We read today that Uggie the dog, Hollywood star of Oscar nominated The Artist, is being retired citing ‘long hours and tiredness’ as reasons for his retreat from the silver screen.

We’re not impressed. We’d like to formally introduce Max, our new canine addition to the management team. He might look the same as Uggie but he is made of stronger stuff. Results focused? Check. Implementing long term growth strategies? Check. Likes to work hard – and play hard? You bet. Panic poos during meetings? Actually yes….(seriously).

Creative, fun to work with, super smart, sometimes unpredictable, Max is everything we could wish for in a Firebox colleague.  Welcome to the team.

It was the Toy Fair this week – the UK’s go to event for everyone who works with toys (obvs!). Starting way back in 1954 the show featured Sooty, arguably the UK’s most famous hand puppet, and Scrabble – an instant Christmas hit. And, since then the show has launched some of the world’s best toys including Hula Hoop, Lego, Monopoly, Sindy, Rubix Cube and Tamagotchi. They were all fairly popular you might recall.

Firebox is a big kid, and so naturally it loves toys - it gets giddy just hearing the words Toy Fair. We descended upon the show en masse (well not everyone, some of us had to answer the phones and do the photo copying back in the office).

I ordered a solar charger to be delivered to Afganistan; when my box arrived I was happy anyway but opened it to find a small packet of sweets. Its strange how much something so small can make you smile. Thanks a lot - great boost to my morale!”

C. Borrowdale - Jan ‘12

Not a lot of people know this, but last Thursday was National Popcorn Day. Did you know that? We only found out last Wednesday. It’s a bit weird as National Popcorn Month is apparently in October. Are they connected? And when did it start? Why did it start? Is there any documentation that confirms it as being ‘officially’ a national day? 

Enough with the trivial questions. Being popcorn fans, we thought we should celebrate it a little. We are quite new to the area so thought it would be nice to introduce ourselves to our work neighbours with a little popcorn gift. ‘Happy National Popcorn Day!’ we shouted to our new friends. ‘I didn’t know it was National Popcorn Day’ people mumbled back, or once, ‘Do I have to fill in a market research form if I take it from you?’. 

Our very own Ben Fowler yesterday witnessed - and played on - the world’s largest videogame controller. 30 times the size of a NES joypad, it features in the new Guinness World Records 2012 Gamer’s Edition. You would need to be 51m tall if you wanted to use it like a standard handheld joypad. It weighs 18 stone. You get the picture - it’s the big daddy of joypads.

Such is the gigantic size of the controller, it required two gamers to press (or jump on) the buttons as you can see in the picture. Ben is the trendy hatted one on the right and Super Mario Bros was his obvious game of choice. Avid gamer, Ben was doing so well they had to kick him off after a while.

“The idea was formed over a drink down the pub” say the creators. All the best ideas are, aren’t they?

This is for real. A Storm Trooper Cake. Seen – and eaten – at Arisia 2012, America’s science fiction and fantasy convention. The famed phrase, “Aren’t you a little short for a stormtrooper?” certainly doesn’t apply here; this fella is (or was) 6ft 4in. [Via Ubergizmo].

We revamped our standard Friday ‘Rum O’ Clock’ last week into a product testing session where we sophisticatedly sampled and judged a number of potential new Firebox drink products. Wines, vodkas, gins, champers, liqueurs - you name it, we drank it - whilst heroically listening to the smooth sounds of muzak-lite weak wine bar jazz interpretations.  

The best responses to our highly investigative tasting questionnaires (both by the same slightly inebriated person):

Q: ‘How much would you pay for this drink? A: I Like Ginger

Q: ‘How much should Firebox sell this drink for?’ A: Yes

“Some things you come across in life are faultless, and on my experience with Firebox this seems to be one of those moments.”

A. Wilson - Dec ‘11