How many more gadgets do we need to help us pretend to play guitar? At least one, apparently.
The makers of the "Guitar Hero" video game have licensed their name to a $30 toy called Guitar Hero Air Rocker that combines a magnetic guitar pick and a belt buckle with a mini-amplifier.
After the player chooses one of 10 included riffs — from songs like "Smoke on the Water" and "More than a Feeling" — the toy captures the rhythm of the player moving the pick past magnetic coils in the buckle, without ever actually touching it, and broadcasts the riff.
Wearing a T-shirt and sunglasses, toy director Brandon Giraldez of Jada Toys in City of Industry, Calif., drew cameras and large crowds with his emphatic air guitar playing at the ShowStoppers media event outside the Consumer Electronics Show.
Giraldez said Air Rocker is intended to latch onto "the air guitar phenomenon."
The product will be available at major retailers in March. Expansion packs with more songs will be sold later, Giraldez said.