Tag: toys

• The best Mario cross-media adaptation (September 25, 2026)

  In 1986, Bandai produced a dexterity-based board game adaptation of Super Mario Bros. Players manipulate a little magnetic Mario-or-Luigi figure through a tightly designed fidget box of an obstacle course, racing against a timer in the form of a Bowser-shaped token on a spring that slowly rattles its way down a flagpole—and which physically blocks the final passageway when it hits bottom. Absolutely ingenious, and almost as old as the game it’s based on. (Via Supper Mario Broth )

• The toy-making raccoons of Cozumel (September 25, 2026)

  On a Mexican resort island, scientists observe raccoons creating toys from trash and teaching other raccoons how to do it, a first for this species.

• All grow fat from laughter (June 24, 2026)

  I very much enjoy A Most Amusing Bot, a Mastodon bot by Andy Lundell which regularly posts scanned newsprint ads of novelty gadgets from the 19th and 20th centuries. And I like the very eerie note that this one ends on.