From our Correspondent

Here at FireStar we like to keep our collective eye (we keep it in a jar) on the ball when it comes to developments in the world of toys.
So here from the front lines of being-born-a-bit-sooner-than-the-rest-of-us, we're proud to present our new grassroots correspondent Lara.
Lara has kindly agreed to be our eyes and ears on the ground floor of... well, the department of being young, we suppose. She'll be blogging here from time to time to tell us how things really are. What's hot and what's not. What's lame and whats... in the game. Ahem. She knows what it's like to be on the receiving end of the many and herculean efforts of the toy industry as it tries desperately to gain her custom, and she's not afraid to tell us.

So, without further ado, here's Lara with her first report on the State of Toys today:

Twister

Who here hasn’t played Twister? What, you haven’t? Are you serious? Not only is it one of the best ever-family games, but it is also one that falling over and looking stupid is what it’s all about.

Sound interested? Then read on….

Twister (in case you didn’t know) has a mat a spinner and should have a large amount of players, the bigger the better. The more dignified amongst us would be the spinner. All they have to do is sit down, well away from the mat, and spin the spinner. Whatever the spinner comes is the section of the mat that the first lucky player must place a part of their body on. i.e. left hand red. Then it’s the next players go.

This goes on till the winner is announced. If you are given this honor, remember: this is hardly won, as bums, elbows etc. are not allowed on the mat.

So, if you are a person blessed with flexibility/ are a professional contortionist/ have a worst enemy you really want to laugh at then this game is for you. Go, you know you really want it…

The end.

By Lara

Lego Universe!

What are you doing today, readers?
Sitting somewhere, possibly at work, possibly not, humming various Disney themes? Hmm? Or perhaps trying to hum (consecutively) the title songs to Star Wars, Star Trek Next Generation and classic Superman?*

Well, stop all that! That's right, put away your humming apparatus (make sure the Floam flow is off and the Hannigan's Tubules are disconnected. Don't want any nasty accidents), get up, sit down again, and check out LEGO Universe!

That's right! Lego are releasing their much anticipated Massively Multiplayer Online Game this very year, 2010.

Our first glimpse of the richness of settings, details and parts shown in the video recollected the surge of excitement on first opening a brand new Lego set.

Except that with the game you can inhabit any Lego world, from pirates to space police. If thas doesn't get the gleeful feelings bubbling in your marrow, throw in an overarching storyline that involves saving imagination from an entity called The Maelstrom and... well. That should probably be enough for you. What else d'you want, selfish? One of the developers to come round and give you a massage every time you start up the game? A monorammed set of handkerchiefs? You make me sick.

The key words for the game are build, play, connect and customize. Frankly, we can't think of many things more thrilling than realising our most fervid brick imaginings with, potentially, the whole Lego brick catalogue at our disposal. And then stomping our clunky plastic feet all around the town, shouting about our latest creations.

With the world bound to explode in size and breadth almost as soon as it's released - what with the huge potential for user generated custom-designed content and the inevitable expansion to include themes old and new (we're particularly looking forward to seeing the gorgeous new Atlantis range realised) - the future's nothing if not dazzling. Dazzling and brick-shaped.

FireStar's going to be in Lego's MMO from the start. Are you?

* This is almost impossible, and thus a great pub game.