indoor fun

I thought I'd give you a few ideas for the days when spring showers make it impossible to have fun outdoors. Our buyers have come up with some cool new games this year.

One of my favorites is this plug and play kickboxing game. To get ready to fight, all you have to do is plug it in to your TV, DVD player or VCR, strap the kick sensors onto your legs and slip the "gloves" onto your hands. The game uses real-time body motion to simulate kick boxing with the virtual opponent. But maybe boxing isn't your bag. Our virtual baseball game lets you play baseball indoors. The console connects to your TV and the wireless bat shows the power of your swing while the run pad shows how fast you run. My nephew loves both games. I do, too. They're fun and they're a great indoor exercise.

For less taxing activities our touch screen video poker or touch screen chess games are perfect. The poker game is a lot like the machines found in casinos right down to the sounds, automated scorekeeping and flashing lights when you hit the jackpot. It has seven different games so you never get bored. If you like to play chess and want to get better, there's no better way than our touch screen game. It's so sophisticated it's almost unbeatable. It has 56 levels so you can start at the beginning and hone your skills. Play against the computer, with a friend or use it to solve chess problems. Or for a lower-tech chess game, our South Park chess set has all your favorite characters including Chef (King), Big Gay Al (Queen), Cartman (Knight), and Kenny (pawn, of course.)

My nephew's favorite of our new board games is Gremlins. Just like the movie, you battle Stripe and his horde of Gremlins for control of Kingston Falls. It has hilarious weapon cards to use against the Gremlin tokes, like a snack tray or the Peltzer juicer. And the "Feeding After Midnight" event card can send everyone back to start or cause more gremlin tokens to appear.Of course, there are the old favorites, too. Our tabletop versions of the Space Invaders™ & Frogger™ arcade games are just like you remember with multi-level play and authentic sounds and graphics. And a new twist on old arcade favorite is this Mario Kart Race Set where you race Nintendo® characters, Mario and Donkey Kong against each other on a slot car track.

I like to play pool, but I don't have room for a full-sized table in my house so I got one of these mini pool tables. It really does play like the real thing. It's a lot more sturdy than most tabletop models so it doesn't tilt. The wood grain finish, felt top and ball return makes it feel like a real pool table. Finally, for a more relaxing but still challenging game, we have the world's largest jigsaw puzzle. With 24,000 pieces that make up an incredibly detailed picture, titled "Life," it's more than enough to keep you busy on a rainy spring day. It comes in 4 packets of 6,000 pieces that you can assemble separately and then connect in sections, or you can make it really challenging and mix all 24,000 pieces together and piece them together as a whole.

Happy gaming!

I'll see you next week,
Bobby

get out there!

Spring is my favorite season. It's finally warm enough to get outside. Sure, there's yard work to be done and cleaning and all that, but I'd rather go out and play with my nieces and nephews. While my sister pounds dust out of carpets and launders the drapes, I'm "babysitting" outside with my newest finds from the Things warehouse.

I bought three of these motorized bumper boats last year--one for each of the kids and one for me. It's pool float with a motor and steering wheel—it goes about two miles per hour. It's also super heavy duty. I've run mine into the side of the pool more times than I can count and it just bounces right off. The key to maximum fun is having two or more of them in the pool at once so you can run them into each other.

We have lots of new radio-controlled Things for outdoor fun, too. Check out this radio controlled hopper helicopter. Its twin rotors spin in opposite directions to create a very smooth flying helicopter. It has a weighted fly-bar for a stable, ready-to-fly chopper. Even if you don't have experience flying RC helicopters, this one is pretty easy to operate. It's probably the best one I've seen for this price. If radio controlled copters are too much for you, you can try this Stunt Copter. It's a cord-launched copter so it doesn't need batteries or controllers. You just launch it and wait for it to return to you like a boomerang.

If flying Things isn't your thing, how about some water toys? Our radio controlled hydrostorm boat flies across the water. It can do up to 20 mph! It's pretty impressive to watch. It has twin propellers and it runs off a rechargeable batteries. The controller is really easy to use and has a range or up to 150 ft. Now this Thing is completely ingenious. It's a radio controlled fishing boat. I'm not kidding, you can actually catch fish with this Thing. It even includes tackle! You just attach the tackle to the boat and set it on the water. Just watch the bobber--when it dips, steer the boat to shore see what you caught. It will handle a fish up to two pounds. It even has prop guards to help prevent tangles in line or weeds. I love any Thing that makes fishing fun or easier.

Speaking of fishing, I had to have the pen fishing rod. It looks like a fountain pen, but it's actually a working fishing rod. It blows people away. Wait until you see the looks on people's faces when you start fishing with your pen. I'll admit, I've never caught a fish with it, but that's probably not the pen's fault. I have several expensive fishing rods and I never catch anything. At least the pen makes it a little more fun to feed my bait to the fish.

For Things that are just plain fun to play with, we have this geyser tube and giant bubble kit. You've probably seen the dozens of demonstrations of the soda geyser on the Internet. It's a remarkable Thing that works with Mentos candy and diet soda. You just put 6-8 Mentos in the plastic tube, place the tube over the mouth of a two-liter soda bottle, pull the trigger and run. To make huge bubbles that last long enough to float up the sides of buildings, use this special bubble kit. With the specially designed bubble maker and the “secret bubble recipe,” (soap and water) you can make bubbles within bubbles, donut bubbles and chains of bubbles.It's time for some fun in the sun. Grab your favorite Things and get out there!

Until next week,
Bobby

exclusive tees

It's hard to say when and where the T-shirt was born. Wikipedia says “claims reach at least from California to Britain, and from 1913 to 1948.”1 From its humble beginning as an undergarment, the T-shirt has become a staple piece of clothing in most Western cultures. According to Wiki, the first American company to decorate T-shirts with designs was Tropix Togs, a Miami company that was the original licensee for Walt Disney characters, including Mickey Mouse and Davy Crockett. Of course, now everyone's expressing themselves with T-shirts and you can even print and apply your own designs at home.

Since everyone around here has a great sense of humor, it only made sense to us that we should get in on the act. So we've come up with several exclusive T-shirt designs to help you let people know what's on your mind. We have something for every personality and every mood.

For days when you're feeling sarcastic, check out these tees: “Tact is for people...” and “I'm not good at empathy...”. When you're feeling irritated, you can wear this tee. At least people can't say they weren't forewarned. We also have tees for days when you're disinterested or disgruntled or dormant.Do people tell you you're opinionated? Are you proud of it? How about this one: “I'd agree with you...” or this one: “I'm not opinionated...” Both of those also make good gifts for friends who can't or won't refrain from telling you what they think. In fact, all our shirts make great gifts. I have a friend who's a total cynic, but he'd never admit it. I got this “...everything just sucks” t-shirt for his birthday. Amazingly, he actually laughed out loud.

We also have some mischievous and funny tees. One of my favorites is the evil twin shirt. Since the shirts are cheaper if you buy two or three, I also picked up this one for a friend of mine who swears like a sailor and always makes the most inappropriate jokes at the most inopportune times. I wonder if he'll take the hint? And I got this miracles shirt for one of my golfing buddies. Oddly, he seemed less amused than my friend the cynic.

Whatever your mood, outlook or personality or whether you're buying for yourself or your friends (or both), we created our exclusive t-shirt collection to help you express yourself.

Until next week,

Bobby

a new look of "things"

I missed writing my blog last week because I was busy with our brand new web site! I'm sure you've already noticed the new look with more room for lots of cool Things on the home page. But I want to tell you about a few of the features we've added that you might not have seen yet.

Want to know if a Thing is in stock? Now you will—instantly. If we're temporarily out of it, we'll tell you when it will be back in stock. Sometimes we have to discontinue Things that we can't get right away, but that doesn't mean they're gone forever. Now when you see a discontinued Thing on our web site, just enter your email address and we'll let you know when we have it again.

We have a lot of Things that come in different colors or styles. For example, our college watch. With our new web site, we can post pictures for every team. Just mouse over the small pictures to bring up a larger one. And we've added the stock and pricing information to each style, too. That comes in handy for Things with different prices for different sizes, like T-shirts.

I always read customer reviews when I buy something on the web. I want to know if other people like the Thing I'm thinking about buying. Now you can review all of our Things, too. Loved the fart machine? Tell us about it! Tell us how you used a prank or practical joke and how it worked – or if it backfired! And our new wish list makes it easy to keep track of the Things you find interesting and might want to buy later on. Just add the Thing to your wish list and we'll save it for your next visit.

I'm always dying to know when a Thing I've bought will arrive. I'll check on my package progress at least once and sometimes twice or three times a day, especially if it's a gift that I've waited until the very last minute to order. (Who? Me?) Now you can track your package right from our web site, too. Just look up your order and follow the link to see where it is.

We think our new site makes shopping for Things a lot more fun and a lot easier, too. We hope you like it!

tick-tock, tick-tock

Spring forward, fall back—all this fooling around with the the time really messes with my internal clock. One day you wake up and it's light outside, the next day you wake up at the same time and it's dark. It's just not natural. Oh, I know about all the benefits of Daylight Saving Time and once my body gets used to it, I'll be happy for the extra daylight at the end of the day. But right now, my body is just sleepy and confused and every time I look at a clock, I'm surprised at how late it is.

The Dayclock that only keeps track of the days is the only clock that makes sense to me right now. It does have a noon marker so you know when to go to lunch. For people who don't care what time it is, the Whatever Clock and Watch are perfect—all the numbers have fallen to the bottom of the face in a pile. And the Backwards Clock, which keeps perfect time—backwards—sort of puts the whole idea of keeping time in its place. It's a great reminder to slow down and enjoy the journey.

Some people are just obsessed with time and have to know what time it is all day and night. The Smith & Wesson Tritium Watch is guaranteed to glow for 25 years. It's powered by Tritium, which gives it enough power to illuminate the hands and hour markers for a full 25 years and it doesn't need any light to recharge. The glow is continuous and doesn't fade even in total darkness.

Keeping time can be fun, too. Being the pop culture junkie that I am, I had to have this Star Trek® Watch. It plays the original Star Trek theme song and the second hand is a tiny U.S.S. Enterprise™ second hand that orbits around the dial. It's the coolest (or geekiest, depending on your point of view) way to keep time.

I've always liked pocket watches. Our Military Mascot Pocket Watches play "Reveille" any time you want to hear it—even at night. They're high quality, precision time pieces that showcase the official mascots of the U.S. Armed Forces—the Marine Bulldog, the Army Mule, the Navy Goat, and the Air Force Falcon.

For more eclectic tastes, check out this Stonehenge Watch. It's a pocket watch that lets you tell time accurately—well, like the ancient Druids, to within an hour. The ancient stones are reproduced to scale on the inside and it includes a compass so if you point it due north, you can quickly determine almost exactly what hour it is on a sunny day. With extreme patience, you can tell which season it is, determine significant days like the winter solstice and significant events like the next lunar eclipse. You can also read the time on the face of the outer watch, but that sort of takes the fun out of it.

UFOs over texas?

Our company has always had a certain fascination with UFOs and all things paranormal. With the recent UFO sightings over Texas and the subsequent government “explanations,” I thought this would be a good time to bring out some of our more interesting alien-related Things.

This Secrets Of MJ-12 DVD Set questions the government's actual knowledge about UFOs, including MJ-12 or Majic documents that allegedly detail how military personnel are to publicly deal with UFO sightings as well as official protocols and procedures for conducting investigations of alien and UFO encounters. To many UFO researchers, the MJ-12 documents are proof that the Earth is being visited by alien cultures and that the U.S. government not only knows about it, but has specific methods for handling the public and the UFOs themselves. The interviews with researchers and credible UFO authorities are truly shocking. I'm not saying that I believe everything in the video, but the researchers certainly make a strong case that the government is hiding something.

Among UFO researchers and believers, the alien abduction scenario is controversial, but still very much at the forefront of the research. In the UFO Abductions DVD witnesses and internationally respected researchers present their cases including detailed accounts of UFO and alien abductions from all over the world. In my mind, the most shocking and believable evidence comes from a British policeman who photographed one of the aliens that abducted him.

The abduction phenomenon is almost always coupled with accounts of surgical procedures, some including implants left by aliens in the bodies of their human victims. Our Alien Implants DVD Set shows the surgical removal and subsequent laboratory tests of some of these implants. The DVD includes evidence such as an actual alien "claw" found at the location of a repeated alien abduction. The interesting thing about this DVD is that it not only shows evidence and gives results of the pathology, but it tries to solve the mystery of whether these alien implants are beneficial or if there is a more sinister reason for aliens to place implants in human beings.

On the lighter side, we have a couple of alien toys for your home or office. From the movies, we have the deadly Alien Vs Predator Figure Set. Put them on your desk to remind you that not all aliens are of the friendly E.T. variety. And just for fun, we have the Mooning Alien. Hey, I'm hoping that a sense of humor is a Universal constant.

I suppose if I knew the answer to the UFO question, I'd be in a different line of work. But I think it's wise to keep an open mind and look at all the evidence even (maybe especially) when it comes from sources outside official channels. I like to keep an open mind, not so open that my brains fall out on the floor, but open enough to entertain all the possibilities. Of course, you'll have to make up your own mind.