Recently I had the opportunity to review a new robot toy: Mechatars, and you know we do love the robots around here, so how could I resist?   Plus, you guys get a chance to win one, and a coupon code MECHMOM for 10% off at iloverobots.com, valid until November 30, to buy your own if you don’t!

The Review

Basically, a Mechatar is a toy that is part remote control robot, and part video game.  Which is pretty much right up my 6 year old’s alley.  So I had him actually do the review on this… see the video below!  But to summarize:

You have 3 Mechatar toys to choose from: a raptor/dino/dragon looking thing, a wolf, and a bear (which the Boy decided was a Polar bear.) The toys have a simple to use remote so you can drive them around, and engage in battles with other Mechatars, or do ‘missions’ which apparently involve beeping.  We didn’t have another Mech to battle with, so I can’t attest to that portion, but the driving around was a little clunky and difficult to control.  Though The Boy didn’t seem to mind.  So your ‘offline’ mode is basically a fighting toy.

The ‘online’ mode is a computer game where you fight with your Mechatar in the virtual world.  The boy and I agree this was the best part of the game.   The fighting game itself was fun, complex enough to be interesting, but not so complex that a six year old couldn’t handle it.  See a little bit of it in action in the video below.  It’s an online game, played in the web browser.  As far as I could tell, there is no interaction with other actual players, so it’s not really a virtual world, but you can play against your friends’ mechatars by allying with them for training missions.  You’re not actually playing against the friend, but you are pitting your Mech against the friend’s Mech, which is being played by the computer.

There are some other pieces to the online game, like Challenges, but The Boy didn’t find them very interesting.  However he LOVED the battles.

From a technical perspective, the game suffers from an unfortunately common problem for kids’ games, of requiring Administrator access to run.  Like many smart parents, we prefer for our son’s computer account to be restricted in what he can run and install (who knows where he might accidentally click when out on the web!) , and his account does not have Administrator privileges.  This means that the program which allows you to sync and auto-connect to the online game doesn’t work automatically – it has to be run as an administrator by us.  It also meant we had problems on the initial install-make sure install the game as an administrator to avoid failures.  If you were doing a lot of syncing between the offline and online this would be an issue, however since you don’t even have to have a Mechatar to play the online game, and syncing isn’t a real big deal if you’re not doing a bunch of offline battles, it hasn’t been a big problem with the way the The Boy is playing the game.

But all in all, The Boy is really enjoying the toy, and definitely recommends it. He loved the battling, but he did wish there were more mechs to battle, not just the 3 styles.

See the video below to see the toy in action, and to see the video game in action!

Giveaway!

So, wanna win one for yourself?

Here’s the rules:

• Visit www.Mechatars.com
• Review the Mechatar lineup and check out which one you think your kid would like.  (To see the Mechatar line up, click on “play now” then “register” but no information needs to be submitted)
• Leave a comment on this post with which Mechatar you’d most like to win!
• See?  Easy Peasy.

Leave your comment, following the rules above, and I’ll pick a winner this Friday!

Small Print

I was selected to participate in this sponsored post series by Clever Girls Collective.  I was compensated for my time for  this review, but my opinions are always my own. 

I’ve seen several cute 404 pages recently, but mine was inspired by the one on Swiss Miss (great design site). Here’s her’s.

If anyone’s interested, I’ll write up a quick tutorial on how to make the graphic in photoshop, and also how to incorporate it into your 404 page.

PS: you can see another version of the same thing at my sometimes updated art site: http://nancydorsner.com/sdjflk

I decided to do thing-a-day this month, and I’ve already missed a day and it’s only day 4. I’ll do a makeup day for day 2 at some point. So this is my thing-a-day, and also my illustration friday, the first one I’ve managed to do this year.

Oh, and if you missed it, be sure to check out the ‘how to make octopus cookies’ from yesterday! I finally got the tutorial up…

2 years ago my resolution was to do Illustration Friday every week, and I succeeded!  And my art got better in the process.
Last year I worked on several big projects, like Foodwhirl.

This year?

ART:

Well, I think I want to start the Illustration Friday thing again.  It really did force me to draw, and I’ve been such a slacker with the artwork lately.  I’ve been focusing on web design, which I love (and is more easily lucrative!) but I’m afraid both my art and my blogging (here and at Foodwhirl) has suffered for that.  So, I don’t think I’ll be able to make EVERY week, but I should at least make an attempt, right?

Did you know that I developed a new site look for Dabbled, and I’ve never implemented it?  I think that should go on the list of things that need to happen this year–redesign of Dabbled.  As well as porting my poor neglected art site (nancydorsner.com) over to WordPress, and integrating all these sites together under my own little media empire (insert maniacal cackling here).

So, that’s just two little things.  And you can hold me to it!
I’m sure I should come up with a few more…
What about you? What are your goals? :)

Brian Despain

I love Brian’s work… the subject matter is right up my alley–robots and all manner of coolness– , and it’s just plain gorgeous.  I could just stare at the robot worlds he creates all day long–Inspiring!

Love these robots..

The Escape

The Haunting

Web: Despainart.com

Jason Thomas

Jason’s work is full of fun and whimsy.  Along with robots, he also shares my love of tentacle thingies and monsters.  A fellow Atlantan, too–he’s also a very cool guy.   In additional to prints and such, he was also selling some great 3-D wooden pieces (one of which I will soon be the proud owner of–and I’ll share that when I get it, since he doesn’t seem to have any of those in his online store right now.).

If you’re in Atlanta, he’s at a lot of the festivals… He’ll be in my write up of East Atlanta Strut when I get to it.  So go find him because his stuff is sure to make you smile.

Web: Red Rocket Farm

Jason Limon

I picked up a print of Jason Limon‘s a few years ago, and I love his otherworldly style.   A really interesting mix of natural / organic elements and  mechanical elements.

His most recent work has an ‘owly’ feel, but I’m of course fond of his robots especially– and you can even get his cool bots as an iPhone Skin!

Web: Limon-Art

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Pete Abrams (Sluggy Freelance)

All around awesome guy, and creator of the long running webcomic, Sluggy Freelance, I would be remiss in not including Pete in the list of cool people in Artists Alley!  If you never read Sluggy, you really should.  But be warned, there are 13 years of archives to go through – so you might want to just buy the books!  Still in my book one of the best comics ever.

(Plus he looks ever so cute in a wig!)

Web:  Sluggy.com

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Andy Runton (Owly)

Pete pointed me toward’s Andy Runton’s Owly series, so we picked up a book for the 5 year old.  I love the idea of graphic novels for the kiddo set.  With very few words, it looks like an ideal way to expose a pre-reader to sequential story telling.  Plus Owly is awfully cute!  We haven’t gotten around to reading it yet, but looking forward to it!

This is the one we got.

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Web: Andy Runton

Other shout-outs… I didn’t get a chance to speak to either Gus Fink or Meg Lyman, but I wrote about them last year!

The Boy has a birthday coming up, and I figured I’d better be early (ok, I’m reaching for an IF theme! edit: Another IF for Early is HERE!) drawing an illustration for his birthday party invite. (Previous year’s party invitations: Dragon and Robots.) His pick for a party theme this year? Phineas & Ferb AND Star Wars – The Clone Wars. So what was I to do? Well, I’m still not sure about the party itself yet, but here’s the invitation (he’d better appreciate it, it took me all day to draw)!

Whatcha think!?

Too bad it will be too hot to wear his Perry Costume…!

1. The Stomach, RIP Pterodactyl Pants is always so creative… a plush stomach?
2. Chair pad Love how the chair pad matches the cute sewing machine cover!
3. Dia de muertos brooch from Penny Dog Accessories (Want to try resin? Her tutorial on Resin is HERE!)
4. Silk Tie Easter Eggs from Tresijas [Related: How to make Silk Tie Eggs |  Tresijas has been featured on Dabbled:  How-To Make a Bracelet from an old record Tutorial]

(More links below the photo mosaic)

5. Feed the Dog– Cute robots!
6. Easter Round Ripple – Love the colors!
7. Attic24’s jar cover – Great re-use idea.
8. Cute owl from an old tank top and here is the Tutorial on D is for Delicate
9. Mini-Angler Felted Plush 1, – TOTALLY AWESOME! “He’s 100% dyed, needle-felted wool, with acrylic airbrushed shadows. He also has a working LED light in his “fishing-lure” with a battery pack hidden inside his mouth, and painted polymer clay teeth!” from Felted Chicken (Airbrushing Felt Tutorial is here)
10. Stash Buster Farmer Tote Love the size of this thing, the tutorial is here on Some Art Talk.  (Colleen has been featured on Dabbled: Cute Re-made Girls Jeans Tutorial)
11. Sheep Tote Bag cute!  Tutorial is here.
12. Rose Umbrella Fancy up an umbrella by adding roses!  Tutorial is here

Thanks to all of you for sharing!

I was playing around with a fun little online drawing tool called Harmony that I found via Drawn.ca.

So I sketched part of the idea I had for illustration friday this week!  I really like the sparse feel to this… and it was fun :)  I’ll probably do another IF for Subterranean, but if not, here are these two!

Speaking of robots.. check out my news from yesterday about my robot cake being featured on MSNBC :)

Here are a few more gift ideas for Valentine’s Day, from indie sellers around the web!  Hope these give you some ideas and inspirations.  Feel free to add links to other good sites or items, in the comments!

Links to seller sites are below the image:

• ASCII Heart Necklace
• Recycled Soda Can Jewelry
• Robots

• art for your heart
• Rebecka Valentine
• Valentine Two Hearts One Love Art Print

• Crazy Love Card II
• Cuttlefish Jewelry
• Handmade Watercolor Cards

• Journals & Book Necklaces
• 3D printed bracelet from the Future
• Recycled Bookmark

Some Fun holiday stuff from Last Year, while you’re waiting…:

• Make a Shrink Ornament Santa HERE (includes template)
• Lemon Pie – Decorate with a winter snowflake theme HERE
• Some great ideas for Holiday Up-cycling!  Finalists in last years Dabbled Upcycled Craft Contest… Here!
• How to Make Homemade Eggnog. Try it! HERE
• Make and Freeze Homemade Stock (Any of those holiday recipes that call for broth will be better with homemade!)- HERE
• Holiday links: Click here for cute holiday links. And Click HERE for bunches of ornaments and tutorials.
• Printables: “Uncoventional Santa” Xmas Card. CC licensed, so print it for personal use if you like!
• Make Oatmeal Cookies! Tutorial here.
• Christmas Tree Cookies:   Make ‘em here.
• Robot Scarf.  A fun gift, and makeable by a novice. Info Here.
• Dabbled Classic: How to make a Blueberry Pie. Check it out here.
• Tutorial on making a cool boy-toy! The homemade sweater snake.
• Go Green for the Holidays – Tutorial Links