Gadgets, Gizmos, and Games for Geeks

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. Star Alliance’s United Airlines collaborated with “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” – the epic conclusion of the Skywalker saga – to create a nose-to-tail Star Wars design on one of its Boeing 737-800 aircraft, plus inside some fun decor tweaks and themed services. The exterior paint design features images of great Star Wars spacecraft, including X-wing and TIE fighter starships.

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.” Basically, these machines demonstrate the relationship between planetary orbits and speeds by using a complex series of gears.

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. You can follow a tutorial she made here or here to make one of your own.

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.

Do you spend time working or living inside of a windowless room? Well rather than just sit there in the dark, consider brightening up the place with one of these imaginary window projectors. No, it’s not an imaginary projector, it’s a light that projects imaginary windows. Made by Adam Frank Incorporated, the Reveal lighting system projects an image that looks like the shadows that might be cast by a window and the trees beyond its frame.

Do your hands get cold while you type away at your computer keyboard? Mine do here in my drafty office with the snow falling outside my window. And while I could just type with gloves on, I think some USB-powered hand warmers might be better a better idea.

With awesome kits like the Saturn V rocket and the Apollo 11 lunar lander, LEGO continues to give space geeks reasons to bust out their wallets. Now, thanks to a great design concept submitted by a LEGO Ideas contributor, we’re about to get another sweet LEGO space model. Based on a design by Christophe Ruge (aka “XCLD”), this amazing LEGO creation lets you build a detailed model of the International Space Station. The 864-piece kit (set number 21321) includes the ISS’ working laboratory and living quarters at its center, surrounded by eight double solar panel arrays, each of which can be tilted.

Growing up, Kellogg’s and Post had convinced me that sugary cereals drowning in milk were “part of a nutritious breakfast.” But as I grew up, I came to realize that protein is a much more important start to the day.

Do you like to have a drink while you’re playing the guitar? Well, if you’ve got any booze left over, you can now put it to good use as part of your performance. Yep, this unique guitar effects pedal is designed to sip liquids and uses them to influence its sounds. Simply unscrew the watertight lid on its top, pour the beverage of your choice into the Rainger FX Minibar Liquid Analyzer, and the conductive properties of said liquid will be used by its circuit to affect signal gain.

When it comes to wall-climbing robots, most of them rely on vacuum suction to make their way up the side of a building. The trick there is that you need a very smooth surface, like glass or marble in order to get a good grip.

I love playing classic arcade games. In fact, I love them so much, I spent several thousand dollars having a custom-built arcade cabinet put together. But you don’t have to spend nearly that much to have a professional looking cabinet these days, thanks to folks like Rec Room Masters and systems like their Xtension Gameplay cabinets. The cabinets come in kit form, and make it easy for you to put together a great looking, full-size arcade system that won’t break the bank.

Do you like to put together jigsaw puzzles? So do I. But I’m not sure I’d have fun assembling these daunting puzzles from Japan, which are made up entirely of a single color. Every single piece in these puzzles is the same exact color – either white or black.