Now you too can freak the hell out of your significant other with this oversize remote-controlled spider with glowing LED eyeballs. No Boundaries’ infrared R/C spider not only can make its way across your floor, it can climb walls or even move on your ceiling. I suppose climb is actually the wrong word. You see, my spidey sense is telling me that this guys legs don’t actually propel him along. Instead, a powerful fan creates enough suction to hold the plastic arachnid in place on horizontal or vertical surfaces, and movement is acheived through tiny wheels on the bottom of the bug. C’mon, really? What’s the last time you saw a spider with wheels and light up eyes. And right now doesn’t count.

Still, this creepy (non)crawler looks like it could be fun for at least 3 or 4 minutes – or until the cat kills it, whichever comes first. You can grab one over at UK Gadget shop I Want One of Those for £29.99 (appx. $49 USD).

Eye-catching, to say the least. Or is that fly-catching? Oh ho ho.

This particular custom Xbox 360 mod is the work of deviantARTist AceCasanova, who has done a number of console paintjobs, like this one:

Photo’s a little blurry, but the color is just incredible. Part of me really wants to paint my 360. The rest of me realizes it will probably break (again) and need to be replaced (again).

Check out these mods and others at AceCasanova’s deviantART gallery.

The theater group La Machine terrorized performed at the Yokohama Bayside Area, bringing with them their 40 ft tall, 37-ton giant robot spiders. Finally, something weird and robotic that’s not from Japan.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

As you saw from the video, the spiders can move their legs but are really anchored to a crane. They also spout water from their mouth and butt. Yech. The robots are operated by 13 of the luckiest people in the world, people who get to control and ride on giant robot spiders. But La Machine’s performance isn’t limited to the robots alone; the production includes live music as well as fireworks. You can check out La Machine’s gallery for more pics; The Boston Globe also has some amazing pictures from La Machine’s performance in Liverpool, England last year courtesy of photographer Peter Carr.

[via hacknmod]

So they went and tried to see if they could strengthen another biological material – in this case spider silk – by adding metals to it. After trying various metallic compounds, the scientists found that “all of the compounds dramatically increased both the tensile strength of the silk, as well as its extensibility. In short, the researchers had taken an unusually tough material and made it even tougher, with the best results produced by the aluminum and titanium treatments. ”

Here’s where it gets better: The scientists further theorized that this sort of spider silk can be mass produced. Woohooo! Segway schmegway: web slinging is the future of pedestrian transportation. Please let it be so.

[via Ars Technica]

This massive R/C black widow spider is designed to be an “educational toy”, but if I had one of these in class when I was a kid, it would have ended me up in the principal’s office for sure.

Created by London’s Natural History Museum, the larger-than-life (appx 12″ long by 10″ wide) mechanical arachnid can creep forward, backwards, left, right, or even spin itself around on a dime. The remote control works from up to 30 feet away, letting you stalk your unwitting victims from around a corner or hiding in their closet.

Ready to unleash havoc? Head on over to UK gadget retailer Play.com and plunk down your £17.99 (appx. $28 USD). Venom not included.

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.