Category: Strange + Wonderful

Gaming: it’s more fun with a partner, even if that partner is a cat. And to encourage co-op feline gaming, Japanese gaming furniture manufacturer Bauhutte has created this Nyangaroo (nyan:’meow’, plus kangaroo) hoodie featuring a pouch for your cat to hang out in while you mash buttons and curse at the screen.

It’s that time of year. Yeah, you know what I’m talking about. It’s time to set up the Christmas tree, string the lights, and hang the ornaments. But if you’re tired of all the jolly and festive holiday traditions, maybe you need to go with something a little darker for your decorations this year.

Space: according to Star Trek, is the final frontier. And I learned everything I know from watching Star Trek, most importantly of which is always keep someone in a red shirt between you and an enemy’s phaser.

Car ignition buttons: they usually just say ‘START STOP’ and sit there looking boring. Well now you can spice up your vehicle’s go button with one of these superhero helmet covers manufactured by LCDXBYTFT (try saying that ten times fast!)

Because questionable product collaborations come in all shapes and sizes, Nike and Swarovski have teamed up to produce these $450 crystal-accented Air Force Ones. Available in all black and all-white colorways, the sneakers are covered with Swarovski studded webbed panels, which are removable with an included Nike branded flathead screwdriver.

Garden gnomes: they live hard lives. They constantly have to be on the lookout for hungry cats and other wild animals. Apparently including dinosaurs, as is the case with this t-rex eating garden gnomes sculpture made by SOWSUN and available on Amazon (affiliate link).

Do you know what my garden has been missing? More gnomes. A person can never have too many garden gnomes, despite what my wife says, and she says the 20+ I already have are enough. Enough!

Because Japan is famous for developing products long before we recognize the need for them, this is the steak candle from century-old Japanese candle manufacturer Kameyama. It looks like a steak dinner and smells like a steak dinner, leading me to question whether or not it really is a steak dinner.

Genius: you know it when you see it. And I saw this motorized piano BBQ grill crafted by YouTuber Handy Geng, and I knew instantly he was ahead of his time. Did he travel back from the future to showcase this marvel of modern music and grilling technology?

Just when you thought the perfect Star Trek ugly Christmas sweater already existed (see: this ‘Trek The Halls’ ugly Christmas sweater), Numskull Designs returns with an even gaudier one in the form of this ‘Beam Me Up, Santa’ sweater.

Are you a huge Nissin Cup Noodles fan? Big enough to buy a giant inflatable likeness of the product for display in your home or office? Well if you are, you’re in luck (also, a rare breed), because Nissin is selling this giant inflatable Cup Noodle through their fan store for $35.

Makers of the entirely unnecessary but absolutely wanted, Archie McPhee is selling these giant ant toys for $8. Available in a package of six, each hard vinyl insect measures 2-3/4″ long from antennae to ant butt and is sure to get a rise out of my wife when she finds them in the pantry.

Look Mum No Computer (aka Sam Battle) clearly has some sort of strange obsession with making musical Furbys. You may recall his previously posted electronic organ created using 44 singing Furbys. I think we can all agree that is entirely too many Furbys in the same place at the same time.

Inspired by the command division’s red uniforms from Star Trek: The Next Generation, Numskull Designs has created these officially licensed ‘Trek The Halls’ ugly Christmas sweaters. Available from Just Geek for $42, the 100% knitted (not printed!)

For those of you unaware, there’s an ongoing challenge in the computing and gaming community to get Doom to run on less and less sophisticated hardware, pushing the limits of what was ever thought possible. In the near future, someone will hack an abacus to run the game.

You know what your Google Home smart device has been missing? Muscles. Mine? Mine has been missing ever being taken out of the package after I received it as a gift because I don’t like being listened to all the time.