Swedish artist Love Hulten built the Sputnik 0667 as a labor of love, giving it a retro 20th century feel inspired by old wooden “hi-fi” radios. Actually the more I look at it, it feels like the love-child of an old radio and a Commodore PET computer, with those sharp angular lines and its trapezoidal display housing. The wooden keyboard and mouse surface folds up when not in use, and the back of the system even has that old-school perfboard ventilation found on older electronics.

Hulten refers to the Sputnik 0667 as a “concept computer”, but from the looks of the screen there, there is a complete PC lurking somewhere inside there. As a matter of fact, under the hood is a Gigabyte GA-H55N-USB3 Mini-ITX mobo, an Intel Core i3 550 3.2GHz CPU, a Gigabyte GeForce GTX 460 GPU, 4GB of RAM and a 500GB WD hard drive. Here’s a screen of it running what surely looks like a Windows XP screensaver. Retro, indeed!

Perhaps my favorite thing about the Sputnik 0667 is the accompanying retro advertising campaign that Love took the time to create, echoing the style of the computer perfectly. If this were an actual system you could have purchased, this is exactly what the ads would have looked like:

Gotta love that typeface and the old game of Asteroids on screen. Sure, Asteroids wasn’t around during the days of Sputnik, but that’s okay. The vector graphics are a perfect fit anyhow. And the Pièce de résistance…

“Bye baby, I’m going space hunting!” And that goldfish bowl helmet? Priceless. Love, kudos on a brilliant job on the mod and it’s accoutrements. More details about this excellent mod can be found over at Sweclockers (in Swedish, of course), with the build log here.

[via Geeky Gadgets]

The document was written by FBI investigator Guy Hottel, and recounts his talk with what the letter calls an “investigator for the Air Forces.” The name of the investigator has been redacted. The memo goes on to claim that the Air Force found a crashed UFO of a saucer shape that was 50-feet in diameter.

The memo goes on to say that the Air Force believed that the powerful radar it was operating in the area was the cause of the crash. Also noted was the collection of three humanoid bodies that were about three feet tall. Hoax or not, this is a very strange memo to turn up on a government website.

[via Gizmodo]

Among my personal favorites are the bot above, which although NASA-branded looks like it’s made out of a beer can, and the bot below, which contains a hidden cigarette lighter. It looks a bit like a cross between one of those metal mallets you use to pound meat and Ivan Drago from Rocky IV.

As well, they include these Japanese creations, one of which is an awesomely freaky-looking spiderbot. I wouldn’t want to run into that thing in a dark alley.

Still, even though these have great kitsch value, our robot-making skills have come a long way, baby. Meaning, now we can make ones that actually do stuff. If only modern robot makers would find a way to combine 1950s form with 2008 functionality. Sigh.

You can see pictures of a whole bunch more cool 1950s robots at Dark Roasted Blend.

Looking sort of like something that Marvin the Martian might have used to destroy the Earth with, the ray-gun remote control can only change channels, and (unfortunately) won’t blow anything to smithereens. Just pull the trigger, and it’ll make some sort of fun sci-fi sound effects while it zaps Dr. Phil from your screen and replaces him with the only slightly less annoying Rachel Ray.

You’ll have to wait a little while to get your hands on one of these though, as they’re not coming out until this August. In the mean time, you can pre-order from UK gadget shop Play.com for £8.99 (appx. $18 USD).

[via Toyology]

Telstar purchased the rights to recreate the original Predicta case designs, but has updated them to use modern electronics and color picture tubes. While they certainly won’t beat out a brand new flat panel HDTV in the image quality department, they’re at least able to connect to modern devices like cable boxes, DVD players and video game consoles.

The revamped Predictas are lovingly built using modern plastics and electronics, using the original set designs as a point of reference. These aren’t restored old TVs, they’re brand new, and made from pristine parts. They’re not inexpensive by today’s standards, with prices starting around $1399 for the Princess model shown above (18-inch diagonal version). Telstar is making a variety of models, some of which are brand new designs inspired by the original Philco style, and others which are replicas of the original designs.

If you’re looking to create a truly retro look in your living room, you’ve got to head over to Telstar’s Predicta website and check out all the styles.

[via stylehive]