Hasta La Gadget!

There were a lot of cool cars in 1980s TV shows and movies. We must have been obsessed with cars in that era, because you don’t get these sort of iconic rides anymore. Ralph from Brothers Brick has created some awesome homages to TV and movie vehicles of that era and they look amazing.

They look so good, I wish we could buy each as a set and put them together ourselves. These cars even have LEGO characters to go with them. All of our favorites are here: the GMC Vandura from The A-Team, Ecto-1 from Ghostbusters, KITT from Knight Rider, and The General Lee from The Dukes of Hazzard.

Holy Duke boys! Daisy is stacked!

Head on over to Ralph’s Flickr page for more pics of these awesome LEGO rides.

[via Nerd Approved]

Stanford University alumni Josh Chan and Tarun Pondicherry invented LightUp, a modular electronics kit that’s as easy to use as LEGO blocks. The kits is designed to teach children the basics of electronics and computer programming.

LightUp simplifies the process of building an electronic circuit so that it won’t discourage children from experimenting and trying again if they don’t get the result they want. Instead of requiring children to use soldering materials or wires, the parts in a LightUp kit connect to each other using magnets. This means that they’re easy to put together and take apart. It also means that if you purchase more kits, you get more parts to mix and match.

One thing that LightUp kits have that LEGO toys don’t have is an augmented reality app. When you take a picture of a LightUp circuit on a mobile device, the app can point out if any of the parts are incorrectly connected. It can also show the flow of electricity throughout the circuit, as shown in the image above. Finally, LightUp can be programmed using Arduino code, so kids can jump right into coding if they want. I’m not sure if the kit will come with programming aids or lessons though.

Pledge at least $39 (USD) on Kickstarter to receive a LightUp kit as a reward. The reward tiers seem to have different kinds of kits assigned to them; I’m not sure if the more expensive kits will include all the items included in the cheaper ones, so choose your desired tier carefully.

A few years ago, hacksmith/Weapon H/H-man James Hobson made a great pair of Wolverine claws. They had this unique curved ends that made it look like the claws actually burst out in between his fingers. But when he saw Hack A Day’s electrified Mjolnir, Hobson was inspired to do the same.

Hobson hooked up the claws to an old transformer from an oil furnace. Here’s the result:

Hobson says that he could theoretically wear the electrified claws as long as he wore well-insulated gloves as well. Then maybe he can do this!

I hope Mr. Hobson has a healing factor as well.

[via James Hobson via Hack A Day]

The Mindstorms line already makes it possible to create robots, machines and other moving and highly interactive toys out of LEGO. But the company isn’t resting on its laurels. Recently LEGO teamed up with Sony to make what they’re calling Toy Alive – prototype LEGO bricks that have motors, LEDs and even cameras.

Toy Alive was one of the prototypes shown off by Sony Computer Science Laboratories Tokyo at its 25th Anniversary open house. As you’ll see in the video below, the embedded gadgets can be controlled wirelessly. There are motors that let you race LEGO, actuators that can be used to destroy LEGO structures on cue and a LEGO toy with a built-in camera that sends footage to an iPad app.

Sony researcher Alexis Andre explained that the collaboration aims to look at ways to combine the strengths of videogames and LEGO. The Toy Alive prototypes provide kids with a wider array of interactivity compared to normal LEGO toys without restricting their imaginations, as most videogames do. You can listen to Andre talk about Toy Alive at around 0:58 in the video below:

It’s like a real world Little Big Planet.

[via Network World & The Japan Times via Topless Robot]

deviantART member Callykarishokka makes very cute stuffed toys that she calls puggles. I’m not sure if she came up with the name herself or if this is a type of stuffed toy, but the name certainly fits the appearance of the toys. Most of the puggles belong in what she calls Puggleformers: adorable versions of Transformers.

The Autobot logo alone is killing me with cuteness. Cally has also made puggle versions of other geeky characters for her customers.

Sadly, Cally isn’t accepting commissions as of this writing. For now we’ll have to be content with ogling her puggles. Check out Cally’s deviantART page for more pictures.

[via CtMU via Neatorama]