WowWee, a company that made its name with innovative robotic toys, will be showing off a new kind of tech toy at this year's Consumer Electronics Show (which starts next Monday, January 9): The AppGear toys will interact with free downloadable apps to combine virtual play with real-world fun. Costing from $9.99 to $19.99, the AppGear toys (for ages 4 to 8) will be compatible with the Apple iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch, and Android devices.

AppGear toys have varying capabilities. Once you've downloaded the App Commander app to a mobile device, for example, you'll connect it to a physical gun and to play against real-world foes and digital enemies at the same time. The game-play is similar to that of video games like Modern Combat and Call of Duty, says the company. And Alien Jailbreak is an augmented-reality shooter game in which the player looks through a smart device at included set markers to see an alien prison rooftop and searchlights scanning the area. You'll try to shoot escaping prisoners.

Another line, Foam Fighters, are small, realistic foam airplanes. When you attach them to your mobile device, you can "fly" them through virtual environments on the device's screen.. And Mysterious Ray Gun lets you build your own ray gun using included components. You then scan the ray gun via image recognition into your smart device and used it in a game.

We'll be able to try the toys out ourselves at CES next week. They should go on sale early this year.