technabob » coins

paper mario + paper clips + mario kart = awesome

technabob — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 00:08:10 +0000

I love this little Mario Kart sculpture made out of coins, binder clips, wire, and other found office supplies. From the creative mind of Donald Kennedy (aka Kody Koala).

[via MAKE via Sprite Stitch]

pting-pting! it’s a mario block piggy bank!

lambert v. — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 12:30:25 +0000

Here’s another insanely amazing Perler-beaded creation from lostmitten: the question mark block piggy bank! Lostmitten really got the appearance of the block spot-on.

Put coins and even paper bills inside! Or mushrooms and flowers and stars and leaves. Although they look fragile, the blocks are actually held together by contact cement. So if you get one, you can re-enact Mario’s block hitting antics. Or don’t. Yeah, just don’t.

If you’re afraid that Mario’s gonna come and hit your question mark block, you can fool him by using the brick block patterns on the other sides as its facade.

These coin blocks sell for $14. Really cheap for something so unique.

game banks make saving fun

alisha k. — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 12:20:08 +0000

It’s a good week for saving money while playing games. If Tetris and Breakout aren’t your bag, you might want to try something even simpler, like Bankquest or Jinsei Ginko.

It seems that piggy banks that double as tiny gaming machines are quite the happening trend in Japan these days. These simpler banks offer a variety of money-saving experience for the gamer who doesn’t need much razzle-dazzle. The Jinsei Ginko, shown above, is like a Tamagotchi or other virtual pet: you “feed” your tiny stickman your cold, hard cash. The more he “eats,” the more he succeeds. When your little guy gets enough money, he’s rewarded with a sweet crib and a loving sticklady. If only real life were so simple.

If the idea of a virtual pet makes you want to bury your money in the backyard instead, you could try Bankquest, a simple RPG, or Ikemen Bank, a heart-shaped bank with a dating sim.

Of course, in order to actually use these banks, you’ll probably need to convert all your money to yen. At least that will make you less likely to spend it… unless you happen to be in Japan.

[Wired via Kotaku]

tetris and breakout piggy banks help you pinch pennies

technabob — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 06:05:29 +0000

Remember when it cost just a quarter to play your favorite arcade games? What would you say if I told you that you could play two Atari arcade classics for just one red cent a game.

While these pint-size versions of Breakout and Tetris aren’t totally faithful to their arcade counterparts, they only charge a single shiny copper penny to play.

Each mini-machine is actually a piggy bank, which encourage you to deposit coins in exchange for games. Every coin you drop triggers the start of a new game, which is a whole lot more fun than putting your pocket change in the back of a porcine ceramic bank. Check out the video below to see some gameplay action:

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

These rarities are tough to come by outside of Japan, but the guys over at Strapya World have started to take pre-orders (¥3850 / $39.90 USD) and are willing to ship them worldwide.

hungry piggy bank eats coins for lunch

technabob — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 02:27:41 +0000

Looking for a place to keep all that loose change you’ve been saving up since you gave up on tipping the baristas at the Starbucks? Keep ‘em all in this whimsical piggy bank that chows down on your coinage before it heads deep into its porty, porky belly.

As soon as you put a coin in its mouth, the little pink piggy gets down to business, making appropriately piggish snorting sounds as it gulps your money.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

As an added bonus – if you flip him upside down, he kinda looks like Spiderpig.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

Available from UK gadget shop GadgetShop, you’ll need to save up £14.99 (appx. $30 USD) in coins before you have enough money to put one on your desk.

[via Toyology]