Category: Strange + Wonderful

When I came across the Life Clock a few days back, I thought that the idea of a clock that gradually ticked away the years of your life was a wee bit morbid. Here’s another timepiece that’ll have you thinking even more happy thoughts.

Why should cops need to zap suspects with dangerous Tazers when they could just catch fleeing criminals using a powerful Spiderman-like web-slinging device instead? The NET-2000 Shooting Net Rod uses a charge of highly compressed air to fire a net at fleeing suspects from as far as 49 feet away.

What if Mario weren’t a cartoony video game character? Artist Pixeloo set out to answer that question when creating this “realistic” rendering of Nintendo’s little Italian plumber. While it’s some pretty amazing graphic work, “real” Mario isn’t quite as endearing as he’s been in previous incarnations.

This cool fabric curtain may look like a tree from afar, but once you’re up close, you’ll see that it’s made of tens of thousands of tiny ASCII characters. Created by Dutch designer Nienke Sybrandy, the huge (18′ x 11′) curtain panel was digitally printed with dot matrix characters to give the impression of intricate tree branches from a distance.

You and your significant other might have different tastes in music, but that doesn’t mean you can’t be close with your shmoopy. With this matching pair of MP3 players, you can listen to different tracks, but still be joined at the hip.

Ok, this has got to be the most wacky Nintendo-inspired item I’ve seen in a long time ever. Apparently somebody out there with a serious Mario fetish has decided to create a corset using his likeness.

I’ll start out by telling you that I used to live in the Deep South, home of cockroaches the size of small mice. Oh yeah, did I happen to mention that they could fly? Every time I saw one of those airborne six-legged nasties, it made my skin crawl.

Sure, we’ve all seen devices that promise to help you relax, whether with light, sound, or even aromatherapy. This new gadget out of Korea takes the kitchen sink approach to chilling out, combining all of the aforementioned techniques to get you to unwind.

If you just can’t get enough of Link’s Crossbow Training for the Wii, have I got an accessory for you. Sure the hour-long game already comes inside the package with Nintendo’s Wii Zapper, but that’s not really a crossbow, is it?

It’s been a while since I’ve seen speakers that looked quite this strange. Designed to be your “little dead desktop buddy”, they look like something that your neighborhood dominatrix might have sitting next to her computer.

I was surfing around over on Flickr today, when I came across this great Pac-Man display made entirely out of cans. Photographer eyesplash Mikul captured this image of the giant Pac-Man and ghosts installation. The display was one of several made from thousands of brightly colored cans for a show called Canstruction Vancouver.

This huge animatronic Gort robot comes to us courtesy of the classic 1951 science fiction flick, The Day the Earth Stood Still. Now, this imposing fella can be yours if you’re ready to pony up the dough.

Think of the latest contraption from Japan’s Bandai as a virtual soothsayer. The pocket-sized device uses a digital personality assessment, along with a dash hocus pocus and other less-than-scientific gibberish to predict your future. The Mirai Scope starts out by asking its owner about fifty personal questions, which help to assign you one of 236 unique personality types (you can try out the actual test here, if you’re up for a little Japanese).

This unconventional design tool provides a unique way to create new typefaces. Working somewhat like an analog music synthesizer, knobs and button pushes influence the shape of your font characters. Designed by Rob Meek and Frank Müller, the Meek FM Typographic Synthesizer uses a custom controller device along with special software to allow manipulation of typography as you adjust the controls.

So what happens when you take the system sounds from Windows XP and Windows 98 and carefully arrange them in a music sequencer? Something pretty unexpected, I’d say. This is truly a case where the whole is definitely greater than the some of its parts.

Here’s an interesting concept, what if Pac-Man’s gameplay were the exact opposite of what you’ve come to expect after all these years. That is to say, what if, instead of Pac-Man being chased by ghosts, you controlled the ghosts and Pac-Man came after you.