Gadgets, Gizmos, and Games for Geeks

Everyone’s high scores will be toast with the latest Nintendo toaster console (yes, this isn’t the first we’ve seen). It is the work of Finnish artist Jarno Kotavuopio who has made several custom Nintendo consoles. He has made two in the form of toasters, including this one.

There’s something about skull art that I find really intriguing. Perhaps it’s that skulls are something that all of us have in common, or it’s just that they remind us of our mortality. I’m really digging this skull sculpture, made from recycled bits of metal. It was made by the guys at Thailand-based Metal Model House, using scrap metal and a whole boatload of nuts welded together to create its main form.

If you love the original Star Wars saga, you might remember the classic action figures that Kenner made back in the 1978. While Kenner is long gone, Hasbro has picked up the baton and created a new series of 3.75″

Do you love to play foosball, but don’t have room in your house for a full-size table? Then check out this teensy version of the popular pub game that’s small enough to fit on a bookshelf or your desktop. This handcrafted mini foosball table comes from Victoria, Canada’s miniLAND, and is spot-on accurate to the real deal.

Some of the recent Star Wars movies haven’t been my favorites, and at times they’ve been downright boring to me. I tell you what wouldn’t be boring – a movie that had Vader and some stormtroopers fighting against xenomorphs.

If you ever played any of the Crash Bandicoot games, you’re familiar with the masks that float around the game. The one that offers you help and makes that great “rutabaga” sound effect is called “Aku Aku,” while the bad guy boss is called “Uka Uka.”

The Nintendo GameCube and Wii both offered up lots of fun and classic video games. But neither console was particularly portable, so the only way you could play those games on the go would be via software emulation.

Have you ever wondered why Stormtroopers can’t hit the broad side of a barn with their blasters? Perhaps they’re not getting enough Vitamin C? Or is it that the lenses of their helmets distort their vision?

There have been lots of cool things going on to celebrate the 50th anniversary of NASA’s Apollo 11 moon landing, but this might just be the coolest. Off-road vehicle maker Polaris Industries created a virtually perfect replica of the original NASA Lunar Rover Vehicle (LRV), which first appeared on the moon in 1971. Polaris teamed up with the U.S.

Fans of Dragon Ball know that Frieza is kind of a jerk. After all, he’s ruler of Universe 7, and raised up an army to wreak all kinds of havoc on the Gods of the Universe.

I’m not sure what Cookie Monster did to deserve being skinned alive, but I’m guessing that he stole some chocolate chip cookies from these kids – and they were having none of that. Seriously, though, this Cookie Monster shag rug that turned up over on Instructables is awesome. It was designed by contributor Mikeasaurus (who I think should change his middle name to “Rex”), and despite its sheer awesomeness, is very simple – it’s just a layer of blue shag costume fur, with a couple of balls of yarn with buttons attached for eyeballs.

Portal and Portal 2 were two of the best games of the 21st century. While the first game was a blast to play, the latter really stepped up the humor and story development between its main characters, Chell, GLaDOS, and Wheatley.

In a quest to make virtual characters more realistic, engineers have been working on ways to make their skeletal structures and muscles more like those found in living beings. Recently, a technology was shown off which takes those simulated biological components to the next level. Engineers Seunghwan Lee, Kyoungmin Lee, Moonseok Park, and Jehee Lee published the paper Scalable Muscle-actuated Human Simulation and Control, which includes a humanoid digital model with a full skeleton and 346 muscles The digital characters can even learn to kick, jump, run, and even lift weights.

Tardigrades are one of the strangest creatures known to exist. These microscopic organisms – also known lovingly as “water bears” are best known for their incredible ability to survive just about anything. Apparently, they can survive extreme temperatures, complete dehydration, and even the vacuum of space.

Over the years, the world of collectible figures has gotten more and more creative, playing with proportion, envisioning characters in cartoony forms, increasing their levels of detail and movement, and much more. And sometimes figures are just plain wackadoo, and I love them for that reason. What you’re looking at here is I Love Doodle’s Meowlting Catpuccino figure from Sideshow and designer toy company Mighty Jaxx.

The dot-matrix printer may seem like a relic from the past, but just about every TV set, mobile device or laser printer still relies on creating images from a matrix of dots. They’re just smaller, and perhaps more colorful than the old Okidata Microline 320 from your youth.