Category: Strange + Wonderful

Throw out that old duct tape wallet! It’s time for the latest wallet for the

Ever wanted to be a gunslinger, but were afraid you’d wind up doing some bodily harm? Well don’t despair, because now you can play everyone’s favorite trailer trash game, shooting crap off of a log with a gun, with no risk of injury.

I couldn’t make this stuff up. Japanese gadget importer Audiocubes is selling this device which, when connected to your USB port, and placed under your rear end, cools off your seat. The Thanko USB Cool Cushion uses a USB powered fan to suck cool air in and pushes it out through small holes in the cushion and cool off your derriere.

One of my favorite places for fun and unique items on the web is the $25 Giant Robot Store. I just came across a fun gizmo on their site called the “FM3 Buddha Machine.” The Buddha Machine is said to be the “anti-ipod.”

What’s that smell? Could it be Fergie’s ‘Humps’ or Justin’s ‘Sexyback’? Well now you can have a myriad of musically derived fragrances in your home thanks to this wacky new device. TokyoFM’s new USB powered system mixes six perfumes to automatically change fragance based on the music and artist currently playing on their radio station.

Every few days, somebody tries to outdo the last goofy USB memory stick design and this one takes the cake for me today. The Oooms (I just like saying that!) Wooden USB Memory Stick is literally a real stick.

..or are you just glad to see me? The folks at Wenger thought it would be a good idea to create the ultimate in Swiss army knives by including every tool they make (85 in all) in a single form-factor.

ThinkGeek is now offering these totally over the top Star Wars Force FX Lightsabers. They’re far more substantial and effect-laden than the cheapo toy lightsabers out there. Each lightsaber features a variety of cool effects, including: glowing blades with sliding power-up/down effect sound effects digitally recorded from the movie motion sensor controlled sound effects, Power-up, idle hum, clash, and power-down a heavy-duty metal hilt to looks and feels like a “real” lightsaber The come in 5 varieties, including: Darth Maul – DUAL Red Blade – $199.99 USD; Darth Vader – Red Blade – $99.99 USD; Anakin Skywalker – Blue Blade – $99.99 USD; Mace Windu – Purple Blade – $119.99 USD; and Obi Wan – Blue Blade – $119.99 USD.

While researching the topic of innovative musical devices, I came across the guys at Bleep Labs and their totally wacky Thingamagoop custom synthesizer series. These portable sythesizers generate electronica using a unique control interface: as you move a colorful LED over a photosensor, the sound’s waveform changes.

This clip has been floating around for a couple of months, but it’s the first time I’ve seen it. The headline says it all:

If you’ve got the dough to spend, you can now have an flat panel multimedia audio/video system outdoors. Lux Entertainment has released the ARIIS-WFSSMCE outdoor entertainment center. Housed in a weather-resistant stainless steel armor shell, the system incorporates wi-fi (802.11 a/g) streaming of TV, FM and Internet Radio broadcasts as well as your own video or audio via an embedded Windows Media Center Extender.

As a reflection of changing state of paper currency in the real world, a new version of the Parker Brothers board game Monopoly does away with all the pieces of color-coded play money, and replaces them with a mock Visa Debit Card.

I believe this old NEC TurboGrafx 16 game qualifies as one of strangest games I’ve ever seen. I’ll simply let the images speak for themselves… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_ASh8zrG90

Japanese gadget importer Audiocubes these really nifty kits from Tomy that let you make your own desktop video game art using “bitmap” pegs. Comes with 520 pegs and available in Mario Brothers Red & Green, Pac-Man, Dig-Dug, and Space Invaders versions.

This nifty gadget is one of the most flexible, compact karaoke devices I’ve seen. It includes docking capabilities for pretty much every iPod model since the 3G, and can also pull its data from files on USB storage devices.

Marcus over at EvoSapien has not only hacked the trusty Robosapien V2 robot into a flame-throwing machine… But also shot this awesome music video (Lyrics not safe for work) of the beast in action. Enjoy! I need one of these in my office to keep out nagging employees and salespeople.