Toys banned in some California fast food restaurants

(CNN) -- A California county on Tuesday became the first in the nation to ban toys from fast food kids' meals high in calories, fat, salt and sugar.

Santa Clara County supervisors voted 3-2 to ban the plastic goodies as promotions in meals with more than 485 calories.
County supervisor Ken Yeager said Tuesday that the ordinance "prevents restaurants from preying on children's love of toys to peddle high-calorie, high-fat, high-sodium kids' meals," and would help fight childhood obesity.
"This ordinance breaks the link between unhealthy food and prizes," Yeager said. "Under this ordinance, restaurants are still permitted to give out toys. This ordinance merely imposes very specific, common-sense nutrition standards for children's meals that are linked to these incentives."

The ordinance will ban restaurants from giving away toys with meals that have more than 485 calories, more than 600 milligrams of sodium, more than 35 percent of total calories from fat or more than 10 percent of calories from added sugar. It would also limit toy giveaways on single food items with more than 200 calories or more than 480 milligrams of sodium.
But the decision, which affects about a dozen fast food restaurants in unincorporated areas of Silicon Valley, has angered the California Restaurant Association, which fought the proposal with ads in local newspapers. One asks "Who Made Politicians the Toy Police?" and shows a child in handcuffs in front of a cop.
KGO: County bans kids' meal toys

The group commissioned a poll of local residents that found 80 percent didn't think the toy issue was an important one.
"From our perspective, we were echoing what our customers had to say. Obviously we felt that this proposal was excessive and I think purposely provocative," said Daniel Conway, the association's director of public affairs.
Conway said the association was disappointed local officials didn't come to them before creating the ordinance.
"We try to proactively engage with policy makers at the local level, the state level and the federal level," Conway said. "At the national level, our industry just played a critical role in passing a national menu labeling standard, so that now customers in many restaurants will be able to have in front of them the exact nutritional content of the various menu items."
Yeager said at a press conference Tuesday that he hopes the ordinance will spark other counties and states to pass similar legislation.

Restaurants will have a 90-day grace period beginning May 11 before the ordinance goes into effect.

We've all been there

From Gizmodo

Own a piece of history

From brianstoys, From packaging to catalogs, the vintage Kenner Star Wars line is known for its bright images and graphics. For the most part photo art, or photographic prints that have been hand-altered in some way, were the master pieces of art used to create the images seen in boxes and catalogs around the world. However, photo art required the use of original photography, for Kenner almost never used illustrations or drawings for their images.

The task of taking the photos that would ultimately be used to produce photo art or that would perhaps remain unaltered was given to an outside design firm. While Kenner would ultimately provide guidance and have the final say on approval, it was up to the photographer at the studio to provide the photos, under the guidance of the design firm.

The photographer in charge of virtually all vintage Star Wars photography work at the outside design firm used by Kenner was Kim Simmons. He was ultimately responsible for images that would be used for packaging, comps (or mock-ups), some publicity images, and some of the slide presentations. Fortunately, for Star Wars collectors and enthusiasts alike, Kim meticulously kept nearly all of his work that was not given to Kenner as final art pieces.

Now you can own a piece of history by ordering from our exclusive selection of limited edition prints based on Kim’s work. Each print is hand-numbered and will never be offered for sale again once the allocated quantity of each individual print size has been distributed. These are no ordinary prints either. They are printed on the highest quality Fuji archival photography paper with metallic ink, and have been created from high resolution drum scans of each original negative or transparency and are unparalleled in quality. Don’t pass up this once in a lifetime chance to purchase your very own piece of Star Wars history!

Order it here

Rumor Report: "Antique Force Detail" Chases The Vintage Collection?

From rebelscum, All of our "rebel spies" are working overtime today with the latest info sliced from the holonet. Keeping with the tradition of special "Ultimate Galactic Hunt" chase figures from recent years, we've gotten top-secret details of a special line of figures that collectors can track down when The Vintage Collection hits hard this summer.

Previous UGH chase variants have included silver versions of the mini-holograms from The Saga Collection in 2006, the gold coins from The 30th Anniversary Collection in 2007, and the "1st Day of Issue" sticker variants from The Legacy Collection in 2008.

Relying heavily on the nostalgia factor for the classic Vintage Star Wars line, this chase series features the modern-day action figure stylings, but now decked out with "Antique Force Detail"...a paint deco that is inspired by the classic color schemes of the Kenner toys.

In a year focused on collectors, longtime fans will no doubt fondly recall the toys from their youth as they view this special gallery, shown here for your viewing pleasure.

Check them all out, here

New Disney Star Wars figures

Some cheap LEGO stuff at Target this week!

I saw the Wreck Raider (above), which is a very worthy set, with a couple of bucks knocked off its worth. Great vehicle, a diver and a shark man! If Ben doesn't have it yet, I recommend it (before Saturday, when the sale ends).

Also, Prince of Persia sets are now showing up at TRU. Ostriches! Camels! Cool new hats!

Mattel Creates New Toy to Turn into Movie

From worstpreviews, Toy-maker Mattel recently challenged its designers to come up with a new toy line that could simultaneously be turned into a TV show, feature film and game. And just recently, the company picked the winner of the challenge.

The yet-unnamed toy line will be an alien civilization that's been living in the depths of Earth's oceans. "It's actually a great idea, with the caveat that they need to coordinate the story and have it all make sense well beforehand," said Jeff Gomez CEO of Starlight Runner Entertainment. "Yes, there's brand equity in the name Hot Wheels. But it's the characters [in Battle Force 5] that young boys are identifying with, and that are driving TV ratings and the sales of the Hot Wheels DVDs. And that's likely what’s influencing Mattel's decision-making on further transmedia implementations."

At this point, Mattel has already partnered with producer Neal Moritz (Fast and Furious, I Am Legend), who will soon start looking for screenwriters.

The 11 coolest glow-in-the-dark toys ever made

From toplessrobot, The first marriage of zinc sulfide into plastic isn't recorded in history, but it's still a happy day for kids everywhere. It's the day that someone figured out that you could make plastic glow-in-the-dark, a scientific breakthrough that has benefited the world of toys almost exclusively. From that glorious day, kids started getting action figures that, when left out in the light for a while, would radiate an otherworldly luminescence for hours in the dark, opening up a new way to play -- and more importantly, a whole new time to play (i.e., after we were told we had to go to bed). Eventually, some scientist will likely figure out that glow-in-the-dark toys have been slowly poisoning us all for years, but until then, we might as well enjoy them -- and remember the 11 coolest glow-in-the-dark figures ever made.

See them here

A galaxy of new toys rings in 30 years of 'Star Wars'

By Anthony Breznican, USA TODAY

The Empire Strikes Back is turning 30, and its birthday party will be held this summer in Orlando.

Celebration V, a convention of Star Wars fans that Lucasfilm hosts every few years, will have a special focus on the 1980 film during its weekend run Aug. 12-15.

Carrie Fisher is the first celebrity guest confirmed. "Princess Leia is going to be there, and she's always a huge, huge hit," says Steve Sansweet, Lucasfilm's head of fan relations.

Details can be found at StarWarsCelebration.com.

And no birthday party would be complete without toys, a staple of Star Wars fandom. Hasbro is releasing a series of new toys Aug. 1, including a new version of the AT-ATs — those giant, snowbound metal dinosaurs from the opening Empire battle sequence on the frozen planet Hoth.

The toy retails for about $100 and is 2 feet tall and almost 21/2 feet long. "It's absolutely suitable for play with a kid," says Howard Roffman, Lucasfilm's head of licensing. "But if you're a collector, it's also a trophy piece."

A decoration for a desk? "A big desk," Roffman says.

Hasbro also is putting out full-scale Boba Fett helmets with electronic sounds and phrases — probably all of the bounty hunter's lines, since he had only a handful.

And a collection of new Hasbro action figures based on the Empire characters will be released. They'll be new designs but with vintage packaging and photos of the 1980-era toys on the back. Hasbro also is repeating a giveaway from the original Empire release. Fans can mail in proofs of purchase from the action figures to get a free Boba Fett.

That toy will be a vintage design, with one big exception: The original was touted as having a firing rocket on its back, but at the last moment, those ejecting plastic nubs were declared a safety hazard and glued in instead.

"That was a big disappointment at the time. They couldn't do it within the safety standards," Roffman says. "But they have been able to make it work now." The rocket part is a little larger, to avoid the threat of swallowing and choking.

Roffman jokes: "It took 30 years for the dream to be realized."

Dumbest figure set ever?

From cooltoy review

I must have a Zibit

Check out a video of it in action here

Big Trak is back

From bigtrakisback, 2010 is the year that the world's most well loved robot toy returns, with a 21st century makeover! Dubreq Ltd (creators of the famous Stylophone pocket synth) are bringing the Bigtrak back from the dead with a new line of robot space toys for the modern toy market. Based on the famous 1980's robot vehicle, the new Bigtrak range will use 21st century technology to expand and enhance the basic Bigtrak play concept of pre-programming a toy vehicle to perform a task.

Goodbye for now, my babies

My setup at the new house has no wall for these shelves, so I'm putting the MOC display in a big storage container for a while. The timing is actually good, as Zack was just starting to understand that he could have those things, and I don't want to be a dad who dangles toys in my kid's face and tells him he can't touch them. But still, I'll miss these spaceships. Especially when I have the urge to pick one up and fly it around the room (insert vocal space jet noises).

JLU Aquaman

As with the Super Powers collection, the DC Universe's lamest superhero actually makes for a decent action figure. The orange on this guy had just a tiny bit of shiny finish, which looked pretty neat; also he had those fins coming off the back of his calves, and the fashionable severe blonde flat top.

But that price! Ouch. To be clear, I'm not 100% sure it was on the right peg, and the price-checker couldn't read it. Given the bizarre range of DC figures out right now, I'm hoping there's some large-scale line I've forgotten about and the tag was for that, because that's a serious jump. Not an impossible one, unfortunately.

And here's the back. So it's good news if you never got a Barda (and I don't think I did), but did the fans really pick another Batman variation? That seems hard to believe.

I saw a single-carded Green Lantern that had a different set of five on the back, and the group included a single carded Deadshot. Still, at $8.99, I can't tell if that's good news.

Some of the new JLU coolness headed our way

See a ton more examples, here

LOLWUT?!: German 'Identify The LEGO Star Wars Minifig By Putting It In Your Mouth' Show

From geekology, This is a segment from some German variety show in which a unisexual teen identifies LEGO Star Wars minifigs be swishing them around in his/her mouth for a little while. Unfortunately, 4 out of 5 proper ID's isn't very good AND YOU WILL MAKE THE OLYMPIC MINIFIG IDENTIFICATION TEAM. Stick to Duplo, child!

Impressive Lego lightsaber duel

McDonald's 2010 Star Wars Happy Meal TV Commercial (worst toys ever)

DO NOT WANT: Sexy Fembot LEGO Models

From geekology, Flickr user rediv (aka Alan M) went and made himself some sexy LEGO fembots. Why? I dunno, he's sick in the head or something. Or maybe he just needs somebody to talk to (get a fish, God!). Isn't that right, Mr. Tickles? You're my friend, aren't you? Mr. Tickles? MR. TICKLES? OKAY, WHO THE F*** FED MY FISH AN OMELET?!

Highly Impressive 'Crawler Town' LEGO Build

From geekology, This is 'Crawler Town', a rolling LEGO city built by Flickr user and skilled LEGOlier Dave DeGobbi. And, like Rome, it wasn't built in a day. OR SO THE HISTORY BOOKS SAY. They also don't mention alien subcontractors, but I have my doubts.

Crawler town roams the barren wastes of a post steam-punk world after cataclysmic climate change do to excessive coal use. Several such cities exist but Crawler town is the most popular due to the Aero 500 hydrogen fuel cell Air races that are held. Many people travel the wastes to Crawler town for vacation and to enjoy rare luxuries like Pizza, fresh vegetables and Beer. Travelling the wastes in search of minerals and aquifers ( vital for survival) the mobility of the city keeps it away from the vicious sand storms of the wastes
Good looking, Dave. Reminds me of the opposite of Water World. What would we call that, Land World? Mad Maxtopia? I dunno, but I do know the 2Pac video for 'California Love' is the shit. "As soon as I step on the scene, I'm hearin' hoochies screamin'." Oh yeah, I can relate. Wait -- are you bitches calling the cops?!

See some more pictures here