I first spied this thing back in February, and now you can finally buy it just in time for nobody to listen to CDs anymore. Still, Darth would look cool sitting there on your desk, staring down people, as you watch the spinning platter behind his red eyes.

In terms of features, this thing does have an equally low-tech AM/FM radio, and an old-school telescoping antenna sticking out of the back. It also lets you program the sequence of the tracks on your CDs, which is sort of like a poor-man’s digital shuffle. I suppose you could just skip the whole CD thing, and just plug your MP3 player into Lord Vader’s 3.5mm jack if you so desire.

The Darth Vader CD player is available now over at Hammacher Schlemmer for $69.95 (USD). I think I’ll wait until they come out with a Luke Skywalker 8-track player, or maybe a Chewbacca cassette player.

For some reason, I’m guessing it’s not the world’s most comfortable chair, but it sure beats sitting on a bunch of 8-track tapes.

I’m really not sure why he named his creation the “Panda Chair”, since all I see are CDs and a metal frame — no pandas anywhere in sight. Maybe it’s the same reason that Chinese mall food joint is called Panda Express. Every time I try to order the Kung Pao Panda, they look at me like I have three heads.

[via designboom]