Tech toys 2019: the best new games and gadgets at the New York Toy Fair

At Toy Fair 2019 in NYC, there was pretty much everything we could hope for – STEM toys that help kids become the next generation of NASA engineers, AR toys offering a new level of confidence. Interactivity, a treasure of toys we entertain throughout the conference.

That said, the only thing she did not have was Avengers: Endgame toys, which Marvel refused to let the press see. Sorry, no spoilers here!

We have been walking down the halls of the Javits Center looking for the toys of 2019 that your kids will be begging for, toys that will please the whole family and those that the nerd of pop culture of your life will love – so, when their birthday will arrive, you will know exactly what to buy them.

LEGO Hidden Side

LEGO Hidden Side, which will be released in August, is a series of 8 games that combines physical play with an enriched application experience for "holistic entertainment" for kids. As with today's LEGOs, each set will cost between $ 19 and $ 129 (£ 15-100, AUD 26-179).

Half of the ensembles are places – a haunted school, a cemetery, etc. – that they must essentially exorcise through their application; the other half are controllable vehicles that children can drive in the application.

Unlike other connected LEGO sets like Lego Boost or the Batmobile Lego, Hidden Side is not as dependent on the application for kids to enjoy. The primary school, for example, is bursting with moving parts that turn it from an ordinary building into something much more ominous: no phone is required.

However, if your kids are opening the app, they will find some cute little fun mini-games: Hidden Side gives them ghosts while they track down possessed objects by physically interacting with the moving parts of the set , attracting ghosts, then fighting them. in a rail shooter.

Once they've defeated the ghost, they'll add them to their collection.

You only need one set to use the application, but each of them would have unique ghosts with different personalities and animations. And the sets of vehicles will have totally different AR games involving moving – although we have not been able to test it at the show.

TechMods Hot Wheels

Start on Indiegogo In April, TechMods are smart racing kits that you build yourself. With the free iOS / Android app, you can drive it like a classic RC car or use it as a motion – sensitive controller for a variety of video game experiences. It will be priced at $ 50 (about £ 38, AU $ 69) and will be sent to sponsors in mid-2019.

TechMod has a top speed of 13 km / h, which has led to a lot of zippers when we drove it into Mattel's lounge. But inside the app, its virtual speed only increases as you play. You have the choice between several modes of survival, race and treasure hunt, and you walk around a small arena trying to collect points and dodge a growing number of deadly obstacles.

Our initial impression is that TechMod has a much higher reading value than more expensive Hot Wheels. AR increases Last year, we had covered the fair: the Real World track of Augmoto limited you to the same path, while your TechMod virtual car was limited only by the number of levels and cards of the application. (At present, they only have 20 survival challenge cards.)

We tried one of the first levels of challenge, which was really a challenge. By browsing the map with obstacles and collecting collectibles, each collectible becomes a new and harmful obstacle. The TechMoto has tracked our movements, giving the appearance of a cumbersome Wiimote controller or Move on wheels.

Star Wars Lightsaber Academy

Children have been bickering with lightsaber replicas for decades to reconstruct their favorite duels between Jedi and Sith. Now, parents will be delighted with Hasbro for making lightsabers that virtually The two are mutually, although, let's be honest, the kids will hit each other anyway.

The Lightsaber Academy will be launched later this year 2019 for $ 50 (about £ 38), plus $ 8 to $ 20 per additional lightsaber. Each handle has an accelerometer, a gyroscope, a barometer and an integrated Bluetooth technology, to track movements and send data to the iOS / Android application.

In the app, Jedi instructors such as Yoda, Rey and Vader teach children various sword techniques, evaluating their accuracy to 100%. We found that the tracking of the sword in the application was of impressive accuracy, especially when the application was surrounded by many other competing signals.

The children can then split into what the Hasbro representative called a "paper-scissors-type battle": blockages, beats, attack movements, strength, beat, defense, beat, beat. Winning duels or completing tutorials will improve the child's rank until he becomes a master.

This may sound brainy in theory, but in practice, children will probably swing wildly until the app appoints a winner. Of course, if your kids are tired of the application, they can simply use the lightsabers like ordinary toy swords.

Giiker Super Cube

Rubik's cubes can be extremely intimidating for those who have not tried them. But Xiaomi tries to demystify his learning by becoming a Rubik pro with his new Bluetooth enabled Super Cubes.

Already on sale in China and the United States in mid-2019 priced at 50 USD (about £ 38), the Super Cube follows the movement of real-time blocks in the connected app. Within the application, beginners can use different tutorials, starting with getting one side of the same color and progressing in difficulty from there.

When I followed the instructions of the application in the first tutorial, the screen showed the exact location in real time of each color – although there seems to be a little delay between moving a line and moving it into the 3D replica.

The application will also record your statistics and your best times, will allow you to confront or discuss with other Rubik fans, and complete Rubik's other mini-games, beyond the simple correspondence of all the colors.

Pictionary Air

Take the dictionary you know and love, add a light tracking pen and an AR application, and then use air instead of paper to create a canvas. That's the simple premise behind Pictionary Air, which comes out at the end of 2019 for $ 20 (about £ 15, AU $ 28).

The set includes 112 double-sided cards, ten clues each, that you can draw and that your friends and family can guess. You simply hold a button on the pen while you draw in the air; Meanwhile, one of your friends holds up a phone or tablet camera that records the movements. and then your sketch will appear on the screen. After each round, you can record the creator's terrible creations for posterity.

Despite what it sounds like, the Pictionary Air pen was intuitive to use, but hard to master. Without being able to see what you have already drawn, it is difficult to draw straight lines or improve the situation if you forget where you stopped in the air.

Plus, if you are facing the person with the tablet, your drawing is a mirror image of what you want the person to see. I tried to draw the United States for a clue, and California and Florida were knocked down, which made the task difficult. Hasbro's representative cheated and gave me the same clues as those given to the woman above, so I do not know how legible I am.

The best option would probably be to convert your tablet to a larger TV, place the drawer in front of the TV (and tablet stand) and see what it has created up to now. So, if you want to give this to your tech-savvy family, you will probably have to configure it for them. Once you have started, it's pretty fun.

Carpool Karaoke, the microphone

James Corden's Carpool karaoke fans, or anyone who likes to leave their vocal cords loose on family trips, will find Singing Machine's Carpool Karaoke, the Mic, available later this year for $ 50. AU $ 69).

Essentially, this Bluetooth-enabled microphone connects to your car's speakers, via your phone, tablet or the Aux port on your car stereo, and lets you hear your voice on the speakers as you listen to your car. favorite ballad.

With this microphone, you're not limited to a proprietary music app: you can simply connect to the radio and sing along with your local shows. You can also search for an unoccupied FM channel, then pair the microphone with your favorite application (Spotify, Pandora, YouTube, etc.) and sing on the travel playlist.

With the mic itself, you can adjust the volume or echo of your voice via the car stereo. The lights on the microphone blink along with the music.

PowerUp 4.0

Since 2013, PowerUp Toys has been launching Kickstart since 2013 on paper planes connected by smartphone, then flies via an application. A little later, in 2019, they will launch a new Kickstarter for version 4.0.

This plane, which you will once again have to retreat yourself, board $ 60 (about £ 45), has two propellers for double power and greater maneuverability; an autopilot-controlled flight function that makes flight extremely easy; and new on-board sensors that collect real-time flight performance data.

Tetris Micro Arcade

Super Impulse has made a name selling small classic arcade game cabinets like Pac-Man for your office or toddlers. It now offers arcade emulators the size of a business card of great classics such as Tetris, Missile Command, Centipede, Pac-Man and Pong. They will be available later this year for $ 20-25 (about £ 15, AU $ 30).

PaiBotz

For children who are too young to use more advanced coding and robotics toys, Pai Technologies is launching PaiBotz for children ages 4 and up.

These beginner kits, priced at $ 99 (about £ 75, AU $ 140), come with 150 physical blocks for building and customizing your robots. Once the bot is built, your child will use the free iOS / Android app for 30 AR coding puzzles, designed to teach them how to use block-based coding languages ​​and techniques such as sequencing and implementation. loop.

Artie 3000

A STEM toy that bridges the gap between robotics and art, the Artie 3000 opens to allow kids to insert their favorite markers, then use remote controls or a code to draw.

Artie connects to any smart device via an integrated Wi-Fi server (no internet connection is required). The built-in application gives the child instructions on several coding languages, including Blocks, Javascript and Python.

The slow motion game

As a runner, nothing will be more difficult than a race in which you will be forced to slow down. But that's the fun idea behind Hasbro's Slow Motion racing game, which should be out by the end of the year.

For $ 20 (about £ 10, AU $ 28), you get two banners that follow your movement via accelerometers. If you move too fast or make a jerky movement, the headset will howl and turn red. You are then forced to stop and watch your opponent forwards, until the color dies and you are allowed to move.

During our "race", we were able to slide slowly forward, just in front of our opponent, activating the alarm once when we lost our balance. But children will probably avoid caution and see how fast they can move while keeping their movement as smooth as possible.

This is a simple principle that may not entertain your children too long before moving on to the next toy. But at least that's one of the few technological toys we've seen this year and that does not require kids to watch the screens all the time.

LIE DETECTOR OF GAME

Sitting in front of the Hasbro representative, he solemnly asked if I had ever caught a scab before eating it. I nervously answered "no" and waited, heart pounding, while the lie detector emitted a cryptic beep for a few seconds and emitted a positive beep. I had told the truth.

Fortunately, my beating heart has not been guided by the new Hasbro Lie Detector game, which costs $ 35 (about £ 25, AU $ 50) and will come out in August. Instead, the camera focuses entirely on your voice. And the only time I lied, he knew in one way or another by a simple "no" that I had not told the truth.

Hasbro says using the "voice layer analysis technology" to evaluate the "emotional reactions" of your voice and determine whether or not you are hiding something. You score points every time you tell the truth or sufficiently hide your emotions to convince the machine that you have told the truth.

Although the box comes with 64 cards with embarrassing questions to ask your friends, you can of course get into any horrible field of investigation you want, which could make it a hilarious party game misguided and breaking the friendship.