Back at the start of December, I posted Edwin Gore's plea for a plush Fin Fin to replace his grandson's beloved, and lost, toy. You folks came through, and this Christmas, a young mutant was reunited with his long-lost chum, all thanks to you. Edwin says, "Last night my grandson was reunited with his beloved Fin Fin, along with a surprise extra, all thanks to the readers of Boing Boing. Several commenters had asked for video, and since the comments are closed on the original article, I thought I would send this along. Thanks again Boing Boing!"

Daww.

Reunited with Fin Fin

Ben Marks says: "We just published an interview with Brian Heiler, author of Rack Toys: Cheap, Crazed Playthings and the guy behind Plaid Stallions. We spoke with him about the lineage of all those shoddy toys that hang on racks at checkout counters. You know, the stuff people will be buying for their kids this weekend…"

One of the most bizarre items I found was a water pistol in the shape of Adam West as Batman. The squirt trigger is in an inappropriate place, and the place where you put water in would be equally inappropriate. He’s actually bending over, and water squirts out of his mouth. And well, you can do the rest of the math.

Toys that were made to be broken

Mark Nixon's "MuchLoved" project collects photos of peoples' long-suffering toys, along with the stories behind them. It's a poignant collection of sentimental reminiscence and beautiful patinas and genteel decay.

MuchLoved (via Neatorama)

Mckenna Pope of Garfield, NJ has started a petition -- with just over 23,000 signatures at time of writing (including mine) -- to Hasbro, asking them to produce a gender-neutral version of the Easy-Bake Oven, so that her cooking-crazed little brother won't feel excluded from his passions:

My little brother has always loved cooking. Being in the kitchen is his favorite out of school activity, and he yearns to have the opportunity to cook on his own, or at least with limited help.

Imagine my surprise when I walked into his room to find him "cooking" tortillas by placing them on top of his lamp's light bulb! Obviously, this is not a very safe way for him to be a chef, so when he asked Santa for his very own Easy-Bake Ultimate Oven, produced by the Hasbro company, for me to help him be the cook he's always wanted to be, my parents and I were immediately convinced it was the truly perfect present.

However, we soon found it quite appalling that boys are not featured in packaging or promotional materials for Easy Bake Ovens -- this toy my brother's always dreamed about. And the oven comes in gender-specific hues: purple and pink.

I feel that this sends a clear message: women cook, men work.

Hasbro: Feature boys in the packaging of the Easy-Bake Oven (via ThinkProgress)

This adorable Makie doll went to MineCon, a Minecraft convention in Paris, with its owner MoggyMoo and her son, a Minecraft enthusiast. In honour of the occasion, Moggymoo knit a tiny custom Minecraft creeper jumper for it to wear.

Meena is going to MineCon (Thanks, Alice!)

(Disclosure: My wife is the founder of MakieLab)

Welcome to this year’s Boing Boing Gift Guide, a piling-high of our most loved stuff from 2012 and beyond. There are books, comics, games, gadgets and much else besides: click the categories at the top to filter what you’re most interested in—and add your suggestions and links in the comments.

The Chinese launch of Barbie has crashed and burned, after the multi-million-dollar Barbie flagship store in Shanghai's most fashionable district had to close its doors for lack of business after just two years. Here's Ken Voigt from CNN with an expert's postmortem:

"Barbie spent a lot of money setting up a boutique in the most fashionable part of Shanghai, where you could go and have all of your Barbie needs met. You could have a fashion consultation, you could of course buy lots of Barbie dolls," said Karl Gerth, author of "As China Goes, So Goes the World: How Chinese Consumers Are Transforming Everything."

However, "they didn't think long and hard enough about whether Chinese girls wanted to look sexy or they wanted to look something closer to what you'd associate with Japan -- cute," Gerth added. "So Hello Kitty is doing well, but Barbie is an example of crash and burn."

What do Chinese consumers want? Not Barbie

Wired UK is running a Christmas Pop-Up shop in London's Regent Street from Nov 29-Dec 5, in the Quadrant Arcade by Picadilly. I'm delighted to note that MakieLab, the 3D printed toy company my wife co-founded, will have a store within the Wired shop, where you'll be able to buy Makie Dolls and accessories, or create custom dolls.

Bring back memories of torn blister packs, fortunes lost, and legendary rocket-firing Boba Fetts with the new "Star Wars The Ultimate Action Figure Collection" book by Stephen Sansweet, keeper of the world's largest private collection of Star Wars stuff.