Gadgetory

no this is Ross with the verge and I've got addy Robertson with us and this is probably the greatest day in my professional career isn't Sunday it should be home at a brunch or anywhere else for that matter but I'm working because it is torture I'm honestly very worried that this is gonna be with us very corporate conventions I mean yes it's a toy fair but it's a bunch of people in suits going this is the greatest toy these kids are gonna love it and it's like you know Star Trek action figures actually that'll be cool I like some trick action figures oh my god how long did it take to make take about a bunt took a month to make over 250,000 blocks 250,000 block weighs about a ton Wow yeah we're all the kids um well actually there isn't any kids allowed being that it's some only among the distributors the exhibitors licensors buyers and everything so there's no kids at all this week no no no it's a toy show and everything but yeah there's no kids but there's no smiling faces everyone looks very serious they're now working a lot it's business but it's fun what why aren't they having fun I have no I can you tell me a little about yourself oh you better off talking to one of the other characters this is Lola Lola is a monster don't be scared she's always smiling you'll see them at retail throughout all the specialty retail stores we're real excited about them the price is about 599 to 1099 great pricing we cover everything from plush to novelty to drink where we have slippers we have pool toys we have rubber balls we have anything you could want for your home or your office or your car we have this is going to the next big item coming next Christmas we specialize in a mostly light up products Highway Patrol no skateboarding all sorts different things that appeal the children we're waiting outside the mega bloks we tried going in but a security won't have that apparently mega bloks is like the fortress of solitude and that it's all white fortress and that's all I know about Superman apparently this fortress was probably more than 8 feet tall they're very secret about letting people in they're basically putting these large barricades up to block out all these smiling faces so why is there like this giant kind of fortress hiding within behind the mega bloks why not be it open to everybody uh because we have a lot of new things coming up and a lot of secret things coming up so we can't have everybody see it right away we're at Lego we've actually seen a fortress of solitude much like this before and it is about I say about 30 feet down that way and that is mega bloks all we can say is that when the war finally breaks out between them we would not want to be Walters or those doll maker's down there and ask you about the other fortress yeah absolutely um the lego group has a private booth because we actually show products that aren't on shelves just yet so there's sets that are coming out in August so they're just stuff that we will show to the media some of the a one-off sets but we never show the entire line just you know so we're the first ones are putting on the shelf so we have DC comics and Marvel Comics and then we will also have two sets based on upcoming Avengers movie glory just came back last year in a big way with samurai and now it's coming super samurai for next year Florida ranges where we have everything so I'm not sure if you're familiar with World of Warcraft or if you play a little too much we also have lego star wars sets based on everything from the Clone Wars to all of the movies so this is really bringing the world of halo into construction with vehicles characters this is our third year with halo we've had a lot of success we try to stay true to our licenses actually so now you'll see in our licenses that if it's something that's in the movie we will recreate it for them but when it becomes our own licenses of Lego themes that we create we really still try to steer clear of violence once its first put the fortress you guys or mega bloks oh my gosh it's a good question i've known it was like a cold war how close you guys are well yeah I don't know we were talking with Lego a little bit kind of curious what the portress up and he said that like this is all the big companies and he just had these big kind of fortress areas if you look up you can see this very very creepy ominous mattel window there's one here there's one across the way kind of looking down so basically Patel can see everything I'll just kind of corporate overlords these are like the master toy company if they want to know all Lego secrets they just have to look down how much they could get rid of in a day doing this in a day 150 to 200 bottles throughout toy fair we had last year i think we had 600 bottles oh my god innovation first is the parent company we have several different divisions one of them being robotics to do educational base robotics and that knowledge of the robotics is actually what drove us into the toy industry so instead of other companies being a toy company trying to do robotics we know robotics and we can then make toys out of them so five years ago on a whim we kind of decided to make the original and this is a crack eynde of a six-legged walking robot so he walks and he's got a little bump sensors and so when he encounters an obstacle he will stop and move he also has a sound sensor OOP so that way if he hears his loud noise he'll stop and he'll go try to go the other directions and try to get away from it from there we moved to a crab it also has a sound sensor the next product has bump sensors on the front and back it changes directions and so it becomes very chaotic the larva has got a really creepy motion it has a wheel that spins and so as the wheel moves back and forth it's actually pushing a drive carrier show you this one here is called a scarab and this is new for this year then we have two other products that currently are remote control but they're using an infrared remote and the first one is the inchworm you go forward and go back it uses the center pedestal to make it turn round left and right and then it has big giant looping legs to go forward and back so it's in combination when you get some really unique motions and turn turns and straights and stuff our goal is to try to make robots that are emulate real animals but try to make them look like robots first the animal second and try to emulate them a little bit in how they work you we're here with Randy Faulk the man who actually designed the replica portal gun so who came to you for it to all come to you or do you guys go to valve and say I want to make a portal gun valve actually came to us at Toy Fair last year they were looking to get into consumer products and do more collectibles for a more affordable price to reach more of their fans and they saw what we were doing with gears of war Bioshock Assassin's Creed and that's how it began so we started developing figures from left for dead and team fortress and at the same time a portal gun was like a no-brainer because everyone loves portal and portal 2 had just come out at the time and we've seen some fans make some really impressive replicas themselves but they're like crazy amounts of money so how can we do one that's affordable that anyone who wants one can have one this is the the initial prototype or making a few final tweaks but we'll be out on the market hopefully may june this year and five thousand edition 130 dollar retail and you see how can you say you mentioned you seen the other portal gun creators out there and we were reached out to them saying okay we like what you do you let me come work for us these are expertise here I haven't yet I mean there's some guys that do amazing stuff the problem is when you're doing one of a kind or doing it just for a labor of love you can put all the bells and whistles and you want and make it balls out awesome but it's also you know a thousand dollars whereas we have to figure out how we can do this that a factory in China can mass produce it for an affordable price all the original designs come from the game creators themselves but we adapted or make it work as a toy or as a replica oh my god I hope you're filming every detail this raised detail there that's depressed oh my god