Toys

Surely they should have drones and iPhones by now.

If the table is four times the size of regulation, does having an extra person and paddle still present an advantage?

Hyper-realistic baby dolls, known commonly as “reborn dolls,” or simply “reborns,” are many things: collectors’ items, scene partners for popular YouTube videos, or vehicles for therapy. But perhaps above all, they’re art, and the people who make them can sell their work for hundreds or thousands of dollars.

8,000-plus characters, 29 Conan O’Brien dolls alone: inside the Funko Pop Vinyl phenomenon.

We’re not going to mince words: Carl Johnson and Alec Sjoholm are both excellent at “Scrabble” and watching them play is a true pleasure.

You know a drone operator is particularly skilled when we are more focused on his piloting than on the race he is chasing.

Puppet maker Barnaby Dixon is back at it again with a weird and whimsical creation.

Born in Europe — or maybe China — this simple game took hold in the American Midwest. Now, it’s aiming for the Olympics.

This stop-motion animation of one of the most pivotal moments of the Champion Toronto Raptors’ season has us in awe.

In arcades across the land, at all hours of the day, people vie for both novel and practical prizes.

Not only is Secret an extremely cute Australian shepherd, she also has better fine motor control than most preteens.

Before a Hot Wheels car hits a store shelf, it must pass the “launcher on speed 2” test and the “side slam launcher” test, among others.

A perfect little internet video for your viewing and listening pleasure.

Like a personal rollercoaster for one, this newly invented zip line is bizarrely the product of safety testing.

A Rubik’s cube novice interviews world record-setting speedcubers and the creator of the Rubik’s cube himself to learn the limitations of the hobby.

What’s even more interesting than him actually solving it is him sketching out what’s happening inside without even seeing it.

Etsy and eBay list thousands of dolls purportedly inhabited by everything from evil witches to judgmental spirits that might call you fat to young children and fairy spirits.

This blue bullet thinks its a full-sized gasoline-powered car, flying across an empty stretch of highway.

Michael Schiess started slow with just a handful of games in his living room. Soon, however, things really started getting rolling down the playfield and now he is the purveyor of the Pacific Pinball Museum Annex in Alameda, California.

The Atomic Energy Lab kit — the world’s most dangerous toy — contains not one, not two, but three different sources of radiation.

Nigel Richards and Joel Sherman have much better vocabularies than you or I or anyone else you’ve probably ever met.

Listening to Gentry Stein talk about his passion for yo-yos is might make your head spin. But watching him do the thing is oddly blissful.

“Most model makers are outcasts who don’t fit in anywhere else because all we’re capable of doing is making tiny versions of things.”

Cleveland Cavaliers, please start this guy at shooting guard.

Kids are obsessed with YouTube unboxing videos. The toy industry is taking notice.

Perhaps we’re ignorant buffoons, but we had no idea that light waves could carry music and we’re a bit in awe.

Following marbles as they bounce around this contraption is its own unique form of meditation.

The record is currently set at 200, but how much farther could it theoretically go up?

Human ingenuity knows no bounds.

“Over 126,000 pieces, 10 lifts, 14 motors, and over 1000 feet of track. It features a 40 foot long self-supporting bridge, a 6 foot tall vertical loop, a 100 foot long illuminated path, and a 6.5 foot wide spiral bowl.” No wonder it took two years.

There’s always gotta be a brand.

In 2014, most critics were pleasantly surprised by how Phil Lord and Chris Miller made the “The Lego Movie” more than the sum of its corporate parts. Now, two “Lego” spin-offs, a “Spider-Verse” and one-half of a “Star Wars” later, have the duo written a sequel that lives up the high expectations they set themselves?

It’s been an open secret on the internet for a while now, but watching marbles do their thing is oh-so mesmerizing.

Lego apparently have a higher rate of return than gold or stocks.

To pilot customized crafts like this one, pilots must don video goggles that give them a first-person view of the flight for safety purposes.

Inside the thriving — but threatened — Tumblr community dedicated to collecting and customizing vintage robot toys.

Constructing this took 15,000 Legos and some metal bars to support the Terminator’s full weight.

We’re projecting all of our negative emotions about 2018 onto these innocent ‘nos.

If you’re on the nice list, you get nice presents. If you’re on the naughty list, you get coal. If you’re in between, you get one of these.

As it turns out, Don Cheadle is really, really good at Boggle.

And to make this feat even more challenging, he did all of this without using glue.

A consumer report sheds light on security risks associated with kids’ toys, including a popular Amazon tablet.

This is done all in the name of science and, well, sadism, of course.

Its darts — which travel over 100 miles per hour — blast through plastic, poster board and remote-control helicopters with ease.

The rise of tech could have been the company’s downfall. Instead, it’s been a boon.

As part of an upcoming “Beauty and the Beast” attraction, Tokyo Disneyland is utilizing some new animatronics that are… unnerving to say the least.

Alright, we’re bringing back hacky sack, making it a team sport and selecting this woman as our first round pick.

The experiment — which should not be replicated at home — was conducted to assuage parents’ fears of their children swallowing small toy parts.

Diesel tankers grinding rails and landing risky jumps.

The media has had it all wrong: millennials aren’t broke because of student loans or avocado toast, it’s the board game racket that has them cornered.

We will never see Geoffrey the Giraffe again.

Our ears appreciate the strange white noise; our eyes adore the chaotic scene of yellow, purple, green and blue pinging against one another; and our hearts love the hard work and elbow grease that went into this beauty.

Magnets are probably the most instantly gratifying object, especially when there’s a million tiny ones.

He may not have the finest motor control, but Tito the raccoon knows how to solve one of the world’s most popular puzzles.

One week of work and 40 “fails” later, this contraption is a thing of beauty.

Puzzlemaker Tony Fisher used a 7-inch Rubik’s Cube as the core for this contraption, extending the corners using plastic pipe, cardboard boxes, plastic sheeting and thick gaffer tape.

When you think of woodblock prints, you probably don’t think of “Mobile Suit Gundam.” You should!

Grab a bucket of popcorn. This one’s gonna be a nail biter.

And then attempt to mix the water back in?

The Walt Disney Animation Research Library, which houses 65 million items from sketches of Mickey Mouse to the original Pinocchio puppet, is an Aladdin’s cave of intellectual property.