Chose a product and update related product variables

[hupjack]

I'd like to improve my excel workbook with the ability to choose a product
from multiple places and as a result of having selected that product
(currently just a validated pick list), set / update a bunch of variables,
like the height, width , length, weight, and cost to reflect the chosen
"active product"

Currently the way my spreadsheet is setup, I have a table of all my product
data, and from another tab, I chose the product at the top and use a row of
vlookups to bring in the product data to a bunch of cells that I've named
appropriately.

This works great, but if I'm on another tab working on a tool that uses the
active product data, and I want to change the product, I need to switch tabs,
change the product, and switch back to the tool I was looking at.

So I'd like to be able to change the active product from any tab.
I'm know I can do this from VBA, and code it to look at certain cells, and
if I change the product in one place, to change in the original that the
vlookups look at, but that seems like a hoaky way to do it.

I was also thinking there might be a way to choose the product from multiple
places, and from the product chosen, change the location that my "named"
variables point to match the row of the chosen product.

It's not easy to describe what I'm trying to do, but hopefully I got my goal
across... would love to know the various ways of accomplishing this, and
chose the "best" one.