Tomy Hi-kara measures 70x70x70mm and sports a 2.4 inch color screen.
The Karaoke music and text material comes via little cartridges that are plugged into the cube. A headset with microphone is used to sing along and listen to the tracks.
A nice detail of the Hi-Kara design is the smiley face arrangement of the buttons on top. The smiley face is an important design element of consumer products, but is not as often so obviously visible as on the Hi-Kara cube. Read more

Posted on Tue, 11 Nov 2008 16:00:00 CST | by Luigi Lugmayr

Tomy XIAO 5MP Camera and Built-in Printer about to launch in Japan

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If you visit Japan before Christmas than the Tomy XIAO 5MP digital camera with built-in instant photo printer is a great gadget to bring home.
The Tomy XIAO has the same portable photo printing technology from Zink like the Polaroid PoGo.
Measurements of the XIAO are only 149.5 x 74.5 x 25mm. Other features of the Tomy Takara XIAO include 4x zoom, 2.48" full color LCD display, 16MB internal memory, SD card slot, and IrSimple/IrDA receiver. Read more

Posted on Tue, 11 Nov 2008 09:02:33 CST | by Luigi Lugmayr

Takara Tomy Air Guitar Pro from Japan

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Takara Tomy introduced the fun Air Guitar Pro in Japan last year. In the wake of Guitar Hero: On Tour I stumbled over them again and also found a must see Japanese video review of these Air Guitar gadgets.

This toy consists of the upper neck of a guitar featuring an infrared sensor that senses your air guitar moves. The guitar had has seven buttons on the front to press to hold down chords and also buttons on the side to identify the chords as major, minor, augmented, or diminished. Read more

Posted on Sat, 10 May 2008 12:59:13 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

Tomy i-Sobot Robot ships

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The world's smallest humanoid robot began shipping yesterday from Amazon.com.

The Tomy i-Sobot went on sale at Amazon.com in early September for $299.99. Read more

Posted on Tue, 23 Oct 2007 08:00:00 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

Japanese Toy: Groovy Takara Tomy Soundpet

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We have already seen all kinds of musical toy pets like the Tomy iDog and others. Japanese Takara Tomy offers Soundpets, which are cute little plush toys that groove to your mp3 player music.

The bear has a weird look in his eyes. To me he looks sad, but I guess that is just a cultural divide here and for Japanese kids this bear looks happy. Read more

Posted on Sat, 29 Sep 2007 12:00:00 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

Tomy releases Air Guitar playing i-Sobot Robot Details

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Japanese toy maker Tomy announces details about their world's smallest humanoid robot i-Sobot. Even the Guinness book of records recognizes i-Sobot as the world's smallest humanoid robot in mass production.

Tomy announced the tiny i-Sobot toy robot in January. Today the company revealed pricing and shipping dates.

Tomy will start shipping i-Sobot in Japan on October 25th for 29,800 Yen (~$245). Read more

Posted on Fri, 20 Jul 2007 13:30:00 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

Tomy i-SOBOT

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Japanese Toy maker Tomy shows off the i-SOBOT robot.

Update:
i-Sobot available on Amazon.com
i-Sobot details and shipping Date revealed

The i-SOBOT is supposedly the world's smallest two-legged walking robot with 165mm in height. The Vstone Robovie-i is as tall, but given that it is rather simplistic the i-SOBOT wins this award.

i-SOBOT can be controlled via remote and voice. Read more

Posted on Tue, 23 Jan 2007 13:00:00 CST | by Luigi Lugmayr

Tomy Hello Kitty Nohohon

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Hello Kitty is also now available as a Tomy solar powered Nohohon gadget.

As with all Tomy Nohohon toys, the Hello Kitty one also shakes its head slowly powered buy solar energy. I still did not figure out what the difference is between Hidamari no Tami and Nohohon. It seems this Tomy toy series goes by both names.

Play-Asia sells the relaxing desk toy for only US$ 9.90.

Play Asia has a whole list of Tomy Hohohon toys on sale including Mikey Mouse and Donald Duck. Read more

Posted on Thu, 12 Oct 2006 03:00:00 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

Tomy Hidamari no Tami Holidays Edition

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Ok, I know it is still October, but I get hammered with shops emailing me their hot gadgets for the holiday shopping season and I could not pass over the very Japanese Tomy Hidamari no Tami styled for the Holidays.

We reported about the Tomy Hidamari no Tami solar powered desk figures back in May of 2004. Also back then I reviewed one of these supposedly relaxing desk toys.

CrazyAboutGadgets sells the Christmas Edition of the Sunshine Buddy for £6.99 (~$13.67 or 10.75 Euro). Read more

Posted on Mon, 9 Oct 2006 04:00:00 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

Tomy EQ Trainer Gadget

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Japanese Toy maker Tomy will launch the EQ Trainer in March.

EQ stands for Emotional Intelligence Quotient (This is different from IQ). The Tomy EQ Trainer is a small and low-cost PDA with touch screen. It is geared towards business people to improve their social/emotional intelligence. It is a QA type learning program. Tomy partnered with a consulting company called EQ Japan. Read more

Posted on Mon, 23 Jan 2006 09:11:55 CST | by Luigi Lugmayr

Tomy Yumel Healing Partner Doll Available Now

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The Japanese Yumel Healing Partner Doll is so to say a sleep oriented Furby.

The sleepy baby boy with the Anime eyes is monitoring the sleep pattern of its owner. Yumel likes to sleep and is supposedly acting up if the owner's sleep pattern is not right. Whatever right means. So I imagine, you come home late one night after having one or two beers. In the morning Yumel is talking trash because you came home late.
In any case if you are into this "very Japanese" toy, Audiocubes has you covered. They export the Yumel Doll for $149.00. Read more

Posted on Mon, 15 Aug 2005 11:54:15 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

Tomy Putica RC Cars controllable via Mobile Phones

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Japanese toy company Tomy introduces a line of toy RC cars than can be controlled via a mobile phone.

The Disney inspired cars have a infra-red control interface. the Putica dubbed RC cars can either be steered via the bundled tiny remote in key shape or with a special software that runs on mobile phones. The Putica toys are 60mm long and sell for 1,680 yen (~$16).
More details on ITMedia (Japanese). See also Mobile Burn for more photos.

Read more

Posted on Fri, 27 May 2005 12:41:58 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

Japanese Gadget: Tomy Flu Fleur Sound Flower

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Japanese Toy Company Tomy offers two new desk flowers. One of them is the Flu Fleur which reacts to sound and glows in the dark. We reviewed the first Tomy gadget flower called Flip Flap a while back. Flip Flap is moving its leave randomly powered by solar energy. The Tomy Flu Fleur opens and closes its petals in sync. with sound or music. The inside of the Flu Fleur glows in the dark - oh yeah! AudioCubes sells the Flu Fleur, which comes in Blue, Pink and Yellow, directly from Japan for $45.00. Tomy also offers a new model of the Flip Flap with glowing pistil called Rippletone. The Flip Flap Rippletone sells for $49.00 on AudioCubes.

Read more

Posted on Tue, 12 Apr 2005 00:52:13 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

Japanese Toy: Tomy Hokoton Rhythm Figures

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AudioCubes brings us another toy from Japanese Toymaker Tomy. The Hokoton Rhythm figures can learn rythms and dance to them.

The description says to tap a simple rhythm repeatedly for the Hokoton. It will learn the rhythm and start moving to it. The Hokoton Figure can remember more than one rhythm.
The Hokoton Rhythm figures are 60mm tall and come in 7 colors and 6 different animal shapes.
Clearly very Japanese.

AudioCubes sells the Hokoton Rhythm Figure for $22.00.

Read more

Posted on Thu, 4 Nov 2004 02:17:21 CST | by Luigi Lugmayr

Tomy Microaqua W Review

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Hong Kong's Fancylogic sent us another one of their desk gadgets or call it toy. This time its another microaquarium from Japanese toymaker Tomy. The Microaqua W (Jumbo Aquarium) is way bigger (157mm x 133mm x 52mm) than the Nemo micro fish-tank we reviewed a while ago.

Quote:
"The Tomy Microaqua W I received comes with Scleropages Formosus fish. Interestingly the water tank and the stand where the motor and the D-cell battery are housed have no physical connection. Meaning the water circulation in the tank is achieved through magnetic or induction fields. The rotating parts in the water tank are hidden under the brown hills in the corners."
Read the full review.

Read more

Posted on Mon, 18 Oct 2004 02:21:39 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

Tomy Sleep Watch Doll

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Japanese Toy Giant Tomy Co. and Japanese Sleeping Pillow Company Lofty Co. created a Doll that senses the owners sleeping habits.

The Doll features six sensors and can say 1,200 sentences. It bothers the owner when he or she is not going to bed or getting up at the same time. What else did the human kind need?
More details on Nikkei.NET (subscription).

Read more

Posted on Mon, 30 Aug 2004 05:41:58 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

LumiPad - Glowing Messageboards by Tomy

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Japanese Toy maker created glowing message boards called LumiPads.

The battery driven Message Pads use special pens (magentic) and light up the written message and makes it readable in darkness. See Photo below.

The LumiPads come in different sizes: 7, 10, 14, and 20 inch. The 7 inch pad sells for $39 and the largest 20 inch sells for $149 at japanese gadget importer AudioCubes.


Buy a LumiPad:
Tomy LUMI PAD-20 20"
Tomy LUMI PAD-14 14"
Tomy LUMI PAD-10 10"
Tomy LUMI PAD-7 7"
Tomy LUMI PAD 5 in 1 Set Glowing Markers

Read more

Posted on Tue, 29 Jun 2004 13:29:17 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

Network Anatomy to develop Satellite Wrist Phone

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Story by: WristDreams.com

Commander Gauntlet WristDreams reports: Californian NetworkAnatomy, which makes eight-pound wearable communications systems and the futuristic Commander Gauntlet Glove for soldiers and firemen, apparently has developed a prototype of a wristwatch cell phone.

Only weighing 32 grams, the watch is made of Kevlar material and works on regular wireless and satellite networks.
when a wearer squeezes the watch phone's wrist=band, it will automatically dial 911 and provide authorities with the user's exact location with its built-in GPS system. The device, likely to become available in Asia before yearend, will be priced between $400 and $600. Linman expects it to make its way onto the U.S. market by 2006.

This news is hidden in a great article about the future of Mobile Phone Wrist Watches in BusinessWeek.

More Technology Wrist Watches on Wrist Dreams.

Read more

Posted on Wed, 23 Jun 2004 02:50:36 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

Japanese Sunny People - Tomy Hidamari no Tami Desk Toys

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We reviewed the Japanese Solar Desktop Toy Nohohon this January. The Nohohon, or as we called it in the review Nihohon (Fancylogic) is actually part of a whole set of different kinds of Hidamari no Tami's.


The standard Hidamari no Tami (Japanese for sunny people) just nod with their head powered by a solar panel. It is really relaxing to watch. There is another series that makes relaxing sounds. Akadot has a full background story on all the different Hohohon Zoku Families.
See also the official site of the Nohohon Toys by Tomy.

Hidamari no Tami Toys available in US:

Tomy Sunny Nohohon People Whispering Forest (humming) - $35.00.

Tomy Sunny Nohohon People Name Card Holder (nodding) - $29.00.

Tomy Sunny Nohohon People Name Card Holder (swaying) - $25.00.

Read more

Posted on Fri, 28 May 2004 12:48:18 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr