The Great Britain Olympic team has been bestowed with a prestigious honour even before the London 2012 games has kicked off. The athletes have been immortalized as Lego minifigures.

There are a total of nine Team GB Lego minifigures to collect. These include a brawny boxer, a stealth swimmer, relay runner, judo fighter, tactical tennis player, flexible gymnast, wondrous weightlifter, horseback rider and agile archer.

The commemorative range will be sold from 1 July for ?1.99 each in John Lewis, Argos, Tesco, WH Smith, Smyths and Toys R Us.

Each figurine has its own accessory such as bow and arrow, boxing gloves and weights.

The Great Britain Olympic team joins the likes of The Lord of the Rings, Transformers and Marvel Superheroes as just some of the characters to have been given the Lego treatment.?

The 2012 Olympic Games kick off in London on 27 July, with the Paralympics finishing on 9 September.

Tags: Lego Toys London 2012 Olympics

Lego creates exclusive Team GB Olympic minifigs originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Thu, 17 May 2012 18:18:00 +0100

How do you fancy becoming a superhero? Batman for instance? That was the question put to Pocket-lint and of course we couldn't turn down such an offer.

Firebox, the UK's favourite online gadget shop, is offering customers the chance to become Batman, Superman, Batgirl, Iron Man, Thor or Captain America as long as you are willing to send it your photo and ?80.

Dubbed the Personalised Superhero Action Figures you can pop your own head on their buff shoulders and show the world just how much you love yourself.

In practice, the whole process is incredibly easy. Snap two shots of your face - one from the front and one from the side - then upload the pictures to the site and confirm your order.

Three weeks later the finished model is returned allowing you to convince your kids you are something to be played with.

Using 3D printing technology - it's all the rage don't you know - your photographs will be turned into a fully-formed 3D version of your noggin – including eye colour, skin tone, hair style (or as close as possible) and hair colour.

Once your order arrives in the post all you've got to do is take off the standard super hero head and replace it with yours, with a bit of glue so you don't lose your head.

As for the likeness, we think it's pretty good - although for us that does mean looking at it at a certain angle rather than spotting ourselves straight away every time. Strangely, Batman is sporting a grey body suit rather than the darker, cooler-looking Dark Knight outfit sported by Christian Bale in the recent movies. Batman is also wearing purple gloves akin to something the Joker would wear. We aren't sure why.

Worryingly Pocket-lint editor Chris Hall thought it looked like him rather than me.

Oh, and if you're wondering about the cool Pocket-lint HQ London road sign featured in the pictures, that's a Firebox personalised product too.

Read

Tags: Toys Dad Firebox Batman

Personalised Superhero Action Figures: We become Batman originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Fri, 04 May 2012 15:44:00 +0100

Angry Birds?fans wanting to get even more Angry Birds fun and games can now visit Angry Birds Land at S?rk?nniemi Theme Park in Finland.

The themed area of the park consists of 12 rides, an adventure course, games and food points, designed especially for families and young children.

The area opens today, but finishing touches will continue until the beginning of June 2012, the park's owners warn.?The official opening will be celebrated on Friday June 8.

Those planning to visit the new Angry Birds Land can do so by jumping on a Ryanair flight to Tampere either from London Stansted operating three times a week or Edinburgh twice a week. Prices start at ?16.99.

Tags: Angry Birds Toys Dad

Angry Birds Land opens at Särkänniemi Theme Park in Finland originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Tue, 01 May 2012 12:11:00 +0100

How tough do you like your Lego minifig characters? John McEnroe tough? What about bridezilla tough? Nah, you want Galaxy Patroller tough.

Launched as part of the new Series 7 minifig characters from Lego, the Galaxy Patroller is just one of 16 new designs that are in shops in sealed bags waiting for you to find an excuse to spend that ?1.99 that's in your pocket.

Each of the 16 all-new, never seen before LEGO Minifigures comes in a sealed “mystery” bag, so you never know which Minifigure you might get. This time around there is the chance to get a dark medieval knight, a long haired hippy, a Wimbledon hopeful, a bride, a dude in a bunny costume, and King of the City of Atlantis and many more.

Still, for us, the best has to be the Aliens and Halo inspired Galaxy Patroller.?Lock and load people.

The full Series 7 figures line-up includes: Aztec Warrior, Evil Knight, Galaxy Patrol, Jungle Boy, Viking Woman, Ocean King, Grandma Visitor, Rocker Girl, Tennis Ace, Computer Programmer, Bride, Swimming Champion, Daredevil, Bunny Suit Guy, Hippie and Bagpiper.

They are available now and can be found at Argos, Tesco, WH Smith, John Lewis, Smyths, and Toys R Us.?

Tags: Toys Lego

Lego Galaxy Patroller minifig - toughest looking Lego character yet originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Wed, 18 Apr 2012 12:34:00 +0100

If you could combine two of your most favourite things in the world, what would be the outcome? Charlize Theron on a camping trip to Bognor Regis? Simon Cowell's head and a blender, perhaps?

Surely James Bond Scalextric has to be up there somewhere. And that's not a million miles from reality, as the toy manufacturer has crafted exactly that. In fact, come the release of the latest 007 movie, there will be three officially licensed sets available later this year.

The first two will be the James Bond 007 Skyfall Scalextric Set and Micro Scalextric James Bond Skyfall, costing ?119.99 and ?49.99 respectively. And there will be a?James Bond 007 Skyfall Twinpack Limited Edition too, with only 3,500 made. It will cost ?84.99 and the cars to be included are yet to be revealed.

Cars for the full Skyfall set, which also appear in the movie, have already been unveiled, as they adorn the front of the packaging. One of them is the return of the Aston Martin DB5 to the franchise - as also seen in the official stills from the film that have just been released - while the other is a Range Rover Evoque.

We're not sure exactly what Bond does inside the Evoque, but there have been spy shots leaked online that show him driving one, so it's not just a random addition.

Perhaps more exciting than the cars themselves is the picture of the Scalextric track layout for the main set. It has jumps. Jumps. In Scalextric. Woo-hoo.

Also coming soon for Scalextric/James Bond collectors and fans is the DB5 that appeared in Goldeneye. The car will cost ?49.99 and more details on this limited-edition vehicle and the other Bond sets are available on www.scalextric.com.

Tags: James Bond Toys Dad Scalextric Skyfall Scalextric James Bond 007 Skyfall

James Bond 007 Skyfall cars revealed with official Scalextric set originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Fri, 13 Apr 2012 17:16:00 +0100

Angry Birds?On Thin Ice is a new board game of the popular mobile game that you've no doubt have installed on your phone.

Not being able to resist an afternoon skipping work, we quickly got to play, erhem, we mean work testing it to see whether you should bother.

Created by Mattel, the idea is that you take turns to build structures for the pigs based on the diagrams on the cards and then knock them down again.

The first one to get to 1000 points wins the game, and players can opt to go easy and take their time by choosing easy to build and easy to destroy levels (100 points), or go for the glory with more challenging builds (300 points).

In the box you get a number of well made pieces to build the pigs' bases; three pigs, two construction hats for said pigs, the red and yellow bird and pretend planks of wood and glass. There is also a catapult, of course.

In play, and as you can imagine, things move a lot slower than in the mobile phone game version, although it is great fun building the structures only to know they will be smashed down 10 seconds later.

Designed for kids 5+, we haven't been able to get our little ones away from it.

If you want the full the fun of Angry Birds, but don't like the idea of letting your kids play constantly on your phone or iPad, this will certainly suffice. However at ?20 you might struggle to justify it.

Tags: Toys Dad Angry Birds Mattel Board games

Angry Birds On Thin Ice pictures and hands-on originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Fri, 13 Apr 2012 14:22:00 +0100