The HEXBUG Hive Habitat set has been named a Best Toy of 2011 by Dr. Toy.

Dr. Toy is pleased to have the opportunity to share her years of play and toy experiences with consumers to assist them in the selection process. This timely report features information about l00 wonderful new toys and products from large and small companies. The toys and products selected meet my high standards for design, durability, price, quality, safety, and value.

Dr. Toy reminds parents and teachers, “Let’s not forget that “play is children’s work” and should be respected and understood by all adults. We should be thinking: “What products or “tools for play” can we obtain to provide wholesome experiences for children and provide plenty of positive play interactions.”

View the entire list of toys here.

Eric Gregori wrote about his experience hacking a HEXBUG Spider for Serial Control with a TI Launchpad on the ‘Build Smart Robots’ blog.

With this project the TI Launchpad is connected to the four button signals on the transmitter.  The transmitters microcontroller generates the IR signal that actually controls the robot…This project is about controlling the HEXBUG Spider with a serial port.  I use the USB to serial adapter built into the TI Launchpad, and a software UART I wrote for the MSP430G2211 that does NOT require an external crystal.

View the full blog post here.