Matt Kirkland takes apart your favorite robotic toys to reveal the robotic exo skeleton that lies beneath with before and after photos. Viewer discretion is advised.

If memory serves, in Empire Strikes Back, Chewbacca served as a pack mule, carrying the destined interpretor for Jabba the Hutt and future deity to the furry Ewoks on his back as they made their escape from Bespin, and now you can relive the adventure, with the mighty Chewbacca backpack, which, unlike the Yoda Backpack, doesn't really fit into the Star Wars continuity (or maybe it does in the Expanded Universe, or in Han x Chewbacca slashfic somewhere). While I can't imagine anyone of school age not getting beat up for wearing this or being the target of jokes (remember, Leia would rather kiss a Wookie), there's something deeply unnerving about unzipping Chewie's backside to shove books inside.

Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium is one of the films I plan on seeing this winter, not just because it has Natalie Portman and Dustin Hoffman in it, but because it's got Holiday Kid's Movie written all over it.

In a Holiday Toy Drive last week, they've also managed to raise an auspicious 28808 pounds of toys for Toys for Tots.

There's still a few weeks to go before the release of the live-action "Transformers" movie, but it seems that some fans have taken it upon themselves to using the new Alternators line of Transformers toys to create a stop-motion animated short:

Only available in Europe, LEGO now sells LEGO Lunchboxes, which look like 2x2 LEGO bricks.

Last year at the Make Faire, Crabfu was showing off a bunch of radio controlled, steampunkish creations. It seems that their latest creation is a Steam Powered R2-D2. By taking the shell of a broken R2 toy, they've crammed in a steam boiler, and create a functional droid. the result can be seen below.

As part of this year's Transformers marketing blitz, Hasbro is releasing toys of Transformers that change into Nike shoes. Not to be outdone by Nike, Reebok has tapped another source of nostalgia by releasing the Reebok Voltron Lion Force Pack, a series of 5 colored shoes that represent the 5 lions that form Voltron.

Voltron isn't a bad license... it could have been Go-Bots.

Mazinga Z (or Tranzor Z) is a well-known robot manga created by artist Go Nagai in the 1970s. In the early 80s, I had several of these robots including a 3-foot high plastic version with firing chest rockets and fist rockets(likely a bookleg, as it was blue and yellow in my recollection) as well as a smaller die cast version(in the proper colors). In Japan, there are still many fans of Go Nagai and Mazinga Z, and they release new toys for the adult market even though the series ended long ago.

This toy is the most highly detailed Mazinga Z I've seen (even more than the original Soul of Chogokin), with Jet Scrander, Hover Pilder, Jet Pilder, Iron Cutter and Rocket Punch arms, and Missile Punch belly.

Available at HobbyLink Japan

His female robot companions Diana and Venus are also available, and equally as detailed.

They are the Corporate Zombies and they glow in the dark!