The Sons of Ether and the Virtual Adepts are two very interesting Traditions, but the material provided before this book barely touched on the gear they used to battle their former colleagues in the Technocracy. The first edition Technocracy books had a lot of neat gadgets included in them, which really gave players and storytellers a feel for what they do. One can learn a lot about a society by studying their tools. Though the Tradition books written for the Sons of Ether and the Virtual Adepts were entertaining to read, there was little mention of specific gear, thus there was a large hole in their cultural development. The Technomancer's Toybox remedied this problem. This is a no nonsense book about the devices (talismans) of the Virtual Adepts, Sons of Ether, Technocracy, and other technically inclined cliques (mostly Cult of Ecstasy). Split into their own sections and narrated from the viewpoint of a Virtual Adept, level 1 to 5 and unique devices for the groups were presented.
The whole hacker-mage angle of the Virtual Adepts was played up in their section. Most of their devices were centered on computer technology and compact gadgets. There was also an emphasis on being elite, which was expected. Overall, the Virtual Adepts have some nifty gear that would make any reality hacker proud.
The Sons of Ether section was very entertaining. The outlandish gear of the Etherites ranged from silly to deadly. They have many weird gadgets such as rollerblades that can go faster than most cars, death rays, soul-bonding suits, pulp hero lightning guns, and more. This is fantastic and enjoyable chapter.
The Technocracy chapter was unlike the Virtual Adepts or the Sons of Ether. The masters of Reality have gadgets that are often coincidental to the public. Most of the gear presented here were from the New World Order, Iteration X, and the Progenitors. There was a focus on equipment used by field agents on Earth rather than in alternate dimensions. The Void Engineers had a few gadgets detailed in the chapter but the Syndicate normally doesn't make high-tech gear so there was little mention of their devices. The equipment in this chapter was very interesting and further pushes the big conspiracy image of the Union. There were lots of spy equipment, weapons, vehicles, stuff Fox Mulder fears, and others. The gear featured here are very useful. There was an emphasis on usefulness over style.
The chapter that dealt with the other technomancers had gear used by other Traditions, Naphandi, and Marauders. There were some disturbing devices shown here. Even Dreamspeakers use devices and the one presented in this chapter deviated from their norms.
The Technomancer's Toybox is a very good book. Not only does it flesh out two Traditions and three Conventions of the Technocracy beyond their source books, it was also entertaining.