SIXTH SCALE RECREATION OF ICONIC ARCADE FORTUNE TELLER MACHINE

Found at arcades, boardwalks, and carnivals, the animatronic mystic Zoltar predicting the future from his fortune teller booth has become beloved Americana. This cheesy yet iconic arcade fortune teller machine is a nostalgic reminder for many people of fun, carefree times on summer vacation gone by. From being a part of the Hollywood magic featured in the 1988 movie BIG to more recently being hyped by the Detroit Lions in a mockup featuring their personable coach Dan Campbell during the 2024 NFL Draft in Detroit, the Zoltar Fortune Teller has been entertaining people for years. Now thanks to New Wave Toys you can have your very own Zoltar Speaks Arcade Fortune Teller Machine to decorate your home or office.

New Wave Toys has crafted a sixth scale working replica of the classic Zoltar fortune teller. It includes all the same details and features of the arcade machines but at a fraction of the size & cost. Officially licensed by Characters Unlimited who own the trademark for Zoltar Speaks, this reproduction that stands 12.2" tall comes alive with animatronic mouth, eyes, and hand just like the original! Insert mini coins in this sixth scale Zoltar Speaks Replicade and it dispenses the same fortune card messages as the Characters Unlimited machines, just in a miniature format. While a full-sized Zoltar Speaks arcade machine sells for $9,400 dollars you can get yourself the New Wave Toys version for $150.

Features of the New Wave Toys Zoltar Speaks replica fortune teller arcade machine include:

• Accurate Replica of Deluxe Zoltar Speaks in 1/6 Scale (12.2in tall) 
• Fully Animated Head, Eyes & Arm 
• Mini-Coin Operated & Free Play Button Activated 
• Speaks All 16x Recorded Messages from the original Zoltar Speaks
•  Fortune Card Dispenser with All 55x Fortune messages from the original Zoltar Speaks
•  Included Attract Mode 
• Hand Painted & Quality Built with Premium Materials 
• Reproduction LED Cabinet Lighting Featuring Multi Color Changing Ball 
• 100-Day New Wave Factory Warranty

Are you ready to get your fortune told? This Zoltar Replicade LOOKS, SOUNDS, and WORKS like the World Famous Zoltar Speaks Fortune Teller Machine from Characters Unlimited. If you want one don't hesitate to buy it because these are sure to sell out just like the New Wave Toys arcade video game cabinet replicas do. I need to get one to go along with the Dragons Lair and 1943 video game Replicades I have in my shelfcade. Now if only they'd make a Dan Campbell Grit & Glory Fortune Teller Replicade for us Lions fans!

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LITTLE PEOPLE NFL COLLECTION

One week from now the NFL's 2023 football season will kick-off with the Detroit Lions facing off against the Kansas City Chiefs on GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium. To add a little bit of extra fun to the start of the season, Mattel has introduced a collection of their Fisher-Price Little People toys featuring football players and fans that has been officially licensed by the NFL and NFL Players Association which are available exclusively on the mattelcreations.com website. The Fisher-Price Little People Collector NFL Series represents all 32 teams. Each team comes with four figures packaged in display ready packaging for $25.

And to further celebrate the fandom, football enthusiasts can enter their official fantasy league into the Little People Collector™: FANtasy Frenzy Sweepstakes! for a once-in-a-lifetime chance to become immortalized as classic Little People figures! The epic sweepstakes, which runs now through September 7, 2023, will award one lucky fantasy football league with its very own custom Little People Collector set. Each league member (up to 12 maximum) will be transformed into their very own Little People® superfan with a personalized jersey and custom collector’s box—an unforgettable memento for every player on the winning team!

“Our 2023 Little People Collector NFL Series celebrates the football superfan inside all of us, which is why we are thrilled to unveil these exclusive sets for all 32 NFL teams,” Chuck Scothon, SVP and General Manager of Fisher-Price commented to ageekdaddy.com. “Whether you’re a football enthusiast or a die-hard fan, these sets are a must-have piece of sports memorabilia that celebrates each and every team, plus the fans and the players that make this sport truly great.”

To highlight some of the game’s most exciting players, several sets feature specialty sculpted figures, such as Josh Allen, Jalen Hurts and Von Miller. Other sets showcase superstars like Micah Parsons, Deebo Samuel, T.J. Watt, and more, wearing helmets in their respective team jerseys. And, to highlight the unwavering NFL team spirit, the new collector sets also include some incredible fan figures including a Minnesota fan in a Viking headdress, a Dawg Pound Browns fan, a sun-loving Dolphins fan.

Most of the teams come though with generic looking fans and players in team uniforms sporting 00 as their uniform number. For example, the Detroit Lions players don't have player names on the back of their jerseys and fans are wearing face paint and a backward ball cap. While they are nice looking figures they don't stand out to get One Pride fans geeked about them.

The Kansas City team pack is a little nicer with a Patrick Mahomes figure featuring a facial sculpt of the player and showing his #15 on the uniform and a helmet wearing figure that has Travis Kelce's name and number on the uniform. 

The best team in my opinion in the 2023 Little People Collector NFL Series are the Buffalo Bills which feature three identifiable players (Josh Allen,Von Miller and Dawson Knox) plus a cool looking fan wearing a hat with buffalo horns. Though I'm a Lions fan had to give the Bills a SHOUT for a nice looking toy pack!

What NFL team do you cheer for? What do you think of its representation in the 2023 Little People Collector NFL Series? Are you geeked about adding these Fisher-Price toys to your sports memorabilia collection? Share your thoughts with us on Twitter, X, or whatever they are calling that social media platform these days. 

ONE PRIDE VACCINATION CLINIC

Lions in the wild live within family groups called prides. And in the urban jungle fans of Detroit's NFL team consider themselves part of a pride when it comes to cheering on the Lions. So in the midst of this terrible pandemic knowing that we are all one pride in this public health crisis together, the Lions hosted a COVID-19 vaccination clinic at their downtown Detroit stadium to help beat this virus.

We were able to get appointments for my son and daughter on the first day my twelve year old twins were able eligible to get vaccinated. The whole family drove over to Ford Field so that the kids could join my wife and me in getting protected from this terrible coronavirus. Once arriving at the stadium we were in and out within 30 minutes. It was a quick, hassle free experience.

Why did we get our middle school aged kids vaccinated against COVID? Because I respect the doctors at St. Jude Children's Hospital. They put out an announcement as soon as the vaccine was approved for 12 to 15 year olds encouraging parents to have their kids get the shots. St. Jude Children's Hospital has been saving the lives of sick youth for decades and its doctors have earned my trust.

Doctor Miguela Caniza MD, Director of the St. Jude Global Infectious Diseases Program at St. Jude Children’s Hospital has been outspoken about vaccines for this novel coronavirus being safe and effective. She has emphasized three key points about why it is important to get kids vaccinated against COVID-19:

1. Children and teenagers can also become infected and some of them with serious disease. Young patients aren't immune to serious complications resulting from a COVID infection just because in general their sickness from virus infections seems to be less severe than older people.

2. Children and teenagers are highly mobile attending schools, sports, and intersecting more often with various age groups including with their caretakers and older family members. Even if they don't get very sick from the virus they can spread it to others who may not be as lucky if infected.

3. Because of the high percent of children and teenagers being asymptomatic or with minimal symptoms, most likely they will be effectively spreading during a very contagious period, and even more so, if they don’t follow the standard precautions (distancing, using masks and practicing hand hygiene).

We're doing our part to safeguard our own family's health as well as being sensitive to helping stop the spread of the virus as a benefit to our whole community. No one wants to get a shot, but I was really proud about how my kids rolled up their sleeves and did what needed to be done. No fuss and now a lot less stress about COVID for them.

FINANCIAL FOOTBALL

VISA and the NFL have teamed up to provide a FREE football themed video game to promote people's interest in being financially savvy.  FINANCIAL FOOTBALL is a fast-paced, interactive game that that teaches money management skills while you play.  You can compete on a virtual grid iron in either a one player game or in head-to-head action against a friend by answering finance related question to lead your team across the field to score touchdowns.

Start the game by picking how long you want to play (5 to 20 minutes) and selecting which NFL teams will be going heat-to-head against one another.  Next pick a difficulty setting playing either as a Rookie (Ages 11 -14), Pro (Ages 14-18) or Hall of Famer (18+).  Players then can select defensive and offensive plays with difficulty levels of easy, medium and hard which are followed up with questions about financial literacy and money management that correspond to the selected play's difficulty.  This customization makes the game fun and educational not just for kids but adults as well.

If you get a question right you your team is successful with their play, but if you get the question wrong than your QB will get sacked, your running back hit for a loss, or a wide receiver drops the ball.  The harder the successfully completed question the better your players do so an easy question might get you one or two yards, a medium question 5 yards and a hard question could get you ten yards or maybe even a break away touchdown.

In head-to-head mode players only answer questions on offense.  Whoever does the best will get the best results from their players and win the game! For single player mode, you also have to answer questions on defense with correct answers resulting in sacks, tackles for a loss and interceptions while wrong answers allow the other team to break long runs or have completions in the passing game.  How well you can answer the questions will determine if you are a winner or loser in FINANCIAL FOOTBALL.

FINANCIAL FOOTBALL takes a topic that can be boring and mundane for many kids, as well as adults, and adds some excitement to it that will help ingrain important tips and information into people's heads as their competitive instincts get them involved with this game.  As a parent, I'm always keeping an eye out for opportunities that combine entertainment and education to assist getting kids to embrace learning.

This game created in partnership between the Jump$tart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy, Visa's Practical Money Skill's for Life program, and the NFL , has been out for a few years now.  I like to promote it during the NFL season each year because it is a very well done effort to educate people on an important topic in an entertaining way.  I really encourage you to take advantage of this FREE football game.

Available to play online via your personal computer or laptop, FINANCIAL FOOTBALL puts players fiscal knowledge to the test in an online simulation game environment by combining the structure and rules of the NFL with financial education questions of varying difficulty. Visa has also released the game as a FREE iPhone app on iTunes, along with an optimized HD iPad version.  The game can be played in single player mode or against a friend in head-to-head action. It really is a fast-paced, fun game that can be challenging for all ages.

For more information about the FINANCIAL FOOTBALL video game, CLICK HERE.

Learning Practical Money Skills Is Fun With "Financial Football" Video Game

Too often people are taken advantage of in both legitimate business transaction and through frauds by con artists.  So I wanted to give a plug to a very well done educational tool that utilizes a football video game to entice people into learning practical money skills.  Financial Football which was created in partnership between the Jump$tart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy, Visa's Practical Money Skill's for Life program, and the NFL  lets children, teens, and adults test their money management skills and financial literacy by answering questions that allow you to move down the field and score touchdowns when you make the correct choices.

Available to play online via your personal computer or laptop for FREE, Financial Football puts players fiscal knowledge to the test in an online simulation game environment by combining the structure and rules of the NFL with financial education questions of varying difficulty. Visa has also released the game as a FREE iPhone app on iTunes, along with an optimized HD iPad version.  The game can be played in single player mode or against a friend in head-to-head action. It really is a fast-paced, fun game that can be challenging for all ages.

To start the game you can pick its length ranging from 5 minutes to 20 minutes plus select which NFL team you want to play as.  Difficulty settings are also available with Rookie (Ages 11 -14), Pro (Ages 14-18) and Hall of Fame (18+) to choose from.  Players are than able to select defensive and offensive plays with difficulty levels of easy, medium and hard which are followed up with questions about financial literacy and money management that correspond to the selected play's difficulty.

If  you get a question right you than your team is successful with their play, but if you get the question wrong than your QB will get sacked, your running back hit for a loss, or a wide receiver drops the ball.  The harder the successfully completed question the better your players do so an easy question might get you one or two yards, a medium question 5 yards and a hard question could get you ten yards or maybe even a break away touchdown.

This game takes a topic that can be boring and mundane for many kids and adults and adds some excitement to it that will help ingrain important tips and information into people's heads as their competitive instincts get them involved with this game.  As a parent, I'm always keeping an eye out for opportunities that combine entertainment and education to assist getting kids to embrace learning.  Financial Football is a great way to catch children and teens' interest and help them become financially savvy.

For more information about the FINANCIAL FOOTBALL video game, CLICK HERE.

Dream Team Pets to the Rescue

My 5 year old son has been sneaking out of his room after bedtime and slipping into bed with my wife and I in the middle of the night the last couple of weeks.  So we're going to give a product called Dream Team Pets a try to see if that might help him stay asleep throughout the night in his own room.

Photos provided by Dream Team Pets

According to information provided by the manufacturer of Dream Team Pets these stuffed animals are more than just a bedtime toy - they are an innovative kid's sleep aid that helps end the bedtime battles of trying to keep your child in bed.  Developed with the help of a pediatrician, Dream Team Pets bedtime routine empowers kids as they reward their Pet with stickers and a certificate for a good's night sleep.  If the child wakes up from a nightmare, there are no hard feelings because the responsibility is on their Pet, but when they successfully sleep in their own bed, the kids feel a sense of accomplishment as they reward their Dream Team Pet.  What makes this unique is that the kids think they are training their Pets, but really they are sleep training themselves!

Since my son and I enjoy watching Detroit Lions football games together we're going to go with the Dream Team Pet Lion and see if it helps with his sleeping through the night.

A Geek Daddy Blog readers receive a 30% off discount on Dream Team Pets from Amazon.com if you use the promo code: USFGUIDE.  CLICK HERE to pick one out for your child.  The options to choose from are a cat, dog, or lion.

DISCLAIMER:  the story about my son not sleeping through the night is true and my own personal situation but most of the information provided in this post was supplied directly from Dream Team Pets through the U.S. Family Guide program that A Geek Daddy Blog is a part of.  A Geek Daddy Blog did not receive financial compensation for this post but is receiving a complimentary Dream Team Pet for a future review post regarding the product on this blog.