From 2011-2012, The LEGO Group has released 14 Cars 2-themed LEGO sets, as well as 8 Duplo sets. 8200: Radiator Springs Lightning McQueen8201: Classic Mater8206: Tokyo Pit Stop8423: World Grand Prix Racing Rivalry8424: Mater's Spy Zone8426: Escape At Sea8484: Ultimate Build Lightning McQueen8486: Mack's Team Truck8487: Flo's V8 Cafe8638: Spy Jet Escape8639: Big Bentley Bust Out8677: Ultimate Build Mater8678: Ultimate Build Francesco8679: Tokyo International Circuit 9478: Francesco Bernoulli9479: Ivan Mater9480: Finn McMissile9481: Jeff Gorvette9483: Agent Mater's Escape9484: Red's Water Rescue9485: Ultimate Race Set9486: Oil Rig Escape 5829: The Pit Stop5813: Lightning McQueen5839: World Grand Prix5828: Big Bentley5818: Luigi's Italian Place5817: Agent Mater5819: Tokyo Racing On the LEGO Cars 2 official website, there is a series of videos called Mater's Brick Tales. The only characters who talk in them are Mater and a computer, but other characters appear too. They start with Mater enjoying a regular day in Radiator Springs, but then he gets called on a spy mission.
A spy screen tells him that Grem and Acer are doing something bad, and that he must stop them, and a bunch of robotic arms suit Mater up, and then they send Mater back to Radiator Springs. There, Mater tries to defeat Grem and Acer, and he ends up by somehow getting Grem and Acer fallen apart. After Mater finishes his mission, something funny happens at the end. The Big Race was happening in Radiator Springs, and everyone was there to see it. Mater was there too, rooting for his best friend Lightning McQueen to win. But then, Mater was called on a secret mission. He went down on an elevator, and a replica of him was placed in his spot. Mater went down so far and found himself at a secret spy lair with Finn McMissile, Holley Shiftwell, and a Secret Spy Screen. There, the secret spy screen told him that Grem and Acer are out to sabotage the race, and that he must stop them. Then a bunch of robotic arms got him ready for his mission, including taking his tow cable and putting in a new one.
Before Mater can say anything else, the elevator then sends him back. The racers were about to pass, so Mater unfolded some binoculars out of his tow hook, and saw that Lightning was in the lead. Then he saw Grem and Acer chasing the racers with guns. He realized they were gonna hurt the racers, so he folds his binoculars back in, got through the crowd, and unfolded a rocket out of his tow cable, sending him into the air. Mater didn't know how to control the rocket. Then he passed Grem and Acer, who each fired missiles that then followed Mater. The missiles followed Mater. However, he then turned around, and passed Grem and Acer again, who got hit by their own missiles, completing Mater's mission. Now there was one more problem: How is Mater going to stop and land? It was a beautiful day in Radiator Springs. Mater was driving around, saying hello to his friends. He was noticing that they were looking kind of different. Then, an alarm came out of the ground, and the road shot Mater into the air, and he landed in Siddeley.
There, the secret spy screen told Mater that Grem and Acer are stealing car parts near Radiator Springs, and that he must stop them. Then a bunch of robotic arms suited Mater up, including putting something on top of Mater. Then Siddeley dropped Mater down, and Mater landed safely. So, Mater went all around Radiator Springs, trying to find the missing car parts. He looked everywhere, but finally, he found them. When he got there, Acer appeared in front of him. Grem was behind him, and he unfolded a bunch of robotic arms and weapons. They were closing in on Mater, but then Mater unfolded a magnet, which took all of Grem's robotic arms and weapons, and parts of both Grem and Acer, and dropped them on the ground. He completed his mission. He got everyone's parts back, but he got mixed up, and everyone had someone else's parts. Mater was driving near the mountains of Radiator Springs. He said that today was an ordinary day. Then he saw Acer, whom he didn't know was Acer because Acer was disguised as a granny.
Mater noticed that Acer had lost a wheel, so he decided to help him. Grem was hiding behind Mater. When Mater was about to help Acer, Grem pushed Mater off the cliff. Acer put his tire back on himself and high-fived Grem. However, Mater used his rockets to stop him from crashing into the ground. Mater was having so much fun flying and even called himself an airplane. When Grem and Acer saw him, they each shot a missile at him. Mater, being chased by the missiles, realized that flying wasn't as easy as it looks. He was having trouble controlling the rockets and changes his mind about being an airplane. While still unable to control his rockets, he caused the missiles to blow up Grem and Acer. After Mater landed, he couldn't believe that he did everything that happened. So far, this is the only episode where Finn McMissile, Holley Shiftwell, and the secret spy screen didn't assign Mater his mission. And so far, there are only three episodes, to which it is unknown if more will be made or not.
Gizmag's pick of the 10 coolest high tech toysChristmas is just around the corner and the hunt for the best kids toys out there has never been more exciting. With iPhone-controlled toys, customizable robots and smart toys that aim to teach kids life skills while entertaining them, the latest breed of high-tech toys have a lot to offer. Even books and pens, augmented with a little technology can read to kids or coach them to write. If you're looking to surprise junior with toys that feature a delightful technological twist, Gizmag's top 10 coolest tech toys for kids should give you plenty of ideas.The Sphero 2.0 robotic ball is what every little ball might aspire to be, if it could but dream. You can take it for a jog, see it swim or glow, race it under furniture, launch it off ramps and even use it as a game controller.Apart from the fun games one can play with a ball that zips around the floor at a blistering 7 ft (2 m) per second, this smartphone-controlled toy really comes to life when you start downloading apps that let you play augmented reality (AR) and mixed-reality games with it.
For instance, when you view your kitchen floor (or any setting) through your device's camera when it's running the AR based Rolling Dead app, you'll see zombies spawning under the kitchen table that can be destroyed through a fireball shooting Sphero. In reality, the robot ball rolls on the floor towards invisible zombies. In mixed reality golf, players swing their phone to putt the Sphero into a virtual hole.More than just a powerhouse of fun, this programmable ball lets kids as young as 8 years learn coding, if they're of a mind to program it to do simple things like follow a preset course. The Sphero 2.0 is available for US$99.99 right now from Amazon.Remember the sassy smart car "KITT" of Knight Rider fame? Well, the Anki Drive smart cars may not be life size or have all those bells and whistles, but they can sure drive by themselves; they also evolve unique personalities the more they are played with.Take them out of the box and pair them to smartphones (iOS only for now) via Bluetooth and they are ready to zoom off on a vinyl race track.
The inbuilt artificial intelligence keeps the cars on course, letting you maneuver them by tilting the phone. You can play against other people or the AI (which gets other cars to nudge, slam or box you in) or both. The fun really begins in the battle mode where players get to fire virtual pulse weapons or tractor beams at other cars on screen which disables or slows down the real-life cars.At the end of the race, players are awarded points based on performance which they can use to beef up their cars with new weapons, expanded capabilities and more. These become permanent facets of the cars personality enabling players to build formidable self-driving race cars over time that race a certain way no matter who plays with them.The starter kit retails for $149.95 on Amazon and additional cars are $69 each.Ever wished that creating things with electronics could be as simple as snapping a few blocks together? littleBits makes it so. The littleBits building blocks are color-coded circuit components that you can attach to each other, and you don't have to know any electronics to create cool stuff with them.
What's more, you can combine them with ordinary objects to make uncommon things like an animated holiday hat that displays a ghostly Santa flying his reindeer when tapped, or a bow tie that jiggles at the sound of your voice.You can grab the Base Kit for $99 and watch your kids unleash their imagination. Premium and Deluxe kits retail for $149 and $199 respectively.Ubooly puts a fresh spin on plush toys by having your iPhone or iPod Touch zip into the cuddly body of a stuffed animal. Activate the Ubooly app and Ubooly's face appears as you swipe the screen and awaken it.The toy listens and responds to a person's voice and falls asleep when ignored. Part of its ongoing charm is the fact that it can constantly be updated with new stories, jokes, games and songs to keep kids engaged.As well as being uber cute, the toy is a win-win proposition for both parents and kids – parents can rest easy in the knowledge that their smart device is safe from harm in a furry casing, while kids get to play with their parents' gadgets to their heart's content.
The toy is pretty inexpensive too, with a small Ubooly priced at $29.99, and a Jumbo version at $59.95. The app is free to download.Remember sitting in front of a Lego pieces piled willy-nilly on the floor? Now imagine putting them together to create functional robots you can program to do your bidding, after you finish building them.Lego Mindstorms EV3 gives you the ability to piece together truly awesome robots like the fierce cobra bot R3PTAR and the scorpion like SPIK3R. You can control your creations with a remote or from your smart device via Bluetooth, and do things like have the cobra bot strike out by moving your device the same way. There's also an app with animations to help you with the build process for the five EV3 robots in the set.Programming the finished creation is as simple as dragging and dropping instruction modules into a visual workspace and hitting play at the end. The bots also come with pre-written programs that showcase their more advanced capabilities, such as shooting red balls at infrared targets or navigating around obstacles.
With 594 bricks and a variety of sensors, motors and components, the EV3 offers a robotic programming playground that's extremely addictive. Buy now on Amazon at $349.99.If you enjoy reading stories out loud to kids, but find the fact that you might not always be available (or inclined) slightly troublesome, here's a high-tech alternative instead. Just clip the Sparkup Reader to a book and read the story out once into its microphone.The device captures the audio for each page which kids can playback later. They'll just need to attach the reader to the book, and turn to the page they want read, to hear the recording. If you balk at the thought of yet another rendition of The Boy Who Cried Wolf, the Sparkup Reader will take care of it for you. It's available for $59.99.Small enough to use a lemon as a launch pad, the Nano-Falcon is one of the most adorable remote-controlled (RC) helicopters we've laid our eyes on.It's the world's smallest RC helicopter according to the Guinness Book of Records, weighing a mere 11 g (0.38 oz).
You can get it to hover, rotate, execute turns and fly about with the aid of an infrared controller. With a range of 5 m (16.4 ft) and a continuous flying time of about 5 minutes, this tiny toy comes recommended for kids above the age of 6 years. It's priced at $49.70.Having a robotic avatar hanging on your every word can be kind of engaging and that's what you get with WowWee's RoboMe. You can give the customizable robot a face by sliding your iPhone or iPod Touch into RoboMe's robotic body and play around with individual features on its face, such as its eyes, hair, accessories or more, to create distinct looks and even expressions (like gazing at you with lovestruck eyes).Aside from giving it any personality you like, it's easy to program all kinds of quirky behaviors into it, such as having it dance if anyone shakes its hand or run away when hearing a key phrase. It understands voice commands and is smart enough to move through a room or any setting by itself without running into things;
a remote control also gives you control if you desire it.Things get even more interesting when you experiment with RoboMe's "remote visual telepresence" feature. Paired with a second iPhone, it transforms into a robotic spy – you can see and hear whatever RoboMe does. Sounds like an argument for getting one of your own, don't you think? Just to pop by and see if the kids are really doing their homework.RoboMe is currently going for a bargain on Amazon at $44.99.Not stopping at teaching young kids to read, Leapfrog's LeapReader Pen also helps them learn how to write stroke-by-stroke. The pen instructs kids via a built-in speaker as they trace out letters in the provided workbook and eggs them on with encouraging words, flashing lights and sounds.The paper in the workbook incorporates embedded ink, which means a child just needs to press down with the pen to make a stroke. The pen doesn't write on any other paper or surface apart from the special paper provided in the workbook, which means you don't have to worry about kids using it to scribble on walls.