It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year...

When all the new toys are coming out! Yep, you Johnny-come-lately shoppers out there beware: the hottest toys this season are likely sitting on shelves now. Granted, the economy might make those toys readily available in December, but do you want to risk it?

I'll post the toys we've got our eyes on soon, but for now, here's a sample:

• Imaginext has an entire line of superheroes (Batman and Superman for now)


• Also in that line is Spike the Dinosaur. You might have seen the ads on TV. However, Spike isn't a more animated version of previous dinos in this line -- he's HUGE! He'll be this year's Butterscotch the Pony (remember her from last year?)


• The newest Leapster is out and looks good.


• Anything High School Musical


• And all the major game publishers have a boatload of new games for you... be sure to read all the reviews, but keep in mind: gamers tend to write them. I've had good luck getting discounted games for younger kids because a bunch of snotty core gamers hated the repetitive nature of the gameplay. But kids love the fact that they can master something so quickly! Like old arcade games, your mileage may vary.

Back soon with more holiday shopping tips!

Why the Mario Kart Wii shortages?

When Mario Kart Wii came out we were going on vacation and couldn't afford to grab a copy. Bad move! Just like the Wii itself, the game has been tough to find after the initial release. I'm not sure why-- it's just a disc and a wheel. Before the Wii we had trouble buying the Mario DDR game, and we heard it was because of quality control issues. I applaud Nintendo's efforts, but the Kart shortages don't make sense.

So the other day I was delighted to find my wife happened upon a nice lady at Target who said she had just opened a box of games and there was ONE copy of Kart inside. Just one? What in the world?

Anyway, once I took a look at the wheel it made a little more sense. The wheel isn't like the Monster 4x4 wheel (from Ubisoft), which is just a plastic shell. The Kart wheel has a better gripping system (the 4x4 wheel tends to gunk up the IR transmitter). The Kart wheel also has a hole for the IR transmitter, plus a special button to activate the B-button on the underside of the remote. That has a purpose in the game, but I'll cover that later in a more in-depth review.

How a board game is made

Neat and very detailed development blog of VIKTORY, a board game partly inspired by one of my favorites: Axis and Allies. Fascinating to see the iterative process of designing and building a game system.

McDonald's toy looks like Devo's trademark hats, here come the lawyers

Those American Idol toys McD's gave away for a while have caught the eye of Devo. Check out pic on Pitchfork to see why bassist Gerald Castle is suing for trademark infringement.