Gadgets, Gizmos, and Games for Geeks

As far as I know, most clothes are made out of fabric like cotton, polyester, leather, or nylon. But this unusual fashion line is made entirely out of rubber bands. Student Rie Sakamoto designed the stretchy clothes as part of her Integrated Design thesis project at Japan’s Tama Art University.

Chewbacca and Groot have some things in common. They’re both big, strong, brown, and men of action – not words. But neither of them is particularly cute (though Baby Groot is a different story.)  But if you combined the furry mop of Chewie with the plant-growing abilities of Groot, then shrunk them down to pint-size, the offspring would be simply adorable.

Building LEGO replicas is one thing, but building working replicas of guns in LEGO is something entirely different. Check out this reproduction of the NERF Maverick REV-6 blaster by AstonishingStudios. This is some awesome LEGO engineering.

Head down the rabbit hole every time you use your computer. That’s the notion behind this keycap set that features imagery inspired by the Lewis Carroll classic “Alice in Wonderland.” Designed by keyboard enthusiast Rafal Hrynkiewicz, the UnAlice keycap set comes in a creamy Winter White color, with a skinny, easy-to-read typeface.

If you live in a house constructed with a wood frame or wooden siding, this is the last thing you ever want to buy. But if your dwelling is made from brick, concrete, stone, metal, or glass, read on… Do you want to see what termites can do to a piece of wood?

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.

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.”