Homestar EXTRA from Sega Toys coming soon

What we first reported on as the Homestar EX has now become the Homestar EXTRA, and now we have a better idea as to what’s inside this major upgrade in the best-selling home planetarium series from Sega Toys.

While the other Homestar models are basically for home use only, the EXTRA is not made to replace the current Homestar Pro (shop link). Instead it’s being marketed to fashionable bars, hotels, schools, and upscale customers as a new model for more professional purposes.

Improved features include 5 times the illumination of the Homestar Pro, making it possible to use with dim room lighting, and a multifunction remote control. The shooting star function, once only random in timing, is now random in placement as well.

Also using large Star Discs, the Homestar EXTRA projects from 45,000 to over 120,000 stars and clusters compared to 10,000 for the Homestar Pro. Of course, the size is considerably larger as can be seen in the comparison photo, but the resulting projections are a marked improvement and a new landmark in planetariums for the average star gazer.

Photo from IT Media

Unfortunately, it looks like we’re going to be waiting a little while as well. The Homestar Extra will be released in December of this year for about $7-800 dollars and sold only in Japan, but will surely be available for import from day one.

Tags: gadgets, Homestar, Lifestyle, Sega Toys
Category: Technology & Gadget Trends
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Homestar EX from Sega Toys

UPDATE: The official name has now become the Homestar EXTRA, and it’s coming out in December 2008!

For our first post from the first day of the 2008 International Tokyo Toy Show, we are proud to introduce the latest in Sega Toys’ Homestar home planetarium series. Yeah, they just debuted the Homestar Spa in the last couple of weeks, but the Homestar EX is poised to be the Pro-version of the…err…Homestar Pro? (product page link)

Though it won’t be released until the end of the year, the Homestar EX uses large star discs, is a much higher-quality home planetarium than anything else in the Homestar series, and is bright enough to see the stars clearly with the lights on in the room! Other new features include a digital multi-function remote control, and a truly random (not fixed) shooting star function.

Of course, such high celestial technology doesn’t come cheap. While no price has been determined, the Homestar EX is expected to sell for over $800 when released.

Tags: Homestar, Homestar EX, Sega, Tokyo Toy Show, Toys
Category: Technology & Gadget Trends
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HomeStar Spa planetarium from Sega Toys

UPDATE#2: JapanTrendShop now carries the Homestar Spa.

UPDATE: The even newer Homestar EX!

It’s been awhile, but we’re finally getting a nice update to the immensely popular Homestar “Home Planetarium” series from Sega Toys.

After the original Homestar became so popular, the much-improved Homestar Pro and the portable Homestar Pure hit the market. However, aside from some special editions, there hasn’t been an update in over a year.

Coming soon, the Homestar Spa is a home planetarium for your bathroom!

Homestar Spa is combining elements of popular ambient and bath toys for adults (JapanTrendShop has tons), with waterproof design and additional projection elements such as “flowers” and “kaleidoscope“.

While not yet out on the market, HomeStar Spa will be debuting at the upcoming Tokyo Toy Show, and we’ll be there as always for in-depth coverage of this year’s latest gadgets and toys, including plenty of photos and video.

Tags: Homestar, Homestar Spa, lighting, Planetariums, Sega Toys, Tokyo Toy Show, Toys
Category: Technology & Gadget Trends
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Tokyo Toy Show 2007 coverage with video and pics!

The CScout Japan team went to the Tokyo Toy Show 2007 today, and had an amazing time checking out all the newest toys and gadgets from Japan for this year. There are many cool things coming out, and we’ll go into much more detail over the weekend, but today is just a basic overview. As usual, we were most impressed with Sega, especially their lifestyle gadgets like the Homestar Pro, but Bandai and Takara Tomy were right up there as well. Konami is a definite must-see, but only because they have the best models

We also got to see the Puchi Puchi virtual bubblewrap up close, as we mentioned in this post. For some reason there was a major surplus of three kinds of items: Helicopters, air guitars (the kind not made of air, which was confusing), and models of Tokyo Tower (we saw at least five). No shortage of girls either! Check out the rough video coverage below:

We can’t possibly fit everything in here at once, so we’ll cover our favorite items in the coming days, one-by-one. Click below to jump and see some eye-candy from the show before we unveil some exclusive pics of some very cool Japanese products coming your way soon…

Click here for more

Tags: Bandai, Homestar, Sega, Takara Tomy, Tokyo Toy Show, Toys
Category: Technology & Gadget Trends
Other categories: Marketing & Ad Trends, Fashion & Lifestyle Trends, Press coverage