Ok, Christmas is over…and I didn’t get everything I wanted…I mean, I got a sweater that says “world’s best dad” on it, but that doesn’t really do much for me. The one nice thing about a recession is that all sorts of companies are dropping prices on their stuff so they can get some sales. So (in no particular order) here are the toys I want to get myself:

Blu-ray Player

Like DVD players before them, CD players before that, and VCRs before that, Blu-ray players started off selling for about $1,000 to milk all the early adopters out there. But now I can get a Sony BDP-S350 1080p Blu-ray Disc Player for $269 or a Sharp Aquos for a mere $209 — I’m sold.

1080p Projector

Speaking of toys that have dropped in price, just a year ago you couldn’t find a 1080p projector for less than ten grand or so. But now I can pick up a 1080p Mitsubishi projector for just about two grand…scratch that, if you buy it from Amazon by December 31st, you get a $500 rebate, bringing it down to $1,509 plus free super saver shipping…I don’t want to sound like a Mitsubishi spokesman or anything here, but that’s a freaking great deal! (To get it, just click on the link, then click on “8 used & new” to switch the vendor from “Electronics Expo” to “Amazon.com” — voila! $500 rebate magically appears!)

125″ 16:9 Electric Screen

Go big or go home. If you buy a projector, then get a 70″ screen, you are stupid…just buy a flat screen, better yet, just send all your money to me. I think the perfect compliment to a 1080p projector is a screen that I can operate by remote control…next step, remote controlled fireplace.

Xbox 360 Elite

Despite my love of toys, I don’t have an Xbox 360 yet. Which means I don’t have Halo 3, Rock Band 2, or Call of Duty 4…and I think it’s about time to leave the stoneage and finally find out what happens to Master Chief (and catch up on some other time-sucks while I’m at it).

Ear-poppin Denon 7.1 Receiver

Let’s face it, 5.1 is about as high-end as VHS or 8-track tapes. Every time I watch The Dark Knight, a little voice in the back of my head keeps telling me that there should be two more speakers behind me making me feel like I’m on that Batcycle thing. And the Denon AVR-988 7.1 Receiver gives me 110 watts per channel, HDMI 1.3 inputs and outputs, and a Faroudja FLi2310 video processor that provides video scaling up to 1080p resolution so my regular DVDs will look crisp and clear…even at 125 inches.

Custom Built PC of Awesomeness

The Intel Core i7 is out, memory costs next to nothing, and I can get terabytes upon terabytes of storage served up at 300 MB/s for dirt cheap. If I could just add a small, networked computer to my living room, I’d have the ultimate media server as well as a machine that would let me finally say “yes, it can run Crysis.”

Asus Eee

In addition to letting me stream my music collection to the living room, having an Asus Eee on my couch also means plenty of Web surfing while I watch TV…could there be anything better?

Big Ol’ Flat Screen TV

Of course, if I’m going to watch all that TV while I surf the Web, I don’t want to wear down the bulb in my projector. Since I’ll be using the projector for all my serious movie watching, I don’t need to spend a fortune on a TV, but a nice sub-$1,000 40″ Sony Bravia should let me watch How I Met Your Mother in style.

iPod Touch

When I want to take my music on the road, I can think of no better way than to ditch my 1 GB Sandisk mp3 player and upgrade to an iPod Touch. I know lots of people go in for the iPhone, but it feels awkward holding that brick next to my head and trying to talk…and as one review pointed out, the phone is the weakest part of the iPhone.

Netflix Subscription

Ok…while not really a “tech toy,” Netflix now carries Blu-ray movies and streams videos so clear they make Hulu look like your watching video underwater. And now that I’m going to have a sweet home theater, I need lots of high definition content to enjoy. And while I can’t afford to get all of these toys, I think I deserve a few of them.



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