Gadgets, Gizmos, and Games for Geeks

The Dr. Seuss classic, Green Eggs and Ham is one of the greatest children’s books ever, written to encourage kids to open their minds and try new things. I love the book but, I’m skeptical about Subway’s new ham ‘n’ cheese sandwich “homage” featuring egg patties with – yep, you knew it was coming – green yolks. The temporary menu item was created to coincide with the launch of Netflix’s new animated series, Green Eggs and Ham, starring Adam Devine as Sam I Am, Michael Douglas as Guy I Am, and produced by Jared Stern (The LEGO Batman Movie, The Watch).

There’s something immensely satisfying about housing one of the kitchen’s simplest tools inside a compact model of one of the most complex and diabolical weapons in the history of the sci-fi universe. This 2-slice Death Star toaster from Pangea Brands is a must-have for any fan of Star Wars and the most important meal of the day. The bulbous killer space station toaster remains cool to the touch as it burns Tie Fighter silhouettes onto bread slices.

It’s generally accepted that Batman isn’t supposed to kill any of his foes, but instead just beat them up a bit and then apprehend them. Sure, some interpretations have been a bit fast and loose with the Dark Knight’s moral code, but I prefer to think of him as someone willing to dish out a good beatdown, but never a finishing move.

Back in the day, there was a Nintendo arcade and NES game called Punch-Out!! As far as I know, it was the first boxing game ever. The original arcade game featured fictitious fighters like Glass Joe, Piston Hurricane, Bald Bull, and Mr.

NASA, the International Space Station, and DoubleTree by Hilton made a giant leap for snacking in outer space by challenging engineers, astronauts, and bakers to build and test the first zero-gravity kitchen to cook cookies in space.

Do you like creepy, crawly stuff? Then this LEGO construction should give you quite the thrill, as it’s about as gnarly looking as anything we’ve ever seen built from bricks. This awesomely creepy black widow mech was created by LEGO artist Markus Rollbühler, who put it together for Creations for Charity, a non-profit organization that raises funds for underprivileged children during the holidays by selling LEGO builds donated by its community.

Japan sure loves their classic monster movies, so it’s no wonder that Godzilla is always showing up all over the place. Now, it turns out that a theme park is building a life-size version of the scaly kaiju, and unlike some previous Godzilla statues, this one is going to be a permanent installation. The gigantic Gojira will measure roughly 65′ high, 82′ wide, and 180′ long, and will be a fixture at the Nijigen no Mori anime theme park on Awaji Island.

Fire up the replicator this Thanksgiving and invite all of your friends and family to eat from this classy Star Trek Dinner Set. Of course, you should get several sets so everyone can eat off them. 

Despite the fact that they’re not actually potato chips, but are some kind of smooshed up potato mush, Pringles are still pretty tasty. As you know, these crispy snacks come stacked in a cylindrical can, with Pringles’ iconic mustachioed mascot on front.

I recently attended the 2019 Tokyo Motor Show, and among the numerous displays of production and concept cars, I came across the booth for the Toyota Boshoku Corporation, who makes seating, interior, and exterior components for vehicles.

Between the endless candy, the artful pumpkin carving, the creepy music, the decorations, and the costumes, Halloween is the best of the holidays. There’s just so much more creativity in Halloween than most other holidays, especially when it comes to the costumes.

Look at this crazy thing. Some super Nintendo fan has gone and turned this 65 inch TV into a giant Nintendo Switch. He goes by the name Suprman9. This Nintendo fanatic has created what he calls “Nerdvana”.

With Halloween just a couple of days away, I wish I had come across these a little earlier. But should a rave be in your future, you still might want to pick up a pair of these glow-in-the-dark eyeglasses from Zenni Optical. The glowing glasses are perfect for those times when you want to stand out from the crowd in a dark room, and can easily be charged back up to their brightest if you keep a UV flashlight in your pocket.

Back to the Future is a classic. It’s packed with humor, adventure, great characters (Great Scott!), and has a fun time-twisting plot. But beyond the questionable time travel, there are other things in the movie which might be just as implausible. For instance, there’s that scene at the beginning where Marty gets blown away by that giant speaker.

While wandering the expansive show floor at the 2019 Tokyo Motor Show, I came across a pretty interesting technology which could someday find its way into vehicles. Basically, it’s a projection system that would allow vehicles to cast moving images onto the ground in front of them. High tech headlight maker Koito Manufacturing was showing off their Road Projection Lighting system, which is designed to communicate with people in front of your vehicle, as well as to improve safety for the driver.

I’m here in Tokyo this week for the 2019 Tokyo Motor Show, and while here, I stopped by the new headquarters for the Toyota Research Institute – Advanced Development (TRI-AD) to check out some of the technologies the company and their partners are working on.