Dave’s Cool Toys Blog

Archive for the ‘Fun Stuff’ Category

I came across this excellent video this morning. Check it out, then scroll down for more information. Be sure to click on "HQ" for high quality and maybe full screen if your computer can handle it.

	Walking with T-Rex

I did a little research and discovered that this was an event on a live German TV show. The dinosaurs are from the BBC production of "Walking with Dinosaurs, the Arena Spectacular". This is the live action adaptation of the wonderful BBC series "Walking with Dinosaurs".

This show looks incredible. There are 15 life-size dinosaurs that roam freely on the arena floor. The largest dinosaur in the show is 72 feet from nose to tail. The T-Rex, for example took a team of 50 craftsmen and engineers a year to build. The show follows the dinosaurs evolution straight through to their demise from a comet impact. Yikes!

The dinosaurs are controlled by both puppeteers inside and maneuvering them on stage as well as off-stage puppeteers using scale model versions of the dino’s to manipulate their full-size counterpart by radio control.

I’ve complained in the past that the coolest stuff is not here in the US, but in this case, it is. Unfortunately for us, it was just in Washington DC in September and we missed it. Hopefully, it will come back to our area (they are adding new dates yet). But for those of you in other areas of the US, the show has dates listed through November.

Incidentally, they have a very nice website as well with information on all the "cast members" and very cool video from the show.

AntWorks habitat ready for ants.

The AntWorks ant habitat has been one of my favorite "toys" since we first started selling them several years ago. It’s been some time since I started one of my own, so I thought I’d get one going and post some blogs with the ants’ progress. Check back on my blog, or click on the AntWorks category to see the entire process form beginning to end. All the photos in this post will be ones I’ve taken from this "group" of ants and I’ll give an honest report of how things go.

If you’re not familiar with AntWorks, it is "A Space-Age Habitat for Ants". You can get more information here, but basically it is a gel that supplies everything the ants need: food, water, and tunnelling medium. It is also fairly clear, so you can see your ants’ tunnels and see what all of them are doing while they make their way around in their habitat.

	Our new ants in their luxury travel accommodations

On September 21, I ordered my ants online from one of the ant suppliers listed in the AntWorks booklet. They were $4.95 total including shipping. The ants are not included in the price of the AntWorks, but you can gather your own ants from your yard if you prefer (care should be taken). On September 26th, they arrived in the mail. They mentioned that some of the ants may not arrive alive, but mine were all just fine. We were on our way out for the day when the mail was delivered, so we weren’t able to start our AntWorks right when they arrived, but the ants were fine until later that evening when we were able to put them in their new home. I wouldn’t keep them waiting too long, but a few hours was fine. The timing on our ant order was great because my Niece was visiting and she was able to help us. Her hand is in some of the pictures here.

	Poking holes in the gel to help the ants get started

The ants you receive are Harvester Ants. They are a really good size to view, but they should not be handled because they do sting. They arrived with a sheet warning "Caution! Do Not Touch These Ants!". Fortunately, there is no real reason to handle them, they come in a nice little tube ready to be added to your AntWorks.

When you’re ready to add your ants to the AntWorks, you are instructed to place them in the fridge for about 10 minutes, which slows them down. While we were waiting for them to calm down in the fridge, we followed the instructions and poked 4 holes in the AntWorks gel to make starter holes for the ants to tunnel. There is a little stick included for this. This makes it easier for them to start tunneling, and I think also gets them started in the locations you would like them to tunnel, so plan your starter holes well. We also wiped off a little bit of condensation that was on the plastic above the gel when we opened it. This is normal and the instructions tell you to just wipe it off.

	Adding our chilled ants to the AntWorks habitat

We took the ants out of the fridge after 10 minutes and they were fairly quiet. Unfortunately, it took me too long to get things set up for taking photos and they began to get active again, so we popped them back in the fridge for a few more minutes to calm them down again.

Next, my son gently "poured" them into the AntWorks habitat. Since they were still chilled, they were not moving much and there was no chance of them getting out the top. This was a chance to clean out some of their poop that poured out with them using a damp Q-Tip. We closed up the lid and waited for them to come around, which they did soon. Obviously, the ants were quite curious about their new home and they began exploring it as soon as they woke up.

They didn’t start tunnelling just yet but we did enjoy watching them for a while. They sometimes check out our starter holes, but by the time we all went to bed, they hadn’t made any tunnels. Check back to see their progress the next morning!

Our ants in their new home, still groggy from the fridge

Getting up close and personal with our ants using the included magnifier. You can also see one of the starter holes.

Buzz Lightyear, looking very confident before blastoff.

He may be just a toy, but Buzz Lightyear has just recently returned from quite a trip. In May, 2008 Buzz was launched into orbit on board Discovery for a 6 month scheduled mission aboard the International Space Station as part of an educational program teaching children about space. But his mission was so successful, that NASA and Disney extended it to more than a year. That means that Buzz holds the record for his stay in space, surpassing the longest duration mission held by Russian cosmonaut Valery Polyakov set in 1995.

	Buzz’s pal Woody sees him off on his journey.

Buzz, a 12-inch tall action figure, finally travelled into space through a partnership between NASA and Disney Parks to encourage students to pursue science, technology, and math. To further encourage students, NASA and Disney have created an online program called the Space Ranger Education Series.

Buzz returned to earth on board the Space Shuttle on September 12, 2009. Buzz spent 468 days in space, beating the record by 30 days. His good pal Woody was on-hand to wave goodbye when he lifted off in 2008, but was probably not there when he landed since the Shuttle had to land in California. After several "debriefing sessions" Disney is planning on a ticker-tape parade for Buzz in honor of his space duration achievement on October 2, at Walt Disney World along with his space station crew mates and Apollo 11 Astronaut, Buzz Aldrin (who maintains that he is the real Buzz)

	Buzz Lightyear, Space Ranger, on duty.

While on-board the station, Buzz made some video recordings designed to teach kids the basics of working and living in the weightless environment of space. In one video, an astronaut sleeps with Buzz, letting him go as he drifts off, which lets Buzz also drift off across the station. He will also contribute a journal about his adventures.

Buzz also made some great videos before he left for his adventure. Scroll down to see one of them.

Buzz’s triumphant return to California.

Buzz wasn’t the only toy in space for this mission. STS-128 pilot Kevin Ford, brought a model of the space shuttle along for his elementary school as well as a model car for the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Astronauts are allowed to bring a small amount of personal items along on their trips into space. They are usually out of reach for the duration of the flight.

Will Buzz’s space adventure be reflected in the upcoming Toy Story III? Probably not. Will Toy Story III be delayed due to Buzz’s extended space mission? Hopefully not. But a re-issued Buzz action figure will be on-sale at Disney resorts to commemorate his mission and Buzz, the Astronaut, will be on display at Disney in the future.

I came across this incredible video of a 3-D animated building that I thought was very cool. This is a 3-D projection system by Urbanscreen in Germany. Why do all these cool things seem to be in Germany and not in the US?

Many years ago, I had a big HO Scale train set in my basement. (This is the best photo of it I could find, at right.) I made mountains out of plaster with tunnels for the trains, I had a house that was on fire, a McDonalds, farms, neighborhoods and, of course, a train station. I thought it was pretty good.

But my piano teacher’s husband had a much more impressive train set-up in his basement. He had used several different train scales to create the illusion of distance. He also made most of his houses by hand. It was very impressive and inspirational. I have some of the homes he made to this day. I can’t help but wonder what happened to the rest of them.

I grew up in the Lehigh Valley in Pennsylvania and not too far from us in Shartlesville, PA, was a tourist attraction called Roadside America. It was a most impressive train panorama covering 8,000 square feet, and claimed at the time to be the largest in the world. It was like condensing different areas of America into one location. You could walk all along the outside of the room to view the different areas. There are underground sections including a recreation of Luray Caverns, and you can choose to climb into some of the mountains to view the entire set-up from above. There are buttons located at strategic places around the room that let you operate parts of the display such as a merry-go-round. At certain times (once an hour, I think) Roadside America has a nighttime phase. Everyone gets a good location to watch and the "sun" sets and all the lights come on in the homes and streets of the little village. There’s also a patriotic display on one wall of the room. Most of the work at Roadside America was done by Laurence Gieringer and it has remained basically as it was when he died in 1963.

In recent years, my sister moved to New Jersey and I became aware of another railway near her called Northlandz in Flemington, which claims to be the "Worlds Largest Model Railroad". We visited a few years ago and it is quite a bit bigger than Roadside America. At Northlandz, you weave your way in and out of different rooms for nearly a mile, sometimes viewing the same location from very different viewpoints. Northlandz boasts 52,000 square feet with up to 100 trains traveling more than 8 miles of track, 400 bridges and trestles, and thousands of buildings. They claim that the building materials used would construct about 40 houses. Their tallest mountain is 30 feet high, which would be about 6,000 feet if it was life-sized. Northlandz also has a 2,000 pipe theater pipe organ, a large doll collection, and a 94-room dollhouse.

A few days ago I stumbled across a video online of an attraction in Germany called Miniatur Wunderland. I don’t speak German, but I think the translation is obvious. Miniatur Wonderland was created by brothers Frederick and Gerrit Braun and boasts that they are the largest model railway in the world. However, they currently occupy 43,056 square feet, which, by my count, puts it almost 9,000 square feet less than Northlandz. I believe we have a controversy here. At least for a little while since they have plans of expanding by 2014 to 64,583 square feet. (Although on their website, they also say that the "model area" is 900 square meters (which is 9,687 square feet, so it may be somewhat smaller, if I’m doing my math right.)

Some of Wunderland’s stats:
9,000 meters of track length
700 trains (longest is 14.51 meters)
250,000 lights
2,800 buildings and bridges
160,000 figures
4,000 cars

They have a staff of 162 people, requires 33 computers, and they have about 475,000 work hours into the attraction.

Whatever the stats, this project is impressive to say the least. They have wonderful details throughout such as a crime scene with a floating body, boats that travel on real water, cars that drive on roads (how do they do that?!), and a nighttime with an amazing light display (check out Las Vegas!)

Of course, I haven’t been to Germany lately, so I haven’t seen Wunderland myself, but from what I’ve seen online, it appears to be more colorful and bright than most miniature train displays I’ve seen.

Here is a wonderful "corporate" video of Miniatur Wunderland.

Dave’s Cool Toys

My friend Rich sent me a link to the following video (scroll down), which is very cool. It is a "behind the scenes" look at President Barak Obama recording his audio for the Disney World Hall of Presidents.

Well, I love Disney. I respect Barak Obama. Love the Hall of the Presidents. And I really enjoy behind the scenes stuff. So I don’t need to tell you how much I enjoyed this.

The Obama Animatronic will have a speaking role along with Washington and Lincoln (who will, for the first time, recite the entire Gettysburg Address). The revised and updated attraction reopened July 2, just in time for Independence Day.

Apparently, the Bill Clinton animatronic was recycled for President Bush, and now once again for Barak Obama. This is done because it is a much more complex animatronic and is needed for the current president’s speech. Once they are out of office, they have much less movement and do not require as complex an animatronic. It takes some time to re-work the show as the presidents must be moved around to make a space for the current one and the entire roll-call of presidents must be re-recorded and implemented.

Here is the behind-the-scenes Obama video as posted on the White House blog. I must say that one thing about this following video that I noticed is that President Obama didn’t seem to be aware of the attraction, asking if they were "holograms". Seems odd to me that the President wouldn’t be aware of this show.

Dave’s Cool Toys

We spent the day in New York City yesterday doing touristy stuff (Circle Line Tour, The Intrepid Museum). Of course, I own a toy store, so we visited The Disney Store and FAO Schwarz. The photos here are my Wife and older son playing on the Big piano. Yes, they are the only people over the age of about 7 on the piano.

Incidentally, FAO Schwarz has been recently acquired by Toys R Us. This should mean that the classic toy store will remain in NYC in the future. Time will tell.

If you are going to be in New York City, you might want to visit FAO Schwartz and follow the signs to the Big piano (just in case).

FAO Schwarz
767 5th Avenue @ 58th st.
New York, NY 10153
Sunday 11:00am – 6:00pm
Monday – Thursday 10:00am – 7:00pm
Friday & Saturday 10:00am – 8:00pm

Dave’s Cool Toys

The Sound of Music was on TV this past weekend. We didn’t watch it, but I always have to try to catch the Goatherder song. I really do like that song and the puppet show that goes a long with it. I know. "Dork."

By a strange coincidence, one of the e-newsletters I receive had a link this morning to this incredible video.

Here’s what I have been able to find out about it, although I can’t guarantee accuracy. This took place in Central Station Antwerp, Belgium at 8:00 a.m. on March 23, 2009. It took over 200 dancers who rehearsed this just 2 times. It was staged as a publicity stunt for "In Search of Maria", a TV program searching for someone to play the leading role in the musical "The Sound of Music." It was staged by the Belgian commercial VTM Network and none of the morning commuters had any idea it was going to take place.

Whatever the circumstances, it is wonderful. Enjoy. Be sure to click the "HQ" button for the very best quality!

When you’re done watching this video, you can see the "making of" video here.

Dave’s Cool Toys

This is amazing. I am completely stunned by this little bit of technological wizardry. I don’t wish to plug General Electric, but this is so much fun to do, I couldn’t help but post it.

At the GE Ecomagination website, you can view and participate in this very cool demonstration. I’m not sure what it says about GE exactly, but it is impressive. The call it a hologram, but anyone that knows anything about holograms would agree that it’s a completely innacurate term. It’s more like a 3-D interactive virtual reality thingy. They also call it Smart Grid Augmented Reality.

First, you need a printed Solar Panel Marker. What? You don’t have one? No problem. The website says "if you don’t already have one" you can print it from a pdf which you can download there.

Next, you need a webcam and you’ll need the latest version of Flash.

Once you have all that you’re ready to experience this cool technology. From the Ecomagination Smart Grid site, you click on either "Launch Wind Turbine" or "Launch Solar Energy".

This will open a window which should display the image from your webcam. Make sure you are in the frame, then pick up your Solar Panel Marker and hold it up for the camera.

Now the magic begins. In the image, from the center of your printed Solar Panel Marker sheet, a landscape will unfold complete with windmills (or solar panels, depending on which you chose) and the Smart Grid scarecrow, which you may have seen on their commercials. Tilt and move the paper and the entire landscape tilts and moves with it. Blow into your microphone, and the wind turbines will begin to spin. The scarecrow even waves. I had some trouble with the Solar Energy version. It kept crashing my browser. But the Wind Turbine version worked extremely well.