Sure, the upcoming $79.99 EyeClops Night Vision from Jakks Pacific is technically a toy, and thus made for kids (ages 8-plus with adult supervision required). Still, that didn't stop me from opening the box with trembling hands giddy from excitement. Neither did it prevent a crowd of Gearloggers from gathering around the device as I inserted its five AA batteries.

First off, the Night Vision is clearly designed for tykes. It took a little doing to adjust the three rubber straps (two on each side and one over the top) so they would slide over my man-sized head. Also, the goggles themselves are on the small side, at least for big faces like mine. Even so, with a little trial-and-error, the face mask formed a solid seal.

You turn the Night Vision on by flipping a switch on the back of the battery pack that sits behind your head. Once it's powered up, you see a little display which hovers in front of your eyes. Amazingly, though my test environment consisted of total darkness (or as dark as I could make it) within the screen I was able to see people and objects pretty clearly. Subjects have to be close up though. Because of the small virtual display, things further in the distance can look pretty murky.

A knob on the right side of the device activates an LED light, which looks incredibly bright through the goggles but positively faint without them. The LED allows you to see much further but does put you at risk of being detected by your buddies.. er, I mean, enemies.

Since the goggles seriously cut off your peripheral vision and depth perception, it's a good idea to flip up the left eye piece once in a while to get your bearings. And if you get sick of staring at everything in green, a switch on the bottom of the right eye piece toggles your view between splinter cell green and dark knight black and white. Now all you need to get the party started is this thing plus a state-of-the art lazer tag set, a bunch of crazy kids, and you'll really ready to rumble...with stealth! You can expect the EyeClops Night Vision to ship by fall of 2008.