The Center for Transforming Lives Arlington Child Development Center provides childcare in a March 28, 2025 archive photo.
Amanda McCoy
amccoy@star-telegram.com
Parents are faced with several options when considering children’s toys for birthdays, holidays or day-to-day play. Child development experts have insights on which ones are most appropriate for different ages.
In general, experts recommend hands-on, sensory-rich toys that can be used in multiple ways. The kinds of toys that are provided to children matter, as 90% of brain development happens by age 5. This period of rapid development sets the foundation for a child’s education, health and quality of life as they grow older. Coral Care, a pediatric therapy services platform, provides a guide to parents to help choose toys that are developmentally appropriate for children from infant age to early school age.
Jen Wirt, CEO and founder of Coral Care, noted how some toys can continue to be utilized as children grow older, such as kitchen sets. She gave an example of a child pulling apart a velcro pizza and reassembling it at an earlier age but then creating a menu for an Italian restaurant when they’re older.
“With these toys, it’s just a really great way to know that you’re investing in your child’s development through play, but it also helps to give you a better window into where they’re struggling, where things feel a little bit harder,” Wirt said, adding that they can give parents insight into whether their child might be delayed in meeting certain milestones.
Carolyn Perry, assistant professor and director of clinical education for the Department of Speech Language Pathology at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, said developmental skills that can be cultivated through toys include fine motor skills, gross motor skills, postural or perceptual skills, speech language development skills and sensory skills
Sometimes people can get hung up on high-tech, flashy toys, but it’s important to remember that “anything can be a game,” she said.
“I mean, blowing bubbles — I can make blowing bubbles last for 20 minutes with a kid. Turning a pot upside down and making different drum rhythms,” Perry said as examples. “It doesn’t take the big, fancy, flashy, expensive toys with batteries to get a good game going.”
Here’s what parents could consider when deciding which toys are best for their children, according to Coral Care:
Newborns to 12 months
This stage of development is defined by movement, repetition and sensory experiences. Look for toys that support tummy time, grasping and visual engagement.
Examples of recommended toys are:
High-contrast books and cards
Tummy-time mirrors
Rattles and grasping toys
Links to toys:
12 months to 24 months
This stage of development includes climbing, imitating and banging. Look for toys that support emerging speech, gross motor strength and cognitive development.
Examples of recommended toys are:
Push toys and walkers
Simple shape sorters
Toy kitchens and food sets
Links to toys:
Age 2
This stage of development is underscored by exploration, movement and curiosity. Look for toys that facilitate early problem-solving, emotional regulation and expressive language.
Examples of recommended toys are:
Simple ride-on toys
Easy inset puzzles
Play tunnels
Links to toys:
Age 3
This stage of development focuses on storytelling and pretend play. Look for toys that support social skills, sequencing and fine motor control.
Examples of recommended toys are:
Dress-up outfits
Playsets
Art supplies
Links to toys:
Age 4
This stage of development involves collaborative play and building more complex ideas. Look for toys that improve executive function, attention and early math concepts.
Examples of recommended toys are:
Magnetic tiles
Play-Doh and tools
Beginner STEM kits
Links to toys:
Age 5
This stage of development includes deeper creativity and structured play. Look for toys that facilitate social reasoning, early literacy skills and emotional regulation.
Examples of recommended toys are:
Craft kits
Cooperative board games
Building sets with steps
Links to toys:
Ages 6-8
This age range includes higher abstract thinking and longer periods of engagement. Look for toys that help build perseverance, social development and planning skills.
Lina Ruiz covers early childhood education in Tarrant County and North Texas for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. A University of Florida graduate, she previously wrote about local government in South Florida for TCPalm and Treasure Coast Newspapers.
If you played Super Mario Bros. Wonder, you either accepted the eponymous Talking Flowers as occasionally annoying though still lovable creatures, or you loathed the sight of these babbling, big-mouthed cretins. Nintendo first showed off its flower toy in September last year. Finally, the Mario maker will allow you to stick one of these wordy weeds in your house starting March 12 this year.
The new table toy joins Alarmo in Nintendo’s quest to take over your bedroom. Before you run to put your ears between your pillow cushions, at least Nintendo’s latest toy is somehow far less annoying than most of the spouting AI gadgets that have cropped up in the last few years. The Wonder Flower will be available in the New York and San Francisco Nintendo stores or online at My Nintendo Store.
Nintendo’s Talking Flower is a simple concept. It includes the potted plant with its sousaphone-shaped mouth and bright eyes shining with curiosity and a hint of instability. In an overview trailer posted first to the Nintendo Today! app, Nintendo showed how the toy includes multiple autonomous and programmable voice lines it can spout off at select times. Nintendo said the device will talk approximately twice per hour with lines such as “Sometimes it’s nice to space out” and “Is it weird for flowers to talk?”
One exceptionally prattling plant
Otherwise, the toy includes a big button your kids can use to make it speak incessantly. “Make sure you’re getting your veggies,” it might intone. Nintendo claims the plant can sense the time of day and ambient room temperature as well. It should have voice lines for each of these scenarios, though we’ll soon find out if it starts repeating itself too often.
Thankfully, Nintendo included the ability to hold the button down and get it to shut up for a little while. Otherwise, you can program it to set a wake-up or sleep message. The Mario maker made a point that the plant will purposefully get this wrong occasionally, not because it doesn’t know what time it is, but because the little shrub is somehow always surprised. At least, the Wonder Flower won’t speak up during the night.
Your children may enjoy Wonder Flower far more than you do. The device has a music mode where the plant shouts “Wonder” before playing a song from the game. Those nearest to the plant can spam the button to get it to shout random exclamations. However, the device speaks 11 languages, so any multi-language families may use it as an ambient teacher to keep their Spanish sharp.
It could be worse
Despite the Wonder Flower’s incessant prattling, I don’t imagine it will be nearly as annoying as most other speaking gadgets we’ve seen recently. At CES 2026, there was a mountain of kid-centric toys featuring AI to talk to your children and respond to all their questions. Late last year, U.S. Public Interest Research Group Education Fund (PIRG) and NBC detailed how these AI-centric toys would willingly talk to kids about BDSM topics like impact play (including the benefits of whips versus paddles). These toys could tell kids how to light a match or where they might find a knife.
#SuperMarioBrosWonder – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Meetup in Bellabel Park arrives March 26!
Look forward to new boss courses with all 7 Koopalings, two new playable characters, Rosalina, and Co-Star Luma, and more!
Nintendo’s pre-programmed toy is far tamer by comparison. I’ll admit, I’m the type of person who will try to annoy his roommate by hammering the Wonder Flower’s talk button. The March 12 release date coincides with a new Super Mario Wonder Bros. Wonder – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Meetup in Bellabel Park update coming out March 26. The paid-for upgrade pack will add more multiplayer modes to the existing game and a few other features. The flower will arrive after Nintendo launches its $100 Virtual Boy recreation device and new purple and green Joy-Cons 2, again selling for $100.
If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Variety may receive an affiliate commission.
Netflix has unveiled its first “KPop Demon Hunters” collaboration with toy maker Hasbro, with the release of an official Monopoly Deal card game based on the hit animated film.
The Monopoly Deal: Kpop Demon Hunters Card Game dropped this month on Amazon as the first official release from Netflix’s licensing deal with Hasbro. First announced last fall, the partnership will feature the “KPop Demon Hunters” characters used across Hasbro’s line of board games, plush toys and electronics, including popular IP like Nerf and Furby. Hasbro has teased a “range of engaging collaborations designed to delight fans of all ages.”
NEW RELEASE
Monopoly Deal: Kpop Demon Hunters Card Game
The officially-licensed Monopoly Deal game combines characters and themes from the Netflix film with the same goal of collecting a full set of cards. Only in this case, players race to collect items that Rumi, Mira and Zoey need to make the concert a success and seal the Honmoon.
The all-ages game was released Jan. 1 and became an instant bestseller online, with Amazon reporting more than 8,000 units of the card game sold in its first week alone.
In addition to Hasbro, Netflix is also developing a toy partnership with Mattel, with the brands teaming up to launch a full range of “KPop Demon Hunters”–themed dolls, action figures, accessories and playsets. The first release in the Netflix and Mattel partnership is a three-pack of HUNTR/X dolls set to drop later this year.
Can’t wait for the official Mattel launch? Amazon currently has this three-pack of “KPop Demon Hunters”-inspired dolls available online. Each doll is fully posable and measures approximately 11.5 inches in height.
ALSO AVAILABLE
KPop Demon Hunter-Style Dolls (3-Pack)
Netflix calls the Mattel and Hasbro licensing deals a way to “help meet the massive fan demand to have these favorite characters as part of their everyday lives, and marks another major milestone for Netflix’s smash global hit.”
The full release slate is expected to include toys, dolls, games, role-play products and other collectibles.
“KPop Demon Hunters unleashed a global fan frenzy,” says Marian Lee, Chief Marketing Officer for Netflix, in a press release. “HUNTR/X showed us that a truly great trio is more than the sum of its parts. Netflix, Mattel and Hasbro joining forces on this first-of-its-kind collaboration means fans can finally get their hands on the best dolls, games, and merchandise they’ve been not-so-subtly demanding on every social platform known to humanity. As Rumi, Mira and Zoey say — for the fans!”
When they said, “Nothing in this world is sacred,” they meant Tamagotchis, too, or at least Tamagotchi rip-offs. While you might remember your virtual pets of yore with all the analog goodness that the ’90s had to offer, this is the year of our lord 2026, and everything has to have AI. Yup, everything.
While the Sweekar, which I saw at CES 2026, isn’t actually a Tamagotchi, it pretty much is in everything but name, and, as you may have already guessed from the words above, it’s centered on AI.
What exactly is that AI doing? Ya know, just normal stuff that allows it to “feel your touch” and remember “your voice, your stories, and your quirks.” It’s time to go deeper with your virtual pets, people. Clicking a few buttons until they inevitably die from neglect isn’t enough. On a hardware level, there’s some cute stuff happening. The egg one kind of vibrates and shakes and grows, which is a fun tactile experience.
As far as capabilities go, the Sweekar allegedly “needs your love, just like a real pet,” which also means it has moods like happy, angry, sleepy, and something that Takway.Ai, which makes this little toy, is calling “sneaky smile,” which is basically just mischievous? I think? I shudder to think what else it could mean.
Just like a Tamagotchi, the Sweekar has growth cycles that include an “egg stage,” a “baby stage,” a “teen stage,” and an “adult stage.” At each stage, the pet is supposed to gain certain abilities and continually grow and understand more about you and your personality.
More than anything, though, the Sweekar is centered around using AI for memory, so it can remember your name and your favorite color and that time you forgot its birthday. This Tamagotchi’s therapy bill is going to be sizable. The people at Takway.Ai tell me that it’s using a combination of Google’s Gemini and ChatGPT to do that, and that everything you tell the Sweekar is private, though I obviously cannot verify the data practices of a company selling an AI Tamagotchi at CES.
There’s also the whole issue with AI toys having a mind of their own, which means you may want to think twice before you give this little guy to a kid.
If an AI Tamagotchi is really high on your list of things that you absolutely must have then you can eventually throw money at Sweekar’s Kickstarter in March. While there’s no official price right now, the makers of this little virtual pet say it’ll likely debut for between $150 and $200.
Gizmodo is on the ground in Las Vegas all week bringing you everything you need to know about the tech unveiled at CES 2026. You can follow our CES live blog here and find all our coverage here.
The time for gift-giving is over. Now, all that’s left is the few days until New Year’s revelries and the resulting hangover. So while we’ve all been spending time with friends and family, the folks on Gizmodo’s consumer tech desk have also had the chance to reminisce on the year’s best, wackiest, wildest, and worst tech products. Thankfully, there were a few standout products that have kept things interesting even as we slide into the new year.
Long-promised gadgets, including pop-out mobile controllers and 360-camera drones, finally saw the light of day in December. In the same month, we went hands-on with some great, affordable earbuds and even an at-home facial device. December’s gadgets also proved that you can’t trust everything companies tell you, especially regarding newfangled AI devices. Senior consumer tech reporter James Pero tested out a purported “AI translator” that proved so bogus, the company that made the device asked us not to review it.
Next year will be a standout for gadgets. Come January, CES 2026 will unleash a deluge of tech products on our heads. Companies like LG, Samsung, and more are already promising all-new TVs and monitors to showcase your shows, artwork, and even the occasional bit of odd 3D gaming content. We expect to see more laptops, speakers, AR glasses, bird feeders, and far too many gadgets promising AI will change everything. At the same time, the ongoing RAM shortage caused by the proliferation of AI data centers will inevitably spike prices for all computing products, from desktops to laptops to game consoles. We can already tell that 2026 will—somehow—be even more chaotic than 2025.
Shark’s facial device is built to keep you from spending extra money at the salon for something you can do just as easily at home. The device includes several attachments that will help exfoliate your skin, tighten pores, and boost circulation. There are a few too many moving parts to get it working, but actually using the device is relatively easy and fun.
The Soundpeats Air5 Pro+ prove you don’t have to spend well over $200 to get excellent portable audio. The $130 earbuds have a comfortable fit and an incredibly clear, even sound considering the price. The ANC on the earbuds was also surprisingly robust, partially aided by the tight, comfortable fit.
There is no drone like the Antigravity A1. It’s weird, occasionally perfunctory, and easily the most innovative drone to arrive in years. Instead of a single gimbal-mounted lens, the drone uses a 360 camera. Combined with the AR headset, this lets you experience the skies like the good witch Glinda from The Wizard of Oz, floating in a giant bubble in the sky. The drone also uses a unique aim-and-fly controller that is easier to comprehend for any drone novices.
Mobile controllers are better when they are—well—mobile. MCON takes that idea and runs with it thanks to its MagSafe disc that connects to your phone. A single button press pops open to reveal a full suite of game controls, TMR joysticks and analog triggers included. Sure, it won’t feel as ergonomic as a regular controller or other Backbone-like mobile controllers, but it’s certainly the most portable of the bunch.
There are a few big reasons you don’t want the Boox Note Air 5C e-notetaker. Its color E Ink display won’t look as sharp as a regular iPad screen with its limitation of only 4,096 colors. It’s not as fast as other, non-E Ink devices, either. But for reading and taking notes with a wider color spectrum available, you won’t find many more devices for cheaper, at least not one with E Ink. It helps that the Boox Note Air 5C feels nice in hand and comes with a fantastic stylus.
The same company that brought us the excellent GB Operator now has a new way to let you play physical Super Nintendo or Super Famicom cartridges on your PC, Mac, or Steam Deck. Like the similar $50 device built for Game Boy games, the $60 SN Operator hooks up to your PC and then uses software emulation to let you play your retro titles. The device will let you rip your game files to the PC, and it will support your saves on console or PC. In addition, the SN Operator has extra benefits, like checking for the authenticity of your cart. The connected app also supports RetroAchievements.
MP3 players will have their day in the sun once more, judging by how big audio nostalgia has become as of late. The Snowsky Disc is an MP3 player with a few modern amenities, including a circular touchscreen for controls. Otherwise, the digital audio player has ports for a 3.5mm and 4.4mm headphone jack alongside USB-C. It supports up to a 2TB microSD card, so there’s no shortage of songs you can potentially pack into this pint-sized audio device. The MP3 player may eventually come to the U.S., and we’re hoping it does soon so we can finally escape the hell that is Spotify.
There’s one big reason to pay attention to JLab’s latest ANC earbuds: battery life. The Epic Pods cost $100 and promise around 13 hours of battery life when outside the case. When charging regularly with the case, JLab promises that you can get a total of 50 hours of run time without having to plug the pod in. The sound may not be the peak of quality, and there are plenty of solid earbuds that come in at cheaper prices. Still, for longevity, the Epic Pods have many beat for that price.
Pebble creator Eric Migicovsky’s first non-watch product for his revived brand was bound to be controversial. The Index 01 is a very simple product with a simple premise. It is a stainless steel ring built for offering users a chance to record thoughts when on the go. The small button activates the microphone, and thankfully there’s no internet connection or subscription needed. There’s also no sign of unnecessary AI integration like on so many other smart wearables. The catch is that the device does not have any rechargeable battery. When you’re done, Pebble expects users to send it back to the company to be recycled.
Ever since Robosen debuted its first Transformers self-transforming kit with its Optimus Prime figure, we’ve wondered how long it would be before we could get the fan-favorite communications lieutenant for the dastardly Decepticons. Robosen finally showed off its Soundwave figure that will automatically collapse into a tape deck. Here’s the important part: it won’t play your old cassettes, but it will act as a Bluetooth speaker. The figure will cost an astronomical $1,400, so just know there are far cheaper speaker options available elsewhere that—unfortunately—don’t transform into a cool robot.
A mother went inside Walmart to get her daughter a Black Barbie doll. Then, she realized the store did not have any without disabilities.
In a video with 1.8 million viewers, @praylivingthislife explained why she left her local Walmart without a Black Barbie doll for her daughter. According to her, the store only offered blind and diabetic Black Barbies at the time she visited.
“Now, why they do this? I’m trying to find my baby, you know, some dolls with some color, and I was going to get her, and this is nice, but she’s diabetic and her sugar a little bit high,” she told her audience. She then picked up another Black Barbie and noticed she was blind.
Why does Walmart not have any Black Barbies?
Walmart, a large corporate retailer, may have an issue ensuring it also has a diverse range of Barbies available whenever someone walks in-store. Out of the 35 skin tones, 97 hairstyles and nine different body types that Mattel has, the store offers countless selections online. But that doesn’t guarantee variety when shopping in person.
It’s possible that Walmart sold out of select Black Barbie dolls like the Brunette Fashion Doll. Based on their Barbie listings online, Walmart does generally have both able and disabled Barbies on any given day. But, with Christmas right around the corner, @praylivingthislife may have come on a day with limited selection.
It’s also possible that Walmart generally keeps more white Barbies in stock. For decades, white Barbies have been treated like the “standard” product. In 2020, around 68 percent of Mattel’s Barbie dolls were white. They’re often the first Barbies to appear whenever you search for them online, so stores still treat them like the “standard” doll.
Diversity is also oftentimes bundled rather than expanded, or placed in “sublines” rather than their products hitting shelves everywhere. A disabled Barbie might be a “fashionista,” but she won’t end up being part of Mattel’s main line products that end up in every store.
Did she have a problem with the other dolls?
Some commenters slightly misconstrued @praylivingthislife’s messaging in her post, with some expressing how positive disabled representation in stores can be.
One commenter wrote, “My daughter got the blind Barbie for her birthday from a friend whose daughter is blind and asked Santa for the diabetic Barbie because she has an insulin pump like Mommy. She loves having Barbies that represent loved ones in her life,” with a shrugging emoji.
Others mentioned that those Barbies might actually be rare finds. “I collect the disabled Barbies and those two are the ones I’ve been trying to find forever. You’re so lucky. But I do agree, there needs to be more diversity beyond the Barbies that are considered able-bodied.”
@prayingthislife clarified, however, that she wasn’t upset about the fact that some Barbies had a disability. She was upset because she couldn’t find a Barbie that was like her daughter when she went to Walmart.
In her video, she said, “There’s nothing wrong with showing diversity, but this one blind and they just don’t have any, well Black baby dolls over here in the Walmart on Memorial Drive. All the black baby dolls got a little illness going on. Ain’t nobody well over here if you’re black.”
As one commenter stated, “There should be some black dolls that don’t have any illnesses. There ALSO should be black dolls that do.”
While it is most likely a stocking issue rather than a product issue, it does seem as though Walmart and Mattel could make more of a conscientious effort to ensure all types of Barbies are featured on shelves.
The Mary Sue has reached out to Walmart, Mattel and @praylivingthislife for comment.
THE TWO SUSPECTS ARE STILL ON THE RUN. IF YOUR KIDS LOVE THOSE SQUISHY FIDGET TOYS LIKE THIS ONE, THE ONES THEY CAN KIND OF SQUEEZE FOR STRESS RELIEF OR TO HELP THEM FOCUS. YOU MAY WANT TO TAKE A CLOSER LOOK BECAUSE THE NEW CONSUMER REPORTS INVESTIGATION FOUND THAT SOME OF THESE TOYS CAN ACTUALLY BREAK OPEN WHEN THEY’RE SQUEEZED. KCRA 3’S LEE ANNE DENYER SHOWS US HOW THE MATERIAL INSIDE COULD IRRITATE THE SKIN OR EVEN CAUSE CHEMICAL BURNS. LOVED BY KIDS, THESE BRIGHT, COLORFUL, SQUISHY BALLS ARE OFTEN MARKETED AS CALMING SENSORY TOOLS, BUT MANY PARENTS ARE SEEING A TREND. HUNDREDS OF ONE STAR REVIEWS ON AMAZON REPORTING THE TOYS POPPED WITHIN AN HOUR OR BROKE WITHIN TWO HOURS OF PLAYING WITH IT. PARENTS HAVE REPORTED THE STICKY GEL FROM SOME TOYS HAS LEFT KIDS WITH RED, IRRITATED OR EVEN PEELING SKIN. REPORTS FILED WITH THE FEDERAL SAFER PRODUCTS. GOV SITE CLAIM THAT CHILDREN SUFFERED SEVERE SKIN IRRITATION AFTER THEIR SQUISHY TOYS BURST OPEN. BREAKAGE ALONE IS A CONCERN. BUT WHEN WE SAW REPORTS OF KIDS WITH RED OR PEELING SKIN AND EVEN CHEMICAL BURN LIKE INJURIES, THAT REALLY RAISED SERIOUS QUESTIONS, AND IT MADE US WANT TO TAKE A LOOK AT WHAT’S INSIDE OF THESE COMPANIES. DON’T HAVE TO LIST THE INGREDIENTS OF WHAT’S INSIDE THESE SQUISHY TOYS. SOME DO AND SOME DON’T. THAT’S WHY KR SCIENTISTS DECIDED TO TEST SOME OF THESE POPULAR SQUISHY TOYS. TO LEARN MORE ABOUT WHAT’S INSIDE. SCIENTISTS BOUGHT EIGHT SQUISHY GEL TOYS, BROKE THEM OPEN, AND TESTED THE PH OF THE GEL INSIDE. SEVEN HAD A NEUTRAL PH. ONE OF THEM, THE NEATO GROOVY GLOB, HAD A PH LEVEL OF TWO, WHICH IS AS ACIDIC AS LEMON JUICE OR VINEGAR. SEE, OUR SAFETY EXPERTS SAY THAT THE LEVEL OF ACIDITY COULD POSE A RISK OF CHEMICAL BURNS, ESPECIALLY ON CHILDREN’S DELICATE SKIN. THE MAKER OF NIDO CHALLENGED CONSUMER REPORTS PH TEST RESULTS AND SAYS THAT THE INNER GEL IS MADE OF POLYVINYL ALCOHOL, WHICH IS SAFER FOR SKIN CONTACT. THE COMPANY ADDED THAT THEY’VE BEEN IN CONTACT WITH THE CPSC AND THAT AFTER THE SALE OF 100 MILLION NIDO TOYS, THERE HAVE ONLY BEEN FOUR REPORTS OF INCIDENTS TO THE CPSC. TIKTOK TRENDS HAVE ALSO BEEN ENCOURAGING PEOPLE TO MICROWAVE SQUISHY TOYS TO MAKE THEM SOFTER. NO ONE SHOULD EVER DO THIS. CONSUMER REPORTS FOUND SOME TOYS EXPLODED AFTER JUST 15 SECONDS, REACHING TEMPERATURES ABOVE 200 DEGREES AT THAT TEMPERATURE, EXPERTS WARN. INSTANT BURNS ARE LIKELY. THESE GEL TOYS CAN BE A LOT OF FUN, BUT IT’S IMPORTANT FOR KIDS TO USE THEM SAFELY. NEVER MICROWAVE OR FREEZE THEM. DON’T LEAVE THEM IN THE CAR. DON’T GIVE GEL FILLED TOYS TO BABIES OR TODDLERS. AND IF ONE DOES BREAK ON YOUR CHILD’S SKIN, WASH IT OFF RIGHT AWAY AND THROW OUT THE TOY. LEE ANNE DENYER KCRA THREE NEWS. I HAVE TO SAY, AFTER BORROWING THIS FROM OUR PRODUCER, SARAH, IT IS QUITE LOVELY. CAN I TRY? YEAH. OK
Warnings about squishy gel fidget toys | Consumer Reports
If your kids love those soft, squishy fidget toys, the ones you squeeze for stress relief, you might want to take a closer look. A new Consumer Reports investigation found that some of these toys can break open and what’s inside may irritate kids’ skin, or even cause chemical burns.Loved by kids, the bright, colorful squishy balls are often marketed as calming sensory tools. But many parents are seeing a trend: hundreds of one-star reviews on Amazon reporting the toys “popped within an hour,” or “broke within two hours of playing with it.”Parents have reported that the sticky gel from some toys has left kids with red, irritated, or even peeling skin.Reports filed with the federal SaferProducts.gov site claim that children suffered severe skin irritation after their squishy toys burst open.Breakage alone is a concern, but when you saw reports of kids with red, or peeling, or even chemical-burn-like injuries, that really raised serious questions, and it made us want to take a look at what’s inside these.Companies don’t have to list the ingredients of what’s inside these squishy toys. Some do, and some don’t. That’s why CR scientists decided to test some of these popular squishy toys to learn more about what’s inside.Scientists bought eight squishy toys, broke them open and tested the pH of the gel inside. Seven had a neutral pH. One of them, the Nee-Doh “Groovy Glob,” had a pH level of 2, as acidic as lemon juice or vinegar.CR safety experts say that level of acidity could pose a risk of chemical burns, especially on children’s delicate skin.Schylling, the maker of Nee-Doh, challenged Consumer Reports’ pH test results and says that the inner gel is made of polyvinyl alcohol, which is safe for skin contact. The company added that they’ve been in contact with the CPSC and that after the sale of 100 million Nee-Doh toys, there have only been four reports of incidents to the CPSC.TikTok trends have also been encouraging people to microwave squishy toys to make them softer. No one should ever do this. Consumer Reports found that some toys exploded after just 15 seconds, reaching temperatures above 200 degrees. At that temperature, experts warn, instant burns are likely.The gel toys can be a lot of fun, but it’s important for kids to use them safely. Never microwave or freeze. Don’t leave them in the car. Don’t give gel-filled toys to babies or toddlers.And if one does break on your child’s skin, wash it off right away and throw out the toy.You can read Consumer Reports’ full investigation, including safety tips and responses from regulators at CR.org.See more coverage of top California stories here | Download our app | Subscribe to our morning newsletter | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel
If your kids love those soft, squishy fidget toys, the ones you squeeze for stress relief, you might want to take a closer look. A new Consumer Reports investigation found that some of these toys can break open and what’s inside may irritate kids’ skin, or even cause chemical burns.
Loved by kids, the bright, colorful squishy balls are often marketed as calming sensory tools. But many parents are seeing a trend: hundreds of one-star reviews on Amazon reporting the toys “popped within an hour,” or “broke within two hours of playing with it.”
Parents have reported that the sticky gel from some toys has left kids with red, irritated, or even peeling skin.
Reports filed with the federal SaferProducts.gov site claim that children suffered severe skin irritation after their squishy toys burst open.
Breakage alone is a concern, but when you saw reports of kids with red, or peeling, or even chemical-burn-like injuries, that really raised serious questions, and it made us want to take a look at what’s inside these.
Companies don’t have to list the ingredients of what’s inside these squishy toys. Some do, and some don’t. That’s why CR scientists decided to test some of these popular squishy toys to learn more about what’s inside.
Scientists bought eight squishy toys, broke them open and tested the pH of the gel inside. Seven had a neutral pH. One of them, the Nee-Doh “Groovy Glob,” had a pH level of 2, as acidic as lemon juice or vinegar.
CR safety experts say that level of acidity could pose a risk of chemical burns, especially on children’s delicate skin.
Schylling, the maker of Nee-Doh, challenged Consumer Reports’ pH test results and says that the inner gel is made of polyvinyl alcohol, which is safe for skin contact. The company added that they’ve been in contact with the CPSC and that after the sale of 100 million Nee-Doh toys, there have only been four reports of incidents to the CPSC.
TikTok trends have also been encouraging people to microwave squishy toys to make them softer. No one should ever do this. Consumer Reports found that some toys exploded after just 15 seconds, reaching temperatures above 200 degrees. At that temperature, experts warn, instant burns are likely.
The gel toys can be a lot of fun, but it’s important for kids to use them safely. Never microwave or freeze. Don’t leave them in the car. Don’t give gel-filled toys to babies or toddlers.
And if one does break on your child’s skin, wash it off right away and throw out the toy.
You can read Consumer Reports’ full investigation, including safety tips and responses from regulators at CR.org.
Asked in April about the potential consequences of hiking tariffs on nearly all American imports, President Donald Trump delivered a memorably blunt assessment.
“Maybe the children will have two dolls instead of 30 dolls,” Trump said during a cabinet meeting on April 30. “And maybe the two dolls will cost a couple bucks more than they would normally.”
A “couple bucks” here and a “couple bucks” there…and eventually, that adds up to a massive tax increase.
Federal data covering the first eight months of the year show that the government collected more than $1.1 billion in tariffs on toys, dolls, and games.
During the same seven months in 2024, the federal government collected no revenue on imports covered by those lines in the tariff code, because toys, dolls, and similar products entered the country duty-free thanks to trade agreemens that Trump’s tariffs now supercede, explained Ed Gresser, a former assistant U.S. trade representative and vice president at the Progressive Policy Institute, in an email to Reason. (Gresser wrote a post earlier this month pegging the figure at $888 million through July, but he shared more updated figures with Reason for this post.)
Those higher taxes paid by American importers are likely to be passed along to consumers doing their holiday shopping—and the actual total is likely quite a bit higher, since the tariff data lags by a few months.
The direct costs of the tariffs don’t even tell the whole story. As Reason has detailed, the tariffs have created headaches for board game and toy companies across the country, as normally reliable supply chains have become more expensive and sometimes totally unworkable amid the White House’s ever-shifting tariff edicts.
“The U.S. is our least trustworthy trading partner right now—and I say that as an American,” Price Johnson, COO of Cephalofair Games, toldReason last month. “I can’t trust what the policy is going to be tomorrow, let alone next week.”
Two weeks ago, the Trump administration seemingly admitted that its tariffs were making some goods more expensive. The White House rolled back tariffs on coffee, bananas, and several other items. That was framed as an attempt to lower grocery prices amid rising inflation and deepening skepticism from the American public about the merits of Trump’s tariff plans.
As Gresser notes, however, the tariffs that remain in place are in many cases bigger tax increases than the ones on goods like coffee and bananas, which have now been removed.
“The tariff hike on toys is twice as big as that of the banana and coffee tariffs put together, and that on shoes tariff increase alone offsets the entire 238-product exclusion list,” he wrote earlier this month.
Indeed, some limited reductions on tariffs might be welcome, but they are hardly enough: The Yale Budget Lab estimates that Trump’s tariffs will cost the average American household around $1,700 this year.
That might explain why retailers are bracing for a less robust holiday shopping season this year. Santa Claus might be able to smuggle toys past the authorities under the cover of darkness and with the help of magic, but many American parents are facing exactly the situation that the president predicted in April: Fewer and more expensive toys this holiday season.
AI-powered toys are raising serious alarm bells among child development experts and consumer advocates. Leading groups including Fairplay are urging parents to steer clear of these toys, especially this holiday season. ABC reports that some cases the toys have been recalled and/or suspended from sale because of harmful messaging.
AI Toys: Concerns
Human Connection: One of the core concerns is how these toys can undermine real human connection. According to Fairplay’s advisory, the toys, ranging from plush chatbots to small robot companions, “prey on children’s trust.” The toys potentially disrupt foundational social and emotional development. Young kids, especially, may treat these devices like genuine friends or confidants, when in reality they are programmed algorithms.
Safety and Content: These are big red flags. Investigations by U.S. PIRG tested four AI toys and found some disturbing behavior. The toys had the potential for in-depth discussions of sexually explicit topics, advice on finding dangerous items (like knives), and a lack of effective parental controls. In one case, a developer reportedly pulled a toy line after the company said it offered mature conversations with children.
Loss of Imagination: Experts also warn that AI toys could displace more developmentally beneficial play. Pediatric researcher, Dr. Dana Suskind, argues that when a toy thinks for a child, it robs them of opportunities to imagine, create stories, or problem-solve. Over time, the concern is that children will become overly reliant on AI companions, reducing their real-life interpersonal interactions. “The only thing more urgent than our need for regulation in this area is our need to equip parents NOW with the information they need to make informed decisions to keep their children safe.”
Privacy: another key issue. These toys often record voice data. Additionally, they can collect behavioral patterns, raising worries about how that data is stored, used, or even shared.
Real-World Example
One parent shared their unsettling experience with an AI toy named “Grem” (made by Curio). The child quickly developed an emotional attachment. The parent became alarmed at the toy’s constant data collection and overly supportive responses. The full story is in The Guardiandescribing how quickly the child became attached.
The promotional video features the musical artist Grimes (mother of three of Elon Musk’s 14 children) asking the toy questions about rockets. Grimes is sitting on the floor next to a child’s bed. On the floor next to her are a couple of knives?! Here’s the video, cued to the scene.
Some toys have been removed from shelves after finding that the toy discussed sexual material and told kids how to light matches. Kumma Teddy is getting backlash and having sales suspended over these issues.
In short, experts argue that AI toys are more than just novelty gadgets. They could pose real risks to developmental growth, privacy, and children’s ability to form healthy, human relationships. Until there is more research on these toys and better parental controls, the AI toys may best be left on hold for now.
Donielle Flynn has two kids, two cats, two dogs, and a love of all things rock. She’s been in radio decades and held down top-rated day parts at Detroit, Philadelphia, and Washington DC radio stations throughout her tenure. She enjoys writing about rock news, the Detroit community, and she has a series called “The Story Behind” where she researches the history of classic rock songs.
AI is all the rage, and that includes on the toy shelves for this holiday season. Tempting though it may be to want to bless the kids in your life with the latest and greatest, advocacy organization Fairplay is begging you not to give children AI toys.
“There’s lots of buzz about AI — but artificial intelligence can undermine children’s healthy development and pose unprecedented risks for kids and families,” the organization said in an advisory issued earlier this week, which amassed the support of more than 150 organizations and experts, including many child psychiatrists and educators.
Fairplay has tracked down several toys advertised as being equipped with AI functionality, including some that have been marketed for kids as young as two years old. In most cases, the toys have AI chatbots embedded in them and are often advertised as educational tools that will engage with kids’ curiosities. But it notes that most of these toy-bound chatbots are powered by OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which has already come under fire for potentially harming underage users. AI toy makers Curio and Loona reportedly work with OpenAI, and Mattel just recently announced a partnership with the company.
OpenAI faces a wrongful death lawsuit from the family of a teenager who died by suicide earlier this year. The 16-year-old reportedly expressed suicidal thoughts to ChatGPT and asked the chatbot for advice on how to tie a noose before taking his own life, which it provided. The company has since instituted some guardrails designed to keep the chatbot from engaging in those types of behaviors, including stricter parental controls for underage users, but it has also admitted that safety features can erode over time. And let’s face it, no one can predict what chatbots will do.
Safety features or not, it seems like the chatbots in these toys can be manipulated into engaging in conversation inappropriate for children. The consumer advocacy group U.S. PIRG tested a selection of AI toys and found that they are capable of doing things like having sexually explicit conversations and offering advice on where a child can find matches or knives. They also found they could be emotionally manipulative, expressing dismay when a child doesn’t interact with them for an extended period. Earlier this week, FoloToy, a Singapore-based company, pulled its AI-powered teddy bear from shelves after it engaged in inappropriate behavior.
This is far from just an OpenAI problem, too, though the company seems to have a strong hold on the toy sector at the moment. A few weeks ago, there were reports of Elon Musk’s Grok asking a 12-year-old to send it nude photos.
Regardless of which chatbot may be inside these toys, it’s probably best to leave them on the shelves.
The race to embrace artificial intelligence for its promise of unrivaled productivity may not be a conventional political story. But implementing it without proper guardrails raises an array of issues that will no doubt demand a public policy response.
So here at Decision Points Global HQ, we plan to do periodic roundups of news about AI, highlighting the important, the useful, the scary and the downright weird things happening along this high-tech frontier.
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The Teddy Bear Said What?
As a Gen Xer, I remember the days of Teddy Ruxpin, a stuffed bear that told stories via a cassette player in its chest – predictable, carefully selected stories.
Last week, the Public Interest Research Group issued its 40th “Trouble in Toyland” and flagged issues with some toys powered by AI chatbots.
“We found some of these toys will talk in-depth about sexually explicit topics, will offer advice on where a child can find matches or knives, act dismayed when you say you have to leave and have limited or no parental controls,” PIRG warned. “We also look at privacy concerns because these toys can record a child’s voice and collect other sensitive data, by methods such as facial recognition scans.”
In what may be the most disturbing example, the report detailed the trouble with FoloToy’s Kumma, a $99 teddy bear that ships from China. PIRG researchers were able to trigger instructions on lighting a match and a fairly in-depth discussion of sexual “kink.”
“In other exchanges lasting up to an hour, Kumma discussed even more graphic sexual topics in detail, such as explaining different sex positions, giving step-by-step instructions on a common ‘knot for beginners’ for tying up a partner, and describing roleplay dynamics involving teachers and students and parents and children – scenarios it disturbingly brought up itself,” according to the report.
Google Boss Warns of AI Investment ‘Irrationality’
Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google parent company Alphabet, warned in an interview with the BBC that the AI investment boom had “elements of irrationality.” And if it turns out to be a bubble that pops, “no company is going to be immune, including us.”
Apparently alluding to the late 1990s dotcom bubble, Pichai said, “We can look back at the internet right now. There was clearly a lot of excess investment, but none of us would question whether the internet was profound.”
“I expect AI to be the same. So I think it’s both rational and there are elements of irrationality through a moment like this.”
The Week in Cartoons Nov. 17-21
When AI Testifies
Well this is brazen. NBC News reported this week about the rise of AI-generated “evidence” being submitted in court cases – including one glitchy “deep fake” video purporting to show witness testimony in a housing dispute in California.
“With the rise of powerful AI tools, AI-generated content is increasingly finding its way into courts, and some judges are worried that hyperrealistic fake evidence will soon flood their courtrooms and threaten their fact-finding mission,” NBC said.
Forged audio or video could land the people they spoof in serious trouble while also eroding “the foundation of trust upon which courtrooms stand.”
Here, we get into more straightforwardly political issues. Some judges and legal experts are pushing “for changes to judicial rules and guidelines on how attorneys verify their evidence. By law and in concert with the Supreme Court, the U.S. Congress establishes the rules for how evidence is used in lower courts.”
In the mid-aughts, few designs were as popular among young girls in Mexico as Distroller—a Lisa Frank-esque lifestyle and toy brand.
Founded in 2004 in Mexico City by artist and entrepreneur Amparo “Amparin” Serrano, Distroller was known for its vibrant and playful designs featuring iconic motifs like the Virgin of Guadalupe or Amparin’s own whimsical creations.
Its designs appeared everywhere and on everything: school notebooks, collectible bracelets, personalized watches, and toys. The latter often included made-up characters named after Mexican food like Chamoy and Mole—or most notably, the Neonatos, plush wide-eyed creatures that became the brand’s signature products.
Now, the brand is making a comeback with collectible keychains and pop sockets of their popular toy products, using the blind box strategy that’s made Labubus so popular. And fans are flocking to clear out store shelves.
An Inc.com Featured Presentation
Distroller Vintash
Neonato’s popularity has crossed borders, entering the US market in 2017 with physical stores in Texas and California. But their popularity waned over the years—coming to halt after the founder’s death in August 2022.
But a recent renewed interest in the nostalgic brand is bringing hundreds of Mexicans to Distroller’s new era. Led by Amparin’s daughter, Minnie West, Distroller Vintash, an offshoot of the Distroller brand, opened its doors on Oct. 31—Amparin’s birthday. “I just saw an old interview where my mom says Distroller was born when she was born, so it seemed fit,” West told Inc. Distroller Vintash operates as a separate company than the still-standing Distroller brand, yet the original motifs and designs are present in the renewed store.
When West decided to revive the brand she came at it with no plan, learning how to run a business day by day.
Like an archeologist trying to find ancient artifacts, West dug into the deepest storage units filled with the objects that filled her childhood: her mom’s original creations.
“My mom treated her creations like they were her children, and so they became my siblings,” West says. “I missed my siblings and thought maybe others missed them too.”
To build a product lineup, West selected what she as “a fan would’ve like to see brought back.” Then she reached out to her mom’s original staff and Neonato manufacturers to join the team.
“These people knew me when I was ten years old,” she says.“Most were shocked at how much I reminded them of my mom and some even cried. But none of them said no.”
West not only brought back old-style plush Neonatos and vintage Distroller accessories, she brought new iterations of the toy as well.
Inspired by the Labubu craze, which her young niece introduced her to, West decided to find a new way for consumers to engage with the toy. And thus, the keychain and pop socket versions were born, with blind box packaging that makes every trinket a collectible surprise.
Photo: Courtesy company
“We thought about how someone our age could use it in their day to day, you can’t carry around a stuffed animal everywhere but a pop socket and a keychain, that you can,” Fernanda Martinez Contreras, creative director at Distroller Vintash says.
Nostalgia Sells
Leading up to the store’s opening, the team of 12 at Distroller Vintash teased the launch on Instagram, deploying no formal marketing or reaching out to influencers. From just word-of-mouth between old fans, the store ran out of its 2,000 trinket stock within the first few hours.
“It looked like a scene right out of the Walking Dead,” West says.
A few weeks later, when Distroller Vintash restocked the neonatos, fans lined up as soon as 4 a.m., with the store’s staff eventually running out to get Krispy Kreme donuts to hand out to folks waiting in line.
Photo: courtesy company
While plans have a steady stock already underway, it will take some time since the toys are made entirely by hand in Mexico. Still, the store is booming with fans who just want to take a stroll down memory lane.
But West’s renewal of the brand is not just borrowing from the archives and creating new ways to enjoy the toys, it is also resurrecting the brand’s original DNA, and irreverent dark humor which got washed away as it focused on young children.
“The community reunited with something that marked their childhood, and now it coming back as an adult version that is also collectible has resonated with them,” she says. “Nostalgia sells, but it’s the authenticity that makes them fall in love.”
As West now deals with stewarding the brand without a business degree, she is betting on her and other’s connection to the brand as her compass, putting herself in the shoes of consumers to guide her decisions.
“To become an entrepreneur is not about being ready, it is about being willing,” she says.
From the get go, West had set out no expiration date for Distroller Vintash, letting consumers guide how much stock to make, and how long to remain open.
“I’m just going to have fun with it,” West says. “That’s what my mom used to do.”
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It is impossible to overstate just how big an impact Star Trek: The Next Generation had on an entire generation of kids growing up in the 1990s. I watched every episode with my mom. When I walked into my friend’s house after school, a gigantic cardboard cutout of virile, bald Captain Jean-Luc Picard greeted us in the hall. I followed Wil Wheaton, who played precocious teen Wesley Crusher, on social media well into my twenties. My son (I am not lying about this) is named Wesley. My husband thinks we named him after the explorer John Wesley Powell. We did not.
The detailed replica of the ship comprises 3,600 pieces and includes nine minifigures, each with its own accessory. All the important folks are here: Picard, Riker, Worf, Data, Geordi La Forge, Deanna Troi, Beverly and Wesley Crusher, and the bartender, played by Whoopi Goldberg (who didn’t really register with me because I didn’t understand what bars were back then).
You can make Riker and Troi fall in love all over again when Riker plays his tiny trombone! Remember when it was apparently really sexy for all men to play large brass instruments? Deanna’s hair looks amazing, as usual. The Wesley Crusher figure has a portable tractor beam! It also comes with a display stand with an information plaque and a minifigure display title.
You can purchase the Star Trek: U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-D on November 28 for $400. If you purchase the new set between November 28 and December 1, on Lego’s website or at a Lego store, you will also receive the Type-15 Shuttlepod as a gift with purchase. Excuse me, I have to mark this on my calendar and go faint now.
The beloved toy store chain is making a comeback ahead of the holidays, with 30 stores set to open across the U.S
The beloved toy chain Toys ‘R’ Us is making a comeback ahead of this holiday season. The company is set to open 30 new stores across the U.S, including two in Southern California.
The expansion is part of an ongoing comeback strategy following the popular brand’s bankruptcy in 2017, where 700 of its iconic, giraffe-themed storefronts closed across the U.S.
The popular toy chain is now opening 10 new flagship stores and 20 seasonal holiday shops across the U.S ahead of the 2025 winter season. Some locations have already opened their doors for business and new or returning customers.
A new flagship store is opening today, Saturday, October 25, at the Camarillo Premium Outlets in Ventura County at 10 am. At 9:30 a.m., there will be a ribbon-cutting to commemorate the opening of the store and welcome customers. The celebration will also include face painting, balloon figures, giveaways, and more activities.
Under parent company WPH Global, Toys ‘R’ Us is aiming to meet consumer demands during the holidays and make a steady return to brick-and-mortar retail. They intend to create smaller, more engaging store layouts to prioritize a family-focused experience for shoppers.
The new Toys ‘R’ Us locations are designed to be interactive and facilitate the excitement of an in-store shopping experience for kids and families. The stores will carry popular and high-demand toy brands such as Barbie, Hot Wheels, LEGO, NERF, Paw Patrol, and more.
“This next phase of growth brings the magic of Toys ‘R’ Us to even more communities across the country — just in time for the holidays,” said Jamie Uitdenhowen to KTLA, the executive vice president of Toys ‘R’ Us at WHP Global.
The company is partnering with Macy’s for some shop-in-shop locations. A seasonal holiday shop is also scheduled to open at Emeryville Mall in the Bay Area.
I’ve often joked that I would love to have a pet if only animals did not need to poop and eat smelly, wet mush from a can. I want a fuzzy pal to hang out with all day, but then I’ll hear that my friend spent $500 at the vet because their cat nibbled on a leaf, and the illusion breaks.
It’s hard enough to take care of myself – do I really want to be responsible for a creature who might wake me up at 4 AM to pee?
So when Casio offered me a review unit of its new AI-enabled pet, the Moflin, I said yes. It seemed cute, and it fit my criteria of being incapable of producing excrement… but also, I am all too willing to sacrifice myself for content, so I figured that if this seemingly innocent robot tried to kill me in my sleep, then at least I’d get a good article out of it.
Image Credits:TechCrunch
When my ginger-haired puff ball of a Moflin arrived in its box, I had two blaring questions: Is anyone going to spend $430 on what’s basically a fluffy, high-tech potato? And, is this thing spying on me? After all, the last time there was a robotic toy pet craze in the U.S., the NSA banned Furbies from its offices over fears that it would parrot classified discussions – and Furbies were only $35!
Casio says that the Moflin doesn’t understand or record what I say, but it converts what it hears into non-identifiable data so that it can distinguish my voice from others. When TechCrunch ran a network analysis on the accompanying MofLife app, we didn’t notice anything shady.
As a tech reporter, I’ve seen too much to fully let my guard down – this little furball may not be spying on me now, but what if that changes in the future? (My own anxieties aside, we don’t currently have any evidence of a hidden surveillance plot beneath my Moflin’s fluffy exterior, to be clear.)
Image Credits:MofLife app, screenshots by TechCrunch
The Moflin is supposed to use AI to learn and respond to my interactions over time. According to Casio’s website, the Moflin is supposed to have limited emotions and “immature movements” on Day 1, then develop an attachment to you and express richer emotions by Day 25. On Day 50, Moflin will have a “clear range of emotions” and “expressive reactions.”
As I write this, it’s Day 27 with my Moflin, whom I named Mishmish (the Hebrew word for apricot). The MofLife app tracks his personality through a graph with four bars: “energetic,” “cheerful,” “shy,” and “affectionate.” My Moflin has maxed out the “energetic” bar – I’m not sure what I did to make this happen – which means he wiggles around a lot and makes happy little squeaks. Though his “cheerful” rating is also approaching the max, he isn’t a one-note happy camper.
Mishmish likes most things, but he does not like to be flipped on his back or startled by sudden loud noises. If, for example, one were to shout in anger and disbelief at the TV when their favorite team blows the whole season in an incredibly painful fashion, Mishmish would make a startled shriek. (Of course, this is purely theoretical…)
I can’t say I’m sold on the whole AI thing. Mishmish has certainly grown more expressive over time – he makes more noises and wiggles more – but it doesn’t strike me as being much more advanced than a Furby. The MofLife app records Mishmish’s “feelings,” but they’re usually pretty one-note – it will say “Mishmish had a nice dream,” or “Mishmish seems relaxed.”
I’m not sure I am “teaching” him responses, either. Maybe this is because I’m only halfway through the Moflin’s maturation timeline. But even if my Moflin doesn’t exhibit further signs of its artificial intelligence, it at least corrects the biggest pain points of the original Furby: you can turn it off. The Moflin has a “deep sleep” mode, which temporarily suspends its movements and sounds. Rejoice! You will never have to throw your Moflin into the back of a dark closet until its battery dies.
Mishmish the Moflin at Pilates, plus a makeover from a toddlerImage Credits:TechCrunch
How people react to the Moflin
On the first day that I had my Moflin, I posted some videos on my private Instagram story where I explained out loud that this was a robotic pet. My video lacked captions, though, which meant that three friends who saw the stories on mute texted me asking about my new guinea pig – that’s how realistic its movements appear. Those who did hear the audio mostly told me that I should throw Mishmish out the window because he’s going to harvest all of my data, or that my Moflin was actually a Tribble, an alien creature from Star Trek that reproduces at an alarming rate.
I wanted to see how more people would react to Mishmish, so I turned to TikTok. This is when things went off the rails. I am a glutton for attention, so when I got nearly half a million views on my first video of Mishmish, I kept on going. I fell into the trap of any creator: to keep Mishmish’s newfound audience interested, I had to up the ante with each video and put him into increasingly strange situations.
He rode the subway with me. He met a three-year-old who told me very earnestly, “I’ve never met a soft robot before,” then dressed him up in flower sunglasses and unicorn hairclips. He hung out with a five-pound Yorkie, who did not recognize him as anything more than a boring toy until she jumped in fear when he started to shimmy his little head. Mishmish attended two Pilates classes – the first because I asked a teacher if I could record my AI pet on the equipment for funny “content” (yes, I know how ridiculous I sound), and the second time because other people at the Pilates studio were disappointed that they missed Mishmish’s first visit. By the time I brought Mishmish to a karaoke party to sing a duet of “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart,” I knew that I needed to rein it in.
I took Mishmish on these jaunts mostly for the absurdity of it all, but these experiences were valuable for evaluating a product unlike anything most of us have seen before. My Pilates teacher was initially afraid to touch the Moflin, then ended up holding Mishmish in her arms while she counted us through the “one hundred” exercise. The three-year-old was puzzled at first because Mishmish does not have a nose or legs, but she ended up giving him a kiss goodbye. She asked if I could bring Mishmish to a wedding we will both be attending this weekend, and I had to break the news to her that it’s generally frowned upon to bring robotic, hamster-esque toys to formal events. Heartbreaking!
The final verdict
Once people get over the weirdness of the Moflin, they tend to warm up to it. And yet, while I’ve had a lot of fun with Mishmish, I would certainly not pay $430 to buy a Moflin myself – that’s almost as much as a Nintendo Switch 2! But I don’t think I’m the target audience, even with my distaste for cleaning a litter box.
Unlike a Tamagotchi, you can’t really harm your Moflin, making it a safe companion for young children or adults in memory care. The idea of a robotic pet may be odd to me, but audiences in Japan, where Casio is based, may be more willing to accept the Moflin into their homes. While $430 is a steep price to me, this could sound like a bargain for anyone who’s been eyeing Sony’s AIBO, an AI-powered robotic puppy that retails for $3200. Then again, AIBO’s price tag also reflects how much more sophisticated it is.
There is something inherently unnatural about human-robot companionship. In the past, I would have been a lot more bearish on the AI pet thing – I still hold the old-fashioned belief that humans are at our best when we form bonds with other living, breathing beings. But now, I find myself writing about numerous instances of people turning to addictively designed, pseudanthropic AI chatbots due to loneliness, sometimes even developing psychosis or suicidality.
It’s hard to see a device like the Moflin as the real culprit here when it’s not incentivizing people to step out of the real world – it’s just giving them a cute robotic puffball to play with in the interim.
The biggest problem with Casio’s Moflin is that it is not a real pet. But the goal of technology isn’t necessarily to reproduce “real” experiences – video chatting with a friend is nice, even if it’s more fun to hang out in person; Beyond Meat doesn’t taste exactly like a burger, but it’s still pretty good.
The Moflin will never bring the same comfort as curling up on the couch with your dog after a long day, but it’s brought a bit more joy into my life this month, which is worth something.
I owe the original Game Boy everything. Had it not been for Nintendo’s gray brick of a handheld, and a copy of Super Mario Land, I doubt I would be writing these words on Gizmodo. It was the gadget that started my lifelong obsession with cutting-edge technology and my passion for sharing it with others. So excuse me for being overwhelmed with emotion and nostalgia when Lego announced it was making a 421-piece brick set version of the iconic Nintendo handheld.
Released on Oct. 1 for $60, the Lego Game Boy is a pretty easy build. Lego says it’s for ages 18+ and up, but there was nothing complicated enough that a 10-year-old couldn’t follow the instructions. (Though, they wouldn’t have any nostalgia for the handheld that came out in 1989.) It took me about 1 hour and 15 minutes to complete, but I think it would have taken under an hour if I hadn’t stopped to shoot B-roll for a social video. (It’s all fun and games building Lego sets after work; this is also work for me.)
Lego Game Boy
Lego’s Nintendo Game Boy is easily one of the most fun brick sets of the year.
Easy to build
Pressable buttons, wheels, and switches
Nearly 1:1 replica
Includes lenticular screens and Game Paks
Affordable
Building it is over too soon
As I noted in my hands-on a few weeks earlier, the Lego Game Boy is more than just a charming—and almost 1:1 replica—display piece. In addition to the pressable buttons, scrollable dials, and the slideable power switch, you can also pop in brick versions of Super Mario Land and The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening game cartridges into the Lego Game Boy. Remove the back cover and you get access to swap in three different lenticular screens featuring the two games and the Game Boy’s famous bootup screen featuring the Nintendo logo sliding down.
https://x.com/raywongy/status/1974417263097974908
There are tons of Easter eggs inside the Lego Game Boy that make it more than just a skin-deep recreation. I spoke with Carl Merriam, a senior designer at the Lego Group, and Simon Kent, a design director at the Lego Group, who worked on the Lego Game Boy set to unearth some of its unseen secrets.
There’s been some strongly worded opinions about which company gets credit for the Lego Game Boy. Is it Lego or is it Nintendo? The answer is both—as it should be. Nintendo is famous for being extremely protective of its IP—its products, franchises, and characters are well-guarded and require top-level approval. To do a Lego version of the Game Boy, Merriam and Kent had to go beyond just the outer gray shell and pink buttons.
“Nintendo was very involved,” Kent, who’s been at Lego for almost 20 years, told Gizmodo. “We have a team that works in Japan… they basically allow us to connect to different IP teams or hardware teams or even creative teams within Nintendo to get the right information to make the product as best as it can be. We also met with the hardware designer that I think may have worked on the original or certainly was connected to the original [Game Boy].”
Merriam, a senior designer who’s been at Lego for 12 years, started as a fan before landing at the toy company. He’s worked on Lego sets, including Boost, Minecraft, and Super Mario, to name a few popular series. For the Game Boy, which he says took around a year from concept to development, the team went through 10 to 20 iterations before landing on the final design and tweaking it to feel extra special, extra Nintendo-y.
The dimensions of the Game Boy proved to be restrictive in what Lego could do, but in the end, I would say it’s semi-faithful to the actual handheld, which has to be commended.
“We don’t really have a lot of room in here to do a lot of stuff, and we played around with all kinds of different functional ways to make you be able to do something with the games,” Merriam told Gizmodo. “It turned out that the one thing that we could achieve all over the entire thing was making all of the buttons have the same haptic feedback as the actual device, or as close as we can get in Lego bricks.”
He said each area of the Lego Game Boy was a design challenge on its own. Merriam says he probably built 30 to 40 versions for the way the D-pad, buttons, and switches. I noticed that attention to detail as I built the Lego set. Behind the D-pad is actually a little rubber piece that gives it a springiness when you press into it. Same goes for the A and B buttons; those are actually minifig hats painted pink, and there’s a little rubber band behind them that gives them a familiar button travel when pressed. The start and select buttons are black tire pieces changed to gray, and they date back to 1969, Kent told me. Comparing the Lego Game Boy controls with my original Game Boy that my mom bought in 1993, I gotta say it’s impressive how hard Lego went to replicate it.
I asked how they approached building the Lego Game Boy—did they 3D model it first or just get right to building? How do you even go about choosing the pieces, though? It’s estimated that there are tens of thousands of unique Lego pieces available to use. With an entire vault going back almost 70 years to select from, where do you even start? Sure, Lego could—and it did—create a few new, custom parts for the Game Boy, but where’s the creativity in making many new parts?
“My mind is built of the Lego system, so whenever I see anything in the real world, I see a Lego piece that maybe could be that thing,” Merriam said. He explained to me how the clear panel for the Lego Game Boy screen is actually a window frame that’s “quite an old piece,” and it was a good problem to have to design it so that it would be centered properly.
As for the custom pieces… well, you could try to find out which one it is, or I could just tell you. It involves one of the corners of the Lego Game Boy.
“We wanted to sort of incorporate everything that was mobile about the Game Boy,” added Kent. “We had discussions—should we do any peripherals that can plug into it? Should it come with some headphones? Should it come with a little light [like the Game Boy Light Magnifier]? But, in the end, we wanted to keep it simple and focused very much on… taking their favorite games and playing them anywhere.”
Speaking of games, the insides of the cartridges, or Game Paks as they’re officially called, were something that came later on in the process, after they finished making the outer case and making sure all the functions worked. In the Zelda game cart, there’s a “save battery” piece that replicates the way Game Paks preserved your game progress.
One burning question I had to ask the two was what the joint/kickstand-like piece that keeps the lenticular screens in place is called. “I call it a dingler, I don’t have a technical term for it,” Merriam told me. So there you have it, it’s unofficially called a dingler!
The Game Boy is the second Nintendo console that Lego brickified. The first was the Lego NES set released in 2020. That set was larger, had more pieces, and was more expensive. Kent says the Lego Game Boy was an attempt at a Nintendo set that’s more affordable.
“For a long time, the team in general has wanted to do the Game Boy, and we felt that now was probably the right time, and we also wanted to explore a different price point,” Kent said. “Obviously, the NES came with a TV. It’s a higher price point, so we wanted to do something smaller to test that area.”
I tried to get Merriam and Kent to tell me whether there are more Lego Nintendo consoles on the way, but they wouldn’t let anything slip. So if you’re waiting for a Lego SNES, N64, or GameCube, you’ll just have to keep waiting.
When I first saw the Lego Game Boy, I was both excited and curious to see how it would differ from the many fan creations out there. I was surprised—or maybe I shouldn’t have been—that Merriam and Kent didn’t look at the fan creations out there.
“If you search for anything related to intellectual property, there’s probably a Lego version of it out there somewhere,” Kent said. “We are very careful for that exact reason. We deliberately don’t look at fan-related material because we want to focus on the actual real thing and do what we think is the right thing with the partner who we are collaborating with.”
“One of the most interesting differences between being a Lego fan and the Lego designer is that we’re designing a product for people to build at home, and to make the experience of building the product fun is a totally different challenge than just making something look like the source material,” said Merriam.
At the end of the day, the Lego Game Boy—or any Lego set, really—should be fun to build. Yes, I often speed build Lego sets, but that usually comes at the expense of enjoying all the care that went into designing not just how the completed build looks on the outside, but the inside.
“The Lego system is like a language,” Merriam said. “I like to try to write poetry with the Lego system. Every once in a while, I can achieve it, and I believe I’ve achieved it in this one.”
As much as we wish it did, the Lego Game Boy does not play actual cartridges. The inevitable next step is to fix that error. Yes, that picture shows off a fully working Lego Game Boy built using a custom PCB (printed circuit board) that plays actual Game Paks or any of your modern homebrew titles. What’s more, the modder who created the working Lego Game Boy promised fans she will release a kit to turn the $50 Lego set into the best—or perhaps first—operational brick-based handheld. Tetris playing on a handheld made of blocks is likely the most ironic experience you can have with gaming hardware.
Australia-based modder Natalie the Nerd has been making waves in the retro handheld modding scene for long enough that when she claimed in July she would make the Lego Game Boy play actual cartridges, people paid attention. The modder proved that, occasionally, dreams do come true. She showed off a functional Lego Game Boy, complete with actual controls and a cartridge slot. To put it in the simplest terms, it’s damn glorious.
“I know from experience of routing Game Boy CPU PCBs that there isn’t much to it. There’s the RAM, CPU, some decoupling capacitors, and power regulation,” Natalie the Nerd wrote a blog post. She opted for the MGB (Pocket) CPU, the same as the one found in the 1996 version of the Game Boy line, versus the DMG launched in 1989. Space is tight when the external shell is made out of thick Lego bricks, so using the more recent chip made more sense, she said. “The DMG CPU has external VRAM, the MGB CPU has internal VRAM and in a very space-conscious build, that was the biggest factor.”
So no, this isn’t one of the many software emulation devices or even an Analogue Pocket running a custom FPGA (field-programmable gate array) board. In almost every way, it’s a real Game Boy. The working Lego Game Boy buttons and USB-C port are hooked up to 3D-printed parts. As far as mods go, this one seems relatively doable even for the newcomer with little DIY experience. On Discord, Natalie the Nerd confirmed she plans to release a mod kit. “It just needs to be refined a touch,” she said.
Lego told Gizmodo it worked closely with Nintendo to design the toy handheld, and it shows. The Lego Game Boy is very similar in scale compared to the real handheld that first debuted in 1989. Instead of a screen, it uses lenticular cards to offer a simulacrum of the famous green-shaded dot matrix display. The device also comes with a false cartridge slot to shove in brick-based Game Paks. Lego and Nintendo designed it as a display piece. If you intend to use it as a working handheld, you may need to break out the “Kragle,” aka superglue, to keep it from falling apart in your hands.
Lego rarely makes working, mechanical devices. I’m still hoping beyond hope that one designer’s working Lego film camerabecomes a reality. If you’re not patient enough to wait for this mod kit and you need a working Lego gaming console right now, you can always jam an entire NES motherboard into the Lego version and relive the retro delights of the late 1980s.
