Gadgets, Gizmos, and Games for Geeks

KFC’s marketing folks have some really strange ideas. Over the years, they’ve made chicken-scented fireplace logs, gravy-scented candles, and a Colonel Sanders bearskin rug. They’re either insane or creative geniuses, because they’ve got me talking about their brand yet again.

Do your kids love science, technology, engineering, or math? Sony’s KOOV system is a great tool for kids to learn about all of these disciplines, while having lots of fun doing it. These modular building kits encourage kids to experiment as they construct robots and other mechanical creations, and learn to program them.

There are lots of different ways to tell the time. You can use an old school analog clock with hands, a segmented digital display, or even a sundial. But I can say with 100% certainty that this is the first clock I’ve ever seen that tells time with sequins.

Are you hungry for some milk and cookies? You could trudge all the way to the kitchen cabinet and grab some Oreos, then open the fridge to grab a bottle of milk, but that would be way too much work.

Computer graphics have come a very long way in the past couple of decades, offering up images which are becoming more and more difficult to distinguish from reality. Especially notable are the improvements in physics engines, which allow objects to move and behave more like they do in real life.

If you’re a Star Trek fan, here’s something a little different for your collection. These kits from OzpinsFactory let you assemble your own starships from sheets of laser-cut birch plywood. These models are really nifty, and come in a variety of designs based on ships from the Trek universe.

Imagine a LEGO car factory where, like the real world, the workers have been replaced by robots. Did this make LEGO cars cheaper for the people of LEGOLand? Probably so. The factory is faster than ever with no minifigs working the line, making mistakes and getting the occasional limb chopped off.

I always loved playing Atari’s vector-based arcade games back in the 1980s. Games like Tempest, BattleZone, and Quantum were some of my favorites. And then there was Star Wars. I loved shooting down TIE fighters, zapping radar towers, and zooming into the belly of the Death Star to take aim at its exhaust port in hopes of blowing the thing to smithereens.

Star Wars fanatics can hitch a ride to places far, far away on a special United Airlines jet decked out as the only Star Wars-themed commercial jet winging it across the galaxy. Or at least across North America, Central America and the Caribbean.

A couple of years back, I came across some unique ceiling fans designed to look like the fan blades from a jet engine. Now, the artist behind these awe-inspiring fans is back, and he’s showing off his biggest build yet.

If you’re unfamiliar with the term “orrery,” it’s one of several words used to describe a mechanical contraption that simulates the orbit of planets, moons, and stars. Some variants are also known as a “tellurium” or a “loxocosm,” all of which are harder to pronounce than “planet machine.”

There’s little question that Baby Yoda (aka “The Child”) is the most adorable character in the history of the entire Star Wars universe. This little dude walked on the scene, took one look at all of the ewoks, porgs, and roller-droids, and said “hold my beer.”

In a lot of video games, as you get hammered on by the bad guys, your heart counter goes down. Lose all your hearts, and you die. In some of those games you can refill your heart counter by drinking some sort of special health elixir.

I don’t know how many times I’ve thought to myself, “This room could really use an exploding Death Star lamp.” Well, now I can make one thanks to Instructables contributor MariaK64. She built this exploding Death Star lamp, modded from an IKEA pendant lamp.

If you grew up in the 1970s or 1980s, Atari was located somewhere near the center of your universe. The brand kicked off the home video game revolution with the Atari 2600, and also created some of the best and most memorable arcade games.

The idea of having a real taxidermy animal head on my wall creeps me out. I think it would just stare at me all day long, thinking I was the one who had it stuffed and mounted.