Toys

Anki’s new home robot, named Vector, is part pet and part digital assistant, but just how good is he at those jobs? After a few weeks of having a pet robot living in the kitchen, we’ve come to enjoy his company – but not for the reasons we expected.

Antsy Labs has introduced its own spin on classic DIY building toys with Pixl, a set of blocks with tiny embedded magnets to keep them stacked in 3D models or lined up in pixelated 2D artworks.

Having entertained Star Wars fans with a series of movie tie-ins, Sphero's newest mini robot swaps the movie theater for the classroom. The Sphero Bolt is a programmable rolling droid with a bright LED matrix display, accessible coding apps, and new ways to automate the bot's actions.

​The consumer tech giant decided to revive an old favorite last year, when it announced the Japan-only release of a new aibo robotic companion. Now a "First Litter Edition" of the cutesy pup will be making its way to US shores as a limited bundle.​

Toy start-up PlayShifu has unveiled Plugo, a gaming platform that hooks up to a tablet and uses a range of tactile toys to play games that will “trick” the kids into studying math or vocabulary.

Robotics company Anki has unveiled Vector, an emotive little fella who’s basically a cross between a smart home assistant and a pet. New Atlas got a hands-on demo, and found Vector to be a versatile home robot that’s a real charmer and might actually chip in around the house.

In recent years, licensing deals with the likes of Star Wars, Harry Potter, and others have helped Lego stay relevant, and the block-making company's latest product taps into another world-famous franchise: James Bond. The spy's classic Aston Martin DB5 is now available to buy in Lego form.

If you were planning on adopting the spinning top technique used by Leonardo DiCaprio's character in Inception to reveal if you're in a dream or not, you might want to use Limbo. It's a spinning top (that's not really a top) that will keep spinning for hours at a time.

The latest car in Toyota's series of kid's concept cars, the Camatte Journey is an open-air tourer ready to escape Tokyo and zip through sleepy countrysides and up twisty mountain roads. An accompanying digital simulator helps kids experience the thrill of auto touring.

New Atlas went hands-on with the cardboard contraptions of Nintendo Labo, and found a solid combination of the fun of video games, the DIY satisfaction of Lego, the creativity of crafts and the sneaky education of a STEM toy.

To keep 21st century kids interested, classic toys have been getting high-tech makeovers lately. Now, a new company known as Blok.Party is targeting tabletop gaming with PlayTable, a tablet-like gaming console that uses physical pieces and runs an operating system based on a blockchain.

​We've seen a number of frankly odd creations from serial synth scientist Sam Battle of Look Mum No Computer over the years. His latest build turns a bunch of cute and cuddly robot toys from the late 1990s into the stuff of horror movie nightmares.​