What makes James Bond so cool? The ladies might say it's his debonair attitude, but what separates 007 from just 0 in my book is his gadgets. And for every budding spy out there, Wild Planet offers a full line of spy gadgets, minus the Aston Martin DB5 (or Bentley for the fans of the books). But is this Spy Gear what your special agent needs to defeat the evil forces of those bent on taking over the world?

First in the labs, Q points us to the Spy Gear Satellite Listener, designed to help an agent listen in on conversations not intended For Their Ears Only. It looks like a squared-off megaphone, but instead of a microphone on the small end, a single earbud and cord extends out.

In design, the device is shaped the way it needs to be, and additional flaps fold out on the wide end to increase the sound-gathering range, then fold back in for portability. The earbud cord, when not in use, fits in a groove under the device, and the excess and earbud itself fits into a compartment for easy storage. Two legs flip out, forming a tripod with the back, allowing a small set of direction options: up, forward, and angled upward. The legs could've been better designed for more directional choices, but they work well enough and are sturdy.

This device rises and falls on its sound, though, so how's the sound? Keep in mind that it operates like a funnel, grabbing sound from wide range. While that allows for easy aiming, it amplifies all sounds in the area. If you know people with hearing aids, most complain that, in a crowd, they have a difficult time filtering out background noise to listen to a particular conversation. The Satellite Listener suffers from the same drawback. While you can amplify a conversation, too much background noise will make the conversation difficult to decipher. A unidirectional mic would have been helpful, but slightly more difficult to aim. I really think that would've made it more useful, though.

The device uses an earbud, which has its pros and cons. Earbuds are compact, which is important for a portable device, but not every earbud fits in every ear. Also, parents may be concerned about earbuds and the recent studies on hearing damage, although the speaker limits the maximum volume output to prevent damaging levels.

Overall, I found the Satellite Listener to be one of the weaker devices in the Spy Gear series, mainly due to the amplification of ambient noise. In my 10-year-old's words, "It doesn't work." A real spy trying to listen in on a conversation from a distance would use a shotgun microphone, and I'd suggest a cheaper version of the same for a toy listening device.