Make a Good Toy

Taken with the iPhone 4. Snapseed used for editing.

It's been done for ages, but for most of us, "regift" entered our vocabulary after the 98th episode of Seinfeld—"The Label Maker." In this episode, Elaine calls Dr. Whatley (played by Bryan Cranston) a "regifter" after he gives Jerry a label maker—the same label maker that Ela ...more

The 68th Annual Golden Globe Awards take place this Sunday, January 16th, 2011 between the hours of 5 and 8 PM PST — that's 8 & 11 PM for those of you on the East Coast (and Somewhere in the Middle for those of you Somewhere in the Middle). Can't make it to the Beverly Hilton ...more

Yesterday was the biggest shopping event of the year— Black Friday— the day after Thanksgiving. Most waiting in huge lines, getting swallowed up by commercialism on its biggest profit-turning day, and there's still tons of shopping to be had on Saturday and Sunday, with many s ...more

Why the Love? Every one has a reason for loving something. Mine was that it was the only thing I had. That one sure thing. I loved it because I had nothing, and it cost me nothing. At times I had no idea what was going to happen to me, or where I was going to be. The shore is ...more

Junk, junk, junk or so you might think. Remember the saying, your junk can be someone else's treasure! This article is going to guide you through a successful garage sale. With the economy the way it is, more and more people are going to garage sales. They are fun to have and ...more

The holiday season is here, and if you didn't already pick up a SCRABBLE set during Black Friday or Cyber Monday, then you still have time to buy the perfect gift for your lexical-minded friend. There's sure to be deals out there over the next couple of weeks, you just need to ...more

We know it's fun to break stuff, but Santa sure isn't going to be as good to Michael Tompert next year. The San Francisco digital imaging and CGI artist destroyed a whole slew of brand-new Apple gadgets as a statement on "our relationship with fetish, fashion, freedom, and bon ...more

Ni no Kuni is a gorgeous hand drawn and animated game coming to the PS3 and Nintendo DS. The story is about Oliver, a 13 year old who has lost his mother. Wishing for her to come back, a magical toy tells him that this might be possible and they set off on a journey in a paral ...more

Name your price for 5 indie games!http://www.wolfire.com/humble This event will run for a week and the money raised will go towards two charities. The Humble Indie bundle is a collection of five indie games where you can set your price! Want to buy the whole package (worth $80 ...more

Yeah it's... that's a good movie there Thanks to Tom Berger for another animated movie review! Toy Story 3 finishes off the franchise that was started 15 years ago by Pixar's first feature length film, Toy Story. It's an unsurprisingly fitting end to a great series of films, ...more

This week's roundup features three games that I've either never bothered to play, was unable to play due to PC technical limitations, or haven't played because they've just been released. None of these three games cost more than $15. Jamestown: Legend of the Lost Colony I ne ...more

Want to know how to patent an idea, but you just don't know how to go about doing it? It doesn't take a lot of money to get a provisional patent. The real thing you want to know is the process of taking an idea that you have all the way up to getting it patent. I will take you ...more

Who doesn't love Star Wars? No one, that's who. And if you love Stars Wars, logic would follow that you like lightsabers, so central are they to the tale's mythology. It's part sword, part laser, and makes a sound like a humming motor have multigasms. If I saw one in real life ...more

You can make homemade pizza with a minimum of tools, or you can buy the entire yuppie menagerie (and let's face it—if you're a foodie, you probably want the toys). Below is a brief rundown of the different options available. Since I'm a relative beginner to the process, I've a ...more

Yankee ingenuity is a trait we hold in the highest regard here at Wonderhowto. So imagine our delight in sharing Afrigadget, whose tagline is: "solving everyday problems with African ingenuity". Bending scrap wire into clever and functional toys is but one hallmark of any res ...more

This video demonstrates the production process of the Jabulani ball that will make its debut at the World Cup this year. I'm somewhat of a skeptic when it comes to the advantages of a new ball. What's wrong with having a man made ball with slight differences? So much depends ...more

There are seemingly endless photography apps for the iPhone—it is perhaps one of the most popular arenas for application developers. We've covered a few in Giveaway Tuesdays, but nothing comprehensive. We would be remiss to omit the two most popular frontrunners—Hipstamatic ( ...more

Lori Nix is a photographer whose stunning work depicts curious scenes of danger and disaster: abandoned spaces, architecture in a state of extreme deterioration, natural calamities, and more. But the mysterious places she captures with her 8x10 large format camera aren't actua ...more

Planning the Trip Get lots of brochures Send for brochures of the places you will be visiting. Make a travel book with the brochures to get the grandchildren and their families excited. The best place to contact for these brochures are the Visitors Bureaus or the Chamber of ...more

The game has undergone many transitions over the years, since its days as LEXIKO (1931) to its briefness as CRISS CROSS WORDS to its current and amalgamated, renowned brand of SCRABBLE. There has been many editions of the word board game along that historic metamorphosis, and ...more

The first Phone Snap challenge has come to an end and we have a winner! Congratulations to Rob Sawyer, for his funny and creative spin on the infamous Play-Doh character, "Mr. Bill gone MAD!!!". Much thanks goes out to all who participated in the toy challenge. I was very imp ...more

Ever been warned that sitting too close to the TV might damage your eyesight? It won't. That probably won't stop this electronic View-Master from giving your poor mother a heart attack, however. Tuttle of Hacker Consortium writes, "[The toy has] 2 Colby 1.5 inch digital key ...more

I have an absolutely wonderful time making projects and writing articles for all of you mad scientists! Today, I will bring you behind the scenes for a look at the workbench, tools, and software that make the Mad Science World possible. Above is my beautiful workbench! My who ...more

When was the last time you took some time out of your day to play with your favorite action figure? Or build an entire town of Legos? Well, it’s time for you to dust off that old toy chest for this week’s Phone Snap challenge! To kick off Phone Snap’s very first weekly photo ...more

ANIMATED FEATURE: Thanks to Tom Berger for another animated movie review! Toy Story 3 finishes off the franchise that was started 15 years ago by Pixar's first feature length film, Toy Story. It's an unsurprisingly fitting end to a great series of films, maintaining all of t ...more

Video games were blamed in the death of Chris Staniforth last May, but now things have gotten worse as video games take the blame for a more recent tragedy... Ten days ago, a man who'd lost his mind committed an atrocity, perpetrating more evil in one day than most can even f ...more

Some cops already have the ability to extract data from your cell phone using handheld forensic devices, but soon police officers will have a new mobile data collection toy to play with—an Apple iPhone. Actually, it's an iPhone-based device that connects directly to the back o ...more

One of the coolest things about Twitter is the fact that you can get direct access to some of your favorite celebrities, and have one-on-one conversations with them in less than 140 characters. With Google+, you can have the same advantage, but you don't need to feel constrict ...more

Google+ is the most exciting new social network to come around this decade, and the only product with a chance of challenging the monopolies we know as Facebook and Twitter. As an Internet addict, I've joined every major social network there is - from Friendster (who?) to MySp ...more

Defined by Urban Dictionary, Nerdtastic: Something generally not cool, but to a nerd it's freakin' fantastic. Below, a collection of WonderHowTo's top 10 favorite, utterly nerdtastic Halloween costume tutorials. The clock's ticking, so if you don't have your costume yet, perus ...more