Thanks to a giant leap in technology, old-school point and click USB missile firing systems will never be the same. The new USB Webcam Rocket Launcher will now give pranksters the newly added feature of being able to control remote missile launching systems via webcam anywhere with internet access.

With the use of MSN messenger you will be able to remotely assess the landscape of your firing station and unleash havoc from the cozy comfort of your workstation. Want to up the ante? Grab one of these USB gadgets for you and a friend so that you can video chat, share files, and fire missiles at each others heads!

The USB Rocket Launching System also doubles as a regular old webcam so, if your already in the market why no take it to the next level for just $59.99?

Sometimes the most ridiculously drawn out arguments come over the silliest things — like what to eat. Every week or so, after the long workdays have beaten us down, my friend will dig into the sidetable drawer and fan out all of the delivery menus with a sigh and ask “so what do you want?” And so it begins, the battle to find the menu that’ll please everyone’s appetite. Why not just throw the decision to chance? This little aluminum die can settle all of these big grumbly tummy questions with a quick roll, landing on either pasta, chinese, mexican, sushi, burgers or pizza (that covers all of the biggies, doesn’t it?). And then no one can be grumpy about not getting what they really wanted because, hey, it was out of your hands, the dice decided! Hilariously yours for $8.

The persistent need to communicate is rescued by persistence of vision with the Spacewriter, leaving your messages floating in mid air as you move the pocketsized unit from side to side. If you’ve ever tried to grab someone’s attention at a club or shout something to your friend standing at the other end of the bar at a show then you can probably appreciate the application of LED wave messaging. The backlit LCD screen lets you program in your own messages and, when hoisted into the dark air and waved, leaves a light impression of your text that’s visible up to 50 meters away. A cute little gadget (and certainly an attention getter) straight from Gyroscopes online for $16.80 (price subject to the current dollar conversion).

The classic theremin, with its haunting tones and seemingly mystical playability, has just been taken to a new level with this Matryomin QT, originally made for the Matryomin in Russia. Created by Japanese thereminist Masami Takeuchi, the QT is a single 8.5″ tall, 4 AAA battery powered matryoshka (no word on where the other nesters got off to, but maybe they’re making sweet music somewhere too) hiding a ptich-only theremin that’s easy to play but difficult to master. Getting started is easy: just flip the switch on the doll’s backside and position your hands around the doll to coax melodious tones from the speaker hiding under the base. If you’re still unclear on the concept, check out the video of Takeuchi playing “Love Me Tender” below. Know a theremin junky, or someone with a nesting doll yen? You can pick up this one-of-a-kind piece at the Japan Trend Shop for $599.

As the snow starts falling this weekend, thoughts turn to all of the great things the big white dump brings — building snowmen, hot chocolate with a fluffy marshmallow cover, snow days and sledding. Growing up in the Rockies, kids worked with just about anything they could to maximize the sledding experience; some were lucky enough to have plastic sleds that didn’t have rock-cracked holes in the bottom, others did well enough will garbage bags and pieces of cardboard, and the lucky ones had grandparents crazy enough to tie a saucer to the bumper of a car and drag screaming children over snow-packed roads. Kids today, of course, have it way better, and Porsche’s doing their part to class-up the sledding experience.

The Porsche Kinderbob, complete with headlights and the Porsche emblem hitched to the nose, is sure to be envy of the hillside this season. Part snow-ski, the real bonus is the steerable skid on the front end that lets riders actually fashion some sort of path instead of praying to avoid rocks and bushes, which is probably a great design thought since the metal runners underneath ensure maximum speed for the rider (but should the steering fail your wunderkind, there’s also a horn to alert small animals to jump out of the way). Available directly from the Porsche site for 65,00 €, this is just another one of those toys that makes us wish we were kids again.

What could be cooler than your own personal remote control mini helicopter? How about two Mini Havoc Helicopters that let you and a friend battle for supreme mini helicopter air supremacy!

Take to the air from the palm of your hand then use the shoulder buttons on the remote to fire at your opponent’s copter laser tag style. Once hit, the laser will force your opponents chopper into an uncontrollable tail spin which will be sure to put him down on the ground. For a real challenge turn out the lights and use the flashing blue LED for a nighttime duel.

Check out the sweet mini dogfight video after the jump.

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Even if you’re not the crossword type, you can bet there’s someone in your life who spends every day on the metro working out the puzzle on the back page or carries around their own crossword book for downtime mental aerobics. When my brother was in grad school, he spent a whole semester creating and painting his own crossword puzzle on the dorm suite’s wall (never finished, of course, because the thing was just too ridiculously big). But it was a great idea — and one that’s now available out of the box in a seven foot square.

The World’s Largest Crossword Puzzle, smacking down the 1996 Guinness record for most monstrous crossword, is loaded with 28,000 clues and over 91,000 squares. Accompanied by a 100-page clue book, the puzzle makes no repeat word performances and promises to keep you working for ages to fill in all of the blanks. And if you’re not the type to keep your brilliance on display for visitors to gawk at, the sturdy paper stock crossword easily folds up for storage — it even comes with a storage box. For $29.95 from Hammacher Schlemmer, this is a homerun gift for any crossword fiend (here’s to hoping my brother doesn’t read this before Christmas).

Your mom was right, great things do come in small packages — especially when it involves hijacking the TV at your local bar whenever you feel like it. Here’s the tiny Ninja Remote, ready and able to take over all major brands of TV sets with a push of a button without being discovered. Palm-sized at 2.3″ x 1.4″ x. .25″, with a slight flick of the wrist you can change the volume or channel, hit the mute button or turn the power on/off on most televisions. To tune into your local boob tube, just point the remote at the intended target and press the mute button for a few seconds — once the TV goes to mute, you know you’re on the right frequency. As the barkeep scrambles to find out why the sound just cut, start planning your next move, and keep a careful eye on that shifty looking guy at the end of the bar, he may be on to you. But at $8.99, you can almost afford to get rushed and lose the piece over someone missing the “best play of the season”; what price hijinks, right?

… wonder, that is, how the hell you’re really going to manage staying upright in a hollow circle at 20mph. But you only live once, right? So why not go out with a crash-bang they’ll be talking about at the water cooler for weeks. “What happened to Jim?” they’ll say, when a sobbing secretary steps in to explain that you hit a rock speeding down a serpentine mountain road in your Wheelsurf and were last seen flying over a cabin.

Here’s the deal: hats off to the Netherlands for upping the crazy ante by introducing a gigantic wheel with an inner and outer frame powered by a Honda engine ready to break some necks. The trick to staying upright? Keeping the center handlebar level with the horizon line; tip too far in either direction and you’ll be a whirling mess. The Wheelsurf is steered by shifting your weight (so sort of like a motorcycle, right?) and, although it comes with a hand brake, braking is mostly limited to the counterbalance you can provide by leaning backwards — if you brake too hard, you’ll start spinning with the outer wheel… possibly something to shoot for.

And yes, it’s all fun and games til you come to the checkout line; the Wheelsurf is ready to roll, but it’ll cost you roughly $6900 (depending on how low the dollar will go these days) to wind up on your doorstep. Still, you’ve got some big spenders in your family, right? Check out the website for more detailed information and videos of the Wheelsurf in action.

Or you can just grab some Rollerblade wheels, scrap metal and duct tape to cheaply go full-tilt mental on wheels.

This hi-tech ball of hate brings a fresh spin on the old classic hot potato. Just like in the original your goal is to not get stuck with the ball but this time around there are real consequences.

As you may have already figured out from the name, the “shock ball” emits a random shock and light show in an effort to make someone drop the ball. Either you have nerves of steal and pass the ball along or risk losing and looking like a wimp. I mean I am sure it hurts but it’s not going to kill you…or will it?

The warning that accompanies the shock ball reads “The product emits an electric shock. Keep out of reach of children. Not suitable for those under the age of 14. This is a novelty item, not a toy. May interfere with electrical devices such as pacemakers.”