If you’ve ever let kids try to draw or paint, you’ll know how horrific the results can be: not just the terrible pictures, but also the resulting mess. Paint on the dog, permanent pen on the the face, scribbles all over the wallpaper and pencils stabbed into their eyes – all these consequences put any parent off letting their offspring attempt artistic endeavours. If, however, you still want to let the kids express themselves, the LED Art Canvas is here to give you mess-free peace of mind.

Take the Etch-a-Sketch, make it bright, colorful and fun, and you have the LED Art Canvas. It’s a reactive canvas board that comes with 200 LED pieces and three light strings, which glow with luminous color when attached to the board. The set comes with background templates to start your youngsters off, and can accommodate personalized custom backgrounds as their artistic abilities develop. What your kids do with the LED Art Canvas is limited only by their imagination. (Although be careful – some kids have worrying imaginations…)

The LED Art Canvas has a safe rubber top-surface that insulates the current behind the lights, leaving your kids shocked by their own genius and not electricity. Even if the LEDs get eaten, you can relax knowing that they’ll pass safely out the other end.

The LED Art Canvas is now only $59.95 for kids aged 8 and above, at Hammacher Schlemmer.

Chess is a game of skill and cunning; it’s also incredibly boring. The Khet 2.0 Laser Game combines the classic strategy of chess, with wicked sci-fi lasers you use to strike down your enemy. Knight to H4? Screw that. Spin your Sphinx and light up your opponent’s life to claim the win.

The game has four types of Egyptian-themed pieces – pharaoh, anubis, pyramid and scarab – with each piece having one, two, or no mirrored surfaces. Move any piece one square in any direction, or just give it a quarter twist on the same square. Finish off your turn by bouncing the laser off the mirrors and see where the beam lands.

See that little red dot on your opponent’s pharaoh? Congratulations! You just won the game. Add some smoke or fog to see the actual laser path in addition to the target.

The game includes a carrying case, 26 pieces (two that fire lasers), a game board, and illustrated instructions. Become a master of the Egyptian sands for $34.99.

If you’re keen on improving your mind (or a child’s concentration levels), this game, called the Telekinetic Obstacle Course looks awesome fun for all ages. Well, 8 and up. The aim of the game? To maneuver a ball through an obstacle course…with your mind.

Without the vocabulary barrier of crosswords or the numerical logic required for Sudoku, the Telekinetic Obstacle Course requires just concentration and your soon to be skillful sense of hand-mind coordination to navigate the game’s ball through hoops, teeter-totters (seesaws), baskets and chutes.

Including a headband and two earlobe clips that measure your brain’s theta wave activity (similar to medical EEG monitors), the game’s headband translates your concentration levels into wirelessly transmitted instructions. Your mental commands control the speed of the game’s fan which, in turn, makes the foam ball atop the airstream rise, fall or levitate (see video).

Once you’ve got the mind bit mastered, you need to introduce your hand into the mix. By twisting a knob the game-board turns, enabling you to move the ball through one of eight obstacles – which can be interchanged as you see fit.

Including nine obstacles in total and running on 4 x C and 3 x AAA batteries, the Telekinetic Obstacle Course is available now and, unlike the game itself, is a no-brainer to order over at Hammacher Schlemmer for $99.95.

Source:
Hammacher Schlemmer

Scene It? Star Trek Deluxe Edition is a DVD / board game combo packed with trivia questions and on-screen puzzles that are bound to put your Sci-Fi knowledge to the test. Recently released by Screenlife Games, Scene It? Star Trek Edition covers all 5 Star Trek series as well as the first 10 feature films and would be great for get-together’s with other ST fans.

Featuring patented Optreve optimization technology to ensure gameplay remains fresh – and including questions such as “How many tubes are in the back of the Borg Queen’s head?,” the game, like Star Trek Scrabble we’ve seen previously, is an opportunity to learn random bits of info too.

Star Trek Scene It is available now for $39.99 with a 5 star customer rating at Amazon.com. Also, for a preview of the on-screen action, be sure to check out the online demo.

Sources:
PR Newswire (Press Release) and Amazon.com

Star Trek Scrabble is an officially licensed version of the classic Scrabble crossword game that will put your Trek lingo to the test. Including a Star Trek-themed game board, word challenges and even a Klingon dictionary, it offers a chance to brush up on your Sci-Fi vocabulary, challenge your friends and maybe even learn a new word or two.

Based on the The Original Series (TOS) Star Trek and naturally featuring the Shatner, Nimoy, Kelley trio on the box, Star Trek Scrabble comes complete with 100 tiles, 4 racks, letter bag and instructions.

Star Trek Scrabble would be perfect for that next get-together with your Trekkie mates and you can make it so by heading over to Amazon.com, who will replicate you one for $29.99.

Sources:
Amazon.com via Craziest Gadgets