The Rubik's Redux

I've been reading people's posts on the American International Toy Fair, which wrapped up last week in NYC (photo gallery here). The Rubik's Touch Cube took home top honors for toy of the year, which, from what I can tell, is the toy industries version of an Oscar for Movie of the Year. Lots of thank-you's and people onstage hugging. The handheld-puzzle classic has been given an iPhone-inspired makeover, with touchscreen interfaces and multiple games.

Other cool debut's included Elmo Gloves (Mattel) and 3-D Sidewalk Chalk (Crayola).

Diamond Dust & Tonic?

Double Cross, a new premium vodka brand from Slovenia, recently arrived in US test markets.

Considering that there are some brands out there that distill 14 times, the septuple (7x) distillation struck me as a bit ho-hum for the premium category. What about this juice warrants a $50+ price point, I wondered? Oh, right. There it is. This hooch is filtered through diamond dust. That'll do it.

Reminds me of a Swiss brand I saw last year called Xellent. They distill their vodka with pure Swiss glacier water.

It was Mr. Green...on the Jetway...with the Cellphone!

Another example of an old favorite reinventing itself with new technology. The below is from a recent Hasbro press release, announcing the latest reincarnation of it's board game classic Clue.

"This fall, Hasbro’s classic game of murderous mayhem will take an international twist as the iconic characters from CLUE embark on a globetrotting adventure to foil the plans of the Criminal League for Ultimate Espionage (C.L.U.E.) in CLUE: Secrets & Spies Edition. Intrigue begets intrigue as the new optional text messaging feature transmits game shaping intelligence to Agents Plum, Scarlet, Mustard and the others while an ultraviolet, secret decoder reveals hidden missions to the players."

Read full release here.

Social Communities Become Errand Runners

Found a flyer for RunMyErrand.com's beta website on my door last night. They bill themselves as a site for "the busy" and "the not so busy," a social community through which users can find people to run the errands they're to busy to do themselves.

An online, paypal-like payment system seems to differentiate this from other sites like Craigslist, or the message board of multi-colored flyers behind the sugar station at the coffee house. It links the poster and the runner financially through a credit system; one credit equals one dollar.

Lets say I post "pick up my dry cleaning" as a 7 credit job. It would then go up on the site's wall for all to see, and potential errand-runners would apply to run my errand. I'd look at thier profiles and reviews others have posted, and make my choice. (Maybe they'd have a crazy, errand-running story like this guy??) Once my errand has been completed, funds would be transferred from me-the-poster to them-the-runner through this online credit system. I'd have my freshly laundered shirts, and they'd have seven bucks plunked into thier bank account. No in-person meeting needed, no exchange of cash required. And considering that paying someone for services rendered is an errand in and of itself, this is definately a good thing.