A Cool Gadget

When I think of Origami, I usually think of little paper swans, or maybe the unicorn that Edward James Olmos made in Blade Runner. But who says that video games can’t get in on the paper foldin’ action?

Individually cut and folded by Flickr contributor Lidia F. (aka “This Fffire“), these tiny Power Stars look just like their doppelgangers from the Super Mario game series (other than the defective ones with faces in the upper right corner). Lidia says she was inspired by Super Mario 64, so clearly she hasn’t upgraded her console in a while!

Each little Power Star is made from a single strip of paper, then hand-painted with yellow acrylics and embellished with some Sharpie eyeballs. Now, I can’t really figure out how in the heck she managed to make these, but if you’re out there reading this post, feel free to share some tips so we can all make hundreds of these tiny stars.

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I have no idea what the story is behind this set of numeric keypad/calculator chairs is, but I do know I think it’s super cool!

I wish so badly that I could explain the rationale behind this or tell you whether or not it’s concept art or a commercial product, but I still haven’t learned how to read Japanese characters. (Note to self: learn how to read Japanese characters.) I can tell you that it comes from Pantograph, whose website has lots of other odd an unexplainable objects on display.

You’d need a pretty big living room to pull this off, since they really look their best when they’re all together in their “official” arrangement. But if you did pull this off, I mean, shoot. I’d totally come to your party.

[via misterstarfish]

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Maybe it’s just me, but I think it’s a bad idea to strap a live hand grenade to your wrist (or any part of your person, for that matter). I’d especially be wary of one that’s making a subtle ticking noise. But that’s exactly what the guys at Vestal would have you do, thanks to their over-the-top Grenade wristwatches.

The Grenade watch looks like an explosive device, but when you flip the lever, it opens to reveal a clock movement. While they won’t actually withstand an explosion, they should hold up pretty well thanks to their Stainless Steel case construction, durable mineral glass crystal and water-resistance to 3ATM.

They’re available in Army Green or Matte Black finishes and come with either a skinny canvas or wide leather and canvas wristband. I managed to find all four styles over on WatchWear.com starting around $125 each.

Just don’t blame me when you get stopped trying to go through airport security with one of these strapped to your wrist.

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Now don’t get me wrong. Other than the stupid analog controller, I really like the industrial design of the Sony PSP. But I’m not sure it warrants other gadget manufacturers going out and making their devices look just like it. Take, for example, this Maxx Digital portable DVD player, which bears more than a passing resemblance to an oversize PSP.

Even though Maxx doesn’t win any awards for originality, the PDV-8500BLK does look like a pretty capable portable DVD player. The player features a nice 8.5-inch LCD widescreen, and can play videos in DVD, DVD+/-R, DVD+/-RW, CD, CD-R/RW, VCD and SVCD formats. There’s also support for JPEG, MP3 and MPEG4 files via a built-in SD, MMS/MS card reader slot. About the only thing it won’t play is video games or UMD discs — but you’ve got a PSP for that already, right?

So if you think the PSP’s screen is just too small to watch movies on, you can supersize with one of these players for about $120 over on Amazon.

[via ChipChick]

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How’d you like one of these organic glowing orbs hanging from your ceiling? The intricate Laluna chandelier uses brightly lit, intertwined strands of fiber optics to light up your room.

Designed by German artist Steffen Bauer for Crescent lighting, the Laluna fiber optic lamp connects to a bright halogen (which changes color with a turning color wheel) or color-changing LED light source which can be mounted in the ceiling or in another room. As a matter of fact, a single light source can be connected to up to a dozen of these otherworldly fixtures.

The chandeliers are available in two sizes 15.5-inches and 23.6-inches and prices range from about $1000 to $1200 USD including a single light 100W halogen source.

[Crescent Lighting]

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The Poplight is the latest LED lighting fixture to come from Mathmos, the same guys responsible for the original Lava Lamp back in the 1960s.

Each Poplight is made from handblown glass and gradually fades between shades of blue, purple, violet, magenta, red, and back. The fixtures measure just a little more than 6-inches tall, making them perfect for a bookshelf or other small nook. While the LEDs are bright enough for an accent lamp, I wouldn’t try and read a book my the light of one of these.

Inside the glass shade, is an LED-illuminated plastic “bulb” which gleams with a mirrored silver coating when switched off.

If you live here in the States, you can grab the Poplight from Mathmos US for $75 each (about $88 with International shipping). If you happen to be fortunate enough to reside in Mathmos’ native UK, order from Mathmos UK for just £28 a pop.

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At first glance this just looks like a nice, stylish button-down dress shirt. But upon further examination, you’ll notice that its shading isn’t just some sort of abstract pattern. It’s actually comprised of tens of thousands of little 0’s and 1’s.

Rhombus’ James and Boris dress shirts are just perfect for the computer geek with fashion sense (although I’m not sure how large that intersection would look on a Venn diagram). Each one is made from 97% cotton / 3% stretch fabric - dry clean only, so be careful not to spill too much Mountain Dew on yours!)

And if Binary isn’t your language, there’s another pattern that’s made from old standardized tests (No. 2 pencil not included). There’s also a traditional gingham design, but who wants that?

The dress shirts sell for $75 each, and can be found over at Rhombuswear. For you cheapskates, be sure to check out the Thomas t-shirt — it comes in the same patterns, and sells for just $20 (short-sleeve) or $30 (long-sleeve).

[via geeksugar]

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WowWee’s new FlyTech Bladestar is a crazy looking flying machine which lifts itself using a helicopter-like spinning rotor, hovering through your living room with ease.

But the real cool factor is a special autopilot mode which lets the Bladestar atuomatically avoid ceilings and other obstacles. Heck, you can even steer it by waving your hands in front of it. If you’d rather have more precise control over your flyer, just use the included digital IR remote control.

Thanks to the multi-channel remote system, you can even fly two Bladestars at the same time and take down your friend in Dogfight mode. It’s all made from a durable crash-resistant materials, and safe to fly indoors.

The spinning blade design sort of reminds me of those annoying Manhacks from Half-Life 2. Unfortunately, these ones don’t have deadly metal saw blades mounted on them. Oh well.

Still, they do look pretty cool even if they won’t decapitate your enemies. You can get your hands on the Flytech Bladestar over on Amazon for just under $50 bucks.

[Flytech Bladestar]

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This bold all-in-one computer borrows its combo concept from the iMac, but is actually a gaming PC. Modder Ville ‘Willek’ Kyrö always liked the idea of small-form-factor computers, but wanted the expandability and power to run his PC games. Being a talented modder with numerous cases under his belt, Willek decided that could have his cake and eat it too.

The Hybred Gaming PC takes up residence in a custom-built aluminum box, housing both the PC’s motherboard and a 17-inch LCD panel. The system runs on a reasonably speedy Athlon64 3500+ CPU, with graphics powered by an ample nVidia GeForce 6800GT on a PCI-e bus.

In order to keep things cool, Willek separated the power supply from the computer, placing it inside an industrial-strength external case, complete with matching accent lighting.

The whole machine is illuminated by tons of LEDs, which makes it glow a bright orange when the lights go down. I especially dig the glowing Titan aluminum fans which provide plenty of visual interest from the back of the case.

iMac, eat your heart out.

[via Metku Mods]

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Dunh-Dunh, Dunh-Dunh, Dun-Dun, Dun-Dun, Du-Du-Du-Du. Those pesky Space Invaders are coming to your town to help you party down. Or at least they’re ready to help you keep warm on a windy day with this spiffy Invaders-themed hoodie.

These cotton knitwear zippered hoodies feature tons of little green Invaders all over the surface. You’ll have to shoot through hundreds, maybe thousands of the 8-bit aliens in order to clear this level and move on to the next.

Available from eBay’s Thrifty Beatnik UK shop, the Invaders Hoodie will set you back £29.99 (appx. $59 USD) - or about 236 quarters that you could be using to play the arcade classic instead.

Be warned that the product page is overloaded with tons of late-1990’s web page crap that might make your browser (or you) fall into a grand mal seizure, so fair warning before you click through.

Speaking about Space Invaders…

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